Why you should become a Bible-believing anarchist
who also believes the universe was created around 4004 B.C.
How can you be an anarchist if Romans 13 says the State is a divine institution which does so much good and you're supposed to honor it and pay every penny in taxes that it demands?
I have a whole website on Romans 13. It's called (simple enough) Romans13.com
That's a big seminary word for "rules of interpretation." What rules should we follow when trying to interpret a Bible verse? Here are a few:
Romans 13 says what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount. In fact, Romans 13 is a continuation of the message that began in Romans 12 (there were no "chapter" divisions in Paul's original letter). In Romans 12:14 Paul says "Bless those who persecute you." That does not mean that persecutors are a "divine institution," even though they "serve" God's purposes, and are, in this sense God's "servants" or "ministers" (from the Greek word deaconeo, "to serve," from which we get the ecclesiastical term "deacon."
It is "bad hermeneutics" to say that Romans 12:14 "authorizes" persecution. No, persecutors must repent. They are violating God's Commandments. They are sinning.
In Romans 12 Paul says leave vengeance to God. Do not return evil for evil. Overcome evil with good. Even . . . [turn the page to Romans 13] . . . the most evil thing on the planet: The Empire. The government.
Paul uses a word in Romans 13 -- the "powers" that be -- which means "demonic" or evil in every other verse in which he uses this word.
Jesus said "resist not evil" (Matthew 5:39). Not only "do not resist," but if the evil invaders wish to enslave you for one mile, let them enslave you for two miles (Matthew 5:41). "Resist not evil" does not mean evil is a "divine institution." There are many verses which instruct members of "the private sector" to "be subject to" members of "the public sector." Pharaoh, Caesar, Hitler, and Saddam Hussein were all evil but all "served" God's higher purposes. They were His "ministers" or "deacons." But that doesn't mean they did not need to repent of their evil policies. If the "public sector" thoroughly and completely repented of all its violations of God's Law, stopped doing things that everyone agrees are evil or sinful when committed by the "private sector," it would "go out of business." We would have what the Jewish economist Murray N. Rothbard called "anarcho-capitalism."
Romans 12-13 is a call to pacifism, not patriotism.
If everyone in "the government" repents of "governing" people (hurting them and taking their stuff), then everything human beings do will be done in "the private sector," with consent, under a contract. Not by archists who think they have a divine mandate to violate God's Commandments "in this case."