The Nature of Authority

The Nature of Authority.

Christians in America have a real need to study and understand the nature of authority.  To many of us,
reared in the dominant culture of religious Independencey, authority is something that is of no consequence. 
Nobody has any right to tell any of us what to do, think, or believe.  We listen to our our own will which we
pretend is free.  "It is better to obey God rather than man," is the second most relevant proof text [second to
"Judge not, that ye be not judged."], but by both citations we mean, "I will do as I please, so get out of my
face."

This rebelliousness has found its way into the public arena, as religious ideas always do, so that government
simply becomes more and more a stalemate.  Whatever authority remains is derived from elections, but
accusations of fraud dilute much of that, so that the losers of elections can justify their continuing non-
cooperation by labeling their opposition crooks and scalawags.

Christians, however, ought to be better than than, and have a clear understanding of authority and the biblical
requirement to submit to that which is legitimate.