“Logical consequences are the scarecrows of fools and the beacons of wise men,” Thomas Henry Huxley.According to the Christian History Institute, many southern Christians felt that slavery, in one Baptist minister’s words, “stands as an institution of God.”While these southern Christians quoted Bible verses to defend and justify slavery, they completely neglected the context and proper application of these Bible verses.There are 2 kinds of slavery.The first type of slavery was a result of forced kidnapping and captivity. You won’t find any support in the Bible for this.The second type of slavery is when a person borrows so much they cannot repay the debt, and is then placed into slavery — or servitude — of the person they owed the money to until the debt is paid.Under Jewish law, no one was allowed to keep a slave due to unpaid debt for more than 6 years.It is astounding to me how many conversations I have had over the past 30 years where people said, “Well, it’s in the Bible!”.Sure. Slavery is in the Bible. Rape is also in the Bible. Murder is also in the Bible. The 10 Commandments strictly forbid those horrific evils, and they are punishable by death.So before the Civil War, there were thousands of leaders willing to go to war and use the Bible to justify the eventual deaths of approximately 620,000 soldiers.Logical consequences of twisting Bible verses for personal agendas.The Bible explains this deception well in Ecclesiastes 10:13: “Since fools base their thoughts on foolish premises, their conclusions will be wicked madness.”Speaking of wicked madness.During COVID-19, pastors assured, persuaded, or told millions of churchgoers that Romans 13:1 demanded that they submit to the tyrannical mandates and experimental mRNA injections — despite Charter Laws that said otherwise!Let’s look closely:1. Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. 3. For the authorities do not strike fear in people who are doing right, but in those who are doing wrong. Would you like to live without fear of the authorities? Do what is right, and they will honour you. 4. The authorities are God’s servants, sent for your good. But if you are doing wrong, of course you should be afraid, for they have the power to punish you. They are God’s servants, sent for the very purpose of punishing those who do what is wrong..Notice verse 3: “The authorities do not strike fear in people who do right, but those who do wrong.”When a parent tells their child that sex is binary and they cannot change their gender, the parent is doing what is right and under God’s authority. When government representatives of any kind, including teachers, bureaucrats, or judges, tell a child that gender is fluid and they can change their sex/gender, the government is not doing what is right, and they do not have God’s jurisdiction or authority! Notice verse 4: “The authorities are God’s servants sent for your good.”Again, I should not have to ask this, but I have heard these abominable arguments so many times that I am compelled to ask this question. Is it good when government officials lie to children and tell them they can change their sex/gender? Of course not!God says that the authorities are sent by Him for the good of the people! Not to lie to them!How many places in the Bible record civil disobedience?.Let’s start with one of the most famous examples in history.In the book of Matthew, chapter 2, we read about the three Wise Men. They came before King Herod and asked where Jesus was.Herod did not know, so he instructed the Wise Men to show him where Jesus was when they found him.Now this is the part of the story that could have taken a very dark turn.You see, at this point in the story, thousands of pastors across this country likely would have pulled out their pocket New Testament and argued, “Romans 13:1 says we must obey the government. We need to go back right now and tell King Herod where the Baby Jesus is.”Congratulations. They just engineered the murder of the Messiah and doomed all of humanity to eternity separated from God.But that is not what happened.The Wise Men did not have a pocket New Testament.The Wise Men had a dream, and in the dream, they were warned not to go back to King Herod and “obey the government.”How many pastors will repent of teaching Romans 13:1 incorrectly?The fate of our nation may hinge on it.
