Prophets and Rulers (8) Romans v Ephesians

Many Christians live with a contradiction between their understanding of Romans 13:1 and Ephesians 6:10. The latter passage explains that our struggle is against principalities and powers and world rulers in the spiritual realms. These words are political terms. A principality is a territory ruled by a prince. These characters are spiritual powers who work on earth by manipulating and controlling political power on earth. (Because no one knows what a principality is, I call them government-spirits to describe their role more accurately).

Many Christians realise that government-spirits can dominate and control governments in places like Nigeria, North Korea and Iran. However, they seem to assume that government-spirits cannot control the governments in places like the USA, UK and New Zealand. Yet Paul says that we are all struggling against government-spirits (principalities and powers). The proof that this is true is the reality that when a change of government occurs, most things carry on the same. The reason they don’t change in the way promised by the politicians is that the same government-spirits remain in control.

Submitting to the authority of a government that is controlled by government-spirits is extremely dangerous for Christians. This means that the common understanding of Romans 13:1, that everyone should submit to their government cannot be true (Christians in Hitler’s Germany discovered their mistake too late). If government-spirits in the spiritual realms control a government on earth, Paul would not urge followers of Jesus to submit to it, because that would leave them vulnerable to these evil spiritual powers.

I have explained in Understanding Romans 13 that Paul was reiterating God’s way of government, based on local judges applying his law. He was telling Christians they should submit to every government, regardless of their situation.

Christians should review their understanding of Romans 13:1 in the light of Eph 6:10. The government-spirits that control our nations have had too much power for too long, given that they were defeated on the cross. So, it is foolish for Christians to submit their power by submitting to the human governments that they control, in a vain hope that political power can make the world a better place.

The full series is at Prophets and Rulers.

Prophets and Rulers (3) Calling out Sins

• The Old Testament prophets called out the sins of the covenant kings (of Judah and Israel).
  • Nathan challenged King David’s adultery and murder (1 Kings 12).
  • Miciah challenged King Ahab and King Jehoshaphat (1 Kings 22).
  • Samuel challenged King Saul (1 Sam 13:1-14).
  • John the Baptist challenged King Herod’s immorality (Matt 14:3-5).

• The Old Testament prophets did not call out the sins of pagan rulers. There was no point, because they expected these kings to sin.
  

  • Daniel knew about Nebuchadnezzar’s sins, and told his son about them, but he did not challenge him about his immoral behaviour (Dan 5:1-20). Nebuchadnezzar’s was just doing what pagan kings have always done.

  • Ezekiel called out the pride of the King of Tyre (Ezek 28:1-19). This was a rare situation where a prophet did call out the sins of a pagan king. I could not find any other examples.

  • The Old Testament prophets prophesied against pagan kingdoms and warned them that they would collapse, but they did not usually call out their ruler’s sins.

  
  

• In our time, Christian prophets should not call out the sins of non-Christian rulers, because they have not committed to following Jesus and they do not have the Holy Spirit helping them to live God’s way. They will expect them to sin from time to time, because that is what sinners do. Prophets should not condemn them for being who they are.

• Christian prophets will sometimes call out the sins of Christian rulers, but this should be rare, because the prophet will not always understand the circumstances the ruler is dealing with. What appears to be sin might actually be a political compromise.
  

  • The challenge will usually come from a prophet who belongs to the same body of believers as the rulers.

  • The prophet will have a strong relationship with the ruler. God is not likely to use an unknown prophet from the other side of the earth.

  • The prophet will use the Matthew 18 process for challenging another believer (Matt 18:15-17). They will raise the issue in private first. If that does not work, the prophet might share with the ruler’s elders in their church. They would only go public if the challenge of the elders was rejected. Even then, they would often keep the sin to themselves, and leave God to sort out the issue.

  • God might send a prophet who is not connected with the ruler’s church, if the Christian ruler is being misled by court prophets (1 Kings 22).

Prophets and Rulers (2) Telling Rulers what to Do

Prophets have the ability to give advice to rulers. They can share God’s wisdom with them and tell them what to do, if the ruler wants to obey God and align with him.

• The Old Testament prophets shared their wisdom with the covenant kings of Israel and Judah.

• Elisha gave his king tactics for defeating the King of Aram in battle (2 Kings 2:8-23).

• Elisha told Jehu what to do once he became king (2 Kings 9:1-3).

• The Old Testament prophets did not give advice to pagan kings. They rarely shared God’s wisdom with them.

• Elisha told Hazael of Damascus that he would kill the King of Aram, but he did not give him advice about what he should do once he became king (2 Kings 8:7-15).

• Jesus did not give advice to King Herod or Pontius Pilate. He did not share the wisdom of God with them or tell them how they should exercise their power.

• Prophets occasionally interpreted dreams for pagan kings. God sometimes uses dreams when he wants to speak to a pagan ruler.
  

  • Joseph explained Pharaoh’s dream to him. God had given the dream to Pharaoh to provide food security for Jacob’s family and to prepare the way for his chosen people to be led into the promised land. The dream was not meant for Pharaoh’s benefit.

    Joseph became Pharaoh’s administrator. In this role he had to carry out Pharaoh’s instructions. Pharaoh used Joseph to enrich himself and to enslave the Egyptian people. Joseph was not able to share God’s advice about how to be a good king.

  • Daniel interpreted a dream for the king of Babylon (Daniel 4). God wanted him to understand that he is sovereign and controls the rising and falling of kings. Nebuchadnezzar made Daniel governor over the province of Babylon. He had to carry out Nebuchadnezzar’s instructions. He was not advising the king how to obey God’s will. Nebuchadnezzar actually continued to be evil. Daniel later explained this to his son.
    

    All the nations and peoples of every language dreaded and feared him. Those the king wanted to put to death, he put to death; those he wanted to spare, he spared; those he wanted to promote, he promoted; and those he wanted to humble, he humbled. But his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride (Dan 5:19-20).

    Neither Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar drew on prophetic wisdom to become good kings. They used the prophet’s administrative skills to advance their own purposes, power and wealth.

• Modern rulers who are not followers of Jesus will not usually be seeking the wisdom of God. They are unlikely to be interested in seeking the advice of Christian prophets. They will not be wanting to do God’s will, so they will not listen to prophets who can speak God’s wisdom.

  If God challenges a non-Christian ruler through a dream, a Christian prophet might receive the interpretation of the dream. They should pass it on if the Holy Spirit provides an opportunity.

• Advising Christian rulers what to do is probably an acceptable activity for Christian prophets, although there is no example of it in the New Testament (because there were no Christians rulers). The role is akin to the OT prophets advising covenant kings.

  Democratically-elected Christian rulers do not have absolute authority like the ancient pagan kings. They are accountable to their electorates and the existing laws of their nation. They are also bound by their party’s principles and other political conventions, so they are not always free to do God’s will for their nation.

  A Christian prime minister or president is still bound by their cabinet and parliament (congress), who may not be Christians. If the prophet speaks God’s wisdom for a situation to them, they may not be able to act upon it.

Prophets and Rulers (1)

Prophets who are dealing with rulers have four main roles.

• Telling rulers what to do by sharing the wisdom of God.

• Calling out the sins of rulers.

• Telling rulers what is going on in their world, including:
  

  • physical level – what their enemies are doing.
  • Spiritual realms – understanding spiritual events is more important.

• Warning rulers of threats to their personal safety, including:
  

  • physical attack
  • spiritual destruction

Categories of Ruler
Rulers can be kings, presidents or prime ministers. For simplicity, I will refer to them all as rulers, regardless of their current title.

Prophets will respond to rulers depending on how they fit within the following four categories. The first two are described in the Old Testament. The second two relate to the New Testament age. Some of the scriptures about the first two groups will be applicable to the second two groups, respectively.

• Covenant kings – these were the kings of Israel and Judah who were accountable to the covenant that Moses initiated between God and his people. The OT prophets dealt with covenant kings in terms of the requirements of the covenant.

• Pagan rulers – the nations were controlled by pagan kings and emperors during the times of the OT Prophets. The OT covenant does not apply to them, because they have never committed to serving God.

• Christians rulers – in the New Testament age, there have been many Christian kings, prime ministers and presidents. They have accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour so they are bound by God’s standards.

• In the current season, there are more non-Christian rulers than there were in the past: Christian kings, prime ministers and presidents. They have never committed to obeying God. They feel no obligation to him.

Prophets will have a different interaction with each of these different categories of ruler. I will describe them separately in more detail in the next few posts.