Peter and the other apostles had a choice. They could have done what the person in authority had told them to do and have avoided trouble with the “law”, or they could have obeyed God and have avoided trouble with Him. Peter and the apostles chose wisely. The high priest had commanded them not to teach in the name of Jesus, and when confronted by the priest for their disobedience to him, they answered him saying, “We ought to obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29)
We find ourselves facing the same choice. Do we obey God or men? Romans 13:1-2 tells us to be subject to the governing authorities, that there is no authority except from God, and that the authorities that exist are appointed by God. We are also told that whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. If we take the whole counsel of scripture however, it is clear that obedience to any authority is secondary to obedience to God. Besides the example of Peter and the apostles, we have the example of Jesus opposing those in charge of the temple by entering with a whip, driving out those who were desecrating it, pouring out their money, and turning over their tables. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego likewise stood their ground against unrighteous government. (John 2: 15, Daniel 6: 1-10, Daniel 3: 1-30)
In the United States of America, and everywhere for that matter, God is the ultimate authority. Despite the flagrant disobedience to God by the president, many government office holders, and many citizens, our nation was founded on deference to God. This is made clear in the first two paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence, where it refers to a people’s “separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them”, and the fact that all men “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.”
Any “law” contrary to God’s law found in the Bible is no law at all. Likewise, any “law” contrary to the Constitution is no law at all. A law contradictory to the Scriptures or to the Constitution is a non-law. Obedience to any non-law that is in violation of scripture or the Constitution is disobedience to God. Obedience to something contrary to the Bible is sin, and obedience to something contrary to the Constitution is likewise sin because as stated in Romans 13, we are to be subject to the governing authority, which in the United States is the Constitution. Therefore, the importance of understanding the Bible and the Constitution is obvious.
In the United States, under God, the people are the ultimate authority. The people, through their elected representatives, put in place the Constitution as the governing authority under the people. It is under the people because it can be changed by the people. God’s law cannot be change by the people, government officials, or anyone else. Therefore, the order of authority is God, the people, and then the Constitution. Government officials, including the president, are merely servants hired by the people to do a job. They hold their positions at the discretion of the people. While they are to be honored in their positions, they are still servants of the people under the law of God and under the law of the Constitution.
There are many non-laws that are in place because they have been allowed through the negligence of the people. Likewise, there are many lawbreakers among our lawmakers, or perhaps more accurately our non-lawmakers. They are lawbreakers because they have bypassed the Constitution and passed non-laws. There are lawbreakers in the judicial and executive branches of government as well, the most prominent being the president. He, as well as past presidents, through executive orders, has been allowed to pass non-laws simply by signature. Congress, and ultimately the people, has permitted the usurpation of the authority of the Constitution, which designates Congress to originate laws, not the president. (Article 1, Section 7 of the United States Constitution)
The most disregarded portions of the Constitution are Article 1, Section 8, which lists the powers of Congress, and the Tenth Amendment, which plainly declares that the powers not delegated to the United States (the federal government) by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people. Congress continually usurps the authority of the states and the people by taking the people’s money from the United States Treasury and distributing it in many unauthorized ways. Such unconstitutional apportionment includes that directed toward welfare programs, disaster funds, foreign aid, and other unwarranted allocations. The United States Treasury is also open to the president for his unauthorized spending of the people’s money. One out of many of his executive orders is called “Preparing the United States for the Impacts of Climate Change”, which calls for many different departments and agencies to use their funding to deal with so called climate change.
The judicial branch has gotten into the non-law act as well, such as in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, known as the Obamacare Supreme Court case. In its ruling, it allowed the Internal Revenue Service to use its resources (tax-payer dollars) to extract more money from Americans by allowing the enforcement of a “tax” on not having health insurance. A part of this non-law forces Americans to fund the killing of unborn babies which transgresses God’s law (“You shall not murder.” Exodus 20: 13) and it violates the religious freedom right spelled out in the First Amendment which states that Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion.
The protection of life is one of the main purposes of our government. This is made clear in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, which explains that governments are instituted among men to secure certain rights, one of which is life. Also, in the preamble of the Constitution, it is made known that the Constitution was ordained and established for six particular purposes: to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. Through non-laws allowing torture, dismemberment, and death to the unborn, the ones most in need of the protection of their God given rights are denied their rights.
When those in authority disobey the authority that is over them and attempt to assert illegitimate orders, their authority is not valid concerning such mandates. In this case obedience is not only unnecessary; obedience in such circumstances is unlawful since the lower authority would be regarded above the higher authority. While the lower authority may have power, such as through those being misguided by them, to inflict punishment for not submitting to their will, they are nonetheless illegal in their actions. In such cases, one is forced to choose whether to obey God or man, knowing that the right choice may not be the easy choice, but will be the better choice.