NATIONAL & PERSONAL CRISIS #20, God gives us free will to accept or reject authority. (3-16-25)

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Authority is a matter of human volition.
1. All authority in life is dependent upon human volition. God has given us the freedom to accept or reject authority in life.
2. While God has delegated authority in the human race, like government, marriage, and family, but this authority is useless if it is not accepted.
3. While the husband has legitimate authority over the wife, his authority is ineffective unless the wife from her own free will recognizes and accepts it. In doing so, she obeys God’s commandment.
4. Christian wives are commanded by God to submit to their husband’s legitimate authority. They do so because they want to please the Lord. (Ephesians 5:22-24)
5. While parents have legitimate authority in the home, this authority is useless unless the children from their own free will recognize and accept it. Those who don’t, must learn by Forced Humility which will hopefully turn into Genuine Humility.
Ephesians 6:1 - Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
Proverbs 22:15 Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of discipline will remove it far from him.
6. Children are exceptions to the rule that we all have the freedom to accept or reject authority in life. Their parents make decisions for their children until they have been trained to make those kinds of decisions themselves.
7. All legitimate authority is delegated by God through the laws of divine establishment and through the principles of freedom. All illegitimate authority is based on the function of the Cosmic System.
Romans 13:1 Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no (legitimate) authority except from God, and those (legitimate authorities) which exist are established by God.
a. There are many who say they have authority and there are misguided people who submit to them, but they are not legitimate authorities because they don’t submit to the authority of God.
b. It should be understood that all legitimate or lawful authority comes from God, so no one can ascribe absolute authority to himself. When one assumes authority that is not from God, then it is counterfeit, illegitimate, unlawful, and therefore requires neither respect nor submission.
c. Dictators, tyrants, despots, warlords, mafia heads, leaders of street gangs, etc. certainly have authority that they assert, but it is not legitimate because it has not been delegated to them from God. They do not submit to Him or His laws, but instead, act contrary to His Just and Righteous standards.