The Wild River of Submission

Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor. 1 Peter 2 13-17

To speak of submission in Western Culture is to enter into the fast moving river of controversy. It is not a concept that westerns appreciate or endorse on a cultural scale. For the Christian this is a problem because submission is a concept that is central to the scriptures.

Other religions do not have this problem. Islam in particular, the word for submission in Arabic is Islam. Islam means submission. A website dedicated to Islamic evangelization says these words; “Islam and Submission are not names. They are descriptions reflecting the soul's absolute devotion and submission to God Alone. This is the First Commandment in all of God's scriptures, including the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Final Testament.” The final testament for a Moslem is the Quran.

The Islamic understanding of the Bible is that submission is the “first commandment of God’s scriptures” “If you love me you will follow my commandments” Westerns are enamored with the concept of love even though our language around love is limited. English has one word for love, Greek has three for example. However we are not as enamored with the idea of following commandments or submission.

Other cultures also find understanding and living in submission more natural than westerners. Confucius philosophy is built around appropriate codes of conduct forming social norms that are built around submission. It was believed that a just and proper society could only be maintained through submission. Stephen Prothero work Religions of the East, Paths to Enlightenment. (Recorded Books, 2005) describes the idea in Confucius thought that whatever you are called from Father to Emperor is sacred and granted by heaven and will be taken away if not stewarded properly. Romans 13:1 agrees with the basics of this concept when it says, “The authorities that exist have been established by God.”

Much of the resistance to authority comes from modern western cultures connection the Protestant reformation. This reformation exalted the role to the individual above that of King or Emperor. The Declaration of Independence is the authority we use to justify the importance of the individual above the King. Consider these words.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It is not difficult to connect these words to the Genesis account of man that states we are all made in the image of God. It is what follows that has radically changed the world.

“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.” Reconciling these words with the scriptures that the founding fathers honored is difficult. To say that the “authorities that exist have been established by God” and that “Governments are instituted among men” may not be mutually exclusive but they are close.

Peter tells us the “live as free people” so he is not against freedom. George Washington captures the tension that the founding father felt.
“The ways of Providence being inscrutable, and the justice of it not to be scanned by the shallow eye of humanity, nor to be counteracted by the utmost efforts of human power or wisdom, resignation, and as far as the strength of our reason and religion can carry us, a cheerful acquiescence to the Divine Will, is what we are to aim.”

George Washington believed that the revolutionary war was just based on exhaustion of efforts to reform the laws within the scope of the institutions that were established in his generation.
The early reformers felt this tension as well. John Huss before his martyrdom believed that the “Roman church was ... the spouse of Christ, and the pope the representative or vicar of God.” His conflict is captured in the quote from E.G. White, “If the authority is just and infallible as he believed it to be, how came it that he felt compelled to disobey it.”

The resolution for him, and for the founding fathers of the United States would come to be based on the authority of scriptures that’s first concept is that all men are created equal and in the image of God. Additionally that obedience to scripture is more important that obedience to authoritative institutions. In Acts 5:29 Peter when confronted with this dilemma said. “God must be obeyed rather than men.” That obedience will ultimately silence ignorant and foolish men because even in our disobedience to men and institutions we will be “doing good.”
Peter’s admonishment in the above passage is that we do not use the freedom we have as an excuse to sin. If we do so we show that we have not “devoted our soul” as the Islamic encourages us to do nor have we honored our sacred name as Confucius compelled us to do, but more importantly we have disobeyed the scripture.

I could not find the exact quote but it has been said that “if men will not be ruled by conscience they must be ruled by the sword.” I want to credit Washington but I could be wrong. This brings us full circle. Authorities are placed by God “to punish those who are doing wrong and commend those that do right. As long as the authorities are doing this in a manner that honors God the people have no right abolish it and institute another form of Government.