What happens when one’s spiritual teachings and moral principles, which were formed by way of Divine writs (such as the Torah, the Bible, the Qur’an etc.), clashes with the man-made laws of modern government and times? What do we do when such laws opposes God’s laws?
Some may say, like the Rev. Norbert Oesch, pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Orange Co. has once said: “The first thing is we are to honor the laws of the land, insofar as that it is possible, and to the clearest extent we can. That is very clear in Romans 13 where Paul says that all authority comes from God.”
He goes on to say, ”There are exceptions and that is when the laws of man commands us to violate the higher laws of God. And so there have been many times, from the beginning, where godly people say [to the government], ‘I cannot obey you.’ I must obey God rather than man.”
Obviously, some of us may have a problem with the notion that ”all authority comes from God”.
In America, one challenges the law by breaking it and then going to court to challenge it. However, the person must be willing to take the consequences and that happens to be in line with the way our own system of laws are set up.
When an individual or a group of citizens take such measures, by breaking the law and/or protesting it, we pray that their sacrifice wasn’t in vain and that something positive comes out of it. However, man-made laws will always come up short and will always be subjected to amendments because man is not perfect. We are flawed.
When religious dictates seem to be unable to make lucid the dictates of Divine Law, and man-made laws continue to create unrest, what laws are binding upon all of humanity? Moreover, are these laws of Divine origin and nature?
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