(read Romans chapter13) There is a difference in the Bible between how we treat civil government and how we look at it. Paul seems to be very respectful, and Peter seems to say the very same thing. But John in Revelation 13 calls human government the ‘Beast’ as the ultimate enemy of God. The anti-Christ is going to work through human government; so though we have a respect and reverence toward it, it is not ultimate. When the day comes where the government says, “worship me” or “do what i say”, or “i’m ultimate”, we stand up in love, and we die, and by our death and our attitude, God will win more to Himself. We don’t go get a gun and build a safe house, and store water and food, and kill everybody who comes.

Human government is ordained by God, but it should not be construed as its divine right. No one form of government is advocated above another. In Scripture, it is a religious duty for believers to obey civil authority with a proper attitude. It is proper for believers to support human government with their money and their prayers. Human government is for the purpose of order. They are God’s servants for a task. Human government is not ultimate in its authority. Believers must act for conscience sake in respecting civil authority, but not when in it oversteps its God-given bounds. In his book, City of God, Augustine asserted that we are citizens of two realms, one temporal, and one eternal. We have responsibilities, but God’s kingdom is eternal. We have a corporate responsibility as well as an individual response in a democratic society. We are to try to influence government by going into politics, if we can’t influence it along Biblical principles. However, we should remember that our hope does not come from government. It never will. It can’t. It won’t. We should encourage believers in a democratic system to actually participate in the process of government, and to implement when possible the teachings of Scriptures, but government will never solve the problem of human society.

If I may add, “If human beings are fundamentally good, no government is necessary; if they are fundamentally bad, any government, being composed of human beings, would be bad also”. ~Fred Woodworth, The Match!, No. 79