Is it ok for Christians to disobey laws or mandates that go against our own convictions along with the Word of God? What did the early Christians in America base their conviction of being anti-slavery on?
Let’s look at a couple things first…
The year is 1774. A full two years before a declaration of Independence is announced. America’s first anti-slavery society is founded by Benjamin Franklin and Dr. Benjamin Rush, both would go on to become signers of the official Declaration of Independence. This was an act of civil disobedience against King George III as he said that America could not end slavery.
Dr. Benjamin Rush and Benjamin Franklin knew that America and slavery could not co-exist. Many who claim that our Constitution is outdated and racist either lack the knowhow to simply read the document or just refuse accept truth. The truth is that the Constitution paved the way to end slavery here in America. These two original founders decided to ignore the decree laid out by King George and worked to end slavery anyway. Benjamin Rush would continue the fight to end slavery for the next 4 decades while even heading a national abolition movement.
For several Founders, they were highly motivated to end slavery as we see in the actions of John Quincy Adams who despised the idea of slavery so much so that as he was actively fighting against it, he was given the nick name “the hell-hound of abolition”. He was relentless in his efforts to abolish this evil as were several of our founders.
John Adams, statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, Founding Father, 2nd President of the United States, “church-going animal” instilled in his son. Quincy Adams, a hatred of slavery and desire to end it. Quincy would go on to become the 6th President of the United States years later. John Adams passed on the same desire to his son to fight for what is right and that is freedom for all. Quincy would then instill that same passion and zeal to a little known, young Congressman from Illinois who would eventually go on to become our 16th President that would implement Quincy’s 3- step plan for the abolition of slavery.
Without the Adams Family, there might not be a Declaration of Independence or an Emancipation Proclamation.
As fathers we will never fully understand the impact that we will have on our sons and daughters until we are gone. Our impact and legacy will be felt long after we have departed from this life whether it be good or bad. Fathers take the time to pray with your sons, teach them right from wrong, tell them about the grace, love, and mercy of Jesus Christ.
Adams said in a famous speech as he quoted Scripture from the book of Luke chapter 4 where Jesus declared that He had come to “proclaim liberty to the captives”; he then went on to note that “if this was the goal of Christ our Savior then this should also be the goal of all Christians as they too should work to end slavery”.
Luke 4:18-19 says “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
Jesus said “to proclaim liberty to the captives” …. Sin ultimately makes people captive and enslaves them. Christ has come to set them free.
The number one priority of a Christian should be to minister the Gospel so that Christ can have an opportunity to work in the heart of an unbeliever and set them free from their bondage of sin.
Paul, in his writings, has been criticized for not denouncing slavery in its entirety but when we read the Scriptures we never read where he condoned it either. Paul’s goal was not to overthrow the Roman government but to preach the Gospel. The issue of slavery during Paul’s day is for another time but Paul’s mission to proclaim the Gospel trumped anything else in life as that should be a believer’s number one goal. He knew his mission, to proclaim liberty to the captives.
Does that mean we take a back seat to the things that are going in in our land? Do we remain silent when evil is having its stay? Do we obey mandates that have rulers of darkness working behind them? I believe that there are times to silent and there are times to act. We must let the Holy Spirit lead in our lives and use proper discernment or we risk losing our integrity. Our Founders used this discernment and did it right.
You see, Satan is all about control and he wants nothing more than to isolate you from those who care about you and control your life. That is what has been going on in this nation and around the world for much of the last two years. Divide and conquer. We know deep down that something isn’t right.
If we simply sit down and be quiet then we are saying that our Founders were wrong in declaring their Independence from Great Britain and that the Revolution never should have happened. Our Founders should obeyed the words of Paul written in Romans 13:1-7 which I will expand on those passages later down the road. At the same time I’m not meaning to take away or demean these words either but just rather look at them in proper context.
Who was Paul talking to? Who was his audience?
What if men like Franklin, Rush, and Adams kept quiet? What would our world look like today?
Do we obey laws that have correctly gone through the process that makes them a law? Yes. I think many of our politicians needs to rewatch or watch School House Rock on how a bill becomes a law because we seem to have a bunch of King George III’s running around drunk with power handing out mandates. Mandates are not laws. Mandates are enacted by the executive branch rather than through a legislative process. If gone through the correct process it then creates a new law as it ends with a signature by a Governor or leader. This is very dangerous territory we are entering into here in America. It sets a precedent that we can just hand out mandates to get what we want.
The fact is our Founders tried everything humanly possible to avoid a war with England.
When you look at the list of 27 grievances that our Founders had with King George, listed at number 17 was “imposing taxes on us without our consent”. If this was the main grievance like we were taught in grade school, why is it then listed all the way down at 17?
Their first and foremost complaint….” He has refused his Assent to Laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good”. Basically, the King refused to let the colonists pass basic laws.
What is the 1st Amendment in the Bill of Rights?
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
When Congress met on July 4th, 1776 these were words spoken:
“The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America, when in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
If all men are created equal, then slavery does not line up with this declaration. The Constitution laid the foundation for the abolition of slavery in America. There has been no document like it before or since. If our rights come from God, man cannot take them away.
Issues much like religious liberties, the desire to end slavery, the removal of trial by jury, the placing of military power above civilian power and many others were critical reasons why the Founder’s said we have no other choice but to separate from Great Britain.
As there were many in early America that used the Bible to promote slavery it was Scripture that was used to ultimately abolish it by men who were brave enough to stand where few would dare to go.
Restoring Faith, Family, and Freedom in America 