A friend posted this on Facebook and I thought it was an excellent, helpful read:
Some Thoughts on Christian Civil Disobedience
Some excerpts:
“In less than a week churches went from having no restrictions to being complicit in criminal activity if more than ten people were present. This has, of course, caused a crisis for many Christians. Echoing through many minds and conversations is the question: can the government lawfully do this?”
“Do we obey our governing authorities, or do we disobey? I am not going to offer a “Yes” or “No” answer. Some may think that’s unhelpful. But an answer to that question is going to depend on the biblically informed consciences of individuals.”
”First, we need to be careful in respecting the limits of church power and authority. Biblically speaking, church and state are distinct but equal and cooperating authorities under the Lord Jesus Christ — the state is not over the church and the church is not over the state. We need to respect that distinction. It’s a point that’s been confused by American civil-religion but the church isn’t a political party, policy maker, lobbyist organization, or an institution of checks-and-balances for the civil government. I’ve often been reminded of Jesus’ question to the man who wanted him to settle a legal conflict: “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator of you?” (Luke 12:14). With perfect knowledge Jesus could have decided the dispute better than any civil court. But he deferred to the lawful authorities appointed to make such decisions.”
”We’re a nation and states that are governed within the parameters of a constitution. It could be that the restrictions on public gatherings as applied to religious assemblies is unconstitutional. Personally, I expect challenges to be made in the judicial courts which is the appropriate place for those challenges to be made (see Acts 25:10-12) — not the court of public opinion. But the unconstitutionality of a law is not the same thing as an unbiblical law. In asking questions about civil disobedience we cannot conflate these two. Civil disobedience is not “We must obey the constitution rather than men,” it is “We must obey God rather than men.” As Christians we can submit to laws that are unconstitutional but we cannot submit to laws that are unbiblical. This requires that we be absolutely biblically persuaded of our duty.”
”Our submission to the government doesn’t depend on their political commitments, moral character, or consistency. Rather, we submit to all that isn’t contrary to the Bible as the free children of God (see Matthew 17:26).”
”For the Christian, civil disobedience doesn’t arise out of patriotic flag waving while holding the Bill of Rights; it doesn’t arise out of anti-government sentiment or political leanings; it doesn’t arise because we’re inconvenienced by the law or draconian measures; it doesn’t arise out of some macho sense of being able to stick it to the man. For the Christian the only motivation for civil disobedience is a deep biblical conviction that obedience to man would be disobedience to God. And when an informed conscience demands such disobedience we must also receive the consequences counting our loss to be our gain: …(Acts 5:40-41)”
