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Romans chapter 13 is constantly used to say that Christians, or citizens in general, should always obey the civil authorities. There’s a whole series of debates that come out of this. When is it proper for a Christian to obey authority? Is it ever proper to rebel against authority? Our founding fathers were constantly debating whether it was legitimate for those with a Christian worldview to rebel against the king.
Mike Winther continues his lecture on Biblical principles of government in this recording of the fourth episode in this series. He talks about concepts like power versus authority. Then he goes into the five forms of government. It goes back to the Bible and God being the source of authority. This is about understanding scripture being critical to political science if we want to have a Christian worldview.
You’ll Learn:
- [01:22] Mike reads Romans 13. This chapter is the proof test of where our authority comes from. Our source of rights comes from God. Government authority comes from God.
- [02:02] You can read this as every authority and power has been put there by God or the only legitimate authority comes from God.
- [02:32] Power is the ability to make something happen. Authority is being authorized to do something. What is the government authorized to do and does it have enough power to do it?
- [05:52] There are five forms of government. A monarchy is a rule of one.
- [08:35] An oligarchy is a rule by an elite few. This is one of the most common forms of government on the planet.
- [10:32] A democracy is ruled by the majority. Typically majorities don’t always have a mind of their own. The real rulers are those who control the opinions of the majority like education and the media.
- [12:53] The next form of government is a republic. This is the rule by law. Our founding fathers intended for us to be a republic.
- [16:04] Is a rule by law the best system of government? That would depend on the laws.
- [16:23] The last system of government is anarchy which is ruled by no one. This is a temporary state, because it creates a vacuum.
- [18:04] Mike talks about different sources of law.
- [24:58] John Wycliffe, the father of the English Bible.
- [26:11] The Bible is a source of authority.
- [26:50] If there is no God, then there is no liberty. This is where political science is critical to understanding scripture.
- [27:26] Proving the necessity of God if you want to have a government. We need a non-human source for our rights.
- [28:14] God is the source of law and above it.
- [32:03] As Christians, we need to think through our logic on some of these issues.