It is a divine principle that we are to “Pay
what is Caesar’s to Caesar, and what is God’s to God” (Mark 12: 17).
The believer is therefore to be “subject to the authorities that are
above [him]” (Rom. 13: 1). However, it needs to be remembered that
subjection does not
imply slavish
obedience to whatever
the government decides—“proclaim the word” (2 Tim. 4: 2), for
example, can never be over-ruled (compare Acts 5: 28). The authority
of the government is not absolute, for “it is God’s minister” (Rom.
13: 4) and there are areas of life in which it has no authority and
where we are to render “what is God’s to God” (Mark 12: 17). The
government, has, for example, no right to tell God’s people who they
are to receive and who they are not to receive. Indeed, it is
astonishing to think that Christians can even countenance
acquiescing with secular authorities on this matter, for the general
principle of Rom. 14: 3 applies: “for
God has received him”
(my emphasis). He is “the King of those that reign, and Lord of
those that exercise lordship” (1 Tim. 6: 15)!
If government documentation is insisted on
before entry to a building where a ‘communion service’ is being
held, then those papers are effectively being made a condition of
fellowship. It is a flagrant example of the authorities intruding
into an area in which they have no rights—in essence, they are
insisting on a secular “commendatory letter” (2 Cor. 3: 1). It is
God who decides who is fit for fellowship and who is not. Now the
Government may well be ignorant of the limitations of its remit, but
the same does not apply to God’s people. Where Christians acquiesce
with such intrusion, then they are effectively adding to Scripture,
because the Word of God has already laid out who is to be received
and who is not.
Such an approach ought to be called by its real
name:
sectarianism. We are
called “into [the] fellowship” of God’s “Son Jesus Christ our Lord”
(1 Cor. 1: 9), not some lesser communion, and certainly not an
arrangement which prohibits persons even entering the building in
which we meet. Let there be no mistake, sectarianism is iniquitous,
and to excuse it on grounds of obedience to the government is to
“practise evil things, that good ones may come” (Rom. 3: 8). The
Greek word for sect is
hairesis, the plural of which is translated in Gal. 5: 20 as
“schools of opinion”—a work of the flesh (see v19). It is barely
credible that a believer can think that secular papers have any
force
whatsoever in the
spiritual realm. The Assembly is God’s house, and it is God alone
who dictates the rules of that house. To accede to laws that tell us
who may be received and who should not is anathema to any Christian
who is mindful of the rights of God. In such circumstances “God must
be obeyed rather than men” (Acts 5: 29), and it ought to be possible
to remain respectful and subject to the authorities, while declining
to observe demands that conflict with the Scriptures. If the result
is that godly men and women are labelled ‘transgressors’ then so be
it: all must one day answer to a higher judgment seat.
There is another problem with this kind of
government directive and it significantly impacts on the truth of
the Gospel. In John 3: 16 we have that well-known verse: “For God so
loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that
whosoever believes on
him may not perish, but have life eternal” (my emphasis). The sense
is very plain: salvation is open to all. It inevitably follows that
we
cannot ever turn
certain sorts of people away from Gospel meetings because the
government has instructed us to do so. Those who acquiesce in this
way with the authorities need to remember that the Lord whom they
profess to serve is not in the business of repelling people. When
the disciples would prevent children being brought to Him, the Lord
rebuked them saying, “Do not hinder them from coming to me” (Matt.
19: 14). Only when all hope is gone do He utter those awful words
“depart from me” (Matt. 7: 23). It really is of no consequence
whether the aims of the government are laudable: a higher authority
has decreed “preach the glad tidings to
all the creation”
(Mark 16: 15, my emphasis).
It may seem innocuous for believers to go along
with such seemingly simple demands from secular authorities but, as
always, we need to think before we act. The act is trivial, but the
effect is momentous. To fall in with such government requirements is
to undermine the two basic truths of Christianity: the truth of the
Gospel and the truth of the Assembly (see Col. 1: 23; 25). From our
side, we may well believe that it is all a ‘fuss about nothing’. It
is far from being such: we are giving up what is both fundamental
and foundational.
