Expert: Brenton Hepburn - 12/16/2005

Question
Why do Jehovah's believs in letting the Government run their lives & not vote or any thing?

Answer
Hello Lois

Your question "Why do Jehovah's believs in letting the Government run their lives & not vote or any thing?" is one that often  does confuses people. It might seem hypocritical to some that we allow Governments to provide services such as schools, healthcare, sanitation, roads etc by then do not have as ay in electing governments.

When Jesus was here he showed the importance of governments. In Matt 22: 17 - 22 we find an account where Jesus was asked if it was lawful to pay taxes.  In his reply Jesus said in part 'Then he said to them, "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's,".  So we are obligated to pay taxes to the governments.

Later the Apostle Paul when writing to the Romans gave them this council in chapter 13 verses 1:7 "1  Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2  Therefore he who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3  For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of him who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4  for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain; he is the servant of God to execute his wrath on the wrongdoer. 5  Therefore one must be subject, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6  For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing.
7  Pay all of them their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due"  

So JWs are taught to respect the governments and to pay all taxes that are called for.

However lets just return to Matt 22:226 for a moment and read all of the reply that Jesus gave. "They said, "Caesar's." Then he said to them, "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.".   It is this last part that is of importance now "Render.... to God the things that are God's."

JWs view is that when we gave decides that we want to follow the way of the Christ we no longer belong to ourselves but Our God (Romans 14:7,8 "None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8  If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.")

Part of belonging to God is supporting his King and his Kingdom. Jesus is the King of Gods Kingdom (see Luke 1:32,33) and so we must support that government.

At the time of Jesus, the Jews were expecting a Messiah a King to save them from the Romans (see Luke 2:25,38; Luke 3:15; Matt 24:5)  The Jews tried to make Jesus their king, even at his death there was a lot of talk about Jesus being King of the Jews. (Read Mark 13. ) The notice above his head read "26  And the inscription of the charge against him read, ˜The King of the Jews.™ ". (Mark 13:26)

How did Jesus react to this. The account in John 6 tells us "14  When the people saw the sign which he had done, they said, ˜This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world!™ 15  Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself."   Jesus did not accept the position as an earthly king.  Why not? at his trial he said that his kingdom is not of this world John 18:36 " Jesus answered, ˜My kingship is not of this world; if my kingship were of this world, my servants would fight, that I might not be handed over to the Jews; but my kingship is not from the world.™ "

SUMMARY

We are taught to obey all the laws of the government where we live except for when the go against Gods laws (Acts 5:29 “…the apostles answered, ˜We must obey God rather than men.™ ")

We accept Jesus as our King

The kingdom of Jesus is not part of this world, we stay completely neutral to all of the governments of earth.

If you were to travel to another country, you are expected to live by the rules of that country, but as an alien resident you are not permitted to get involved in the polices of that country.  JW's see then selves as belonging to the kingdom of the Christ so as alien residents we stay neutral in all governmental affairs.

That does not mean we do not respect the governments.  We are taught to show the highest respect for them because of their authority, but we do not support then.

I hope I have explained the matter clearly for you.  Please do not hesitate to ask for any clarification.


NOTE:  All texts cited are from the Revised Standard Version Bible

Brenton