The Cup of Rebellion

 

Yesterday I happened upon a piece I wrote back in 2010. As I read it and thought about the ensuing years, and where we are today, I realized that if the piece was true then, that it is so much truer now. The world does not add to the burden or challenge of being a Christian, it is the professing church; it is one thing for the world to lose its mind, it is another thing for the professing church to lose the mind of Christ.

 

When Christians Drink the Cup of Rebellion

Robert L. Withers

February 10, 2010

 

            Last night before retiring I checked my email and read something that made me physically sick – it was as if I had ingested spoiled meat, rancid with maggots. It began:

            “This belongs in the ‘Email Hall of Fame.’ How’s this for apocalyptic literature. This was written by a pastor’s wife in biblical prose as a commentary on current events. It is brilliant.”

            What follows is a verbal and pictorial attack on the President of the United States, Barak Obama. “Attack” is too mild a word. The verbal sarcasm and the disrespectful pictorial caricatures are dung splattered upon the man who is the President of the nation in which American Christians live, the man who represents duly constituted authority – not only authority under the Constitution of the United States, but authority under the God of the Bible.

            I am going to restrain myself in this piece. I have already restrained myself by choosing the word “dung” above – there are more appropriate words to make the point, and I suppose that if I had the presence of a Luther I’d use them.

            Two preliminary comments on “biblical prose” and “brilliant” above; then I’ll move on to the heart of the matter.

            What follows in the email is hardly Biblical prose, it is more akin to something out of Mad Magazine; it is juvenile, written in the style of Mother Goose – with apologies to both Alfred E. Newman and Mother Goose. The only claim the prose and drawings have to any Biblical association is that the Bible warns us against the sin of disrespect for authority and positively commands Christians to honor authority.  It is brilliant in that Satan has not only used a Christian to write it, but also that our enemy is using Christians to propagate it – Screwtape must be envious.

            In 1 Peter 2:13 – 17 Christians are taught that their attitude toward government is integral to their testimony. Considering the political, economic, and social disabilities with which these First Century Christians lived – the American Church doesn’t know what an unjust government, social or economic system is. Yet, these believers are exhorted to, “Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.” Note the proximity of fearing God and honoring the king. Those who indeed fear God will honor the king for they recognize that all authority is from God – those who do not fear God, but set themselves up as rebels after the fashion of the enemy, will decide whom to honor and when to honor and how to honor.

            Paul teaches, in Romans 13:1 – 7 that, “…there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.” Paul also speaks in this passage of rendering honor to those in authority. Again consider the historical context; the recipients of this letter were Christians living in the city of Rome, the seat of Imperial power and hence the foundation of persecution against Christians – in this context Paul teaches them that God is in control and in that knowledge Roman authority should be honored.

            Jesus lived in submission to authority. In Matthew 8:1-13, the Roman centurion recognized that Jesus was not a rebel or loose cannon in terms of authority – the key element that the centurion recognized about Jesus was not that Jesus had authority or was in authority, but that Jesus was under authority. The centurion understood that only those who are under authority can exercise legitimate authority – Jesus commended the faith of this Roman soldier.

            What better picture of submission to authority could we have than Christ before Pilate? Then there is Paul and his numerous appearances before Roman authorities. And then we have the other Apostles in the Book of Acts when they disobeyed the Sanhedrin by continuing to preach Jesus Christ – they gladly suffered the punishing results of their obedience to God without exhibiting a disobedient and rebellious attitude toward authority. We might speak of David, who even after being anointed by Samuel as a future king, knew that only God had the prerogative to execute a change of authority – that it was not given to David to effect a change on the throne. When David gave in to temptation and demonstrated disrespect for Saul he repented and asked Saul’s forgiveness.

            A characteristic of false teachers is rejection of authority, Jude 8, 2 Peter 2:10; but this does not appear to deter Christians from heaping disrespect and rebellious abuse on the President of the United States. When we consider that the root of rebellion and slander is found in “our ancient foe,” ought we not to pause and consider the cup from which we drink?

            The Biblical books of Daniel and Revelation teach that all power is in God’s hands and that God sets up and casts down whom He will. Disrespect of the President of the United States by Christians is a manifestation of unbelief in the teaching of Daniel and Revelation – though it is a manifestation of the Satanic spirit which these Biblical books describe.

            The introduction of the email I received terms the piece apocalyptic literature. Perhaps it is ironically apocalyptic in that in Revelation we see a religious system riding on the Beast and the Beast then devouring the religious system. Any religious system, including elements of the American Evangelical Church, that rides the Beast in a symbiotic relationship has had fair Biblical warning. Let us recall that Revelation is a letter written to the Church, not to the world; it is a warning to the Church, not to the world. The irony is that the email is a picture of the people of Jesus giving themselves over to a temporal political, social, and economic agenda to the point where they join in rebellion against duly constituted authority. There is no moral ground in slander, vitriolic, and in disrespect for authority; there is, however, spiritual quicksand. The very wing of the American Church that reviles elements of society that have abandoned “traditional” values, has itself abandoned the foundation of those values in adopting the spirit of this age – they that live by the sword of rebellion will perish by the sword of rebellion. The Beast has room enough for all to ride.

            For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself, Philippians 3:20 – 21.

            Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them? But He turned and rebuked them…, Luke 9:54-55.