Two Kingdoms (Updated COVID Mandate Edition)

 

In the book of Romans, Paul writes to Christians who are facing a scenario where their religion has been outlawed, and their lives are in danger for their confession of faith.  In chapter 13, he reminds them that all authorities are to be obeyed because they rule at His pleasure.  When describing this teaching of the Bible, Martin Luther describes God as ruling two kingdoms with His two hands.  With His right hand, He rules the Church by grace, and with His left hand, He rules the kingdoms of the world, along with the earthly estates of family and employment, by law, calling Christians to obey those in authority as if rendering obedience to Him.

 

However, one instance when this is not the case is if an earthly authority would command or coerce a Christian to renounce Christ or to sin against God, it is their duty to disobey that command and obey God instead.  The apostle Peter clearly expresses this in Acts 5:29 when he disobeys a sinful command saying, “We must obey God rather than men.”  

 

In the present day, Christians still live in a situation where there may be tension between the commands of God and the laws of the land.  When the secular law allows actions and behaviors which Scripture clearly forbids, Christians can still live according to their own conscience within that law.  In cases where regulations and judicial rulings attempt to restrict the rights of Christians to practice their faith in the public square or demand that they participate in actions their Scripturally-formed conscience cannot permit, they may need to disobey the secular authorities in order to obey God. 

 

Recent mandates and orders have also brought to light another tension for Christians—whether to obey or disobey orders that they believe are not legally legitimate.  Since the United States is not a monarchy, the executive branch (presidents and governors) are not the highest authority, but rather the fourth layer, after the people themselves, delegated through the Constitution, to legislative bodies, whose statutes are enforced by the executive branch.  Christians, even within the same congregation, may disagree about the legitimacy of an order, and that raises the question over how the congregation as a whole will respond. 

 

When this becomes the case, the Church is called to recognize her role as the administrator of the Lord’s gracious gifts, and not the arbiter of its members civic conclusions or the enforcer of mandates whose legitimacy is under question.  Christians who are in agreement regarding their confession of Christ seek a path to ensure the entire congregation, regardless of their level of risk, the degree of their anxiety, or the conclusions regarding civic affairs, are given the opportunity to receive the Lord’s gifts in Word and Sacrament from God’s right hand, while the individual members follow their conscience in addressing those in the sphere governed by His left.