Thesis 46: Romans 8:28 and The State

All things -- even evil things -- work together to serve God’s purposes[1] because evil is predestined and dispatched by God.[2] Often the evil things which God sends are the armies of depraved empires.[3] Evil is carried out according to God’s sovereign plan by statist politicians, generals, and others, who think they are exercising their “free will.”[4] Sometimes the evil God causes an empire to do makes the State its own worst enemy.[5] (Some would prefer to believe that God does not “predestine” evil, but that it “just happens.”[6] Such Arminians [and other politicians] receive God’s judgment.[7]) As pacifists (#79, #80, #81), Christians are not to resist the evil State with violence, but are to “submit” to it.[8] But this fact (that we are to “submit” to the State, the evil acts of evil politicians) does not mean that they have a morally legitimate existence, even though we recognize that they were “ordained” (predestined) by God.[9] God often sends angels to carry out evil acts, or to prompt human beings to do evil.[10] These angels or demons are often called “powers.”[11] Providence, Pacifism, and the Powers: this is the context in which we must understand that much-abused passage, Romans 13:1-7.


Notes

1. Romans 8:28.

2. Deuteronomy 31:29; Joshua 23:15; 1 Kings 14:9-10; 21:29; 2 Kings 21:12; 22:16,20; Nehemiah 13:18; Numbers 14:35; Deuteronomy 29:21; 30:15; Judges 2:15; Job 2:10; 42:11; Psalm 54:5; Isaiah 45:7; Jeremiah 6:19; 11:11; 18:11; 19:3,15; 23:12; 25:32; 32:42; 35:17; 36:3,31; 39:16; 44:2; 51:64; 42:6; 26:3; 26:13; Lamentations 3:38; Ezekiel 7:3-5; Daniel 9:12:14; Amos 3:6; Micah 1:12; 2:3; 2 Samuel 17:14.

3. Leviticus 26:25; Judges 3:12; 2 Samuel 7:14; 12:11; 1 Kings 5:4; 9:9; 2 Kings 19:7; 2 Chronicles 20:9; Proverbs 16:4; 1 Chronicles 5:26; Jeremiah 4:6; 9:16; 21:10; 24:10; 25:27,29; 29:17; 42:17; 44:27; 49:37; Ezekiel 5:17; 14:21; 28:23; 29:19-20; Jeremiah 49:37; Amos 9:4; [the “sword”].

4. Genesis 50:20; 2 Samuel 17:14; Isaiah 10:5-7; Micah 4:11-13; Acts 2:23; 4:24-29; 13:27-28; Revelation 17:17.

5. Exodus 14:4; Deuteronomy 2:30; 1 Kings 12:15; Daniel 11:27.

6. 1 Samuel 6:9.

7. Zephaniah 1:12.

8. Matthew 5:39,41; Jeremiah 29:7; 27:12; 38:17-18; Romans 12:14,18 - 13:4; 1 Peter 2:11-24.

9. Isaiah 10:12; Jeremiah 30:16; Matthew 26:52.

10. 2 Samuel 24:16; Psalm 78:49; Judges 9:23-24; 1 Samuel 16:14-16; Luke 4:5-7.

11. Ephesians 6:12; Colossians 2:15; 1 Corinthians 15:24; Ephesians 2:2; 1:19-21.


References
• God Sends EVIL !
• A Biblical Defense of Pacifism - "Pacifism" is obedience to God's Commands, "Thou shalt not kill," and "Thou shalt not steal."
• TOTAL Predestination!