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RE: Anarchy is the Only Political Ethos that makes sense for Christians
I've been thinking lately about how I could establish a pretty solid biblical basis for what people around here describe as anarchism. I'm a little hung up though on Romans 13:1-7. What are your thoughts?
Romans 13 becomes one of the most anarchic verses in the Bible when you realize that it has always been falsely translated because those doing the translating were employed by centralized governments and risked getting their heads cut off if they applied the same Greek meanings as they did elsewhere in the Bible. http://higherliberty.com/?p=617
The entire Bible becomes one of the greatest anarchist textbooks ever written when the reader removes the mysticism added by state corporations known as churches... Bastard's Summary of the Bible.
Romans 13, in my opinion, is the Achilles heel for the argument that the modern bible is the literal "Word of God" cover to cover. If you follow the teachings and example of Yeshua, then Paul's opinions in Romans(& that is all that they actually are) become void. Before his conversion, Paul was a Roman assassin and mass murderer, hunting Christians for the Empire. I doubt he lost his statist tendencies entirely and that reflects here.
We may just need to agree to disagree on the point of the inspiration of Paul's writings. Both he and Peter both believed that his letters constituted the word of God. But that aside, I don't think Romans 13 is necessarily a statement against anarchism. Could it be that God expects us to submit to state governments that exist to the degree that said government promotes freedom of conscience? That doesn't necessarily mean that any government is God's ultimate intention. Is it also possible that although Paul wrote that, he also believed that the ultimate expression of the kingdom of God on earth would be a society that looks to God as king, not man? It seems this was God's original intention for the people of Israel but they insisted on making a man their king.