Question:
Please explain Romans 13:1. Some persons claim that it refers to all officers from President down to the superintendent of the Sunday school.
Answer:
And in a general way, the application of the passage is as broad as stated in the question. “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers,” to every power in the sphere in which God has placed us. If we belong to a Sunday school, we should acquiesce in all required of us wherein those in charge have jurisdiction. But the Sunday school officer has no right to compel the observance of civil law, for that is outside of their authority. They have no right to say that we must have family prayers, for that is outside of their jurisdiction. Their authority lies exclusively within the field to which they are appointed—the same applies to magistrates and other civil officers.
God has ordained government because the worst government in the world is better than anarchy. In a general sense, all civil government falls within the scope of this scripture. But all civil governments are ordained for things exclusively civil. They have no right to command or enforce religious ordinances, institutions, or observances, nor prohibit religion. If they do any of these things contrary to the conscience and belief of any soul within the territory they govern, that soul has a right to say, as did Peter, “We ought to obey God rather than men.” For any civil power to attempt to control or regulate religion is to put itself in the place of God, and it thereby becomes a blasphemer—taking on the characteristics of the man of sin, the son of perdition (See 2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4). “The powers that be are ordained of God” to do the work for which they are ordained. God has not delegated to them His power or authority.
