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Should Romans 13 Invalidate the Rest of the Bible?
Posted by Eric F. Langborgh on 10 Mar 2008 at 10:27 am“Conservative Christians are still of the weird dualistic mindset that says you must act like a Christian every else except in civil office. Once you’re in office, Romans 13 magically kicks in, and you may freely torture your enemies, no need to love them, use evil to overcome evil, no soft Pauline solutions. Outside of office, you must heed the Sermon on the Mount, but in office, you have to disregard the Lord’s commands due to the toughness of terrorists. Insert conservative grunt here. Do we believe the Gospel or not?”
~Douglas Jones, “Time to Excommunicate the President”
The question isn’t whether Romans 13 is dualistic for it surely isn’t. Rather, it is whether Christians will adhere to our oath of office and go no farther than the grant of power we have been given. Indeed, were we to go farther, we act “ultra vires” and repudiate our promises to obey the oath. If we are tasked with punishing the evil doer (i.e., terrorist), then do it and do it with reference to the common law implanted on the hearts of man from time immemorial. Christianity has nothing to do with it. It is merely a religion to seek Christ’s Kingdom. Indeed, Christ’s Kingdom is not of this world but the law of Nature and Nature’s God is. It is the two swords doctrine. THere is no separation of God from the Church or God from the State. There is, however, a separation of religious duties and civil duties. The former is a matter of the heart and completely voluntary.
Hi brother,
I agree with you completely the first half of your comment, but you start to lose me some in the second half. (Though I’m back on board in your second and third to last sentences.)
But to the point of the post and Romans 13, I don’t think Douglas Jones is saying that the passage is dualistic; rather, he is arguing that too many Christian conservatives misuse the verse as an excuse for all sorts of deplorable, unjust activities that actually find no basis in the passage. The magistrate may have certain God-given and delegated powers, but he just as much as the civilian is morally bound by the rest of Christ’s teachings. And yes, that certainly includes keeping one’s oath of office (Mt. 5:37), the Golden Rule’s relevance in foreign policy, and not overstepping one’s legitimate powers (Lk 20:25).
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