Missed Insights about Romans 13

A Watchful Warning

(PTL, it's my 1,000th post!)

Romans 13:1–5 is often cited as ‘the final word’ on Christian obedience to civil authorities. Yet, like many other truths in Scripture, application of this passage depends on where we are in The Lord’s strategic timeline, and whether we are correctly ‘discerning the times’, or clinging to surface readings and vague understandings of this passage.

 

Paul’s teaching in Romans 13 is clear and Spirit-breathed: authority is instituted by The Lord God, ergo resistance activates prospects for His judgment. But The Bible also clearly shows us this instruction—like many others—has a contextual zone of application. It is not a Divine endorsement of corrupt regimes, nor a call to blind obedience in the face of moral collapse. When we believers apply this passage with no regard to The Bible’s contextual, prophetic signals or its various spiritual patterns, we risk misapplying it—and potentially, misleading other believers.

 

Obedience in Normal Times

In general, Romans 13 teaches us to respect legitimate governance. Laws against theft, murder, fraud, and disorder exist to restrain evil. Obeying such laws is part of honoring godly order. Most Christian teaching rightly stops there.

 

But what about in times that …aren’t normal?

 

What about moments in human history when entire societies rot from the inside out—when evil is called good, and good is punished as evil? What about moments when rulers exalt themselves above everything godly, mandate sin, and target those who quietly stand for truth—not with loud offense, but with faithful obedience?

 

These moments are not hypothetical. They are cyclical, appearing sharply during the closing of biblical ages of history—Heaven’s transitions to the subsequent age. (See: Mid-ages Musings (Series))

 

When Obedience Becomes Complicity

Scripture shows us at least three powerful examples when obedience to civil authority, would have meant betrayal of The Lord’s will, with potentially significant consequences. 

In these three examples, the righteous path contradicted the ruling authority. There are many more such examples in Biblical history. 

1. Noah in the 1st Age

The whole world had become thoroughly corrupt. Imagine what if Noah had simply ‘gone along to get along’, submitting to whatever authorities existed? Thank The Lord He didn’t have a Romans 13-type script!  Otherwise, he would not have become the only righteous person on the planet, and would have been swallowed by The Lord’s watery judgment. Instead, he remained righteous amidst the rot.

2. Jesus in the 2nd Age

Jesus resisted the religious or political leaders of His day when they acted in defiance of His Father’s will. What if He had obeyed the Pharisees’ demand to preach only what Moses had written, and stick to the Mosaic tradition; or had defended Himself after Pilate rebuked Him for being silent? Recall, He only did what He ‘saw and heard’ what His Father was doing and saying. 

 

3. Revelation’s Angel in the 4th  (Tribulation) Age

In Revelation 14, an angel warns the entire world not to obey the anti-Christ regime (‘the beast’) or receive his mark—even though he will clearly be the ruling authority of that time. Disobeying that government’s ‘receive my mark, or else!’ order, is required to avoid the same fate others who will obey, will receive--namely eternal damnation in The Lord’s brimstone-lit lake of fire.

Discern the Times

Paul’s instruction in Romans 13 is not invalid. It is contextually bound. When authorities are functioning within Heaven’s general order of affairs, The Lord expects His bona fide believers to obey. But, when authorities become tools of lawlessness against what Heaven deems as righteous, then our submission becomes dangerous—with potentially negative, eternal consequences! Selah~

That’s why mature, spiritual discernment is critical as this this current (3rd) age of human history draws to its predicted close. The predicted precursors of its closing continue to mount: widespread moral inversion/perversion, deepening global lawlessness, corruption and manipulation of facts and truths, normalization of rebellion, etc. Ignoring this context, and ‘rote-like obedience’ to any godless authority is not faithfulness to Romans 13. It’s spiritual blindness and deafness—the fruits of child-like faith.

A Word of Caution

Mind you, this warning is not a license for personal rebellion or political anarchy. Scripture never endorses disobedience rooted in ego, offense, or personal convenience. Rather, my warning is an encouragement to:

     a) Study and learn Heaven’s general, strategic timeline, then discern our likely point within it,

     b) Study and learn what it deems as ‘righteous’, and

     c) Pray and prepare your lifestyle to respond to how The Holy Spirit personally leads you.

The topical series, Mid-ages Musings, posits and explores an apparent, iterative age-ending/transition pattern. Heads-up!~ All signals are that the world is deeply into this pattern that culminated in global judgments at the end of the first 2 ages of history.    

Final Thought

As we continue to study the Text of The Word, let’s learn to discern the ebbing/flowing Timing of The Word. I am learning how the text strategically signals to us who are attentive, various iterative patterns, interspersed with shocking reversal patterns. I intuit the latter may be how The Lord alerts His bona fide saints to increase our watchfulness.

Ponder this:

Who, pray tell, would benefit if

The Lord’s saints blindly apply

Paul’s admonitions in Romans 13:1-5,

as Heaven, itself, is preparing …to judge the nations??