| Man's Law or God's Law? |
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| Written by Brenda Shoop | |
| Tuesday, 26 February 2008 | |
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Question: I have read your articles on your site. Most of it appears to be true and Godly. Only one thing is missing. The bible says to follow the laws of the land. If the law states marijuana is illegal, and possession of marijuana is illegal then why do you promote it? Answer: Consider the social context of the verses from Romans usually cited in this regard (Rom. 13: 1, 7). When Paul penned this letter, Nero was emperor, but he was still in the realm of sanity and was a fairly good ruler; Christians were not being persecuted by Rome. Paul is not here concerned with the hypothetical possibility which eventually became reality: That the government would turn against the Christian faith. Had these words been penned ten years later, the instructions would assuredly have been tempered quite differently, and be more along the lines of Acts 5:29, where a choice did indeed have to be made between obeying God and man -- because as of the time when this passage was written, there was no human law which was in contradiction to the will of God. Paul could truly say "obey the law" without qualification, because there was no law on the books at the time that was objectionable from a Christian perspective: Christians weren't being persecuted or told to give up or compromise their faith; they were under the protective classification of being a Jewish sect. (This also applies to Matthew 22:21, Titus 3:1 and 1 Pet. 2:13.) Acts 5:29 "We ought to obey God rather then men." This, from Peter when faced with a death sentence for preaching the Good News, along with the other apostles, in the temple courtyard. A Pharisee, Gemaliel, stood up and defended the apostles saying, "Stay away from these men and leave them alone, because if this plan or this undertaking originates with people, it will come to nothing, but if it is from God, you will not be able to stop them, or you may even be found fighting against God.” (Acts 5: 38-39) So after the apostles are beaten (instead of killed), they are thrown out and told never to preach again. Instead, they left the council rejoicing because they had been considered worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name. And every day both in the temple courts and from house to house, they did not stop teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus was the Christ. (Acts 5: 41-42) |
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| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 26 February 2008 ) |
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