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Daniel Ritchie · #87 (**permalink**) 04-02-2008, 05:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by satz

Quote:

Originally Posted by ServantofGod

This may nave been brought up before, but how do you justify hiding Jews or helping them escape in the first place, in light of God's command to obey the ruling authorities above you? If they say to hand over the Jews, as a government ordained by God, according to the Romans 13 passage, you are under obligation to turn the Jews over to the state. Can you sin in this regard, by not obeying Divinely ordained rulers? Or is it not sin? If not, why? The command is clear:

Romans 13:1,2-Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.

1 Peter 2:13,14- Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.

So:

1. Hiding the Jews is a sin

2. Lying about the Jews is a sin.

We can do #1, because we don't believe God's Word commands us to obey Nazi's, but we can't lie to them?

I think that just as Rahab and the Hebrew midwives show us that lying to save a life is allowed by God, those passages also show us that disobeying the government is likewise allowed when an innocent life is at stake.

According to our friend's logic, if the civil government required us to hand over children to them - so that they could murder them - we would have to obey them. Instead the texts cited above only tell us that it is the God-ordained role of the state to punish crime. They do not tell us that we have to obey the state in all circumstances. The state's authority is not absolute, it is limited by the word of God, and so is our obedience to it.