On the Right to Throw off Tyranny

Do we have a right to throw off oppressive government? First read the Declaration of Independence to rehearse the arguments and logic put forth by the Founders for their break with the British Crown.

I have included a fairly long sermon delivered by Samuel West, a congregationalist minister, to the Massachusetts Council and House of Representatives in Boston, 1776. Familiar sounding year? Yes, the Declaration of Independence year. The sermon is well worth the effort to slog through it, since it refutes many serious theological interpretations of those who claim that we have an absolute duty to obey all rulers regardless of their governance. He establishes a right understanding of the scriptures on that point, and demolishes the incorrect interpretations that lead to more tyranny.

Genuine government is ordained By GOD for the purpose of rewarding those who do well and punishing those who do evil. Rom 13:3 “For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same. For he is the minister of God to thee for good."

Unfortunately under this present government, it is increasingly true that if you do well you get screwed by the government, and all the fruit of your hard work is plundered to "transfer" it to someone else who is "more worthy" of your property and wealth than you are.

When rulers become a terror to good works they are no longer serving in their role as God's ministers and have become illegitimate. We have an obligation to tolerate even bad rulers, but not when they demonstrate a determination to subjugate us totally to themselves in total disregard to their ordained functions. When they act that way they then have forfeited any right of authority over us. That was the argument made in the Declaration of Independence. I regard it as theologically sound.

Our government is breaking into our lives in many of the same ways the British Crown was doing in the mid to late 1700's. It is convicting to read the list of particulars enumerated in the Declaration and to see how similar some of them are to the afronts to our Liberties. We appear to have come full circle, except this time it is not a foreign government that is oppressing us, but our own national government, which was supposed to be reined in by the Constitution.

Increasingly, the Constitution, where it comes up at all in the Halls of Congress, is used by our self-styled "rulers" as a bludgeon over the heads of the cititzens who try to exercise their Liberty, and totally ignored when some Liberal/Progressive "cause du jour" is in their sights.

We must change this government since it has become a denier of basic rights. Change must occur. Peacefully if possible, but change must come, no matter what. We are presently being oppressed by a tyranny, and it promises to get much worse.

By the way, "basic rights" do not include the right to housing, food, a job, someone else's paycheck, or free lifetime medical care, or to redefine marriage - or the right "not to be offended". Just read the UN Declaration of Human Rights if you want to see a prescription for tyranny. Who pays for all that stuff? You guessed it! Those who "do well."