The Conscience Crisis

During 2020 I felt an inescapable duty in my conscience to rebel against the tyranny I was watching unfold. What started off as a precaution against the unknown, quickly turned into the Government telling business owners they were not allowed to provide for their families. We went from “two weeks to slow the curve” to masking preschoolers, telling churches they weren’t allowed to sing, and eventually a global vaccine mandate in 2021. 

Complying/submitting with the mandates went against everything inside of me, yet at the time, I couldn’t verbalize why my position was the biblical one when asked. Still, I went with my conscience, and organized the first anti-lockdown rally in Austin, Texas. For a year and a half, I actively protested against mask and vaccine mandates twice a week. I was met often with insinuations or outright accusations of being a rebellious conspiracy theorist who should just submit to the Government like a good little Christian. 

It wasn’t until 2021, I discovered something that very few pastors were talking about. These were the pastors that had never shut down their churches, required masks, or anything of the like. But why? What did they understand that the others didn’t? 

Introducing the theological concept of sphere sovereignty made popular by Abraham Kuyper.  

The idea that each sphere of life (the state, the church, the home, academia, the market, etc) is ultimately ruled by God, and that God gives each sphere limited authority. While there may be some crossover between the spheres, no one sphere has complete sovereignty over another sphere. 

This idea was understood by Paul when he wrote Romans 13, and by Peter as well when he wrote 1st Peter 2:13-25. Unfortunately it does not seem to be understood by the majority of pastors and Christians living today. What we’ve seen instead is pastors surrendering the authority given to them by God to the sphere of the state under a butchered interpretation of Paul and Peter’s call to submission. 

Instead of viewing the state as a servant of the Lord, these churches viewed the state AS the Lord and therefore broke the first and second commandment.  Instead of loving God with all of their heart soul and mind (which would include fearing and obeying Him over man) they decided to fear Caesar. Instead of loving their neighbor as themselves, they decided to abandon their flock and manipulate them into “loving their neighbor” via a communist, tyrannical agenda. This same agenda that has left millions without jobs and millions dead/injured from a poisonous, experimental gene therapy. 

Jesus notably asks the Pharisees’ whose image they saw on the coin when they asked if they should pay taxes. They say Caesar’s. He famously responds to give Caesar that which is Caesar’s and to give God what is God’s. But whose image is Caesar made in? 

This again, reestablishes the idea of God’s ultimate sovereignty over all spheres. It also establishes the idea that Caesar doesn’t get to choose what is under his authority because that power is given to him by God. 

  “Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of everyone” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).  

Before complying with a command, we must first ask, does this entity or person even have authority over me in the area they are demanding compliance? A woman must not submit to all men but be subject to HER OWN husband. If the person/entity isn’t in a position to make a demand, then their demand is not to be heeded. Secondly, if they ARE over me, are they asking me to sin, harm my neighbor, or go against my conscience? If the answer is yes, then they are not to be obeyed. This goes for the president, the mayor, the husband, the parent, the church elder, and anyone else in a authoritative position. 

As Christians we often put being agreeable on a moral pedestal. We think being compliant and keeping the peace at the cost of even our conscience is the Christian thing to do. After all, we don’t want to make a scene or make people uncomfortable. Jesus would never do that!

American Christians are so used to their freedoms that they’ve forgotten how we came to posses them. In an attempt to pacify the world with “agreeableness” and appear “peaceable”, we actually create a society that harms our neighbor. 

What if I told you that Christians should be a natural barrier against rampant evil in society?  What if being salt meant that we don’t just add flavor, but sometimes we sting. 

When Christians obey God and heed their conscience, their resistance reins in evil authority. When they refuse to comply, when they are martyred for doing what is good, when they rebel against evil laws and defy tyrants, they please God.

One of the saddest comments I heard while protesting the lockdowns during 2020 was “Where are all the Christians?”. Even this nonbeliever could recognize the injustice of being told how we were to worship and with how many people, yet not a single believer from my church stood by me that day. In fact, they were angry that I was there. 

If Christians don’t even see the church as essential, why should anyone else? 

Allowing the Government to rule in a way that goes beyond their sphere of delegated authority, feeds tyranny and hurts not only you, but everyone around you. Sometimes the most loving thing you can do as a Christian is rebel. 

Now let’s take an exegetical look at Romans 13.

“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.” Romans 13:1-2

These verses establish firstly a societal structure by which we are to be governed, and secondly that God is the one who gives authority to the Government. This passage by no means implies that there are no caveats to this subjection as we’ll see in the following verses.

“For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience.” Romans 13:3-5 

As you can see, these verses assume that the Government isn’t punishing good. They are supposed to be an agent of the Lord for the benefit of society not for their own benefit. Their authority is given to them by God for THIS purpose (punishing the wrongdoer). 

It says we are to be submissive to them in order to avoid God’s wrath, but also for the sake of what? Conscience. Clearly a tyrannical Government that is asking its subjects to violate their conscience doesn’t fit this bill.

“For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.” Romans 13:6-7 

We pay taxes to authorities because they are what? Ministers of God. When authorities are not acting as ministers of God, THEY are the ones violating Romans 13. Their authority is only given to them for the purpose intended and any other use is sinful abuse that should never be enabled by the subjects. 

“Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” Romans 13:8-10 

There is a reason these verses follows behind a passage about Government. The purpose of Government is to ensure we fulfill the greatest laws; loving God and loving others. Anything that would tell us disobey God or harm another is not to be obeyed. 

“Conscience is the most intimate expression of the life of a human being. Conscience knows that it has received its power directly from God. Conscience revolts against every unjust verdict that ends a dispute. Conscience will not badger government whenever it acts as the owner of a field of which it is only the temporary caretaker.

These excellent traits derive from the fact that conscience is the immediate contact in a person’s soul of God’s holy presence, from moment to moment.

Withdrawn into the citadel of his conscience, a person knows that God’s omnipotence stands guard for him at the gate.

In his conscience he is therefore unassailable.

If government nevertheless dares to push through its “abuse of force,” the end will be a martyr’s death. And in that death government is beaten and conscience triumphs.

Conscience is therefore the shield of the human person, the root of all civil liberties, the source of a nation’s happiness.” - Abraham Kuyper

“But Paul wrote submit to the Government when Nero was ruling and the Christians of that time didn’t start a political revolution.” 

Oh but actually they did, hence why they were brutally persecuted. 

Changing the political climate isn’t the initial goal of the Christian, it is simply the byproduct of discipling the nations and teaching them to obey God’s law. Revolution and rebellion often looks like simply obeying Christ in your everyday life and letting your conscience guide you.

Let me give you an example of how this works. 👇🏽

Christian feels that wearing a mask goes against his conscience because he is participating in a lie. Said Christian decides he will not go against his conscience and refuses to comply. Mass refusal of like-minded Christians following their consciences lead to political revolution and the end of mandates.

"When the principles that run against your deepest convictions begin to win the day, then the battle is your calling, and peace has become sin. You must at the price of dearest peace lay your convictions bare before friend and enemy with all the fire of your faith." - also Kuyper