By
Ron Smith
Our ancestors were not welcome when they came to this land. The
Indians objected. My Scotch Irish ancestors settled beyond the mountains
outlawed by England. Did they sin by disobeying the government? Did they not have
a right to disobey such arbitrary statist laws that interfered with the
God-given right of life, liberty, and property? Is that not tyranny? Did they
not have a right to rebel against it? Is the declaration of Independence wrong
when it says, “whenever any Form of
Government becomes destructive of these ends, [i.e. life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness] it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it”…?
God says, “Also
you shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger, because
you were
strangers” (Ex 23:9). “The stranger who dwells among
you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself;
for you were strangers… I am the LORD your God” (Lev 19:34).
Jesus commanded all men to “Seek first the government
of God and His righteousness.” Is this your number one priority? Or, is your
number one priority Caesar’s laws? The
government’s job is to protect its citizens from the plunder of life, liberty,
and property. Thus, Caesar has a God-given duty to maintain civil order by
protecting property from crime. But crime is a separate issue (though related
to immigration). When Caesar says strangers cannot cross our borders unless
they stand in line and pay a lot of money, they leave them no alternative but
to do what my ancestors did. This bad statist policy causes some to plunder
property. Bad statist policy causes U.S. citizens get plundered by having to
pay for the education of non-citizens. Any support for education should be private,
voluntary, and not forced. Socialism allows those who plunder the welfare
system. There should be no statist welfare for anyone. Statist socialism is the
problem not immigration. Does it not
seem schizophrenic for conservatives to oppose statism and then turn around and
appeal to statism for protection when it comes to immigration?
The Time To Disobey Caesar
We
are to render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, but we should never render to
Caesar what belongs to God. Caesar protected the apostles from the Jews in the
book of Acts more than once. But when “Jerusalem” made a law commanding Peter
and John to not preach in the name of Jesus they said, “We ought to obey God
rather than man” (Acts 5:29). Rebellion is obedience to God when Caesar
Commands Us To Sin or when Caesar makes laws that become destructive of life,
liberty, and property. When the IRS says I cannot preach against the ungodly
laws of Caesar, I must disobey in order to obey God.
Knowing that Caesar’s laws on taxing the Jews was a contradiction
of God’s Law, why did Jesus and the apostles command Christians to pay taxes
and obey every ordinance of man? It was not because Caesar was right. It was
for the Lord’s sake. It was because God is the One who had sold them into
captivity under the Roman the Beast. He did it because they had broken His
covenant. We get the leaders we deserve. Therefore when Roman soldiers demanded
someone’s coat, Jesus commanded, “Give them your shirt, too” (Luke 6:29). When
he slaps you, turn the cheek and don’t demand your rights. This law of Christ
trumps your right to resist.
God sold Judah to Babylon for breaking His covenant. He
said, “I also spoke to Zedekiah king of Judah according
to all these words, saying, ‘Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of
Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live!’” (Jer 27:12). “For because of
the anger of the LORD this happened
in Jerusalem and Judah, that He finally cast them out from His presence. Then
Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon” (2 Kings 24:20). “Then they
killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, put out the eyes of Zedekiah,
bound him with bronze fetters, and took him to Babylon” (2 Kings 25:7). “Moreover,
I swore to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the nations
and disperse them through the countries, because they had not obeyed my rules,
…Moreover, I gave them statutes that were not good and rules by which they
could not have life, and I defiled them…” (Ezekiel 20:23-26 ESV). The defiling
rules God gave them were the laws of Babylon and Rome. Now He has given us
statist socialism for the same reason.
“Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the
Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who
are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. For this is the will of God…”
(1 Peter 2:13-15).
The Trial Of Jesus
The trial of Jesus illustrates the current actors in
today’s conflict. They were Pilate, Caesar, Barabbas, and Christ. First we have
Rome’s representative, Pilate, saying, “I find no fault in this man” (Luke
23:4). Then we have the chief priests saying, “We have no king but Caesar,”
“Crucify him,” and “Give us Barabbas.” The actors are 1.) the lesser
magistrate, Pilate, 2.) the chief priests affirming the mark of the beast by
placing Caesar above Christ, and 3.) the chief priests affirming Barabbas (who
sought to overthrow Caesar in an insurrection). By placing Caesar’s laws higher
than Christ, these same ones showed their schizophrenia in choosing to release
an insurrectionist.
Who does Christ represent? “’I was a stranger and you
did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you
did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see
you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not
minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you,
as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to
me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous
into eternal life” (Matthew 25:43-46 ESV).
The second beast in Revelation 13 illustrates both the
chief priests and Barabbas. The function of this beast was to get the whole
world to worship the Roman beast of statism. It looked like a lamb (a symbol of
priestly sacrifice), had two horns (symbols of power), and spoke like a dragon
(“crucify Him”). Barabbas types are those who disobey Caesar’s laws because his
laws contradict God’s laws, and seek to replace Caesar for another form of
statism. These types use the sword to set things right. They resist arrest and
sass the authorities. Josephus was right when he said they were evil and
deserved the punishment they got from Rome. This was the error of Peter in
cutting off the ear of the policeman. They are anarchists. Anarchy is the
father of statism. So, ironicly, they result in statism like the other horn on
the same beast that says, “We have no king but Caesar.” Both horns (symbols of
power) look to the state as the highest authority instead of Christ, Caesar’s
King.
How About Violent Resistance?
Martin
Luther King showed how non-violent resistance and freedom of speech can be very
effective. But how about armed resistance? Calvinism teaches that violent
resistance to protect from the plunder of life, liberty, and property is
justified, but ONLY under the authority of lesser magistrates. Civil
disobedience is godly as long as it is civil. Barabbas types are not civil. The
American Revolution followed the Calvinist principal of armed resistance under
the authority of the duly authorized representatives of the 13 colonies. Read
“The Doctrine Of The Lesser Magistrate” at Amazon.com.
Jesus And The Good Samaritan
A
certain lawyer, wanting to justify himself by parsing God’s command to love his
neighbor as himself, asked, “Who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29) Evidently he
wanted to narrow it down to just certain ones that he already loved. But Jesus
chose a foreign Samaritan. “For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans” (John
4:9).
That would be comparable to telling Hitler to love Jews. It would also
be comparable to commanding conservatives to love Democrats and vice versa.
This is the real test as to who is saved and who is not. “He who does not love
does not know God, for God is love” (1John 4:8).
