It can’t happen here!
How many times have we heard this claim?
But it can happen here. Many will tell you that it is happening here.
It seems that almost on a daily basis we are losing our God-given rights. Some even make the case that there is a direct assault on the Christian religion because it is the only belief system that is greater than government and puts limits on governments. Relegating God to a distant corner of the universe empowers and emboldens governments to do what they will. In pre-Nazi Germany, many Christians were under the false assumption that they had to go along with whatever their civil rulers demanded. For decades before the rise of Hitler, Christians were subjected to arguments like the following from pastors and theologians:
- The Gospel has absolutely nothing to do with outward existence but only with eternal life, not with external orders and institutions which could come in conflict with the secular orders but only with the heart and its relationship with God.
- The Gospel frees us from this world, frees us from all questions of this world, frees us inwardly, also from the questions of public life, also from the social question. Christianity has no answer to these questions.
- Once the Christian understands the moral significance of the state he will consider obedience to the government to be the highest vocation within the state. For the authority of the state on the whole, resting as it does upon authority of the government, is more important than the elimination of any shortcomings which it might have.
While many Christians might have been opposed to Nazi policies, they had been conditioned to believe they could not do anything about them. Much of their thinking was shaped by a misreading of Romans 13 and a misapplication of Matthew 22:21 where Jesus says Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars. As with all authority, there are limits, including limits on civil government. It might also help to realize that we do not live under Caesar. Our civil rulers took an oath to uphold the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land. Neither the president nor the members of Congress are Caesar. If we have a Caesar, it is the United States Constitution. But even the Constitution recognizes its own limits and the right of the people to (1) express their grievances, (2) vote corrupt and oath-breaking rulers out of office, and (3) change existing laws.
The Bible tells us that civil rulers are ministers of God. The Greek word translated ministers is the same word used to describe ministers in a church. There are civil ministers and church ministers. Both serve as God’s ministers within their jurisdictions. It is unbiblical to assume that civil rulers are autonomous, that they can legitimately rule independent of Gods limiting authority of them. It is a serious mistake to take Paul’s instructions in Romans 13 and claim that civil rulers cannot be challenged by the citizenry.
Notice the use of governing authorities in Romans 13:1. There’s not just one ruler; there are many. Even Rome had governors and other civil officials. Our own system of civil government follows the biblical model of multiple civil rulers with county, state, and national authorities. American civil government was designed to be decentralized and limited at all levels. We have a United States Constitution and 50 state constitutions. It's unfortunate that as a nation we have turned unwarranted and unconstitutional authority over to the national government to the exclusion of state and county governments.
Civil authorities are to rule in terms of good and evil. There is no room for tyranny in these words. Those who rule are bound by the same laws as the rest of us. That’s why there is no divine right of kings in the Bible. The prophet Nathan challenged King David to do right. Daniel was not a revolutionary when he opposed the king’s law. John the Baptist rebuked King Herod for his sexual sins. Jesus even called him a fox. Peter continued to preach, obeying God rather than man, even though he was commanded to stop by the authorities of his day. Paul used his Roman citizenship to challenge the Roman Empire. Paul spent a great deal of time in prison because he was seen as a threat to the Empire.
To obey Romans 13 is to call our civil officials to uphold their oath of office, an oath that nearly all of them took by repeating the words “So help me God!”
James Willson’s study of Romans 13 is needed more than ever. What’s most helpful about it is that it was written in a time that is not muddied by the politics of our day. There are no current or recently passed politicians named. He sticks to principles based on the Bible. If we are to save our Republic, then we are bound to heed his instruction and warnings.
EXCERPT
We live in an age and country of liberal ideas regarding government – an age when the right of the people are watched with the utmost sagacity and vigilance. Popular rights are matters taken for granted, and anything that runs counter to them is at once rejected. Infidelity attempts to turn this feeling in behalf of liberty into it own channel to rouse it against the Bible, as it is favored absolute and irresponsible power;and they avail themselves, and with no little success, of the mistaken exposition of the very passage before is. The expositors to whom we have referred intend to strengthen the arm of any and all civil authority these interpretations the infidel schoolhouse for the overthrow of the authority of the Bible. Both are met and foiled by one process simply by a just analysis of the passage itself. ~James Mcleod Willson
Endorsement
“Civil government continues to increase in authority, power, and scope. Too many Christians are under the false impression that they are obligated to endure the legislative acts handed down by government officials no matter how evil they may be. This is a simplistic and dangerous reading of Paul’s instructions in Romans 13. Elected officials are as equally bound to distinguish between good and evil in the area of civil government as are unelected citizens. Being a ruler offers no exemption. James Willson’s exposition of Romans 13 is a much needed antidote to both the advocacy of passivity and rebellion that some are inclined to take.” - Gary DeMar, author and President of American Vision
About the Author: James M. Willson was born near Elizabeth, Allegheney County, Pennsylvania on November 17, 1809. He graduated from Union College in 1829. He studied theology under the direction of this father, James R. Willson, and was licensed by the Presbytery, June 5, 1834. He was ordained by the same Presbytery, and installed Pastor of the First Congregation of Philadelphia, November 27, 1834. He was elected Professor of Theology in the Allegheny Seminary, May 31, 1859. He authored numerous pamphlets and books, including Bible Magistracy: or Christ’s Dominion over the Nations: With an Examination of the Civil Institutions of the United States and An Essay on Submission to the Powers that Be. James M. Willson died at his residence in Allegheny, August 31, 1866.
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Mike Huckabee: Christians ‘Shouldn’t Just Accept Things
That Are Ungodly’ in Government;
Unconditional Obedience to
"God Ordained Government"
A Cover For Ministerial Fear & Cowardice
EXCERPTS:
"Huckabee opined. “I would remind people that the judicial branch is not the supreme branch, and the Supreme Court is only the Supreme Court, not the Supreme Being. And I feel that we have failed in civics to understand that there are three branches of government, and one can’t overrule the other two, and all three of them together can’t overrule the people.”
“Yet, we have people who say, ‘Well, the courts have ruled on abortion, we’ll have to live with it,’ or, ‘The courts have ruled on same-sex marriage, we have to live with it,'” he continued. “I would suggest no, we don’t. We shouldn’t just accept things that are ungodly and that will cause us to have to stand before God with bloody hands. I think that’s where we’ve failed.”
“We are now seeing, in our day, the results of a pietistic Christianity. Because the pietists retreated from the culture, the institutions of the culture have been annexed and overtaken by pagan men,” he said."
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Romans 13 – Should the Church Obey God or the Government?
EXCERPTS:
(Newswire.net -- August 6, 2013) Naperville, IL -- Romans 13 has long been a controversial topic both within the church and outside the church. Should the church obey God or obey the government? The controversy is settled and the question is answered in Higher Powers – Discover Their True Identity by Greg Backes.
Is it possible that a corrupt or evil government would use the commonly accepted interpretation of Romans 13 against the Christian believer? Could a government leader say he must be obeyed because he has received his authority from God?
It has happened before! It could happen again! What a travesty for God's people if that were to take place today.
Bernhard Rust (Minister of Science, Education and National Culture in Nazi Germany), in a speech to a mass meeting of German Christians on June 29, 1933 said, "If anyone can lay claim to God's help, then it is Hitler,..." It has been stated that Hitler's favorite Bible verse was Romans 13:1. Read the sample chapter “The Kingdoms of this World” here.
In Higher Powers – Discover Their True Identity you will:
- Learn the true identity of the higher powers.
- Know the gifts that God has given unto men.
- Discover who really runs the kingdoms of this world.
- Know the spiritual abilities mentioned in Romans chapter 12.
- Understand what to pray for regarding government leadership.
- Appreciate the difference between the Old Testament kings of Israel and today's government leaders.
- Understand when to obey God and when to obey the government.
- Read the note written to today’s higher powers.
Author, Greg Backes, says “It is vitally important that the Christian church understand the identity of the higher powers of Romans 13. The German people were fooled in the 1930’s resulting in millions of deaths. We must never allow a travesty such as that to occur again.”
Higher Powers is offered by Hope of Glory Bible Ministry and is available in the Kindle bookstore and the iTunesbookstore. The book is also available in soft cover.
Hope of Glory Bible Ministry
Greg Backes
P.O. Box 9002
Naperville, IL 60567
Phone: 630-717-7712
http://www.hopeofglorybibleministry.com
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"EVANGELICAL/BAPTIST CHRISTIAN LEADERS
AFFIRM HITLER'S CHRISTIANITY" (PARALLELS UNGODLY RESPECT & ADORATION OF OBAMA):
EXCERPT FROM:
"If anyone can lay claim to God's help, then it is Hitler, for without God's benevolent fatherly hand, without his blessing, the nation would not be where it stands today. It is an unbelievable miracle that God has bestowed on our people." [Evangelical Minister Rust, in a speech to a mass meeting of German Christians on June 29, 1933 [Helmreich, Ernst Christian, "The German Churches Under Hitler," Wayne State University Press, 1979, p. 138]
"Other pastors openly welcomed the Nazis, believing that the reintroduction of government by Christian authorities, affirmed St. Paul that 'the power that be are ordained by God'." (Romans 13:1) ["Christianity in Europe during WWII", by Jim Walker, 1 June, 2000]
Today, many pastors are enunciating this Biblical quote in an attempt to justify supporting Bush's Illuminist war against Iraq -- Remember, World War III has been planned since 1870 to produce Antichrist. Perhaps the Scripture we need to focus on is: "We ought to obey God rather than men." [Acts 5:29]
"... a number of U.S. Baptists wrote sympathetically of Hitler's Germany. I came to this conclusion while writing an article on the Baptist World Alliance congress in Berlin in 1934. An immense Nazi flag, hung where the congress met, was a vivid reminder of the bloody purge executed only a few weeks before by anti-Semitic fascists. ["U.S. Baptists said surprisingly nice things about Hitler", Baptist Standard, by Professor Lloyd Allen - Church History at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky -- May 27, 2002]
"John Sampey, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, cautioned against hasty judgment of a leader (Hitler) who had stopped German women from smoking cigarettes and wearing red lipstick in public. The Watchman-Examiner carried a letter by Boston pastor John Bradbury. Of the congress, he wrote, "It was a great relief to be in a country where salacious sex literature cannot be sold; where putrid motion pictures and gangster films cannot be shown." [Ibid.]
In light of post-World War II revelations about the Satanic monstrosity of Adolf Hitler, one can only sit back in amazement as they contemplate how easily fooled these Baptist leaders and pastors were about Adolf Hitler; they casually excused all of Hitler's early writings, such as Mein Kampf and his fiery anti-Semitic speeches from 1921-1934, in which he boldly stated he was going to "line the Jews up against the wall" for execution! And, why did they so excuse these bold evidences of the true nature of Hitler? Because he did not allow pornographic and gangster films, nor women smoking cigarettes and wearing red lipstick in public?!
Why, this easy justification of Adolf Hitler by these high-ranking Baptists in 1934 pales in comparison only by today's Evangelical and Baptist leaders justifying President George W. Bush despite his bold gay agenda, his public attack in shutting down a Baptist church, his obvious attempt to gather dictatorial powers to himself using terrorism as the excuse, and a dozen other clear indicators that he is producing only rotten spiritual fruit.
Professor Allen lists some other specific reasons these Baptist leaders gave Hitler such a pass on the clear evidences of spiritual disaster:
"This focus on [Hitler's] personal piety resulted partially from a frontier religious ethic. On the American frontier, where Baptist strength arose in the Second Great Awakening, the most crucial ethical decisions were personal--alcoholism, spousal abuse and violence. Few complex social structures existed on the frontier to attract a sustained moral critique. Baptists equated eliminating the sins of the flesh with Christian living."
"Mass evangelism was a second factor in Baptist blindness to the Nazi evil. Some Baptists believed that evangelism and the world order were two circles that never intersected ... "Evangelical Christianity transcends all political and social systems," according to an Alabama Baptist article that appeared that same year. As long as governments, even fascist governments, did not interfere with soul-saving, they could be tolerated." [Ibid.]
What would Jesus say in response to this nonsensical line of argument? "Ye blind guides, filtering out a gnat, and gulping down a camel." Matt 23:24; Parallel Bible, KJV/Amplified Bible Commentary]
Christian leaders today who are applauding President Bush are guilty of the same disastrous thinking: they are "gulping down a camel" even as they are refusing to acknowledge the major disastrous spiritual fruit emanating from the president. History does, indeed, repeat itself when people do not follow the Holy Spirit carefully, the news carefully, and draw the proper conclusions.
But, the news as to why Baptist leaders applauded Hitler gets even more disastrous. Listen to Professor Allen explain in another article, "How Baptists Assessed Hitler, written in September, 1982:
"Surely a leader who does not smoke or drink, who wants women to be modest, and who is against pornography cannot be all bad, or so the reasoning went. As M. E. Aubrey of England observed in the Baptist Times, Hitler had “brought almost a new Puritanism, which makes its appeal to our Baptist friends, and for the sake of which they can overlook much that cuts across their natural desires.” Baptists from the United States ignored the fact that interpreters were barred from even rendering the word “democracy” in Aubrey’s speech. Priority was placed on personal habits, to the detriment of larger, more vital issues." {Ibid.]
Equating Adolf Hitler with the word, "Puritanism" is spiritual blindness of a staggering proportion! M.E. Aubrey even admitted there was much about Hitler that was of great concern to Christians, but he smoothed that problem over by stating that Hitler's "new Puritanism" is so strong that Christians can "overlook much" about him that gives them great concern! In other words, Christians who had personally compared Hitler's spiritual fruits against Bible doctrine, and had concluded he was evil, could "overlook" their conclusions because of Hitler's supposed "new Puritanism"! Today, we see exactly this kind of twisted logic at work!
Professor Allen then records for posterity that the numbers of Baptists who felt positive about Hitler was more than a few radical fringe types:
"“Quite a number of correspondents of our Southern Baptist papers writing about the BWA seemed to have a kindly feeling and a good word for Hitler and his regime,” Wrote R. H. Pitt in Religious Herald." [Ibid.]
"Victor I. Masters of the Western Recorder went even further, writing, “Most of the testimony we have from our brethren who went to the [1934] Baptist World Alliance in Berlin has seemed with great spontaneity and readiness to accept the opinion that all is well in Germany." [Ibid.]
Did you catch that phrase, uttered even as Hitler was beginning to secretly murder Jews: "all is well in Germany".
Narrowly Focussing On One Single Issue
Professor Allen then drops a bombshell in identifying the major issue blinding Baptists to Hitler: he had them focussing on one major issue. Listen:
"A final reason for Baptist vulnerability to Hitler’s 1934 policies was a single-issue criterion for appraising foreign governments: anticommunism. In 1934, if a government was anti-Communist, it deserved recognition and support. Dr. Leek wrote:
'Our observation is, that while Hitlerism is doubtless not the ultimate end, for Germany directly or Europe indirectly, it is for Germany a safe step in the right direction. Nazism has at least been a bar to the universal boast of Bolshevism' [Alabama Baptist XCIX 36 (September 6, 1934)]."
Another Baptist leader, Dr. Daddy, stated: "Hitler was not perfect, but at least he was anti-Communist." [Ibid.]
Therefore, because Hitler strongly opposed Communism, as did international Baptists, it was all right to ignore all the spiritually rotten fruit coming from Hitler and his National Socialist regime! We see this happening today in Ecumenical circles, don't we? Today, Liberal Christianity is allowing itself to be drawn in to the One World Religion of the future False Prophet, through the lie that religions need to focus upon what they can agree, ignoring that about which they do not agree! This is the essence of the Ecumenical Movement today, the ultimate goal of which is to form the religion that will serve the two Beasts of Revelation 13!
Right now, in America, President Bush is utilizing exactly the same "Narrow Focus" technique that is blinding Christians from seeing his rotten spiritual fruit! What is this Narrow Focus? It is Terrorism! Bush has so galvanized us of the absolute necessity of fighting global terrorism and ending the states that support it, that he has blinded too many Christians to his true spiritual nature.
History is repeating itself!
Not All The Baptists Were Fooled
"Fortunately, most Baptists in 1934 took a different route, supporting soul liberty, the kinship of all persons and the separation of church and state. Still, all Christians today need to remember which paths in 1934 led some to embarrassing dead ends." [Ibid.; Emphasis added
Thank God "most Baptists in 1934" recognized the true spiritual matters that demanded their attention, and so did not fall into the trap of supporting Adolf Hitler; still, the Baptist leaders who did support Hitler lead many, many Christians astray at a most crucial time in world history. Christians are positionally in the same spot today as in Berlin, 1934. Too many respected Evangelical leaders are urging their people to support President Bush, even though loads of evidence exists that demonstrates his true spiritual nature, and even more evidence that should convince all people that this attack on Iraq is based upon nearly nothing! Why do you think tens of millions of people marched in global Antiwar protests on Saturday, February 15? They had read the news reports warning that our "evidence" against Iraq was tenuous at best, manufactured at worst.
Yet, because Christians are patriotic, because they do not want to believe that our presidency could be seized by Illuminists bent on staging Antichrist, and because they are focussed on the narrow specific issue of global terrorism, they are willing to give President Bush their support.
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