Resources on Civil Obedience and Disobedience

Last week was our first Summer School class. A big thanks to the brothers and sisters from both churches who attended on Zoom. Your participation glorifies God and strengthens the church.

The topic we covered was “Church and State: Deciding When to Submit or Rebel.” We have three suggestions for those of you who’d like to study the topic further:

(1) R.C. Sproul’s Lecture series on Church and State.

(2) “Should Churches in California Defy Government Restrictions? A response to John MacArthur” by Gavin Ortlund

(3) “Covid, Christians, and the Civil Magistrate” by Keith Mathison. It’s a 20-minute read but worth every minute. Here are a few highlights:

“God does not pit obedience to Himself against obedience to civil magistrates. We are most certainly to obey God, but as Romans 13 indicates, one of the ways we obey God is to obey those God Himself has sovereignly and providentially put in authority over us. This includes civil magistrates. Even those we don't like.”

“The various civil magistrates at the federal, state, and local levels have to make difficult decisions. Can they wait until there is a worldwide consensus on the seriousness of the virus in every circumstance? No…One of the legitimate tasks of the civil magistrate is to protect the lives of citizens. In the midst of a storm of conflicting and ever-changing information, they have to attempt to protect lives when they believe there is a legitimate threat.”

“I have no idea whether face masks are an effective means of slowing the spread of this virus, but if the biblical principles summarized above are true, it matters little because the mandate to wear them in public indoor places for the time being is not contradicting any command of God. Does it infringe on my ability to do what I want to do when I want to do it? Perhaps, but autonomously doing what I want to do when I want to do it is not an axiom of biblical ethics.”

“If Christians disagree, should they simply ignore these mandates? Given what Romans 13 and other texts clearly say, a Christian needs to ask whether he is 100% certain that what the civil magistrate is requiring is the principled equivalent to bowing to a statue of Nebuchadnezzar before disobeying the magistrate. According to Romans 13:2, God takes very seriously resistance to the authorities He has placed over us: ‘those who resist will incur judgment.’ We cannot take that lightly.”

“I don’t think anyone is being asked to deny Christ yet or not preach the Gospel. If that happens, then Acts 5 does come into play, and you absolutely have to obey God. What we are being asked to do right now is more akin to what churches have been asked to do for a time in past pandemics (e.g. the Black Plague, the Spanish Flu, etc.) and what churches have been asked to do for a time during war in some places. In other words, we are being asked to put up with temporary inconveniences. That requires patience.”

Join us for our next Summer School class on Tuesday 8/11 when we cover “Politics: Matters of Wisdom, Conscience, and Love.” We will send out the Zoom link via email. Contact the church office if you think you are not in our directory.