Obey the Higher Powers...Today?

By John Weaver

July 1, 2020

What is the right thing for a Christian to do when the government asks us to do things that we would rather not do? In the last few months, we have seen our rights being taken away like never before in history. So many things don’t pass the smell test.

Some people are told that you must wear a face mask. For others, it’s stay at home. Some are told you must close your business. For some, church services are forbidden. What? In the United States? Many good, sincere, law abiding people are perplexed. Should we obey everything the government asks from us? Even if we are uncomfortable doing so?

Most importantly, what does God want you to do? Many go to, or are pointed to Romans 13. “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers.” Pretty straight forward, isn’t it?.... except that it’s not.

It is extremely important that we understand what is meant by ‘higher powers,’ and also what it means to be ‘subject to the higher powers.’ I will use the famous court case, ‘Yoder vs Wisconsin,’ to bring this out. In the early 1960s, an Amish man refused to send his children to high school. Even after the local school board took him to court and he lost, he still refused. The case ended up in a higher court, and he lost again. I don’t know how many times it went to a higher court, but I know Yoder lost the case every time... until it ended up at the Supreme Court - the highest court in the land. There, every one of the judges voted against what the lower courts had ruled, and what had been illegal all along was changed. Now, all at once, Yoder was no longer in disobedience. He was now subject to the higher powers, and was in compliance.

Let’s look at what we face today. We still need to be subject to the higher powers. God’s word still stands. How many of you would obey if we are told we must get a certain vaccine? What about if that vaccine includes a tiny chip?

What if we are told we cannot hold church services? What if the church is told they must turn over the names of everyone who attends church to the government? (It is happening right now in at least one place.) This often turns into a debate between ‘obeying them that have the rule over us,’ and verses like ‘not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together,’ etc.

Let me tell you that the people who are giving these executive orders are also subject to their higher powers - just as in the Yoder case. When a higher court ruled differently, the lower court’s decision was void. It no longer had any power. So if our governor says we will be fined for holding a church service, and we disobey... who is in the wrong?

When this country was formed, the founding fathers spent a lot of time trying to prevent tyranny from the government  that they were forming. They came up with a document that is called The Constitution. Many people have never even read it, but all citizens of the United States have benefited from it.

It says that all of us are born with certain God-given rights, and that no governor, no president, nor any court shall take away those rights. On religious freedom, it says that congress shall make no laws prohibiting the free exercise of religion.

Today, we see these rights being trampled on. The governors who are making executive orders in opposition to the higher powers are the ones who are in disobedience. Attorney General Barr has warned the governors to not disregard The Constitution. He has intervened where certain mayors had arrested people for going to church, etc.

Attorney General Barr is a much higher authority than the mayors or governors.
So, it’s not a straightforward thing to just obey the local authorities, if what they ask us to do is in opposition to what the higher powers want. The local authorities (even governors) are in the wrong and so are we if we obey the lower authorities instead of the higher.

I think just about all of you folks would agree that we must obey God rather than man. God is our ultimate authority. He is not only the higher power; He is the highest power.

Let us obey God rather than man. But when not in conflict with God’s laws, we need to be subject to the higher powers of man’s laws. Thankfully our president, our attorney general, and our constitution are all in favor of preserving the rights of the citizens to freely exercise religion.

I realize that not everyone may agree with what I have tried my best to convey. You have that right, but for me, I choose to obey the higher powers, and that may mean to disobey some of the lower powers. I am open to hearing your thoughts - pro or con. May God bless. And may God heal our land. Amen.

 

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