Tim Dunkin
February 11, 2016
What do you do when the government loses its legitimacy?
By Tim Dunkin

Last month, Americans were treated to the spectacle of our own government executing an American citizen without due process on the side of a public highway in Oregon. There is really no other accurate description to describe the extra-judicial murder of Lavoy Finnicum by agents of the Oregon Highway Patrol, at the behest of the FBI.

To begin with, we should understand that pretty much everything the average person heard from the mainstream media about the Malheur refuge "occupation" is wrong. The media loved to describe the events in Oregon as an "armed takeover of a federal building." That way, your average viewer living "back East somewhere" got the impression that these were heavily armed paramilitaries with machine guns and rockets taking over a courthouse or something. Actually, the "federal building" in question was a forest station, and was unoccupied at the time the Bundy group came in. Some reports I've seen suggest that it was even left unlocked so that anyone who got lost in the wilderness and found the station could get in and take shelter from the elements. To the extent that they were armed, it was with pistols – indeed, when a more serious militia group armed with rifles came to join them, they were asked to leave. The Bundy group regularly gave interviews to the media and often met with various police agencies. If this was an anarchic armed standoff, it must have been the most benevolent and lackadaisical one in history.

So it was with the chain of events that led to Finnicum's murder at the hands of the police. Most news reports stated that he "went for a gun," and was shot by police acting in self-defense. Seeing the video, this is patently ridiculous, as is the claim that a man who had his hands up and was being covered by half a dozen armed officers training their weapons on him was going to "go for his gun" like it was some kind of Wild West showdown at high noon on the streets of Dodge. No – Lavoy Finnicum was shot by police looking to make a statement – displease the government, and you'll end up dead. What we saw that day from the OSP and the FBI was a politically motivated assassination, in essence an act of terrorism by the actual definition of that word.

Finnicum's death fits into a larger, overarching trend that we have been seeing both with the U.S. federal government and with other governments, especially those in Europe. This trend is marked not just by a continual failure to protect and defend the citizens of their respective nations, but by outright efforts to endanger and harm their citizens.

Think about it for a minute. How else could you describe governments in Europe that import hundreds of thousands (or, in the case of Germany, millions) of criminal, barbaric military-aged male "refugees" from the Muslim world, who essentially turn these "refugees" loose on their own native populations, and then attempt to punish their own native citizens when they fight back, or even speak out about it? In Germany the government is cracking down...on people who criticize the "refugees" on social media. In Denmark, a girl who used pepper spray to fight off some Muslims who attempted to rape her is being prosecuted by her own government. In England, Parliament is more interested in banning Donald Trump because he said things about Muslims that they didn't like than they are about protecting their own citizens from KNOWN sex trafficking in English cities by Muslim immigrants and "refugees."

It's not just that these governments aren't getting on the ball – it's that these governments are purposefully targeting their own people while defending and abetting hostile foreign invaders.

Here in America, we've also seen a government that not only refuses to protect its own people, but which has been doing positive harm to them, and then blaming them for the harm that has been done. What else could we say for a President who consistently sides with Islamofascist terrorists who have openly stated that they want to commit terrorist attacks in our country? A government which gives a terrorist-supporting regime like Iran billions of dollars in aid, as well as free rein to develop their own atomic bomb? A government which has sent weapons to ISIS and other radical terrorist organizations, and has helped to destabilize the Middle East so as to create a fake "refugee crisis" to give cover for moving Islamic terrorists into Europe and the USA?

At the same time on the domestic front, this government has provided aid and comfort to homegrown terrorist organizations like Black Lives Matter and the New Black Panthers. This government shoots down a protestor in Oregon who was engaging in non-violent civil disobedience, while throwing open the gates for hoodlums to riot in our cities and destroy millions of dollars in property.

Of course, the US government for decades has consistently and blatantly ignored the Constitution from which it derives its authority. Pres__ent Obama routinely tries to find ways around that pesky 2nd amendment so that he can disarm and enslave the American people. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has been waging an unrelenting war on American ranchers and farmers all across our western states. The government refuses to do anything serious about the massive influx of illegal immigrants who are destroying out wage scale, committing more than their "fair share" of crimes, and who are reintroducing all kinds of diseases that we thought had been eliminated from the United States years ago. The federal government is adamant about forcing states to take in criminal, hostile Islamic "refugees" so that they can cause (and in fact already are) the same trouble here that they have been in Europe. Thousands of Americans have been fined or imprisoned for petty crimes that they did not even know were on the books, specifically because the government makes the US code so obtuse and convoluted that no average citizen could ever hope to navigate their way through it so as to avoid committing their three felonies a day. On and on and on it goes.

It's time to face the fact that the American federal government is no longer a legitimate government. It no longer has any moral authority to govern the American people. Frankly, the only reason I can think of to obey this government is the fact that if you don't, it will send agents to shoot you in the head. The power of raw violence is the only remaining prop for the federal government, as it no longer has any moral or ethical authority derived from either fidelity to the Constitution or from the power of reason and persuasion. Certainly, however, this government does not deserve, nor should it get, the obedience of decent American citizens beyond what we're simply forced to give by the threat of official, state-sanctioned violence against us.

Now, I'm sure that there are many professing Christians who are absolutely appalled at what I just said. They would cite biblical passages such as Romans 13:1-7 to argue that Christians should always obey the government, no matter what.

Of course, the Bible provides enough examples of godly resistance to wicked government actions or commandments to disprove that simplistic understanding of Romans 13. We see the Hebrew midwives defying Pharaoh's command to murder the male children born to the Israelites. Then there is Moses' parents' refusal to murder their own son. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to obey the king's command to worship his idol, and Daniel refused to obey the decree that forbade praying to the God of Israel. Peter and John told the religious rulers to their faces that they would not obey the command to cease preaching in the name of Jesus, and Peter and the other apostles later told these same leaders that they would obey God rather than men. So clearly, there is no biblical justification whatsoever for demanding that Christians obey every command and ordinance of any and every government.

Still, some might argue, Romans 13 and other passages would still command Christians to obey the government in anything where there is not a direct conflict between Scripture and secular governmental decrees. But is this really what Romans 13 is saying? On the face of it, the "always obey" position appears to have strong support from verses 1 and 2,

"Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation."

That seems pretty straightforward, right? You obey the higher power (government) because all governments are ordained by God and to resist them is to condemn yourself because you are actually resisting God Himself. But wait a second. How about we look further down in the same passage, to get a little context for these two verses,

"For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil." (Romans 13:3-4)

Interesting, eh? The reason we obey the government is because "rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil" and the government praises the good while blaming the evil, and because the ministers of God (government officials) execute wrath upon them who do evil, while doing good to those who themselves do good.

Does that sound like our government today? I didn't think so, either.

Fundamentally, those who take the "Romans 13 commands us to always obey the government" position take the first two verses completely out of context to teach a questionable doctrine that ignores what the rest of the passage, and the rest of Scripture, teach about government. What we see in verses 3-4 is a picture of what God intends government to be, ideally speaking. In a sense, God is there giving a definition of what government should be, and the type of government that God's people are to willingly give their obedience to. Further, verses 1-2 are talking about government in general. They're saying that Christians should be subject to the principle of government, because government was instituted among men for the good of man and the discouragement of evil. "The higher power" is singular, not plural – it's talking about the God-ordained principle of government, not any particular government, no matter how terrible. Christians are not to be anarchists, not to be rebels against all government and all authority. Christians are not to be perpetual revolutionaries, always seeking the overthrow of the established order.

What IS the purpose of government? Government was instituted after the Flood so as to govern the nations that would arise and to prevent the resurgence of the violence and wickedness that had existed in the world before the Flood, and which were the proximate causes for why God destroyed the antediluvian world in the first place. Government, in essence, was instituted by God so that man could live together in relative peace and without perpetual violence. We see this in Genesis 9:5-6, where the principle of government was first laid out,

"And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man.Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man."

In essence, if you murder someone else, then your blood will be shed – not by a private individual in revenge, but in an orderly and God-ordained fashion. This, in a nutshell, lays out the purpose of government – to keep order and to promote the good while discouraging the evil. Every other law which was later to be codified by God in His Law – don't steal, don't kill, don't lie and defraud, and all the rest – are bound up in this primeval ordinance.

So this is what God intends government to be. This is reflected in Romans 13:3-4 – government officials should be doing good, discouraging evil, punishing the wicked, rewarding the right.

This is further reflected in many of the passages in the Old Testament wisdom literature that talk about government and "the king,"

"A divine sentence is in the lips of the king: his mouth transgresseth not in judgment." (Proverbs 16:10)

"He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend." (Proverbs 22:11)

"Take away the wicked from before the king, and his throne shall be established in righteousness." (Proverbs 25:5)

"The king by judgment establisheth the land: but he that receiveth gifts overthroweth it." (Proverbs 29:4)

"The king that faithfully judgeth the poor, his throne shall be established for ever." (Proverbs 29:14)

"Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning! Blessed art thou, O land, when thy king is the son of nobles, and thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!" (Ecclesiastes 10:16-17)

As we can see, these present a rather idealized picture of government and rulers. In a sense, they depict what the rulership of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself shall be like during the millennial reign – He will rule and judge perfectly, with no error, bias, or wickedness.

So what does all this mean for us today? Does it mean that we should always obey all government whatsoever? Does it mean we should reject ANY government that doesn't conform strictly to the idealized picture of government presented in Scripture? The answer to both of these questions is, "No."

It all goes back to the purpose and intention of government, as indicated at the beginning in Genesis 9 and as developed more fully in Romans 13. Government, as a principle, exists to keep order, to restrain evil, and to protect the citizens under a government from harm and danger, both internally (such as from criminals) and externally (from foreign enemies).

Now we must understand that any earthly government is going to be made up of sinful men who will always fail in some areas, no matter how good their education, no matter how noble their principles, and no matter how firm their temperance and self-control. Because of this, we cannot expect to see the perfection ideally depicted of the king in the Scriptures. To reject ANY government where the leaders made any sort of error or demonstrated any sort of flaw would be to reject ALL government, essentially rejecting the principle itself in practice and running afoul of the Scripture.

As such we must, by necessity, accept that every government will fail in some areas, will transgress some boundaries, even though in most cases they will uphold the fundamental principle of God-ordained government. As such, we should not be quick to reject and throw off any and all government. Even government that is not consensual, not republican, and not democratic in its institutions can still be generally good government that follows the principles of government established by God. A Persian empire under Cyrus and a Roman Empire under Caesar Augustus, while both autocratic, kept order and generally praised the good while punishing the wicked. Cyrus and Caesar Augustus were not anywhere at all the same as Adolf Hitler or Josef Stalin. Even when a government makes many mistakes and causes some harm, it is not to be lightly overthrown. Our Founders recognized this fact in the very instrument they used to throw off the British government and institute their own, the Declaration of Independence,

"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

At what point does a government lose its legitimacy, then? It is when the government reaches the point where it ceases to generally fulfill the role that God ordained for government, and instead begins to actively do the opposite. When the government purposefully and systematically harms its citizens, rather than doing them good, or even being benignly neglectful, then it has lost its legitimacy. It is no longer what God defines in His Word as a government. When the government helps the enemies of its people and aids these enemies in harming its own people – it has lost legitimacy. When the government systematically oppresses its people, doing them harm, punishing the good, while promoting and lauding the wicked and the evil – it has lost its legitimacy.

This is the point which we have reached with the current federal government today, as I detailed above. It punishes those who do right. It promotes and excels those who do evil. It aids our enemies against its own people. It refuses to protect us against those enemies, and seeks to restrain us from protecting ourselves against them. It systematically ignores the very foundational law under which it is instituted and which it is beholden to obey. In every area, the federal government today acts diametrically the opposite of how legitimate government is supposed to act.

So what do we do about this state of affairs? Well, the answer lies also in the Declaration,

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, – That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

Will the issue come to armed revolution? I do not know. We can always hope and pray that it does not, for there are other ways which we must first try to abolish the corrupt and institute the new. We must resist the evil with all our power, being ready to commit acts of civil disobedience if we must. We must oppose its efforts to violate our rights even further, ignoring its gun laws, resisting the seizure of property and liberty. We must pressure our state governments to reassert their constitutional rights through nullification and interposition. We must work steadfastly to inculcate in the educable portion of our population a renewed love for liberty and a reinvigorated understanding of their civic and patriotic duties as American citizens. One or two elections or politicians are not going to solve our problems. Instead, we must look to God and yield ourselves willing to stand in the gap for liberty no matter the cost.

© Tim Dunkin

 

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Tim Dunkin

Tim Dunkin is a pharmaceutical chemist by day, and a freelance author by night, writing about a wide range of topics on religion and politics. He is the author of an online book about Islam entitled Ten Myths About Islam. He is a born-again Christian, and a member of a local, New Testament Baptist church in North Carolina. Follow him on Twitter at @tqcincinnatus and check out his occasional blogging at Meditate in Thy Precepts. He can be contacted at tqcincinnatus@yahoo.com. All emails may be monitored by the NSA for quality assurance purposes.

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