The Christian and Secular Political Oppression

We continue our discussion with regard to the biblical directives and perimeters that should be guiding believers when they are confronted with perverse, unjust, and oppressive secular governments.

In facing modern political tyranny & oppression, what are the wholesome & biblical perimeters that believers should observe in these last days, and what constitutes the Christian's appropriate civic responsibility within a fallen world?

Last week, we discussed the universal problem of oppressive & tyrannical secular government. But what is the Christian's appropriate response to these things? What are the biblical perimeters that we should observe, and what are our attendant civic responsibilities in a broken world? In the first of these studies, we focus mainly upon what we as believers are NOT called to do (i.e., Biblically inappropriate responses to the tyranny of Caesar).

The recent release of the film "Sound of Freedom" has engendered much discussion with regard to the oppression of human exploitation that dishonors the Imago Dei within Man, and which is manifest in many different forms in our sad and broken world: e.g., labor & sex trafficking, chattel & hereditary slavery, bonded & forced labor, the impressed labor and military service of minors, debt slavery, forced matrimony, etc. This issue is a major concern within God's Word, and it is thus the focus of much Biblical legislation.

When the people demanded a king, it was most grievous to the prophet Samuel, who warned them of the perils of centralized human government (1 Sam. 8). The yoke of oppressive political tyranny is an abomination unto the Lord--particularly when Caesar attempts to usurp the role of God Almighty and demand supremacy over the human soul and the conscience of man. This message recounts the sad history of human tyranny and underlines the radical demand of Christ: “Therefore, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s” (Matt. 22:21).