Sublime

The absolute Ruler of everything decided to make other rulers.

The early church, knowing that grace, refused to submit to Caesar’s licensure, regulation, taxation, or control. They grounded their resistance on obedience to God: “We ought to obey God rather than men.” For them, Caesar was an antinomian, in rebellion against Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords. They prayed for Caesar, sought to convert him,

the state had only a derivative authority as a minister of justice under Christ and His word. The political source of law, then, traced back, not to Caesar, but ultimately to Christ and God’s law.1

He feared that Catholic theology would soon take over all aspects of American life: what children learned in schools, who would be allowed to get married, and what kinds of worship would be allowed in the United States.

What if the state ceases to be God’s ministry of justice? What if it becomes a terror to good works, rather than to the evil? (Rom. 13:1–5). Their obedience had to be “for conscience sake” (Rom. 13:5), i.e., in obedience to God, because of His Word, for “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). As a result, Christians

state government was a vicegerent of God and His absolute law—rather than God and morality being the arbitrary tools of an absolute state (as in Machiavelli’s The Prince,7 first written in 1513).

Following your own heart, no matter what society says, or the church, or anybody else. This kind of thinking is devastating to every kind of social stability but especially to the church. The church, a community that authoritatively teaches and disciples its members, cannot withstand a revolution in which each member becomes, in effect, his own