Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 251 | Should Christians Resist Tyranny?

Episode Date: May 18, 2020

In light of Romans 13, should Christians resist infringements on our freedom?   Today's Sponsors:  Gabi Insurance: Take 2 minutes & see how much you can save on your car and homeowners insurance. Go to: https://www.gabi.com/relatable  Ashford University: Your tomorrow today starts at Ashford University. Go to https://Ashford.edu/allie — there's no fee to apply or standardized testing required to enroll.

Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed. You can watch

this D-Day Show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. Hey guys. Welcome to Relatable. Happy Monday. I hope everyone had a great weekend. We had an almost back to normal weekend. So I had a baby shower, not for me, but for a friend. But it was a remote baby shower. So it was a virtual baby shower, which was actually better, I think, than a regular baby shower because it was out of state. So I wouldn't have gotten to go if it wasn't a virtual baby shower. So that was fun. And then we had a gender reveal party for a friend that was actually in person, but it was like a socially distanced style like outside. And so it was a good, it was a good like easing back into normal. And I hope that that was true for some of you as well.

Some of you are just like already back into normalcy completely 100%. You dove in head first and that's great for you. Maybe some of you are still completely quarantined and know that I sympathize with you and I am praying for you because this is a hard time for everyone. And this episode, while it doesn't have to do, we're not talking about the coronavirus today. We're not talking about any specific policies or anything like that. But what we're talking about is still pertinent to everything that's been going on because it is the question of Christian resistance, Christian resistance to the government. Is there a biblical case to make for it

at all? Or should we be completely submissive as Romans 13 says to governing authorities? So we're going to look at both sides of the argument and we're going to look at what the Bible actually says. And then I will end with my personal take according to what scripture tells us about that. This is a subject that is pretty complex. It's pretty, if you want to use the word nuanced, I would say that there is nuance to this particular topic. And as always, but especially with this subject that has so many complexities to it, I am willing to be proven wrong. If one of you disagrees with me and points me to the scripture or the interpretation of scripture that contradicts where I kind of land on this, then I am all for it. Sanctification is getting better and better at getting

to the truth of scripture as it actually means, not just what we want it to mean or what it means to us, but getting better at looking at scripture and understanding what God actually means by the words he says. I'm certainly not claiming to be perfected that, but I've researched this topic very thoroughly for you guys. It took me a long time to prepare for this episode. So many of you guys have been asking me about this subject. And so as always, I am going to do my very best to bring you the whole truth and nothing but the truth. So like I said, a lot of you guys have been asking me about the tiny tyrants that we've been talking about in the media, the tiny tyrants in state and local government, in federal government, in epidemiology, in the public school system.

academia, even in the police force. We've been looking at all of this in horror. And a lot of us have been standing back and asking how the heck is this the United States of America, which is supposed to be the beacon of liberty for the rest of the world. We did an entire episode called Little Tyrants everywhere where we looked at different instances of tyranny and how we're supposed to approach this from a biblical perspective. But today we are going to focus not just on the tyranny that we see displayed, but the question of what do we as Christians do? Who in Romans 13 are called to submit to governing authorities? Do we disobey?

Do we protest? Can we petition the government when Tigrants try to take control? First, in order to answer that big question, we have to back up and answer some other questions. So we have to look at what Romans 13 actually says and what it means. What is tyranny? What does it mean?

What is resistance? and what does it mean? So we're going to try to answer with a broad brush those questions today, not necessarily in that order, but those are the questions that I'm seeking to answer in this episode. Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort.

We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us. Okay, let's first talk about the passage of scripture. that is often discussed when debating this subject, and that is Romans 13 1 through 7. 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 authorities resist what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a tear 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. 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 so that seems pretty clear government authorities all government authorities we assume from this passage are appointed by God they are to punish wrongdoing and if you don't do anything wrong, then you have nothing to be scared of. We are to pay taxes. We are to respect them. We are to be in submission to them. And all of this, this passage says, is an act of obedience and submission to God as well.

There is a segment of Christians of very strong, biblically faithful Christians who believe that that is that, that Christians should not protest. They should not be activists, should not start organizations that ensure Christian, laws or even laws that promote religious liberty, we are simply not to concern ourselves with those kinds of things in the public sector or in the public sphere. We are to concern ourselves with the work of the church, with our individual obedience to God's word, not with creating a Christian society through policies that align with God's word. Here is an excerpt from a book by a pastor that I greatly admire, John McArthur in this book is called Why Government Can't Save You.

This is the quote, they and its Christian political activist, follow the argumentation of the Declaration of Independence, which declares that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are divinely endowed rights. Therefore, those believers say such rights are part of a Christian worldview, worth attaining and defending at all costs, including military insurrection at times. But such a position is contrary to the clear teachings and commands of Romans 13 1 through 7. So the United States was actually born out of a violation of New Testament principles. And any blessings that God has bestowed on America have come in spite of that disobedience by the founding fathers.

John Piper, who I also greatly admire both of these people. I go to them a lot for any theological questions that I have. They have awesome resources. He seems to hold a somewhat similar view about civil disobedience. that Christians should always err on the side of submission rather than resistance or activism. In a 2005 sermon, Piper stated that the Declaration of Independence reflects, quote, the man-centered deism of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. But there's another side to this debate.

So that's one representation of one side. And then there's the other side. The founding fathers, the men who fought for and in the revolution fought for the revolution, fought for the revolution and in the revolutionary war were not all deists they were not mostly agnostics or atheists many of them were deeply reverent protestant christians calvinists many of them just like john macarthur and john piper calvinist theology had a huge impact on the founding of the country locke and milton were inspired by those who held to calvinism as were many of the men who wrote our founding documents john calvin himself believed in democracy he's

certainly was not a political activist, but he did believe in the separation of powers and the obligation to push back against leaders who oppressed their people and who contradicted God's law. William Wilberforce, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Abraham Lincoln, all three who had a hand in ending slavery were Calvinists. Reformed Protestants and particularly Calvinists, what I am, what MacArthur and Piper are, have a long history of resistance to tyranny. and resistance to laws and governing bodies that are wicked and oppressive. The Protestant Reformation was begun by an act of resistance against religious tyranny. What was at the time the corrupt tyranny of the Catholic Church

that was oppressing Christians through unbiacal doctrine and burdens? That's just a true fact of history. I know I've got a lot of wonderful Catholic friends that are listening to this. This is just the fact of the origin of the Protestant Reformation. through his 95 theses, through his teachings on by grace through faith, through his refusal to recant at the deed of worms. Martin Luther or Verms, if you want to say it in the German way, Martin Luther resisted both the religious and civil authorities at the time. And not only that, but his translation of the Bible into German so that lay people could read the Bible for

themselves for the first time helped bring about the revolutionary idea of individualism and personal freedom in the sense that the average person could study the Bible, could receive wisdom from the Holy Spirit, and have a personal relationship with Jesus on their own rather than having to submit to the Pope or other Catholic leaders who were at the time abusing their power, teaching completely on biblical doctrine, and extorting their congregants in the name of indulgences. And it also ignited the idea, or rather reignited the idea, that man is first and foremost ultimately subject to God and that no earthly authority secular or religious could supersede the commands God has given us in his inerrant work. And these ideas of holy resistance

and of individualism and personal freedom that allows for a personal faith and of obedience to God before man-made institutions or doctrines were perpetuated by Luther and the Protestant Reformation and had a remarkable impact on the founding of the United States and even the Revolutionary War. And by the way, when I speak of individualism, I'm not talking about the hyper-individualism that comes with moral relativism or postmodernism. I'm talking about the personalization of a faith in Jesus Christ and personal responsibility. You could even argue that the revolution would not have happened if it weren't for the Protestant Reformation. In fact, much of the revolution was actually religious.

in nature. There was a nickname for it, the Presbyterian rebellion. It had a lot to do with religion and religious liberty. We are called Protestants because of our protest against the teachings of the Catholic Church, but throughout history, we have protested tyranny and corruption in many forms. John Knox, the Scottish reformer, famously said resistance to tyranny is obedience to God. And he lived that out as he led the Reformation in Scotland, which led to the ousting. of the Catholic Queen Mary of Geese. This was the spirit through the Reformation, through the American Revolution, and parts of it still live on today. That is part of why reformed Protestants are also usually very politically conservative. Most of us believe in smaller government,

in government for and by the people. We don't believe in anarchy. We believe in the importance of government and the importance of law and order, but we believe in a smaller government. We are sensitive to tyranny. So these are the two sides. One side who says political revolutions and rebellion are not what Christians are called to do. We are called to quiet obedience and submission and to continue in our good works. One side says we have a moral obligation to resist tyranny and oppression where we see it. Now ultimately, you guys know listening to this podcast, we don't look to John McArthur or John Piper or John Calvin or John Knox or any of the Johns at all. to tell us ultimately all of these men believed and believed in the authority and inerrancy of

scripture as we do here on this podcast. So that is where we have to go. So let us look again at what scripture has to tell us and to see if we get any clarity on where we should stand on all of this as Christians. Okay, so let's get into what Romans 13 says. Just to summarize it, since we read it at the top and you should read it for yourself. I like the ESV version. That's another podcast episode I need to do. A lot of you have been asking me to do the different versions of the Bible. I like ESV. It's more of a word for word translation, but colloquial enough to where you can read it easily. Anyway, so to summarize the beginning of Romans 13, 13 1 through 7, I let everyone be subject to governing authorities. It goes on to say that authorities are instituted by God.

they get their power from God. Therefore, if you disobey them, you also disobey God. These powers are to punish the wrongdoer. They don't punish good behavior but bad behavior. They collect taxes and we should pay those taxes. So again, that is pretty clear, pretty absolute. If you study this in the original Greek and you're still not going to find any caveats, all the words mean what you think they mean.

Submit to those in power because they are given power by God. You see this idea iterated in Daniel 221. He changes God, changes times and seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings. Jesus says in Luke 2025, render to Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are gods. And of course, we know about the absolute sovereignty of God. Nothing happens without his direct foreknowledge or outside of his ultimate will.

Remember, as we say so many times on this podcast, not even a sparrow falls out of the sky apart from the father as matthew 1029 says so then we can trust that much more consequential things like the investing the divesting of governing power is also a part of his sovereign will that doesn't mean that he likes everything that a king does or that a ruler does that it's all part of his moral will but nothing happens outside of his grand sovereign will Paul wrote this letter to the Romans, the book of Romans, in about 57 AD, which means he wrote this while Nero was emperor of Rome. You know Nero, as the guy famous for violently persecuting Christians during his reign, although this letter, I will say, was written before the Great Fire of Rome for which Bled, Nero blamed and killed a bunch of Christians. But, of course, we know that God, who is the true author of this text, knew that kind of cruel person.

persecution was coming while this letter was being written while Romans 13 was being written. This passage says knowing all of that to be subject to governing authorities. The Greek word used for be subject to is who potaso, which means to be subordinate to, to submit to, to be under control of, to obey. Again, the text is clear. It would seem like the intent is clear. However, if you are like me, you have questions. I have questions pretty much every single verse I read.

I have maybe not a question, but I have some sort of deeper understanding that I am trying to get to. And I have questions about this particular passage. We can understand, I can understand how God's sovereignty, in God sovereignty, he sets up leaders and he takes down leaders. Again, not that he is pleased with all rulers, but that no one comes to power outside of his will. But what do we do with this seemingly absolute idea?

that we must be subject to them when it is so clear throughout history that there are rulers who do not do what Romans 13 says governing authorities should do, punish the wrongdoer and let the one who does good alone. What about the ruler who doesn't submit to God's definition of right and wrong? If right in God's eyes is to follow Christ to share the gospel, to meet together, to do good, to pray as the Bible tells us, what about when the government governing authorities in place see these things as wrong. And they therefore punish Christians for doing what they see as wrong, but what God sees as right. Christians throughout history have been punished for doing what God says is good and right. Nero in ancient Rome,

Queen Mary the First of England and the Protestant Reformation, countless tyrants throughout history. And to this day, they persecute and kill Christians for doing what God says is righteous. And Christians have persistently, from the dawn of existence, rebelled against these authorities in order to share the gospel, to show hospitality, to meet together in our homes, to read, and to teach the Bible to pray. And we find examples of this kind of behavior throughout the Bible, the Hebrew midwives in Egypt who were told to kill all the newborn babies. Exodus 117 says, but the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, refused to worship Nebuchadnezzar, or the idol dedicated to Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel 315 through 18 says this, but if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning, fiery furnace. And who is the God who will deliver you out of my hands?

This is Nebuchadnezzar speaking to Shadrach, Mishak and Abednego. And then they answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this manner. if this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up. Daniel disobeyed the Persian injunction, which said that anyone who prays to anyone except King Darius will be thrown into the den of lions.

Daniel 610 says this. when Daniel knew that the document had been signed, that's the injunction saying you can't pray to anyone except for the king, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God as he had done previously. Hebrews 11 and naming heroes of the faith says this in verses 32 through 34, and what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barra. Samson, Jethah of David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith, conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire,

escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. We also know that the apostles at times ignore demands that they stopped sharing the gospel. And as we've noted Christians throughout history, and today have disobeyed and currently are disobeying governing authorities to do all that Christians are called to do. Christians who provided refuge for the Jews during the Holocaust rebelled against Nazi authority. Christians in China today are throughout Asia and in the Middle East continuing to meet together, knowing that doing so could be the death of them are rebelling against the law. Christians have rebelled against authorities not just by going to touch.

church and sharing the gospel, but in ways that have pushed back also against systemic injustice. As we mentioned earlier, William Wilberforce, Harriet Beecher Stowe, they were moved by the gospel to end slavery. Christians today are compelled by the love of Christ to end the atrocity of abortion. You could argue that many of the American revolutionaries and founding fathers were pushing back against what was the oppressive systemic injustice of the tyranny of England. So what do we make of all of this? How do we reconcile what seemed to be, what seemed to be, contradictory Bible passages, Romans 13, and the passages that seem to approve of resistance to governing authorities,

as well as the obvious benefits that have stemmed directly from resisting governing authority, like the end of slavery, like producing the freest, most prosperous, country in the world that in addition to our very real sins and setbacks have also welcomed the most immigrants the most refugees the most orphans has sent the most missionaries the most foreign aid created the most opportunities has allowed for the most economic mobility has the best founding documents and has existed as the strongest force for freedom from oppression in the history of the world and i think it's this i think that this is the reconciliation because we know that the Bible doesn't contradict itself. We know that truth doesn't contradict itself.

So I think it's this. We don't see Romans 13 as only a directive to us as citizens, as constituents, but also to authorities. So if you read Romans 13 as also directives to governing authorities, that they are to be servants of God, that they are supposed to punish the wrongdoer and execute justice, We start to get the beginning of the answer, the reconciliation of what feels like appears to be sometimes a contradiction in God's word and between God's word and the history of God's people. God sets up these authorities and they are supposed to be his servants. They are supposed to be in obedience to him. And we as citizens are supposed to abide by their laws.

As long as, as long as the laws and the policies that they are put, putting forth are in accordance to what God calls good. And when they are not, when rulers rebel against God by calling evil good and good evil, as Isaiah 520 says, then Christians must assess if obedience to the law of a wicked ruler or a wicked law of an otherwise good ruler is causing them to disobey God. And Christians do not disobey God to obey earthly authority. If the government tells us that we can't share the gospel, we keep sharing the gospel. If the government told Samaritan's purse, for example, that you must take the gospel out of your mission statement or dissemble, the Samaritans purse would be obligated to resist that if they want to continue to honor Christ.

If the government tells a private company or an organization that you must provide insurance that covers abortion, the company would be right, if they are abiding by Christian values, they would be right to resist. and to fight back against that in the same way that Hobby Lobby and Little Sisters of the Poor fought back against the Obamacare rule that said that they have to provide insurance plans that cover abortion pills. Jack Phillips, the baker in the masterpiece cake shop saga and the many court cases that his shop was involved in, he was right to refuse to make the kind of cake that he knew celebrated what went against his biblical beliefs. If you are a doctor, And the Equality Act that Democrats have been trying to pass requires you to, say, perform an abortion or a gender reassignment surgery,

then that Christian doctor would be right biblically to refuse to do so. If you are a teacher and your state's radical sex education legislation attempts to force you to teach, for example, pre-teen boys and girls about sexual acts that you know are contrary to what God calls good, then that Christian teacher refuses. if a pastor, and one day the law will say this, that says that if a law says that he must conduct a marriage, that he notes is not a biblically defined marriage, the godly pastor will resist that. Because our obedience to God's law transcends our obedience to human law, although we must make every effort to be submissive to the earthly authority while still obeying God. Christian should not seek to cause controversy. We should not seek to be rabble-rousers.

We should not seek to subvert authority. We should not look for ways to rebel. But when it comes to obeying God at the expense of obeying the government, we not only can, but we must. It's in the same way that the Bible calls a wife to submit to her husband. The wife looks for every possible way to do that. It tries to do her best to do that, to honor the Lord. The Bible says to submit to your husband as you submit to the Lord. So in the same way that she seeks to glorify, to honor, to submit to the Lord, she is submitting to her husband.

But she stops submitting to her husband or she refuses to obey her husband when obedience means disobeying Christ. She will pray, even if her husband tells her not to pray. She will continue to tell her kids about Jesus, even if her husband tells her to stop. That is the Christian response to Romans 13 in light of all of Scripture. We make every effort to submit to the governing authorities. unless a law or a mandate comes in direct contradiction to the word of God. We are not rude, we are not crude, we are not aggressive, we are not underhanded in these ways, but we are unashamed and undeterred in our commitment to sharing the gospel and doing

the good work that God has called us to do. And I think that both sides of the debate agree on that. I do. I think that both sides of the debate agree. that personal obedience to God, even at the expense of obedience to the government, is right. I think that the disagreement is what Christians do in the meantime. So meaning, do Christians fight against growing and encroaching powers and policies that would threaten our ability to legally obey God?

And there's probably some disagreement also about if military insurrection or a revolutionary war is ever justified. So the question is, do we fight? for freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and all of the freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment, and do we even fight for the Second Amendment, knowing that it protects the First Amendment and protects us against tyranny that seeks to take away all of the freedoms that we enjoy? Do we fight against all the instances of tyranny, knowing that tyranny always leads to the inability of Christians to legally obey Christ? Do we care about the laws that are passed that contradict God's law or court cases that do so?

Quality Act, Roe v. Wade, do we care about any of those things? Do we use the legal system to fight against injustices? Can we make organizations that advocate for things like religious liberty? By the way, I've mentioned the Equality Act twice now. If you want to know what it really actually is, you can go back and listen to an episode titled The Equality Act. Or do Christians get out of the realm of politics and governance and simply ensure that our personal lives, that our families and our churches are doing the work that God has called us to do no matter what. This is where the two sides of this debate probably disagree. One side that says that we are to just work on and focus on the obedience of our families and our homes, our churches, we spread the gospel, we do the work

that we can do without worrying about what's going on in the political sphere and we obey the authorities until doing so means disobeying God, then we quietly let strongly persist in obeying God. And then the other side that says Christians should be fighting against tyranny, since tyrants by nature are not servants of God and are not fulfilling their responsibilities in Romans 13. That's what people like John Knox believed. It's the belief also that inevitably tyranny will place Christians in a position of having to disobey earthly authorities to obey God. And not only that, but tyranny has caused immense suffering of people of all backgrounds in all faiths every dictatorship even and especially those who rise up in the name of

common good and compassion have ended in suffering and murder and persecution so this is where my opinion comes in you've probably already been able to pick up on it so far if you didn't already know coming into this podcast um it's hard for me to see a biblical case for not resisting things like communism and fascism and all sorts of tyranny and all sorts of tyranny and all of its big and small forms, when you look at the absolute devastation and injustice, they have reaped over the past century. It's hard for me, or all of history, but especially over the past century, especially when it comes to socialism and communism and fascism.

It's hard for me to see a biblical case for abolitionists not doing what they did in slavery. They were activists. They used political and private and social means. The resistance to the government, what I believe is a good and biblical resistance to the government, both individually and collectively, both in the private and the public sector by Christians, when it has been done well, when it has been done in what I believe is the godly way, is defensive rather than offensive. It is pushing back against evil dictates that threaten freedom that lead to suffering and persecution. That is what the revolutionaries did, in my opinion. They declared independence from Britain. They didn't try to topple Britain.

They simply said, British law is unjust and its tyranny is in contradiction to Romans 13. That's what a lot of them believed. And we would like to create a society where men are free to speak, free to worship, free to create the government of their choosing. They were done with tyranny for a plethora of reasons. Those were just some of them. My personal belief is that Christians are called to occupy stations in the government and the political. sphere in all different kinds of spheres because God made the government. These things aren't inherently bad. They are institutions that God thinks are important. He doesn't believe in anarchy.

Government is necessary and good. And so Christians should, in my opinion, occupy these stations. Christians are called to speak up against injustice to seek justice and love mercy and support laws that allow maximum freedom for people to be. able to conduct their lives while still giving the government the authority to punish wrongdoing and collect taxes now let me give some clarifications um it is true that jesus did not come as a political revolutionary it is true that the apostles did not start political revolutions it is also true that neither jesus nor the apostles seem to care very much or speak very much about civil liberties their primary concern was the gospel and ours should be as well there will come a day

When politics no longer exist, activism will not exist, debates will not exist. But the gospel and its glory will. That is our eternal pursuit. That is our hope. The government cannot save us. And depending on your eschatology, you believe that things are only going to get worse and worse before Jesus comes back. I believe that persecution and tribulation for Christians is inevitable and that it will worsen. But does that mean that I don't push back against?

darkness in all its forms, whether it's in the form of public policy or persecution, I personally don't think so. I think that I do push back against those things. We are still called to good work, even while we anticipate trials and hardship and injustice. Jesus tells us to pray that God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven. We do that by sharing the gospel. We do that by loving our neighbor. But we may also do that by making sure that the cake baker doesn't go to jail for working in accordance to his conscience. We also do that by trying to abolish abortion.

We also do that by trying to put an end to sex trafficking. And of course, we think the main and the most important and the most effective way to do that is to simply share the gospel, not in order to change society and not in order to change laws, but the gospel is an end of itself. But we know that sharing the gospel is the way to spread justice the best. But I do believe that Christians are free to and even obligated to try to use every means necessary in order to end these kinds of injustices,

as peacefully and as obediently and as submissively as possible. We thank God that we live in a country where our voices still matter. Jesus said, render to Caesar what is Caesar's, and right now in America, we still have the right to decide what is Caesar's. And out of compassion and care for our fellow man, we direct others and our leaders toward decisions that are righteous and good. That does not mean forcing people to be Christians or forcing them to abide by the Bible. We believe in personal liberty, but from the Magna Carta to the Constitution, laws that prioritize individual freedom have taken their ideas about property rights and due process and equality, etc., from the biblical text.

and since God is the ultimate and the only supreme moral lawgiver, it makes sense for us to continue to seek to align our laws with these principles from which people of all faiths and backgrounds have benefited. We ensure that the justice we're seeking aligns with the Bible's definitions of justice impartial and based on truth. We do all of this with the knowledge of the gospel and our hope in Christ. He is the king of kings. He is our Savior. He is a is our perfect righteous judge. He is our ruler. He is our transcendent lawgiver. We don't make an idol of politics or politicians. We don't fixate on politics or social issues. We don't obsess over them. We don't allow them to steal our joy. Remember, the joy of the Lord is our strength.

We allow the love of Christ to speak truth and fight for righteousness in all things. and I do believe the majority of our thoughts in time should be dedicated to personal obedience and good work, although this can and does cross over into public advocacy. But our priority is our own relationship with Christ and our obedience to God and sharing the gospel, doing good work, loving our families, loving our neighbors, no matter what comes. So I hope that makes sense. I hope it at least gives you food for thought. Thank you so much for listening. We will be back here on Wednesday. Hey, this is Steve Day. If you're listening to Allie, you already understand that the biggest issues facing our country aren't just political. They're moral, spiritual, and rooted in what we believe

is true about God, humanity, and reality itself. On the Steve Day show, we take the news of the day and tested against first principles, faith, truth, and objective reality. We don't just chase narratives and we don't offer false comfort. We ask the hard questions and follow the answers wherever they leave, even when it's unpopular. This is a show for people who want honesty over hype and clarity over chaos. If you're looking for commentary grounded in conviction and unwilling to lie to you about where we are or where we're headed, you can watch this D-Day show right here on Blaze TV or listen wherever you get podcasts. I hope you'll join us.