This Sunday, many Christians will glorify government in addition to—and, in some particularly blasphemous cases, instead of—Jesus Christ. They will praise its warriors and ask God to bless Leviathan’s wickedness. Ironically, they’ll excuse their worship of the State because Congress published the vehemently anti-State Declaration of Independence 240 years ago this Monday—and because of a mistranslation of Romans 13 (“Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities…”).
You can fight this idolatry with factual ammunition from Paul Green’s excellent overview of the passage. Then, for additional, essential details on the Greek vocabulary as well as the chapter’s irrelevant-to-government context, study Alex Douglas’ “A Different Look at Romans 13.”
In a nutshell, the usual Greek word for “kingdom, i.e., political government,” basileus, is entirely absent from Romans 13. It does show up in Luke 4, however, when Satan offers Christ all the “kingdoms” (i.e., political governments) of the world—and you can’t give what you don’t first own. I pray, and I know Paul and Alex join me, that between these two exegeses, you can knowledgeably correct our brothers who presume to honor the Lord by aiding and abetting the State’s evil.
When you’ve finished this heavy-duty scholarship, reward yourself by traveling back to the American Revolution with my novels, Halestorm and Abducting Arnold. Both transport readers from our depressing, debilitating Progressive morass to a time when everyone loved liberty so much that they were willing to die—and to live—for it.
11:08 am on June 29, 2016
