“A Christian Realist stance admits the Romans 13 assignment to the state of coercive power while also warning against the constant threat of abusing that power. All people, whether civil authorities, or their critics, have self-interests, blind spots, and often a combination of legitimate aspirations.” - Providence
“Protestantism began as a conscientious resistance movement. We resisted man’s command, but only because we were conscience-bound to obey God’s. But how can we know when to resist man’s commands?” - 9 Marks
“You have to take the consequences if you do it, but that was a noble thing to do….That was something that he felt very deeply in his heart.” - CPost
“I reached out to church leaders from around the world, asking how they apply Paul’s command to ‘be subject to the governing authorities’ (Rom. 13:1). These believers hail from all sorts of countries” - TGC
“An implication of these principles is that when the government goes beyond its prescribed limits, it is acting unjustly and loses legitimacy. Applying the logic of sphere sovereignty to the vaccine mandate, the government does not have the authority to force us to inject a substance into our bodies that we do not consent to.” - C.Post
“Tim Stephens, who serves as pastor of Fairview Baptist Church in Calgary, Alberta, was arrested Monday after refusing to abide by the order from Alberta Health Services to refrain from holding worship services that don’t comply with the provincial COVID-19 rules.” - C.Post
Read Part 1.
Reading several articles by the activist group of pastors, I find the re-interpretation of Romans 13 best articulated in a series of posts by Tim Stephens, pastor of Fairview Baptist Church in Calgary.7 He begins by proclaiming the lordship of Christ over the church (all Bible-believing Christians agree with this). He describes the Scriptural pattern for church life as set down by the Lord Jesus Christ:
In which we seek to understand why James Coates took his stand against the Alberta government
“In November, Canadian health officials began showing up at Grace Life worship gatherings, recording the number of attendees, those who were not wearing masks, and social distancing. This continued each Sunday for about three months.” - Cripplegate
When governments place burdensome regulations on churches, what are their options?
