The following is taken from Bro. Melton’s pamphlet “One Nation Under God” -Allen
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Bad Government and Good Christians
“For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.” (Isa. 33:22)
Our nation was designed to be a good and godly nation. There are many evidences of that. One evidence is our three branches of government that just happen to match God’s ideal government. Perfectly matching Isaiah 33:22, we have a judicial branch (the LORD is our judge), a legislative branch (the LORD is our lawgiver), and we have an executive branch (the LORD is our king). With that formula in place, we have the promise that “he will save us.” Our form of government has sustained us for over two centuries, while many other governments have come and gone. Forty-three times we have peacefully installed a new President, and we’ll likely install a forty-fifth one in 2012. Believe me, that doesn’t happen with bad governments. God has traditionally blessed us with a good government, and we ought to be thankful for it.
However, we live in a time when large numbers of people, especially Christians, believe that we live under a government that is growing more corrupt all the time. That’s not to say that our government is totally corrupt. There are obviously still many good elements in our government. If this were not true, then you and I would have seen our religious liberty thrown out the window a long time ago, along with free speech, home schooling, the right to bear arms, and a host of other liberties that we enjoy. There are still many blessings that flow our way and make the United States of America the greatest place to live in this world. We ought to thank God for that regularly.
But wise people do see a pattern of growing corruption in our government, and this could mean that we, or our children, live to see the day when America is no longer the land of the free and the home of the brave. If this nation is transformed into the big government social democracy that so many desire to have (Pro. 28:2), then America may very well become more bad than good and cease to be the best place to live in this world. As we see that possibility becoming more likely with every passing year, what are we supposed to do? If bad government is to become our reality, then what will our Christian duties be?
I’d like to sum up our Christian duties in the form of a little poem and then preach through the separate points, looking up and reading the appropriate scripture references as we go. Naturally, I’d encourage you to familiarize yourself with the scripture that we’re going to cover, but you might also do well to memorize the poem. It might come in handy on occasion.
What are our Christian duties under an increasingly bad government? I believe my little poem sums it all up quite well:
For those in authority, always pray,
Submitting even in the evil day;
Refrain thy lips from any curse,
Lest thou sin and make things worse.
For those in authority, always pray . . .
Paul wrote to Timothy and said, “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.” That’s our first point because he said, “first of all.” He didn’t exhort anyone to bad-mouth the government or resist the government; he said to pray for all that are in authority.
The neat thing about prayer is that not only can it move God to deal with the individual for whom you are praying; it can also keep you humble, and that’s the heart attitude that we need toward our government. Psalm 9:12 says, “When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them: he forgetteth not the cry of the humble.” If you have a complaint about the powers that be, take it over their heads into the throne room of God, the highest authority in the universe. “Oh, that won’t do any good,” you might be thinking. Well, obviously it does do some good, or else we would have gone under as a nation many years ago! Somebody has been praying, and God has graciously answered those prayers, just as He promised, by allowing us to lead quiet and peaceful lives.
How did we ever survive Franklin D. Roosevelt’s creation of a welfare state? How did we survive two world wars? How did we survive the radicalism and turmoil of the 1960’s? How did we manage to survive eight years of Bill and Hillary Clinton? There were different factors at work in our favor, but I can assure you that one of the greatest factors was millions of praying Christians.
It is the nature of God to move on behalf of humble people who are threatened by oppression. He heard the cry of the Israelites in Egypt (Exo. 3:7-8). He honored the fasting of Esther and Mordecai by reversing the evil plans of Haman (Est. 4:16; 8:1-10:3). Under the various oppressive governments of the book of Judges the Jews cried out to God for help and were delivered. Prayer might seem weak and useless, but that’s only the case for those who either don’t pray or they pray in doubt. Those who pray with faith and fervency are always better for doing so, and it will get more done with the powers that be than any other action that one might take. The proof is found in the fact that we still live in the best nation on earth, in spite of all the evil influences working against us. For those in authority, always pray . . .
Submitting even in the evil day . . .
I trust that you are familiar with Romans 13:1-7, the familiar passage where Christians are commanded to “submit” to the powers that be because the powers that be are ordained of God and they generally are not out to harm law-abiding, God-fearing citizens. The passage even says that they are “ministers of God.” A good companion passage is I Peter 2:13-15, which says, “Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.” That’s a good commentary on the passage in Romans because it tells you how to submit to the powers that be. It says to submit to “every ordinance of man.”
Now, my flesh doesn’t like that any more than yours, but there it is. Take seat belts, for instance. I believe it’s bad government to tell people that they have to wear seat belts. Being forced to wear seat belts in the “land of the free” seems like a contradiction to me, but that’s one of the ordinances of men, so we have to submit to it. The same is true with speed limits, taxes, gun permits, and so forth. No matter how foolish a law might seem (and some seem very foolish), our Christian duty is to submit to that law as long as it doesn’t violate God’s higher law.
You might remember that in Exodus chapter one (verses 15-21), the Egyptian government demanded that the midwives have all male babies killed. “But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them . . .” They clearly disobeyed the powers that be, yet God blessed them for doing so and built them houses, it says.
The three Hebrew children in Daniel chapter three were told by the powers that be that they had to bow down to an image. This, of course, was a violation of their second commandment, a higher law of God. So, they humbly disobeyed the powers that be, and God delivered them from the fiery furnace. They didn’t stir up a rebellion, or start an unregistered church, or join a militia group. They simply refused to bow to the image. They submitted in other ways, but not in that way. That’s the Christian’s duty. The Babylonian government was evil to the core, but the Israelites were expected to submit to it. In fact, through Jeremiah’s preaching, God told the Jews to “serve the king of Babylon, and live” (Jer. 27:17). Serve him how? Serve him in every way possible. Submit to him and obey him in all things, unless he requires them to do something unscriptural. That’s the rule.
Do you know something? I am forty-seven years old. I’ve been serving God faithfully since I was about twenty-two. I’ve preached in jails, on street corners, and in various pulpits. I’ve preached from my own pulpit for over fourteen years. Our church has published millions of tracts, booklets, books, and recorded messages, and we’ve locally distributed well over 100,000 of those items ourselves. Now, get this. Not one time in all those years has the government required me to do something against the word of God. When we had a confrontation with the police department about street preaching, we simply changed locations and had no more trouble. The Bible says for us to street preach, but it doesn’t say to do it on the corner of Lindell and University streets, so we moved to another spot. I had the same thing to happen over in Union City. I moved down a block, and all was well. Reasonable compromise is good. It is unscriptural compromise that we must avoid.
Best I can tell, there are four human institutions of God. Four is the earth number, so, in this earth, God has ordained four human institutions. The four are the family, occupation, the state, and the church. If you want a better understanding of what your attitude toward government should be, just compare your attitude toward government to your attitude toward your parents, your employer, or your pastor. You might disagree at times, but you understand the importance of submission as long as you are in the system. If you want to leave a job, you may do so, but you must obey the boss as long as you stay employed, and you do so in a spirit of fear, respect, and humility. A teenager might not agree with mom and dad’s strict rules, but his or her Christian duty is to obey and honor the parents, not rebel against them. If you don’t like the way I run this church, you can either leave or remain here with a humble and submissive spirit. You can intreat me as a father with your disagreements, but you cannot stir up a stink among other members and get your own little “Bible study” going in your home in an effort to get your own church started. That constitutes rebellion, and the Bible says that it’s as bad as witchcraft. So it is in our relationship to the powers that be, even when they aren’t the best powers. Submitting even in the evil day . . .
Refrain thy lips from any curse . . .
Now, this is where we have so much trouble. Most of us are willing to submit as long as we reserve the right to run around and bad-mouth those politicians that we don’t like. Somehow we’ve adopted the notion that it’s possible to submit outwardly while still rebelling inwardly. Well, that’s not possible, and that’s not scriptural. If we’re going to be good Christians under God, then we must train ourselves to seal our lips from speaking harsh things about our government.
Ecclesiastes 10:20 says, “Curse not the king, no not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter.” How about that? God is not only interested in your words about government, but also in your thoughts. I don’t like that any more than you, but there it is. God wants total submission. The government is part of God’s chain of command. The powers that be are ordained of God, so rebellion against government is rebellion against God.
In Titus 3:1-2, Paul tells Titus what to preach to his church: “Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.” He said not only to obey magistrates, but also to speak evil of no man. That brings up a question: what constitutes speaking evil? Is it evil to even speak words of disagreement? I think the golden rule works very well here: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It wouldn’t bother me as a pastor to have some of you humbly disagree with something I believe. It wouldn’t bother me to have you say that you disagree, as long as you did so in a respectful manner. I believe in free speech. But free speech doesn’t mean that you have a right to freely speak evil of your pastor, your employer, your parents, or your government. If some of you were to say, “Why, James is an idiot for believing such and such,” that would violate the golden rule, because you know that I wouldn’t appreciate being called an idiot. I wouldn’t mind some respectful disagreement, but don’t call me an idiot. God didn’t give us free speech for the purpose of sinning against Him.
Alright, here’s another one: “Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.” (Philip. 2:14-16) Our primary calling in life is to shine as lights for Jesus Christ and hold forth the word of life. Murmuring about things will only dim our gospel light and hinder our service to God.
Consider Acts 23:1-5: “And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day. And the high priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth. Then said Paul unto him, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall: for sittest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law? And they that stood by said, Revilest thou God’s high priest? Then said Paul, I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest: for it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.” There’s a good example of what I’m saying. Having a disagreement with authority was one thing, but shooting off his mouth and saying, “God shall smite thee, thou whited wall” was something totally different. It constituted evil speaking, and that’s why he apologized for it.
Look, even if the day comes when a woman leads this country, we will still have to submit and refrain from speaking evil. After all, God did honor the leadership of such women as Deborah, Candace, and the queen of Sheba.
Some like to argue that it’s okay to speak out against government because men of God like Moses, John, Elijah, and Nathan spoke out against governments. Yes, they did, but they didn’t do so by running around spreading evil words like little cowards. They went to their rulers face to face and said, “Thus saith the LORD.” That’s a bit different from saying, “Obama is the antichrist.”
You can humbly and respectfully disagree. That’s why God gave us the First Amendment, but always remember to . . . Refrain thy lips from any curse . . .
Lest thou sin and make things worse
Think about it: has your murmuring ever really accomplished anything. Has the government improved because of your complaining and your political jokes? Then why do it? Maybe if we’d spend that time praying for those in authority, things would improve. We only make things worse by complaining. Remember, when the people complained, it displeased the Lord (Num. 11:1). Did that make things better or worse?
You may remember the time when Shimei came out throwing dirt and cursing David (II Sam. 16). Remember what David said about that. He said, “let him alone, and let him curse; for the LORD hath bidden him. It may be that the LORD will look on mine affliction, and that the LORD will requite me good for his cursing this day.” (verses 11-12) Do you want God to judge and correct those in authority who are ruling wrongly? Well, then don’t curse them! God might bless them, if you curse them, and that would just encourage more evil on their part and make things worse. Just be quiet and humble, and pray for them. If you must exercise your free speech, then do so with respect and humility. Anything more could constitute evil speaking, and that will only make things worse.
For those in authority, always pray,
Submitting even in the evil day;
Refrain thy lips from any curse,
Lest thou sin and make things worse.
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Often we get confused and feel that any kind of submission to government is against our rights and is basically persecution. The above article best summarizes my view, though I am sympathetic to the one espoused by Mr. Baldwin. I think persecution is happening and that we need to prepare but we still have many freedoms. See the difference in these two articles as well. Christians who got sent to jail, and one who didn’t.