(12) S1E12 Rebuttal: Romans 13 Part 1

• A huge thanks to Joseph McDade for his generous permission to use his music: https://josephmcdade.com/
• Discord Discussion Board: https://disboard.org/server/474580298630430751 
• A fantastic, concise summary by Preston Sprinkle, covering much of what was said in this podcast: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/theologyintheraw/2015/12/romans-13-doesnt-tell-christians-to-kill-their-enemy/
• Tim Mackie's outline of politics in the Bible, including a great section on the context surrounding Romans 13: http://realitysf.com/assets/YOBL-Lectures-Slides/YOBL-The-Early-Church-and-Politics-Tim-Mackie-Handout.pdf
• My write-up on Romans 13
• Greg Boyd's take on Romans 13: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmUkvFffy4Y
• Some further reflections by Boyd: https://reknew.org/2017/03/podcast-militaries-world-established-god/
• My Book (Free and not updated): https://drive.google.com/open?id=1524xtT4iKmqr7pATaKnXTMZlwk_aONXG
• My Book (Kindle, updated): https://www.amazon.com/80-Conservative-Evangelicals-Prove-Relativists-ebook/dp/B07RDPW2NZ/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=j.+g.+elliot&qid=1564647522&s=gateway&sr=8-1
• Essay on Civil Disobedience (Thoreau): https://users.manchester.edu/Facstaff/SSNaragon/Online/texts/201/Thoreau,%20CivilDisobedience.pdf
• The Myth of a Christian Nation: https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Christian-Nation-Political-Destroying/dp/0310267315/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=the+myth+of+a+christian+nation&qid=1583004622&sr=8-2
• Kierkegaard on Politics: https://www.plough.com/en/topics/justice/politics/politics-and-the-state
• Excerpt from Bonhoeffer: https://www.plough.com/en/topics/justice/nonviolence/nonviolence-an-impossible-ideal

The Reformers . . . distinguished between personal sufferings and those incurred by Christians in the performance of duty as bearers of an office ordained by God, maintaining that the precept of nonviolence applies to the first but not to the second. In the second case we are not only freed from obligation to eschew violence, but if we want to act in a genuine spirit of love we must do the very opposite, and meet force with force in order to check the assault of evil. It was along these lines that the Reformers justified war and other legal sanctions against evil. But this distinction between person and office is totally alien to the teaching of Jesus. He says nothing about that. He addresses his disciples as men who have left all to follow him, and the precept of nonviolence applies equally to private life and official duty. He is the Lord of all life, and demands undivided allegiance. Furthermore, when it comes to practice, this distinction raises insoluble difficulties. Am I ever acting only as a private person or only in an official capacity? If I am attacked am I not at once the father of my children, the pastor of my flock, and e.g. a government official? Am I not bound for that very reason to defend myself against every attack, for reason of responsibility to my office? And am I not also always an individual, face to face with Jesus, even in the performance of my official duties? Am I not therefore obliged to resist every attack just because of my responsibility for my office? Is it right to forget that the follower of Jesus is always utterly alone, always the individual, who in the last resort can only decide and act for himself? Don’t we act most responsibly on behalf of those entrust