Romans 13:1  Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
2  Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
3  For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:

This passage of Scripture was abused by many professing Christians during the tyrannical period involving the Wuhan virus scare. The government used that entire event to experiment with taking away our freedoms. That whole event had nothing to do with a deadly virus. There were people who died during that time. Many of them died due to bad government decisions. In a normal winter season, people get influenza and colds, etc. Normally elderly people are more susceptible to being sicker from these things. When there is an outbreak of something in a seniors’ home, they isolate the region within the home or they isolate the person(s) that are directly affected. However, that was not done properly during the Wuhan virus event. Families were not allowed to see loved ones. Sick elderly people were packed into housing where they could be more easily infected. Important medications that were known to work against the sicknesses were banned and deadly drugs were used that intentionally killed many people.
The government discovered that it was not very hard at all to move the majority of people into its “corrals”. Many people panicked at the thought of dying. The governments fired doctors and nurses who refused to play along with their hideous plans. Now they are crying about a doctor shortage. They refuse to admit it is their fault. Meanwhile the common people are suffering due to the evil plans of those who are supposed to protect us.
As the government lies continued, they proved their true agenda. They began to attack churches. The government would not know the difference between a true church and a cult. They just did not want people to attend any church. The government wanted to be the only source of information that people would get. They did not want to take a chance on having some churches actually telling people the truth. Thus they tried to shut down all the churches. A few would not bow to the evil demands of wicked governments and some of them were fined. Others went into hiding and held secret meetings. One would think we were living in communist China or Venezuela.
There were people who were either wilfully ignorant or intentionally ignorant of what the Bible teaches on the role of government.
In Romans 13 we are commanded by God through the apostle Paul to be subject unto the higher powers. Every individual is to take this seriously. We are also reminded that there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God.
When we look at the Bible, we see that the first human authority that God created, was the man. Adam was first created and then God put him to sleep and took one of his ribs and used that as the basis of making the woman. Adam was immediately taught that he was accountable to God. In Genesis 3 we are shown that there is a usurper who wants to replace God as the authority. That usurper is Satan. He was effective in deceiving Eve and he was also effective in convincing Adam to listen to him. Adam decided to reject God as his authority, and chose to accept the devil as his authority. Adam discovered immediately that this was a grave error. God called it sin. Adam and Eve immediately knew they had done wrong and they tried to fix the wrong. They sewed themselves aprons made of fig leaves to cover their nakedness. They were not ashamed of that nakedness in the end of Genesis 2. Now that they were sinners they were ashamed of their nakedness. They had a bigger problem and that was their relationship to God.
They heard the voice of the LORD in the Garden and they hid themselves. They realized that their fig-leaf aprons did not cover their spiritual nakedness. Adam chose to lie about his situation and he tried to turn the tables and blame God and Eve for his sin. God did not accept that. He did not accept Eve’s excuse either. Both of them would suffer for their sin. The devil was also further judged for his wickedness. All of creation was plunged into a new relationship. It was all in a process of decay due to the sin of one man — Adam.
This form of government held for a long time in the Bible. Eventually God added another level and that was human government. However, human government was still accountable to Him. When Nimrod convinced the people of his time, to rebel against God and build a tower that would reach to heaven, God intervened. He confounded the languages of the people, and forced them to scatter. They could no longer communicate so they spread out and formed nations and spoke different languages that others did not understand.
God’s design at all times was for human forms of government to be under His authority. In fact all forms of government are still accountable to God, although many of them assume there is no God and they assume they are the highest authority. Those who think that way are deceived and will be shocked when they are confronted personally by the Lord Jesus Christ. At that time it will be too late for them and they will discover that God’s authority cannot be escaped. Their wilful rebellion will lead them to an eternal separation from God in the lake of fire.
Looking back at our text, when we look at verse 2 we are reminded that whosoever resists the power resists the ordinance of God. That means that any form of human authority that resists God’s authority, puts itself in direct defiance of God. We see the application of this in many places in the Bible, but we can go to the book of Acts and see it there.
In Acts 4, Peter and John were convinced of the truth. They wanted others to know the truth about Who Jesus Christ was and they wanted people to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Jewish religious leaders, who were under the authority of the Roman government, did not like what Peter and John were preaching. The Jewish religious leaders rejected the fact that they were to be under God’s authority. They were not happy with being under the Roman authority, but they could live with that as long as the Romans would allow them to practice their heretical religion.
The Roman government did not care about the Jews’ religion as long as they still paid their taxes to the Romans and did not work against the Roman government. The Jews hated Jesus and they tried to get rid of Him by crucifying Him. Jesus rose again the third day and the Jewish religious leaders spread a lie about what happened to Him. They knew it was not true, but they did not want the people believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The religious leaders went after Peter and John and tried to stop them from preaching the truth. They had the authority to beat them and threaten their lives. Peter and John gave the only answer they could give.

Acts 4:19  But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.
Acts 4:20  For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.

In chapter 5 we read of more persecution these men faced and they again answered:

Acts 5:29  Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.

There is no authority higher than God. When any human government sets itself up as being greater than God, it is in direct rebellion against God. Those who recognize God as the absolute authority cannot go against Him to please some ungodly form of government. We see that in the life of Daniel and Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah as well.
The apostle Paul, the writer of the book of Romans was a prisoner because he refused to go against the will of God to appease wicked human authorities. Eventually he would be murdered by the Roman government because he refused to bow to their wicked dictates.
In Romans 12:2 we are warned that those who resist the God-ordained authority, shall receive to themselves damnation. That means that those who choose to obey a human government that is in defiance of God, are equally guilty before God. We do not win by hiding behind the excuse that “the government made me do it”. The Bible is our authority and nowhere in the Bible are we told to reject what God has to say in favour of obeying ungodly human authorities. We are told to honour God in all things.
In verse 3 of our text we see that rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Human rulers are not supposed to stop people from doing good. They are supposed to stop evil doers from doing evil. Our governments are wicked and they do not want to accept that. They now legalize marijuana and other illicit drugs. In Winnipeg a van that the government uses to assist drug users to keep using drugs, was recently stolen. After a day or so it was recovered. The government has been rather quiet on this whole matter. Most likely it was cleaned out of any drugs that were in it.
We are further reminded to be afraid of the power. Together with that phrase we are told to do good. You cannot defy God and be doing good. Those who want to undermine God’s authority, need to do a careful read of these verses, rather than just a superficial read. Those who are saved need to pray for boldness so that we would obey God rather than man. Those who are saved and obedient to God are not the problem. Our tax dollars are not being spent on supporting the truth. They are being abused to support evil. That is why our taxes keep going up and evil keeps abounding. Our prisons are full and those in the prisons are becoming hardened criminals. Now the government is working on a bill that will criminalize a person whom they might suspect of wanting to do something that they do not like. They will need to release hardened criminals in order to house God-fearing people who love the Lord and want to help sinners to know how to be saved and thus changed into law abiding citizens. Wicked people are blind. They cannot see and they do not want to see.
Those who are saved need to live by God’s law and seek to help the ungodly to see the importance of knowing the true God.
Pastor Bartel