Expert: Mr. McClellan - 9/16/2005

Question
Hi John!  Fellow AllExperts volunteer here.  My friends and I have been debating several Christian centered issues recently and at the source of most of our friendly disagreements is one issue--man made laws and ability or inability to reconcile them with the Scriptures.

More clearly, I was wondering if you could point me to Scripture that describes a Christian's responsibility and obligation to worldly laws.  I remember in the past being told that in the Bible, God instructs us to follow Man's laws, and in church, I have been taught to support our elected officials, asking God to move them to do right.

For further clarification, let me explain how this came up.  We were discussing the problems that arise when Man's law is contrary to God's law.  Personally, I have a hard time believing that my Christian values, right as they might be, should be made into law for every citizen of this country.  I wish we were all Christian, but we are not, and I find imparting MY religious law onto others unfair and a disregard to personal freedom.

I am sorry for going on, but I wanted to give you a little insight into me, my recent conversations and the true point of the question.  I hope that you might be able to help with the necessary Scripture and please, feel free to offer any wise, divinely inspired commentary.  :)

Kriston

Answer
Hello Kriston,
(I'm not John, by the way)
Thanks for considering my comments.

First, Christians are instructed to obey the laws of the nations in which they live because they have been put in power by God. See Romans 13:1-7. However, when those authorities tell us to disobey God, we must ignore them. See Acts 5:16-42. This implies at least two important things. 1. Even though a nation has been set up by God, it still has the choice to obey God or not. 2. In order to "obey God rather than men," a person has to be able to tell, with certainty, the difference between the commandments of men and the commandments of God. This can be done contrary to what many people seem to think.

Second, about your reluctance to impart your religious views onto others. If you know that your understanding of God's will is correct, that you're not just guessing, and if you are determined to be faithful to God, you have no choice but to impart your understanding to others. (Jesus said that the truth could be known, and unless he lied, it can.) I do not mean that you should try to force it upon others, that would be useless. You probably know the old saying, "A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still." I mean that you must try to persuade others to believe as you do. Just be aware of the fact that if you teach what is not true (false doctrine), you are going to incur a stricter judgment than others. See James 3:1. James seems to mean that we ought not to start teaching before we are certain that we are right because of the consequences of misleading people. Everyone can teach but not everyone should teach. There is good reason.
Jesus' command to his disciples was to take the message of salvation to the entire world, to convert as many people of every nation that they could to his view of life and what they had to do in order to be faithful to the true God so as to save themselves from condemnation. See also 1Thes 1:6-10. Here, the regular members of the church in that city took it upon themselves to spread the truth of God's word so that when Paul came into the region again he met people that had already been taught by those disciples that he had converted when he first went there. Paul complemented them for what they did because it was the right and compassionate thing to do. It's what knowing the truth should make a person feel compelled to do for his felllow man. How else are people going to come to a knowledge of the truth if God's people do not tell them what it is? "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, And, how shall they hear without a preacher," said Paul. See Romans 10:13-15. Christians, all of them, should come to understand that the whole world is lost in sin and that every Christian ought to feel enough compassion for them that they could not help but try to persuade them to repent and turn to God. Christainity is all about loving others the way you would want them to love you. If you knew nothing about how to have eternal life, wouldn't you be grateful if someone convinced you concerning it and caused you to repent and turn to the true and living God who loves everyone on earth and does not want any to be lost? You see, love for your fellow citizens of earth demands that you try to save them by telling them the truth. It should not be because you think that you are better but becuase you think that they are worth it. God certainly does! Now, be careful though and read what Paul said about a woman's place in the scheme of things as God created it. Do you want to obey God, or are you too accustomed to obeying man's ideas here? Are you going to let Jesus be Lord, or will you usurp his authority and place your will above his?
Again, Jesus said that no one could come to the Father but through him and that only those that obeyed his commandments could enter the kingdom of heaven. They cannot get to God through Allah because Allah is a different God, a false god with an entirely different message from the one that is true. Allah cannot save anyone. People with a misconcept of Jesus are teaching a false Christ and false doctrines of salvation and the false teachers are great in number and popularity. Jesus made it clear that only a comparitive few would ever come to know the real truth, but not because they could not know it, but because they would refuse to acknowledge it so that they could do as they pleased while convincing themselves that they had the right to call Jesus Lord. See Paul's comments in Romans 1 and 2 about how people behave and reject the truth although it can be known by anyone that wants to know it badly enough.

Pardon me for going on but you have brought up some very important things. We live in a society that has been innundated with relativistic philosophy that is imbedded in the psychology of behaviourism and the teaching of muliticulturalism, all of which are founded on the false notion that there is no higher power than man and that there is no such thing as God and universal truth that eveyone is accountable to. These false ideas hold that all beliefs are of equal value because truth is only as each individual perceives it. This means that no one can be wrong, they cannot be sinners, they are not in need of salvation. These ideas hold that what is true for any person is true even if what they believe is in total contradiction to what someone else thinks is true. It's all relative, they say. No God, not truth, no sin, no right or wrong. So, why try to convert someone to your ideas if everyone is right in their own way? Doesn't this make Jesus and his apostles rather ignorant and presumptuous. Why, if Jesus was God in human form, would he tell his disciples to go into all the world and try to convert people from their beliefs to his way if everyone is already right, that all of their beliefs are okay and of equal value? Why try to change people's minds about what is right and wrong? Can you see how anti-Christ such ideas are?

I hope that this couses some deep thinking.
Sincerely,
Mr. McClellan