The Bible and Civil Disobedience
Should Christians disobey the government? And if so, how should they go about it? Those are big questions and not so straightforward to answer. Some would say the Bible always states submission to the governing authorities. Others suggest that the Bible gives many examples of people disobeying the government.
For example, I saw this posted on social media the other day:
The above suggests that Christians have a Biblical right to civil disobedience. When you dig a little deeper, however, the examples and the application are both misleading.
So let’s take a look at each one they raised, and see if it is a good parallel for civil disobedience, especially in light of what’s going on today.
1. Moses disobeying Pharaoh.
In my opinion, this is the only one on the list that remotely comes close to being an example of disobedience to the government. But even here, it is a little confusing and misleading. Exactly how did Moses disobey Pharaoh? If you read Scripture, he actually didn’t “disobey” or break any laws in approaching Pharaoh or calling him to let the people go. (The one time he disobeyed was years earlier when he murdered an Egyptian and then fled for his life into exile—not exactly a pattern of behavior that Christians should copy!)
Later, in response to God’s command, Moses approached Pharaoh and had a meeting with him, calling him to let the people go.
There was no disobedience to Pharaoh there. In fact, Moses did not lead the people out of Egypt until Pharaoh gave explicit permission. Also note that it was not the Hebrew people that were protesting or causing Pharaoh to change his mind—it was the miraculous power of God. It wasn’t the Israelites who were turning the water to blood, or putting frogs in Pharaoh’s palace. The people had no power to protest. They were, indeed, suffering under heavy mandates—mandates that it would be silly to compare vaccine and mask mandates to. They basically lived in a concentration camp, forced labor seven days a week, required to kill their own sons. So, no, not a great parallel to wearing a mask.
To conclude – yes, Moses went to the government (Pharaoh) to oppose his treatment of the Hebrew people. But he actually went through the proper channels, and he kept at it until he had permission to leave. So, in regards to the post above, the statement that Moses disobeyed Pharaoh is incorrect. He went to Pharaoh, met with him, and challenged him—but did not instigate the Israelites to civil disobedience, protest, or name-calling. Even though they had literally been slaves for hundreds of years (not days or months…years!)
2. Esther disobeying Persian Law
This is not a great parallel to opposing governments today or opposing the vaccine mandate. First of all, Esther was the King’s wife. (So, if you want an example of a first lady taking up an argument with her husband, this might be a good example!) In fact, the King’s previous wife actually did disobey—and was given the boot. Moreover, Esther did not set up a protest, shout insulting things to the King, or cause social unrest. Rather, she went through the proper channels (much like Moses did), going directly to the King. She then butters him up, so to speak, blessing him with a banquet (a good meal does wonders!), then spoke calmly, and informed the king that her own physical life was in danger.
The only area of “disobedience” was that it was against the law for someone to approach the king without being sent for. But again, since she was his wife, and this was a one-on-one meeting, I don’t think it correlates to what is going on today. Perhaps it would be akin to going unannounced to the White House and asking for a meeting with the President – something not usually done. At any rate, she went and was given the green light. Furthermore, let’s remember the context: similar to the situation in Egypt the people of Israel were once again at the mercy of a genocidal mandate where they were all going to be brutally killed and wiped out. (Again, not at all comparable to mask or vaccine mandates).
Note that Esther does not protest—instead, she prays. She fasts. And she calls the people of God to fast and pray with her. She recognizes that she might be rejected and that she desperately needs the mighty hand of God to work on her behalf and move the King’s heart.
A proper parallel would involve prayer rather than protest, fasting rather than disrupting, blessing instead of bombarding. Esther’s situation is very different than what is going on today and not a good parallel to national protests over a vaccine.
3. Jesus disobeying the Pharisees
Did Jesus disobey the Pharisees? The short answer would be yes—he healed on the Sabbath when they taught it was not allowed. Does this parallel disobeying the government? No, I would argue it does not, because the Pharisees were not the government (Rome and the Tetrarchs were in charge of that). The Pharisees were the religious leaders. So perhaps a more adequate parallel would be if a religious leader (your Pastor / Bishop / Superintendent, etc) were to set up church rules that would add to or take away from Scripture, then this could be a precedent for sticking to Scripture rather than their man-made rules.
Once again, this should not be confused with mass protests against governments today. (For more on what Jesus actually said regarding the government mandates, see my earlier post).
4. Peter disobeying the Sanhedrin
This is similar to the last one – Peter disobeyed the religious leaders (technically not the government), who had told the disciples not to speak of Jesus. Peter was not rude, did not set up a camp, or call thousands of protesters to join him. He simply said he would not stop talking of Jesus, which, as I noted in that earlier post, is one of those areas where Scripture does allow you to disobey the authorities (but even then, you should be wise about it!) It certainly does not give you the right to be belligerent or to act in an ungodly way, to call them names, or to disobey other government rules.
5. Paul disobeying the Emperor of Rome
This last one is confusing in that it is hard to understand the point of the author. What are they referring to? Paul never disobeyed the Emperor of Rome. I’m guessing that they might be referring to when Paul used his rights as a citizen not to be beaten publicly (Acts 22:25). However, I would argue that, once again, it does not parallel Christians disobeying the government today. In that instance, Paul did not disobey anyone – he merely informed them of his rights as a citizen to not be beaten without a trial. In fact, he could have mentioned it earlier in order to be released sooner, but did not, choosing instead to use the opportunity to witness to the crowds that had gathered.
Throughout Acts we see Paul being courteous to government officials and obeying them, even if it meant wallowing in jail (which happened on multiple occasions – sometimes for years). He did not call them names, stir up opposition, or even always demand his rights to be released.
Or perhaps the person in the social media post above was referring to Paul (and others) saying “Jesus is Lord” (in direct contradiction to the Roman claim that Caesar was Lord. See, for example, Acts 17:7). Yet, even though Paul submitted to Jesus as his ultimate Lord, he still advocated submitting to local governments – the two don’t necessarily have to contradict. Neither Paul (Romans 13), nor Peter (1 Peter 2), used the truth that Jesus is Lord to take away from the believer’s civic duty to submit to local governments.
Conclusion
So after going through each of those examples what do we find? None of those Biblical references in that social media post give Christians a reason to disobey the government.
Rather, those Biblical stories reveal the following:
– We find evidence of going through the proper channels (directly to the government leadership with your issues).
– We find evidence of speaking nicely to them, even when you disagree.
– We find evidence that if your religious leadership / denomination tells you to do something not in Scripture that you might have a reason to disobey those religious leaders.
– We find evidence that, while recognizing Jesus’ ultimate Lordship, we still are called to submit to earthly governments.
To summarize, the Bible does not allow a believer to claim Scriptural backing for arbitrary disobedience, rebellion, or anarchy. And it likewise does not grant permission for believers to go around slandering their leadership or saying “F* the leader” (as has been happening in recent days, unfortunately). In fact, Jesus, Peter, and Paul, all advocated obedience to government authorities (again, see my earlier post on mandates). And they gave us a further mandate to follow: to pray for our leaders and to live peaceful, godly lives (Matt. 5:44; 1 Tim. 2:1-2; 1 Pet. 2:12; 3:9-16).
Having said that, is there ever a time to protest or to get involved in civil disobedience? Let’s look at that in the next post…