Lesson 54b

We're in Lesson 54, Romans. We are in Chapter 13. I'm going to read it again. Romans Chapter 13, verses 1 through 7. I want to go through it again because there's a lot in here. Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore, whoever resists authority, has opposed the ordinance of God, and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.

For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do it as good, and you will have praise from the same. For it is the minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid, for it does not bear the sword for nothing. For it is the minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience sake. For because of this, you also pay taxes for rulers or servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due them, tax to whom taxes due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.

So again, very germane, and I've got to start off because my kids were chastising me last week for shutting everybody down, trying to jump ahead and get into other topics So I took the comment, but I'm going to reject it. We need to get through some of these terms, otherwise it really doesn't make sense to get into some of the verses that you jump down to. And I know I do that too, and we're at the Eccles Bible study and trying to jump ahead. I know Bob goes, no, no, don't jump ahead. I still want to try and go through this a little bit on the terminology before we start diving down into some of the later verses.

For my kids, I'm sorry, I'm still going to shut down a little bit if we get ahead. One of the things I want to do is, there's another verse, what we said about doing evil and all that, why you have rulers. And in 1 Timothy 1, 8 through 11, it says, But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, realizing the fact that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers. That's a tough one on Father's Day. or mothers, for murderers, and for immoral men, and homosexuals, and kidnappers, and liars, and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God for which I have been entrusted." That's Paul. So, again, the law was meant for all the unrighteous, all those different categories there. again, why it's there.

And we'll get into more of that as we see that the the authority has a sword and some of those other things that we'll get into a little bit here. So I think we're on question three now. So who sets up the authorities and is it all authorities? And so from verse one, every person is being subjection to the governing authorities.

So there is no authority except from God and those which is new. Nick, I'm supposed to click on me. There you go. Um, so, uh, there's no authority from, uh, except from God and those which exists are established by God. So pretty simple question. Who establishes the authorities? Somebody. Well, God, God, Yeah, very clearly, very clearly is the one who sets up the authority, God does. So, does this make sense in the fact that God is a sovereign God in control of all things? Yes. If he's in control of all things, he's the one who establishes. It's pretty easy.

If he is the sovereign God, which means he is all-powerful, all-controlling, can do anything he wants, so he has set up the authorities. And again, in Romans 8, 28, we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. So again, He uses all things, even the authorities that He sets up. And so, the question is, does God really set up all authorities? Yes, He allows them So, even the bad ones.

Yeah, that's the tough one. That's why I want to walk through this in a kind of methodical way, because when you jump to that, it's like, especially in these times. Fortunately, I've not been watching much news up here, which has been delightful. Very good. You should try just turning off the news for a week. It makes it so much nicer not to listen to all this. I see occasionally headlines somewhere, and it's like, no, don't worry about it. So again, this gets very interesting in the current environment. So depending on your political persuasion, did God set up Barack Obama? Did he set up Trump? Did he set up all of those? In the Old Testament, there's a verse that says, the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. which kind of defines it.

So again, depending on your personal political persuasion, whether you're happy or sad, whichever way, God set it up. It's kind of interesting when you think about that. We always think how important we are in all this, but God is the one who actually sets up the authorities. And, you know, he uses us, you know, through voting, through whatever, you know, or if you're in a non-democracy republic, you may not have as many choices. Which, again, goes to the fact that he is in control of this.

He's the one who sets it up. So, I guess the question is, name any authority. Did God set that person up for that authority? Name any authority. Did he set it up? Yes. Mike? Even bosses. Yep. He allowed that. Yes. Mike? Why are you asking me? You raised your hand. Oh, you raised your hand like you... I was waving at somebody. Oh, okay. I don't know that. I just see you waving your hand, so I thought you were trying to get this.

So name a Cheryl's right name any authority any authority that he set it up, you know I went to the federal state local The dog catcher, you know anybody the boss like Cheryl said that he set him up Well, it's hard to imagine but I believe he set up Hitler's authority he did did he allow that yes he did yeah, I I mean, name any authority like that. You know, even, you know, they're very tragic in Africa. There's very, you know, tragic rulers there that are, you know, horrible. And those are the ones, like I said, when we read these passages, it's very difficult sometimes for us to understand.

That's why I want to walk through this. God establishes all authorities. And even... Go ahead. He also puts them down. I mean, he sets them up and he also allows them to be put down. Exactly. Exactly. It's both up and down. He allows it in the Hitlers and the horrible rulers to the very kind benevolent ones, the terrible bosses, the good bosses, the local, all of these things.

What we're seeing too is what's going on right now with the government and you see a lot of differences within the country right now. and where you are, and which governor you have, which mayor you have, and what police force you have. All of these are different around the country, but it's allowed by God.

Again, it's very, very germane to what we're going through right now is to understand that God is allowing all this. Even though I don't understand why a lot of times, although I did, I do think of sometimes that, you know, in the end times, I don't think we see the United States anywhere listed. So if the Lord is taking us out so He can return, amen. So, you know, I think about that sometimes when I see all this craziness.

So, again, from this verse, God sets up all authorities, okay? All of them. Now the interesting one, question four. Should we resist bad authorities? Define bad. You define it. No, I ask the question. I'm teaching. I'm asking you. What is a bad one? Because we'll get to that actually in that, you know, what is a bad one? Well, who was in power when Paul wrote this? Exactly. He wrote. He was kind of bad, wasn't he? And that's what we'll get to exactly. Are the bad ones still established by him? Yes. Yeah. And that's the hard part. When we go through these verses, it's very hard to try and swallow that. that he allows the, quote, bad ones to happen.

And, you know, so I, how do you understand that? Other than, you know, I go back to the statements to Job when, you know, he says to, you know, where were you when I created all this? Where were you when I did the, put the stars in? Where were you when, basically showing Job that, you know, are you smarter than God? And so when we do that, so, you know...

Christ died for all the bad ones too, didn't he? For God loved the world. That means everyone. You know, that's the other thing when you think about it. I always think about that too. You know, Hitler and we bring up all these, Jeffrey Dahmer or whoever. Do we have the same DNA, basically, as any one of them? That DNA is the sin nature. And it's just by our situation where God has us and our choices that we could be every bit as bad as they are. So I always look in the mirror and think, you know, oh, I'm so good, but I could be every bit as bad as any one of those. So getting to it with the bad authorities. The bad authorities are the ones that we disagree with. Is that what a bad authority is? Not necessarily. So what is a bad one, then?

Mike? Well, my thought was, is that how do you determine a good one versus a bad one? Is a good one someone who has implemented? Do you have your phone on? A good one is one I think that has implemented principles and statutes that align with God's law.

A bad one, I mean, it's so subjective. If I don't like the way that they're doing it, does that make it bad? Right. That's the point. I think that's where we say a bad authority is one that we just disagree with. But the point is, the bad ones are still set up by God that we deem as bad. And so it's a broad category. And that's why I was saying, I may think, you know, Barack Obama's bad, Trump's great, you know, or vice versa. You know, how did this guy, how did Trump get to be president when you're, you know, Barack? We've decided that we like one or the other, and it's bad. And so it's very subjective that what a bad one is. So, comes up to the question, should we resist them? What if you disagree with the president or the governor or the local police department? Should you resist them?

Sometimes. Sometimes? Okay. I'm just thinking the Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, right? I mean, which is where I think the context is respectful. So if you're going to disobey, it's got to be very respectful the way they did. So respectful. That's an interesting term, Miles.

So I just don't like the quarantine. But I'm respectfully, well, I don't know. Let's see, something else. So for you, you mentioned they confiscated 1,500 different types of guns or whatever. So as long as you're respectful, you disagree with that. As long as you're respectful about it, is that okay? No, sorry, I guess the other aspect to that would be certain...

I feel like there's certain limitations or certain specific criteria that which can be a little hard to define, I think. Well, I think Mike touched on it, and we'll get on that, is what those criteria are. So let's go on on this one. If you are resisting, who are you ultimately resisting? Well, I guess I would just ask, define resisting versus disagreeing. Because we don't want to confuse those two, right? My next question is, are resisting and obeying two different things? Oh, well, okay. So that's, but you know, I want to get walking it through.

If you resist it, who are you resisting? What does the verse say? Resisting God. You're resisting God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God Okay, and those the they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves So we get to the question JD of that is resisting and obeying. Are they the same or two different things? Obedience means to listen under all right, so And I'm not going to, I'm going to throw a wrench, right? So I'm not, I'm not going to throw a wrench in God's word, but I'm going to throw a wrench in for the class.

Where would we be? Um, I mean, we would, what role would, would this entire world be under without the rejection of governments and the, um, you know, the, the desire to be free. Um, and like, so there's been so many wars fought, right? Um, were those wars all, wrong. Just a bigger question and sorry to throw the wrench there. No, that's a good question. And again, I guess and Cheryl brought this up.

Did Jesus resist the earthly authorities such as Pilate? No, I don't believe he did. No. And Cheryl, I think the same thing. Did Paul resist the Roman authority in Ultimae Nero? No, he didn't. Would you say that Jesus resisted authority when it was not his time and so he wouldn't let them take him? uh... when they wanted to arrest him he would walk through the crowd and uh... is he resisting at that point or is he that's a great question i was thinking the exact same thing you know or was he i mean as he said the reason it wasn't his time yet but see they didn't restrain him or hold him They tried, but they did not hold him or restrain him.

He did. And these are those weird ones. How did he just walk through the crowd? You know, how did he teaching there? And suddenly, I mean, so this is a little different, but he didn't want to restrain. He did not resist. Once they kept, you know, brought him at the garden, that was it. He allowed it. Other than that, he walked away miraculously or whatever, but he did not resist the authority. He, through miraculous terms, I think, walked away through a crowd or that. So ultimately, he didn't. Once restrained by the government, he did not resist. Paul did not resist.

You know, he kind of said it upon himself because he said he appealed to Caesar. Which meant he ultimately had to go to Rome under Caesar to have his case tried. Well, he appealed under the existing law of the time. Right. So again, he's under that authority.

Now, how are the Romans at that point? Were they just swell fellas? No, they were tyrants. Tyrants. Yeah. So that was at the time Christ was around. And he, did he change that? Nope. He established it. So again, when you look at this, again, we're getting to the question of resisting and obeying. And that's really some of the keys of this thing, what resisting is and what obeying is. Well, let me give you another example.

In Exodus, Pharaoh puts out this edict that all male Hebrew children were to be killed by the midwives. Well, the midwives didn't do it. And when Pharaoh called them in and said, what is the problem here, ladies? Their answer was, these Jewish women give birth before we can get there. And so the issue is, they resisted Pharaoh.

Did they lie to him? No, I don't think so. But then the next edict was that every male Jewish man was to be, or baby was to be thrown in the river. Well Moses ends up in the river and Pharaoh's own daughter goes against her dad's edict and rescues Moses. They were complying. They were complying by putting him in the river but she wasn't complying by taking him out of the river.

So again, again, who is under the authority of this? Believers or unbelievers? Romans 13 is written to believers waivers So again, these are really really hard ones, especially when we start thinking about what's going on right now As I was doing this, it's just very very difficult to say God established all these authorities and what's going on right now and Resisting which we'll get to a little bit. Let the other thing which which if even even if whatever you think of the government and whoever is your ruler.

When you look at 1 Timothy 2, 1 through 6, it says, First of all, then I urge that in treaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgiving be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator also between God and man, man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, a testimony given at the proper time.

Which is, I remember always, Monique was always the one who was saying, praying for, whenever she was in class, she was always praying for the leaders. Well, she was exactly right in what this verse says. We're to pray for our leaders. We're to pray for them. And to pray that what? That they will do whatever they want? No, it's to pray for them to do what is right. And what is right? It's what is scripturally right. I saw an interesting concept in that. quote was that the whole focus there is that the government would leave us alone so that we could practice being believers.

The other interesting thing that fits in with that is the realization that we're not of this world. you know that we are not necessary citizens of heaven and you know like Peter says that we're sojourners on the planet we're just sort of passing through for whatever our father's purpose is for us being here but changing the government or resisting authority is not part of our assignment exactly and that's the point of all this that you know this is temporal What if you were, you know, a German Christian under Hitler?

What then? Can I read something that Constable wrote? Huh? Can I read something that Constable wrote? You may be quoting something I'll get to. Go ahead. Okay, he said, Subjection or Submission, involves placing oneself under the authority of another, like Mike said, and doing or not doing what the authority requires.

Paul did not say obey. Submission includes obedience, but it also includes an attitude from which the obedience springs. Submission does not involve an attitude of compliance and deference that is not necessarily present in obedience. Submission is essentially support. The Christian might have to disobey his government, Acts 529. Still, in those cases, he or she must still be submissive and bear the consequences of his or her disobedience. Governing authorities is a term that embraces all the rulers who govern the citizen.

Right. So we may disobey, but we're going to have to be submissive to the punishment of that. Exactly. And that's, you know, a lot of this is that, you know, obeying and resisting are two different things. Yes. And obedience is a compliance like a servant or a slave or or something. You are under that authority. Resisting is a different one. You can resist. and still obey. It's kind of a weird thing. I can obey it, but I can resist.

And, and again, you have to be careful because of what this says. If when you're resisting authority, you're resisting God. So again, we'll get in and JD, we'll get into a little bit of this coming up here with, um, with about what do you do and how, How do you handle this, and what does resistance really entail? And I want to throw another wrench out there. No, not really. I just want to ask. Do you have any more tools in the toolbox? No, just wrenches. Yeah, just wrenches.

So what's the opposite of governing authority? So let's just be clear that the divine institution of government began after the flood, right? So, Genesis 6-ish, somewhere in there. That was the divine institution of government. But part of that government didn't exist. There was no governing authority, so far as I can tell. Following that point in time, you have two options. You have governing authorities, or you have what?

What's the opposite? What is the What's the pre-flood environment? What does that look like? That's a question for the class. That's when everyone did what was right in their own eyes or anarchy, I guess. Anarchy and chaos. So the question I have is, is any governing authority better than anarchy or chaos? Yes. Yeah, I would think so. Okay. Yes. Yes. So, wherever you find yourself, under whatever authority you find yourself, Canadian, American, and whoever else is on the call, your government is better than the alternative.

I don't know if you ever thought of it that way, but that's an interesting perspective when we think about this chapter. Two different things to is goes back to what Mike said what defines better or bad is is very subjective to whatever you think is bad or good and the other is that it's temporal we are citizens of heaven and so whatever we're under this is a temporal thing our citizenships in heaven and so Resisting whatever and well, yeah, the other one is in in second Peter or first Peter to 13 through 17 now it and this this one again thinking earthly Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every to every human institution whether to a king is the one in authority or to governors is sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right and For such is the will of God, that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men. Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bond slaves of God. Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the King." So is that consistent with what he's teaching here in Romans?

Definitely, yeah. I love that bond slaves of God part because we especially as a people think of ourselves with freedom and rights. That word bond-saving, Jim, I remember having this conversation in class with you. There's a lot packed into that term and it's a privilege to serve. It's a privilege to serve the one that has released you, has redeemed you. And so, like you said, Courtney and Mike, we have a much bigger purpose than just to operate under a governing authority.

We have a spiritual, perspective. We have a citizenship which is positionally placed in heaven. We serve. We're not free in the sense that we can do what we want. We serve our Redeemer. And there's such a bigger picture that Paul had in mind. So it all kind of plays into the fact that we're not Americans. I mean, yes, but it's much bigger than that for us as believers, right? And again, it's temporal. As I said, this is temporal. Our citizenship's in heaven. So whatever we're under, good, bad, however we define it, is temporal.

And, you know, in the last verses in 1 Timothy 2, we'll pray for them, for kings, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. So it's to allow us to do that, is to be under this authority. And again, in this 1 Peter 1, it says, for the Lord's sake, were to submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution. So by submitting, we are doing it for the Lord.

Because He set it up. He set up the authority. Courtney, I'm thinking about how many times, and use an example of Paul in Philippians. The Philippian people were really Worried that because he was in jail that his ministry was not being propagated and his response to that was is that the ministry was doing just fine because he was chained to the Praetorian Guard and and one after another they were coming to Christ and so the his jail time actually produced believers in the highest echelons of authority and even though he was under arrest. Well, he understood the will of God and what was going on in his life, but the Philippians didn't, so he had to explain to him, there is a higher motive here, you know. He knew he's a sovereign God, that he was in control of all this.

Yeah. And that's where you have to go, is to understand the sovereignty of God. He knew, you know, how do you imprison, like Peter and them, singing hymns? when you're in prison. Right. You know, you have to understand that God's sovereign and that he's using this authority that God set up and you use it. And he's singing and what happened to the jailer?

He and his whole household, you know, and, and Paul uses it. He was what in Caesarea, I think for two years and you know, the letters written and all the people who came, he was actually protected. in Caesarea when he was able to have people come in and out all the authorities all that he was he was under arrest but I think he was in kind of a very nice place in Caesarea for I think it was two years while he taught and had people come in and he had to get all the uh the higher-ups in the government there and so you know it's it's Again, he understood the sovereignty of God.

So, there's another one, you know, Cheryl, we were talking, I think Cheryl was saying about, you know, what do we do with the bad ones? Does it say anything about the bad ones in here? No. But we do have it in 1 Peter 2, 18 through 20. Servants. So, this is servants. And so, on slaves.

Be submissive to your masters with all respect. not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable. For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly. For what credit is there if when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it, you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.

I have a question here. Let's say that I've decided that as a young father that if something doesn't change in my government, then my kids are going to grow up in a much more difficult environment than I grew up in. So I decide that I'm going to get proactive in the government and on the opposition side and push back. Would God have me do that?

I say yes, in that you are under the law, you're not disobeying the law, you're not doing anything. And I think what it says here is you want authorities to be godly men. That was what we're praying for, that they are godly men. So I think Christians should be involved in politics. You are doing it lawfully under that, you are participating and you're not disobeying the laws you're not doing. I think you should. And that's what I think they said in that passage. It was to pray for our leaders such that they are godly men. So I think it's absolutely that we should be involved in that. Go ahead.

I was going to say, I've always thought that when I think about what Hitler did and the Christian German people who are Christians, I always used to think of them as being kind of evil because some of them knew that the Jews were being gassed to death, their bodies stacked, thrown into holes in the ground. And I'm trying to think, were they being right to let the government do what they were doing? And I should change my view. about the German Christians?

Well Russ, Miles you might be able to tell some really wonderful, I know you can tell some pretty amazing stories about that exact thing. I don't know that we want to go into that right now or I don't mean to put you on the spot but your family and your heritage is really rich with believers and subjecting themselves to authority.

I don't know if you want to touch on that at all but Yeah, I'd be happy to. I mean, I don't want to run off on a big rabbit trail or whatever, but it is the context for myself anyway. Be good. Go ahead. Okay, sure. So my personal family, my dad's family is Mennonite family. They fled. They fled communism. My dad's grandfather was a Mennonite pastor, and so they were blacklisted. They fled Europe and came to Canada. So that's my personal side of things. So that's kind of my personal non-resistance type of background. My wife's side, her grandfather was a young Christian husband and father in Germany.

When the war was going on, he was drafted, which I mentioned last week, he was drafted into the German military. And being a Christian, he knew that things were wrong. I don't think he knew all of the atrocities that were going on necessarily, but he knew that Hitler was not a good man.

And so the option was, I mean, either you have, you know, yourself and your family slaughtered or, you know, you comply one way or another. So, I mean, he joined the military, but he prayed that two things, one, that he wouldn't have to, one, that he wouldn't have to shoot people, and two, that he wouldn't have to swear allegiance to Hitler. And both of those prayers were answered. First off, I guess in this kind of the, I don't know what they call it, the ceremony where they basically all line up and individually go down the row and one at a time you have to swear your allegiance to Hitler.

And they were standing out in the hot sun and just one or two guys before him, he passed out. And I mean, they say it was a sunstroke or whatever, but it was God's divine hand, I think. Actually, a lot of the guys that were not present for that ceremony at a later time were required to go through the process again.

Somehow, they missed him. So, I mean, God's answer is right there. And then, as well, he was assigned a position as a messenger, so he never actually had to be in active shooting combat. So, I mean, it's just interesting, I guess, the way God answered his prayers in that situation where he knew it wasn't a good thing. But what was the option, I guess, for him and his family? There's probably a lot more I could say, but... Wow, that's amazing. You know, that's we're kind of getting into, you know, the difference on and you started with they came to Canada.

And so are there are there examples in the New Testament where authorities were resisted? Anybody? I don't I don't think so. Yeah. This is this is where I got one off. It was looking when I was trying to find subjection and I found this and it was a don't don't laugh. It says it was from God's word to women organization. Mike, don't give me credit. I'm not saying anything, but I thought it was pretty good. That, quote, to be in subjection does not mean to, quote, to obey necessarily.

It's shown because the apostles who so plainly taught subjection to the higher powers, Romans 13, 1, 5, Titus 3, 1, 1 Peter 2, 13, were constantly getting into difficulty with these same powers through disobeying them. The apostles were not guilty of inconsistency of teaching one thing and practicing another. When they could harmonize their conduct with human laws and not injure their work, they did so. But this very Peter, who commanded, Be subject to every ordinance of man, when brought to account for a manifest disobedience to the commands of the rulers of Israel, answered merely, We ought to obey God rather than men.

Acts 5.29. If subjection meant always all that obedience means, no monstrous tyrant could ever be dethroned by righteous revolution on the part of Christian citizens. Disobedience to human rule may become one's highest duty to God and our fellow beings. Subjection would teach a humble, conciliatory spirit, not a servile one. Thoughts on that?

So Peter and them said, no, we have to obey God. So he was he was pushing back. He was he was saying, look, I can't obey you guys because, you know, I'm I'm under a higher authority. And and so they put him in jail for that or threatened to put him in jail. And so he is pushing back.

Yeah. And I think that's that's a really good point, is that we can we can't push back. We can we can disagree. We just have to be willing to deal with the consequences, right? I mean, that's objection. That's the key, again, between obedience and resistance, too. Even resistance, we're resisting God, but in some cases, if it's contrary to God's word, we resist. Is it resistance? I mean, I think it's we're obeying God. We're not obeying the law and we submit to the law.

So I'm going to give a practical example. Let's say it's illegal to shoot somebody that that comes into my home. I own a gun, but it's illegal. It's absolutely illegal to shoot someone that enters my home. I have to use jujitsu. Not, I can't use a gun, but I don't choose jujitsu. I, I shoot them and kill them because they're threatening my family. Now I have to go to jail. I go to jail.

Right. In that scenario, have I followed these, these, um, what, what Paul is saying? Have I, have I been, um, obedient to what Paul is saying in Romans here? I believe it has. Yeah, I think I think the thing is that you are under that authority. You shot somebody. You're arrested and thrown in jail. You suffer the consequences of that authority.

So, yes. So, yes, it's like, Miles, you said you can't do that in Canada or you're immediately thrown in jail. I was going to say jujitsu probably wouldn't be allowed either. But yeah. Okay, if I can throw in another aspect that's actually really personal on that subject. There's certain, I guess I got to be kind of careful what I say, but there's certain proverbs that we apply in child raising, and it's illegal in the criminal code of Canada. And the consequence of that, I mean, prison would be one thing that I'd be willing to deal with, but the consequence of that would be that the police would show up at your door and your children would be taken away. You may never see them again. That, for me, is a lot, a lot scarier than prison, frankly.

Right. So, again, you have to be under that authority and and you're obeying that authority because of your time. Understand. Understand. Oh, is it time? Oh, yeah. I mean, I need to get to the airport. So we'll continue this. It's it's interesting in a lot of ways what we're doing.

We'll get into some of those things about what you do to an authority, and what as a believer we're able to do under an authority. There is some resistance, but you pay the consequences. You do something, Miles, and they take your kids away, but you're under that authority. So you choose not to, you know, do whatever you may want to do because you're under that authority for fear of what they're going to do.

So we'll get into this again. We'll finish this one out because there's some things about how we as believers can deal with that. And it goes to what you actually said about Canada and some things like that. So we'll get into that next week. So, yes, I have to we have to end the class actually on time so I can get to the airport so I can make it back to beautiful Colorado, although it's so pretty up here.

So we want you back. See, it really doesn't matter. I can speak for yourself, Jim. OK, Miles, we appreciate your inputs. Yeah. And we'll touch on this again next week, following on this question, because it follows directly to what you said, and what as believers we can do. It's an interesting thing, where we're at in the world right now, and all that. Alright, let's close in prayer, and then I'll get on an airplane.

Heavenly Father, we thank You again for this time. We thank You again. You haven't left us alone. You've given us Your Word in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And again, we just defer to your wisdom and to your authorities that you have set up. And again, it's sometimes so hard to swallow this, but we have to realize our eternal position, which is our citizenship in heaven and that whatever is here is temporal and that you set it up for your purposes and your sovereign purposes. And we derive peace and comfort even in the difficult times and difficult authorities and all the things we think are bad authorities and all these different things. We ultimately derive peace from this understanding that you are in control of all these things and all the authorities you set up.

So we just thank you for that. We thank you again just for this time. We can study your word even remotely in different places. Again, give you thanks again for your blessings this day. And we again just pray that all they say and do will honor and glorify you. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.