Rom 13:1-2 NIV
1Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.
Rom: 13:1-2 KVJ
1Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
2Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
I picked up these two verses after reading a posting over at Ex-Christian.net. It started out as a discussion on whether the United States was truly formed as a Christian nation, or simply formed by Christians. The first verse quoted above came in as a discussion point. I included KJV because there are those that feel that's the only true translation.
It has often entered my mind that Christianity was created, or at least allowed to continue, to keep the lower classes in check by the authorities. The early version of the Man (Romans) keeping me down. The relationship between Christians and God seems to parallel the Feudal system of medieval England too closely to be coincidental. But these verses take it a step further. They flat out state that we should submit to the governing authorities as "good Christians".
So, is it possible that Christianity was allowed to flourish due to its design that Christians were to be humble and submissive. Admittedly these are both good traits for the peasant class to have. The ruling class has a much easier time when they don't have to squash rebellions.
Of course the other side of that is that Jesus was executed for his protesting against the Roman government. My current thinking on this is that having a martyr as a God is a good position for Christians to be in. The serfs of the time would be likely to want to rebel against authority. But they didn't have to because their God rebelled for them. Their God risked everything so that they didn't have to. Almost seems too convenient.
But let's take this one step further. Nowhere does it say to submit to your government, but fight against others. At the time a Roman citizen would have been so far away from any other governments that it is doubtful they would have even known of another governments existance. The wars fought by Romans were against barbarians, a word that implies a group without government – at least not government up to the level of the Romans. It's possible that a typical Roman citizen didn't even imagine another government body existed.
Of course we now know that there are many governments in the world. But the verse doesn't say to submit to only our government, or only the higher powers above us if you're reading the KJV. It says submit. So does that mean we should submit to all governing bodies? When the war in Iraq (or Germany, or Japan) started was that a sin against God because we did not submit to Saddam Hussein?
Look at how America was founded. It was a group of people rebelling against a government. Therefore it was created by sinners. Our forefathers went directly against the word of God to create the US. If the United States was created as a direct result of a sinful action, how could it possibly be a Chrisitan nation?
