Romans 13
Disengagement

From the Benefits of the "world"

Lynne inquired concerning Romans 13 and "Clergy Response Teams":

“I've spent a couple of days reading your material. I have a question I'm hoping someone can answer. As far as I can tell, you're saying a Christian should disengage from any political system other than God's kingdom and dwell instead in the Kingdom of Heaven. Disengagement includes taking no benefit from the political system one has left. I don't think that is possible... I can't help but benefit. So how do you avoid benefiting in any way from a government? Thanks for freely sharing your faith on a great website!”

Dear Lynne et al,

We have no authority to compel anyone to engage or disengage in anything unless they are engaged in a crime.

Our intent is to share information, understanding, and knowledge with the people, because the truth is what sets people free. That was the business of Christ, Moses, and Abraham, and should be the business of those who say they serve God. People must choose how they shall act upon that knowledge we share.

Romans 13 is clearly about the individual “right to choose” and how any one or any thing that opposes liberty opposes God. Going under the rule or dominion of others diminishes our access to our God-given rights, and eventually punishes us for rejecting God as foretold in 1^st Samuel 8:7.¹

How do we go under the authority of others?

The problem concerning accepting benefits does not lie in the fact that we incidentally might benefit from our neighbor's presence. My neighbor's home might be safer from prowlers because he has a big dog that barks at strangers. My home might be safer because I live next door, but that does not mean I'm obligated to feed his dog.

The problem concerning benefits is the means and source that is used to provide those benefits, and our unrestricted appetite in participating in social schemes that limits the choices and the liberty granted by God. If we take away the individual's liberties and choices of neighbors, then our own liberty shall be equally diminished. The Bible, as a guide to free government under God, states this precept over and over.²

“For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” Matthew 7:2

If we apply to benefactors who exercise authority so that they may provide our individual welfare by compelling our neighbor's contributions, then we are coveting our neighbor's goods through the agency of governments we create by our application and participation.

We must not forget that application is a form of prayer, and to pray to governments of the world for benefits that are extracted at the expense of our neighbor is to disregard the foundational Laws given to men by God, including the right of freewill offerings.

“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house... nor any thing that [is] thy neighbour’s.” Exodus 20:17

While it is a God-given right and responsibility to provide for the welfare of our neighbor with genuine needs, it also a right and responsibility to exercise the freedom of choice as to how and when to contribute. All governments acting as the benefactor of the people and “exercise(ing) authority upon them,” to provide benefits for the welfare of the people, are doing contrary to the ways of God and the directives of Christ.

“And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so:” Luke 22:25

To apply for and make agreements with the authoritarian institutions, in exchange for personal welfare, is a form of making an agreement or covenant that subjects us to the will of those ruling benefactors.

To eat from those civic table shall and has produced the divine consequences spoken of in both Old and New Testaments. “Let their table become a snare before them: and [that which should have been] for [their] welfare, [let it become] a trap.” Psalms 69:22

Paul repeats the same warning of David in Romans:

"And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompense unto them:" Romans 11:9

Peter corroborates Paul statement in his warning found in 2 Peter:

"And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not." 2 Peter 2:3

People in almost every nation have been reduced to little more than human resources, or, as Peter's words are translated, they are little more than merchandise. This has come about in our present day because we have been snared into systems of surety and debt.

We have become snared in the modern bondage of Egypt. In Egypt, the gold and silver was kept in a central treasury, the people were compelled to contribute 20% of everything they produced to the government, and were said to be in bondage. The people were the human resources of the government of Egypt.

This political pattern has repeated itself over and over again throughout man's history. Abraham, Moses, and Jesus taught about a Godly government that would free men from such bondage, but modern Churches, taking the name of God and the prophets in vain, have delivered people back into that same bondage by preaching a gospel that falls short of the truth given us by the liberators of mankind, Jesus the Christ.

The modern interpretations and versions of what Abraham, Moses, and Jesus were teaching and doing are misleading to say the least, but the avarice of the ministers and apathy of the people keep the world in bondage.

"The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: but the slothful shall be under tribute." Proverbs 12:24.

The Church should not only be teaching the truth that sets men free, but it should be providing a government that operates by faith, hope, and charity under the perfect law of liberty, so that the people can learn to survive and even prosper without the “benefactors” who “exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them.” Such systems are what Christ called the unrighteous mammon, which will fail. As we see that failure coming, we should not adopt the unrighteous ways of those benefactors of the world governments that exercise authority and make slaves of men.

We should be seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness. If we do that with our whole heart, mind, and soul, we “can't help but benefit.”

The purpose of the books published by the Church are those of Christ. They are to share with you a witness of the Kingdom of God and how His righteousness can work for you today. It also shows how the early Christians were able to provide for themselves as the unrighteous mammon of Rome declined and fell.