1995 Issue 9 - That the Living May Know: Civil Disobedience in the Book of Daniel Part 2 - Counsel of Chalcedon
3
art wo Biblical Principles for Civil Disobedience ·It is this statement in Acts ~ : 2 9 We ought to . obey Cjod rather than '· men," which lays down the principles for biblical civil disobed ience. A Christian's duty to obey Cjod is greater than his duty to obey the government; when the government requires Christians to sin and go , against Cjod'sLaw, it is the Christian's duty to disobey. If Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego had bowed before Nebuchad-nezzar'simage, it would hav e been id ola by. The Hebrew midwives would have bee n guilty of murder ifthey had obeyed the king i Egypt. Like wise , if Daniel in Daniel 6, . . and Peter in Acts 5 had not disobeyed, they would be transgressors of Cjod's Law. When the civil . government commands the Christian to sin, disobedience is required by Cjod.Christians must remember first of all that however ungodly a government ma y be , Cjod in His providence, ordained it to rule. Daniel 4:17 reminds the Christian that "the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men." Proverbs 21:1 says, 'The king's heart is in the han d of th e LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it MishaeL and Azariah to whithersoever he will: Shadrach, Meshach, and In fact, many of the Abed-nego. The renaming of a govemments in SCripture were person shows . authority and ungodly and oppressive. ownership, as when Ciod Throughout histoTy, the Isr ael ite s ch an ge d' Abram" to "Abraham" were governed by many pagan (Cjen. 17). The Babylonian nation s. TheJ ews were ensl ave d government . was claiming , this tinder the wicked, hard-hearted authority when it renamed the pharaohs of Egypt. Cjod's people JeWish captives. ' In addition, were captives under the pagan \ ma ny of the name changes, suc h nation of Babylo n. Th e ungodly , s "Daniel' to BelteshazzllT, " , . showed pagan deity The Babylonian state was claiming sovereignty over Cjod. In Daniel 1, the king of Babylon had required the Jews to eat his meat and drink his wine. Verse 8 teaches that this would have been a defilement to the RomanEmpiregre aUypersecuted Jews . Instead of immedi ate ly the New Testament Christians rebelling against the"sovere ign" who were under its authOrity. state, however, Daniel went to Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2 were his overseer, humbly s ~ i n g him written during a time when the to let them ' eat that which was pagan Roman emperors were approved by Cjod. Was Daniel's daimingauthorityoverCjod. Yet courtesy to his \Jverieerail a d of despite the wickedness of the bowing down . before . a n governing nations, Chris tians idolatrous stat e, . o r was it the were still urged to submit and recognition of a n d . proper obey. submission to a Cjod-ordained Obedience in th e Book of authorityl Dcmiel On ce aga in biblical principles on governmental relations are found in the book of Daniel. The very setting of the book is that of Jewish captives under the authority of an ungodly and pagan nation. Daniel 1 records that the prince of the eunuchs had ' renamed Hananiah, One should also look at Daniel 6:4, whe n "the pres ident s and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom. Wicked men can usually find sin in a man's past, if they look hard enough. It was the chance for Daniel 's comp etito rs to find him guilty of a violation of the law. 10 ~ THECOlJlllSEL of Chalcedon October, 1995
