This passage has been quoted at us a lot over the past 3 years. Especially by those who don’t believe the Bible. *
This tells Christians to obey their government. To honor officials and pay taxes. But it also enumerates the duties we should expect from our government.
Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.
Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.
For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same.
For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.
Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience’ sake.
For because of this you also must pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing.
Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.
Romans 13:1-7. NKJ
What are the rightful duties of a nation state according to God’s Word?
He has set national government as agents of His vengeance. Rightful justice. Not mercy. Not kindness. Not sweetness-and-light.
Somewhere along the line, people—including Christians—decided the government should take charge of mercy as well as justice. Not just feeding the hungry, nursing the sick, or training children in the way that they should go.
It was the state’s duty to use the prison system and the occult-based pseudo-science known as psychiatry to redeem or rehabilitate criminals. How? By the power of drugs and “therapy” to make them feel good about themselves.
When 2020 came around the state was busy controlling every aspect of life except for those few things God’s Word said it was meant to do. And a lot of Christians applauded or defended this overreach.
This troubles me. I believe this state of affairs is meant to be temporary. We don’t need to smash the system (even assuming we could reconcile this with Scripture) since it is set to collapse.
What we need are people on a local level able and willing to pick up services the government will be dropping. Expect more hunger and homelessness. More sick and disabled who cannot care for themselves.
The state will shrug its shoulders since the end game is having us cry out for the Satanic New World Order. Letting people die alone and unaided is what they want. The more dead the better. They will add assisted suicide to state services but nothing else. HUD housing will become scarcer and less affordable as the number of disabled people skyrockets.
* Fun fact. After invading a country, Nazis loved to quote this passage to the conquered citizenry.