Chet Gallagher has written a very provocative article concerning the Bundy family stand-off against the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) this week. Those of us in Operation Rescue have come to a pretty thorough biblical understanding of civil disobedience, higher laws, biblical submission, and biblical obedience as we have been tested through the fires of time (in jail and out), tribulation (dragged through the court system), and persecution, by our own government. We, as Christians, are law keepers – not rebels.
Rebellion is always and everywhere portrayed as sin in the Bible. We are called to submit, not to rebel. But when a government rebels against God’s law – we are duty bound to resist it. Pr 28:4. We are a submitted people to God first, then to our government. Indeed, resisting evil may result in our death. The man who wrote 1 Peter 2:13-25, was crucified upside down on a cross for being a rebel. Yet it was for his true submission to God and the king that he was killed. Peter spoke the truth to the king (the king could not tolerate the truth he spoke) so he labeled him a rebel and had him done away with. In reality, Peter was the most loyal subject the king had – a truly submitted man. The same with Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Daniel, all the major and minor prophets, Jesus, His disciples, the Apostle Paul, John Wickliffe, Martin Luther, Our Pilgrim forefathers, our Founding Fathers, ad infinitum.
When we speak Truth to power, we should expect a huge reaction from that power. We are truly submitted Christian warriors who will not flinch in the face of adversity. The only one who would dare call us “rebel” for obeying God rather than men – is the one who has everything to lose if we continue to fear Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell.
Enjoy!
