Religion and Authority

Religion and Authority

Imagine you are standing before God and are asked why you did this or that, or rather why you believed in this or that. Would you then say: Because that is how I learned it? – Learned from whom? – They taught it to me that way.

When we talk with people, we often hear the notion that in order to be saved you have to do what you are told. There is no other possibility of salvation. We find this motto among Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Jews, the military, political parties, and so on – among all religions and rulers this same principle applies. This treatise is about people’s relationship to religion and its leaders.

Of course everyone is imperfect and makes mistakes, including the religious leaders, but only in theory; in practice they are faultless and are practically deified. Even when they make mistakes, they are in the right. In the Catholic Church this was even officially confirmed through the papal dogma of infallibility. Others do not do it so openly, but in principle it is applied the same way. Although people do not know them, have never seen them, and in part do not understand their writings, and sometimes cannot believe what they write, people trust them blindly and are even ready to go to their death for them. And when they go to their death, they even think they have rendered God a service. But which God?? And who are They, for whom so many people are ready even to die? Their word is accepted as the word of God!

There are Kurds who, on the order of their leader Öcalan, set themselves on fire. Because they said so. Others did similar things for Marx, others for Lenin, for Hitler, for Napoleon, for the Pope, for their idol, their leader, king, president, board, general, Governing Body, and so on. Strangely enough, people have always liked to venerate someone who is just as weak and imperfect a human being as they are themselves.

In the Bible there is an interesting example, mentioned in 1 Samuel 8:5-7. The Israelites absolutely wanted to have a human leader, even though they were ruled by God himself. …and they said to him: “Look! You yourself have grown old, but your own sons have not walked in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations [have].” But the thing was bad in the eyes of Samuel inasmuch as they had said: “Give us a king to judge us,” and Samuel began to pray to Jehovah. Then Jehovah said to Samuel: “Listen to the voice of the people as respects all that they say to you; for it is not you whom they have rejected, but it is I whom they have rejected from being king over them.”

God had extensively set before the Israelites’ eyes what disadvantages it would bring if they had a human king-ruler, yet they insisted upon it absolutely. (1 Samuel 8:10-12) As we can see from this event, we humans have always chosen for ourselves those who stand over us and lead us. We have wanted them so badly that without them we can no longer do anything. When a public toilet is set up, someone is immediately appointed to instruct us on how we are to use it! In time people became disappointed and absolutely wanted democracy: “no one should decide over us, we want to decide for ourselves.” Then one had the choice between two or more persons, one worse than the other. If one was dissatisfied after the election, one was silenced with the justification: but you elected them yourselves! But we do not want to talk about politics, but about the fact that people always absolutely want to be ruled by others, and that this is especially the case in religion as well. In this treatise we are especially concerned with the relationship between people and God.

Let us talk about a Bible text that these religious people like to quote: Matthew 10:40,41 “He that receives you receives me [also], and he that receives me receives [also] him that sent me forth. He that receives a prophet because he is a prophet will get a prophet’s reward.” They are completely in love with this text and then claim: “this means us. You must accept us, so that God may accept you.” But in this connection we must also cite here a verse that these religious leaders are reluctant to apply to themselves: Matthew 7:15-16, 21

“Be on the watch for the false prophets that come to you in sheep’s covering, but inside they are ravenous wolves. By their fruits you will recognize them. Never do people gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles, do they? Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will.”

If we think back to the conversation at the beginning of this article and were to answer God’s question in the way described, does not the example of our first forefathers, Adam and Eve, come to mind? Adam pushed the blame onto Eve, and Eve in turn onto the serpent. But neither of the two was acquitted by God! In the Bible we find many more such examples, in which even prophets caused others – and in one case even a fellow prophet – to stumble through their bad example. (1 Kings ch.14) Even King David, otherwise so exemplary, drew others with him into his sin through his thoughtless conduct. (2 Samuel ch.24)

And how the priests, through their bad conduct, often led the whole people into sin, is well known to Bible readers. Who bears the guilt – the one who sets the bad example, or the one who imitates it? However much we may say, I did it because they told me to, this excuse will not acquit us before God!!

You may now be thinking: Everyone does that more or less. Do you want to take a stand against it?

This question may be justified. What we write here seems impossible to many. In doing so, the truth is not the decisive thing for them. It is not that they do not recognize the truth, but because the price of the truth is too high, they even begin to hate the truth, or out of fear they bury the truth within themselves. This fear is also justified, for they demand unconditional obedience. The word “No” is what they hate most. That is why they also see it as a success when people fear or respect them. The more they can suppress or eliminate, the stronger they are. Yet they do not do this work themselves, they have it done. This work is too low for them, it is dirty work. They let others do it. Even Hitler, in the extermination of the Jews, allegedly had part of the dirty work done even by other Jews. The religious leaders are just the same. They do not soil their hands with it. Is someone to be disfellowshipped, is someone to be declared an outlaw, or accused of heresy, or even executed? They do none of this themselves, but they have it done, and there are always some who like to do it. They do give the orders but would never lay a hand on it themselves; they do not even want to see it with their own eyes. It makes them feel sick. Something very important has meanwhile disappeared completely from our consciousness: a clean conscience. The apostle Paul placed very great value on a clean, unblemished conscience before God. He said:

“Men, brothers, I have behaved before God with a perfectly clear conscience down to this day.” Acts 23:1 “I am grateful to God, to whom I am rendering sacred service with a clean conscience.” 2 Tim.1:3

Every person should be able to stand before God and say: Everything I have done, I have done with a clean conscience and out of love for you, because I have the conviction that it is right.

Not: Because they told me so, therefore I gave up my conviction and did it the way they expected of me. Of course we try, as Paul says, to please others, including our wives, and we take pains and worry about it, but not in order to “sell” the truth or to bend what is right. In doing so we do many things that may be empty or unfruitful, but how can we thereby forsake God, or turn ourselves away from his way, be it only in small things, since after all God’s word ultimately leads to our own good?

If there is anything at all – be it a president, a leader, a state, a general, a dictator, an organization, any power, our friends, relatives, material possessions, or anything else – that can turn us away from the way of God, then we do not belong to him. It is that simple. Is this our idea, or does the Bible not say this in Romans 8:35,38,39

Who will separate us from the love of the Christ? Will tribulation or distress or persecution or hunger or nakedness or danger or sword? For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor governments, nor things now here nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other creation will be able to separate us from God’s love that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. From whom do these words come? The apostle Paul. From a sinful human being. But if he acted in accord with these words, then God urges us to imitate him.

Often we avoid difficulties, we usually seek the most comfortable and shortest way. We make ourselves dependent on others and are not thereby aware of the pitiable state into which we bring ourselves. We absolutely have to cling to someone and follow them, no matter where they take us. They shape and determine our life. And in this we feel comfortable and reassure ourselves with the words: “They have to render an account for it. That is their responsibility.” Right, they have to render an account for it. And we? For whom do we have to render an account? For them? No. For ourselves? Absolutely! When we marry, do we then ask our pastor whom we should marry? When we look for work, do we first confer with the bishop? Or do we first ask the archbishop, before we buy a car, what color or what model we should buy?? But when it comes to the service for God, then we are terribly afraid of somehow deviating from the instructions of the church, the mosque, the synagogue, the congregation, or the like. That would be a betrayal of our leadership!!

But by this we do not mean to say that every leadership or authority is bad. There were many persons who sincerely used their authority for the good of their “subjects.”

For example, King David or his son Solomon, who became famous for his wisdom, and some other kings and rulers who served the people with their whole heart (including their faults and sins). These are only a few examples that we find in the Bible. Besides these, who are not mentioned in the Bible, there were a great many other good rulers. Yet as the Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata once said: “learn to govern yourselves.” The Bible expresses it similarly in Ecclesiastes 8:9:

…that man has dominated man to his injury. To rule or to exercise authority is really not easy, but those who are so bent on it should not forget that they will render an account not only for themselves, but also for those over whom they have ruled. Are we looking for models for our life? Do we want to follow someone? God had the lives of many people recorded in his word who are models for us. People who, for their exemplary lives, their way of thinking and acting, were blessed and praised by God. What more do we want? How we should live, what God expects of us, he shows us for example in 1 Thessalonians 4:1,3

…for this is the will of God: be holy…

What does that mean, to be holy? Learn from God’s word, the Bible. Let us throw off fear and comfort-seeking and do what is right. Let us remove falsehood, hypocrisy, egoism, love of money, and immorality from ourselves. Let us not use our mind only to think about how we can gain an advantage. Let us ask ourselves what we are occupied with most of the day. What did God say before he brought the Flood over mankind in the days of Noah?:

…and God saw that the badness was exceptionally great and that the thoughts of the men were always intent on doing evil. Genesis 6:5

If God back then destroyed the people because they were bad, why should the same God today hold back from eliminating the wicked people? Are we perhaps better than the people back then? Never – rather worse!! That is why we can also be quite certain that the destruction of the wicked people is imminent. God does not sleep, nor does he forget. He who created the eye is not blind. Will he always keep silent about what he sees? No! According to 2 Peter 3:9 God inspired Peter to write the following:

God is not slow, as some regard slowness, but he is patient with you because he does not desire any to be destroyed but desires all to attain to repentance.

I would like to draw attention here to the fact that he does not say He is delaying, but rather that he is patient or long-suffering. We are now living at the end of God’s patience. The facts that prove this we will write on other pages, if God grants us this.

What is the purpose of this writing? Repentance and turning back. We want to lay aside hatred, envy, slander, and enmity. It is not about taking a stand against these authorities, leaderships, and bodies, or changing them; we want to change ourselves.

God does not give us the task of changing the world, but he commands us to change ourselves! This he says to all of us! With a Bible verse I would like to encourage all readers at the close:

“Let the one that is doing unrighteousness do unrighteousness still, and let the filthy one be made filthy still; but let the righteous one do righteousness still, and let the holy one be made holy still. Look! I am coming quickly, and the reward I give is with me, to render to each one as his work is,” says Jesus with the authority received from God. Revelation 22:11-12