Lesson 5 — The Powers That Be; When, by Whom, and for What Purpose Ordained.

February 4, 1905.

Questions

  1. Who is the source of all power? Rom. 13:1.
  2. Who ordained the powers that be?

    The Son of -God beggared Himself to enrich us.

  3. Must they not, then, exist for a good and wise purpose? Rom. 13:4, first clause.
  4. Of what would one be guilty who refused to recognize the rightfulness of this power to rule? Rom. 13:2. Note 1.
  5. What are civil rulers called in Rom. 13:4; Jer. 27:6; and Isa. 45:1?
  6. In what words are Christians commanded to show respect to the civil power? Rom. 13:1, 5; Titus 3:1, 2; 1 Peter 2:13, 14, 17. What are they exhorted to do in 1 Tim. 2:1, 2?
  7. When and because of what did civil governments become a necessity? Notes 1 and 2.
  8. What is the business of civil rulers?’ Rom. 13: 3, 4; 1 Peter 2:14.
  9. Cite instances to show that the powers that be were not ordained to control men by law in religious things. Daniel 3 and 6.
  10. What power is higher than the higher powers? Eccl. 5:8. What king above all earthly kings? Dan. 4:37.
  11. In any conflict between the higher powers and the highest, whom should we obey? Acts 5:29. Note 3.
  12. When Nebuchadnezzar commanded Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to bow down and worship the golden image which he had set up, how did they answer him? Dan. 3:16-18.
  13. When Daniel knew that a law had been made prohibiting prayer to God for thirty days, what did he do? Dan. 6:10.

    “Lift up your eves and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.”

  14. When King Ahasuerus commanded all his servants to bow before Haman and do him reverence, how did Mordecai conduct himself? Esther 3:1, 2.
  15. When the apostles had been forbidden by the Sanhedrin to preach in the name of Jesus, what did the angel of the Lord tell them to do? Acts 5:17-20.
  16. From all these examples, what lesson should the world have learned by this time? Note 4.
  17. What bearing has the threefold message of Rev. 14:6-11 upon this subject?
  18. What are those who are to give this message commanded to do? Isa. 60:1-3; 58:1.

Notes

  1. We should not disparage .the utility or importance of civil governments. They are a necessity under the existing condition of things. They became a necessity in consequence of the fall. To secure men in their persons and property is a good thing. To check the vicious, and what would otherwise have been a wild, unrestrained career of crime, civil government was ordained, the sword was placed in Caesar’s hand, and the law laid down, “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.” Gen. 9:6. These governments may be very imperfectly organized, they may abound in abuses, and fail often in executing justice; yet, as Macaulay says, “It seems reasonable to believe that the worst that ever existed was, on the whole, preferable to complete anarchy.” They are needed to protect the good and to punish the vicious, to define what the well-disposed may do, and what the evil-disposed must not do. They are ordained “for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.” No Christian, therefore, should despise government, speak evil of dignitaries, or bring a railing accusation against rulers. See 2 Peter 2:10; Jude 9; Acts 23:1-5. “The less we make direct charges against authorities and powers, the greater work we shall be able to accomplish, both in America and in foreign countries.” (Testimonies, Vol. VI, page 395.) The rather should we pray “for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.” 1 Tim. 2:1, 2. As with the church, Satan does all in his power to pervert civil governments, and to change them from protectors of the people to oppressors of the people. But not until civil governments have finally and fully taken their stand against the law of God, and withdrawn their protection from those who keep the commandments of God, will they have served their purpose and finished their usefulness in this world.
  2. Andrew W. Young, in his “Government Class Book,” page 12, explaining why civil governments are necessary, says: “Man is by nature selfish, and many would infringe the rights of others, for their own selfish ends, unless restrained. Hence we see the necessity of some fixed rules, that each one may know what he may do and what he must not do. These rules for regulating the social actions of men are called laws. . . . But law can not exist without government. Law is a rule of action laid down by the supreme power, and if there is no supreme power there can be no law. Hence we see the necessity of goverhment. It will be noticed that the force of this argument all rests upon the statement that ‘Man is by nature selfish.’ Civil governments are a necessity because men are selfish. But God did not create man selfish. Selfishness is an evil acquired through the fall. Hence civil governments are a necessity because of the entrance of sin into the world and the fall from innocence and obedience to God.”
  3. “Obedience is to be rendered to all human governments in subordination to the will of God. These governments are a recognized necessity, in the nature of the case, and their existence is manifestly in accordance with the divine will. Hence the presumption is always in favor of the authority of civil law. Any refusal to obey must be based on the moral conviction that obedience will be sin. The one who proposes to disregard human law must be persuaded in his own mind that, in that course, he will meet the approval of God. It is too obvious to need discussion, however, that the law of God, the great rule of life, is supreme, and that in any case of conflict between human law and the divine, ‘we ought to obey God rather than men.’ “—Fairchild’s Moral Philosophy, ch. 8.
  4. From all the examples and test cases which have occurred from Pharaoh’s time on down, it would seem that•the world ought, by this time, to have learned that it is not the business of civil rulers to attempt to direct men by force in matters of religion, and, especially, that it is a wrong and vain thing for them to command that which is contrary to God’s command. That it has not, shows how slow men have been to learn God’s lessons, and how great and how gross is the darkness that still covers the earth and the people. Isa. 60:1, 2.

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