Dealing with Romans 13:1 — Submission to Government Authority

 These are three answers I wrote to two persons who had asked questions about submitting to government authority in an online conversation. The scripture in question, quoted below, is at the beginning of Romans 13.

 ¹Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which is from God. The authorities that exist have been appointed by God. ²Consequently, whoever resists authority is opposing what God has set in place, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.
³For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you want to be unafraid of the one in authority? Then do what is right, and you will have his approval. ⁴For he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not carry the sword in vain. He is God’s servant, an agent of retribution to the wrongdoer. 

Q -  Was the founding of America just? Was it not a rebellion against King George? I mean depending on your interpretation of Romans 13 this could all be quite confusing; at what point do we rebel or obey the governing authorities? But some say it was over taxation without representation. However, Romans 13:6 says, "For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing."

A -  Oh, go read the Declaration of Independence! There was a lot more than taxation involved. King George was an accuser like satan and lawless, like the devil.
The American Revolution was a rebellion that was rational in this realm (as outlined in the Declaration of Independence) and ordained by God in the spirit realm (for overcoming evil).

Q - I was just trying to get a grasp on the correct interpretation of Romans 13... It could be easily stated in a Romans 13 context that King George was bearing not the sword and vein [sic] and he should be feared. Again I'm not advocating that; I'm just saying Romans 13 is a perplexing chapter.

4for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. 5Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

A -  Personally, I got over my being perplexed about Romans 13 on January 6, 2020. Then I went on to blog about why the National Association of Evangelicals got it all wrong when they sided with the Legacy media and whined that Christians must be peacemakers.
Where does the Bible say to blindly obey Evil? The verses 4 through 7 that you quoted refer to "God's servant." Not all officials are God's servants.
If there is no authority except from God, was King George God's servant following God's authority? If not, he made himself illegitimate, forfeiting authentic authority.
King George was being a "terror to good conduct" v.3. He ordered the farmer to quarter (house and feed) the king's mercenary soldier at the farmer's expense. The farmer obeyed. The soldier raped the farmer's daughter. King George sets up a kangaroo court to exonerate the mercenary. Was King George being "an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil? v.4. Hardly.
Letting the wicked go free is NOT the sign of a legitimate "ruling authority." It is the sign of a collaborator with satan. God did not put that person in charge, Satan stole that spot and put his own tyrant in.
Was King George "praising good works" v.3?" Not according the the over two-dozen complaints that our founding fathers declared against him.¹ A legitimate authority placed by God would praise those who do good, not further enslave them!
Jesus didn't submissively "obey the Pharisees." Surely they believed that they were installed by God! And Peter... He came at them with this pithy argument: “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. " 🤔 Peter probably remembered the day that Jesus said following the authority of the Pharisees could make a person twice as much a son of hell as they were! (Mt 23:15)
I tell you, God has abandoned Biden, That point of no return was crossed by him a year ago; he is a dead man walking. God will not partner with deceit, fraud, and greed.
>>Can wicked rulers be allied with you, those who frame injustice by statute? Psalm 94:20 <<
We have rulers making evil laws, calling evil good, and trying to make their laws legitimate. 😕 Do you want to try that Romans 13 excuse on Judgment Day, "But God, I was just obeying the guy YOU put in authority!" Good luck with that.

 

Q - then what is Paul talking about in Romans 13:1?

He is talking about—as Romans 13:1 says—authorities He has established. Just because someone holds an office, that does not mean GOD established them there. Currently the US has authorities set in place by fraud. God does NOT use fraud to seat leadership! God will not set satan over His earth either. Currently we have many fraudulently elected and appointed government officials who are practicing witches (and Masons who have risen to the level of performing animal sacrifices count in that category).
I am not saying that God appoints only Christians; no, that's not how it works. But scripture (MT 12:30, MK 9:40, LK 9:50) gives us a baseline qualification of not opposing God and not having a heart-motivation in rebellion against God. Even a person who does not know God personally has in innate sense of natural law. See Romans 1:18-23. God can work with a baseline respect for natural law, but He will not set in authority someone who has incurred His wrath—who "by their unrighteousness suppress the truth," Romans 1:18.
God does not establish authority that opposes Himself and pursues the devil because "a house divided cannot stand," MK 3:25. God is not suicidal.  Devils should be resisted, not served!
To simplify it: Romans 13:1 is speaking of legitimate authority established by God, not authority instituted by lies, deception, and fraud. "Let every person be subject to the valid governing authorities. For there is no authentic authority except from God, and those that exist legitimately, without fraud or avarice, have been instituted by God." 

 

Footnote

¹ the complaints against King George as listed in the Declaration of Independence

The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

 

(1776-era spelling rules)