Oddbean new post about | logout
 obey human authority is one of the most repeated commands in the bible.  and not just cxn authorities.  dudes with much more skin in the game fleshed our this area of christian philosophy long ago. do some reading and stop being a self centered coward.  
 *sighs*
Where? 
Who? 
I am a self-centered coward. That doesn't mean you aren't mistaken and that I can't be correct about this.  
 I'm not usually this generous, but let it be known that this morning I am in a good mood. Here are just a few:
Where?
Exodus 22:28
Proverbs 24:21
Deuteronomy 17:12
Ecclesiastes 8:2-4
Matthew 22:21
Luke 20:25
Acts 23:5
Ephesians 6:5-8
Colossians 3:22-25
Philemon 1:15-16
Romans 13:1-7
1 Timothy 2:1-2
Titus 3:1
"Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work."
1 Peter 2:13-17
"Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake"
Hebrews 13:17

Who?
John Chrysostom, Homilies on Romans and Homilies on Matthew
Augustine of Hippo, City of God
Martin Luther, Temporal Authority: To What Extent It Should Be Obeyed?
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Book 4, Chapter 20)
Richard Hooker, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity
Samuel Rutherford, Lex, Rex
Jonathan Edwards, A Divine and Supernatural Light (sermon)
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ethics and Letters and Papers from Prison
Francis Schaeffer, A Christian Manifesto
Nikolai Berdyaev, The Realm of Spirit and the Realm of Caesar
John Knox, The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women
John Milton, The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates
Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), (Chapter 23: Of the Civil Magistrate)
Martin Niemöller, sermons and letters

The proper role of the magistrate, and for that matter resistanceto tyrrany and principled disobedience, is meaningless once you remove the real authority of said magistrate.

You want to be your own little god who doesn't have to be inconvenienced by another human interfering with your plans. It's a poorly informed worldview.  Eat some meat. 
 yes the verses are without context and must be read and interpreted in context

read ezra and nehemiah.  recognize that they, and daniel, served one of the most brutal series of tyrant kings the world has seen.  and were commended for it. 
 Oh, that's right. You don't read your Bible. You just lambaste the world with opinions that you picked up from an online source that made you feel good about yourself. 
 This... It's going to take a while. 

I haven't read any of those sources. I don't consider some of them worth bothering with, others are already in my list. I don't really care about much reading by people that's not directly exposition if the Bible. 

As for the biblical references, I'll have to go through those. Thank you for the list. This will take a while to respond to. 

Exodus 22:28
Cursing a ruler is not the same as disobeying evil.  
 haven't read any of them?  further proving your self-worship and mental masturbation to the sound of your own voice. 

guess you've got your work cut out but 100% positive you'll find an excuse not to read any of this. especially as you've already written some of them off ha ha ha 

also check out volume 1 of god and government by gary de mar.  pretty contriversial stuff but tons and tons of direct exposition of the scriptures  
 your opinion stems from your self worship.  
bible doesn't let you be the center of anything.
so it definitely means that you're totally mistaken.
you're supposed to die for the ones you love/serve. left handed victory etc. submit. and find true freedom.

we all die.  desperately grasping at power for the sake of self worth is a pathetic way to go out. 
 I don't worship myself, though I am certainly selfish and stubborn. 

As for the rest of what you said, yeah. That's pretty obvious.  
 i know it's obvious...that's why i spelled it out for you after you claimed it wasn't.

dealing with non-thinkers is tiresome.  blocking you.