There are a couple of oft-quoted New Testament passages that fellow believers aim at folks like myself, who question the actions and motives of the governing authorities whenever I see them run afoul of the founding principles of our nation, and especially the supreme law of the land, the Constitution.

Romans 13:1 “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.”

1Peter 2:13 “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right.”

I heartily agree, of course, with these passages as part of God’s holy and inspired Word. I strive in every respect to comply with the duly established laws that have been passed both in our state and in our nation. I do not despise legitimate authority, and there are many laws on our books that I fully comply with even though I do not personally agree with them and often find them quite inconvenient. I advocate working within the system, where possible, to bring about civic change. I am in no wise “anti-government”. In fact, I consider the charge to be scandalous and false that would say otherwise about me.

Before you accuse me (or another believer) of violating the principles found in these passages, let’s make sure we are properly applying them to our present situation. First of all, let us remember one basic fact: WE DO NOT HAVE A KING. As Americans, our highest earthly authority is not a man but a document (namely, the U.S. Constitution). In our republic, we are ruled by laws, not by men. Every single citizen, including myself and whomever occupies the offices of Governor and President, is equally subject to the Constitution.

In Peter’s and Paul’s day, the people were by and large governed by the whims of men. When a noble, humble and wise man sat in the seat of authority, all was well. When a sociopath like Nero or Caligula occupied the seat of power, things went poorly. Because unchecked authority tends to lead sinful men to become proud and arrogant tyrants, the unfortunate testimony of human history is generally not good in monarchies (or “dictatorships” to use the more modern term).

Our forefathers recognized the futility of the monarchical succession and were inspired to break out of this old mold to create a better form of government. These brave men put everything on the line to create the “human institution” that became, in short time, the envy, the breadbasket, and the last great bastion of liberty and hope for the entire world. Obviously America has never been perfect, but the ideas and principles that guided our founders have borne tremendous positive fruit not only in our country but throughout the world for the better part of our existence as a nation. It really bothers me when I hear fellow Americans denigrate our founders and heritage by sanctimoniously declaring them to be mere rebels against the King of England and therefore opposing “what God had established” and therefore in utter violation of the two passages quoted above. I’m sure these people would have, at the time, sided with the Tories and opposed the Continental Congress as well. I’m sure there were true Christian believers on both sides of that great struggle, and I don’t mean in any way to question the salvation of anyone who sided with England at the time. In the same way, there were devout Christians fighting with the Confederate States during the Civil War. This brings me to the second basic fact: SOMETIMES WELL-MEANING CHRISTIAN BELIEVERS ARE WRONG.

There is a basic principle of authority that goes something like this: Where rules or laws handed down by authorities conflict with one another, you must follow the higher law. In other words, if adhering to the U.S. Constitution (or any other law or that matter) forces me to disobey the dictates of my conscience before Almighty God (or His written Word), then I must follow the higher law (i.e. God’s). If New York State passes a law that supersedes my protections as a citizen under the U.S. Constitution, I believe that I am in the right to ignore that lower law in favor of the higher one — and the Supreme Court of the United States will back me up.

I’ve already said that elected officials at any level within our Federal, State and Local governments are themselves subject to the laws, same as me. If, however, they get a big head and attempt to violate a higher law (i.e. the Constitution or God’s Word), it is my RIGHT, DUTY and OBLIGATION as a citizen to defy them. Their authority in that case is illegitimate.

Others may be ready on a whim to toss out the system of government that we inherited from our ancestors and return to slavishly bowing before men rather than being treated as their equals under the Constitution. As for me and my house, I side with the founders. I admire their courage and seek to emulate it. I would argue that this human institution (i.e. our Constitutional Republic) is what Peter and Paul would describe in our present day as being “from God”, and that present day elected officials who violate the Constitution are mere usurpers like Jezebel and Ataliah. Those who would scold me for not folding up like a cowardly doormat before such people may find themselves, like the Tories during the revolution, on the right side of public opinion but on the wrong side of history.

Individualism is a belief in the supremacy of individual rights, liberties and responsibility over societal objectives.  Collectivism, by contrast, subjugates the individual to the supremacy of a common set of — often very fluid — group ideals.  Individualism recognizes that although every individual is part of a group (actually many groups), these groups have no permanence and by no means overshadow the individual, who is in fact permanent.  In the body of Christ, we are first and foremost individuals created in God’s image, filled with His Spirit, and personally accountable to Him alone.  We are also members of His body, the church.  We’ve been joined together as living stones as part of His mystical temple.  Yet we also individually are His temple.  Each of us is uniquely designed and gifted to be a blessing to other believers and to fulfill a role in His church, but that role (calling) is assigned and ordained by the Lord Himself, and not by the church.

I’ve heard Christians say that individualism is purely an American invention that negatively taints our perspective of the Scriptures.  They claim instead that God desires to relate primarily in covenantal relationship with the Church as a collective, and only secondarily with us as individuals.  Both of these notions are false, and reflect the growing tide of progressivism (i.e. Marxism/socialism) that, along with other doctrines of devils, has swept over nearly all modern nations, including our own, and has significantly infected the church.

First of all, America got its individualism from the Bible and not vice versa.  The founders of our country were influenced more by the Bible than by any other source.  The country was founded during a time when Biblical literacy was at an all-time high, and at a time when each man, whether he was a devout Christian or merely a “deist”, knew the Scriptures inside and out.  While our founding documents don’t directly quote from the Scriptures, they reflect the thoughts of men who were bathed in the Scriptures both personally and culturally.  As Victor Hugo said “England has two books, the Bible and Shakespeare.  England made Shakespeare, but the Bible made England.”  Our founders were, by and large, Englishmen.  John Locke was an English philosopher whose writings greatly influenced the founders, and he himself drew his inspiration from the Scriptures.

The Bible is saturated from cover to cover with individualism.   The entire Bible is basically a collection of the stories of individual men and women of faith (as well as some without faith).   2 Corinthians 5:10 says of believers, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”  Likewise, Revelation 20:15 warns unbelievers, “And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”  When we stand before the Lord, we will stand alone.  The very concept of an individual judgment is predicated on the notions of individual liberty and responsibility.  How can you hold a person who is not free to make his choices responsible for those choices?  Jesus’ parable of the talents expresses God’s economy and focus on the individual.  In fact, nearly all of Jesus’ parables address the individual, not the collective.  Today’s progressive society attempts to strip individual freedoms in order to eliminate the consequences of bad decisions.  They do not realize that they are suffocating the souls of men in their futile efforts to keep them “safe”.  But, one may say, wasn’t Israel judged as a collective?  Perhaps, but not for “collective sins”, but rather for individual sins that went unjudged and unpunished by the collective.  Even during the forty years in the wilderness, the judgments that came were directed primarily at the ones who specifically had sinned.   In addition the nation of Israel was an easily definable collective consisting of the descendants of Jacob living together in a particular geographical area.  The church of the New Testament was organized so loosely and so organically that only God Himself knew who was in or out at any one time.  The rigid soul-crushing man-made hierarchy was a later development of the church that eventually led to total apostasy resulting in the Reformation.  Jesus addresses specific geographical groups of believers in Revelation chapters 2 and 3, but once again making His appeal almost exclusively to individuals within those congregations.

Collectivists wear a cloak of compassion and chastise individualists for only caring about themselves.  In so doing they ignore the fact that our individual heavenly reward is based upon our individual success in following the unction of the Holy Spirit in expressing compassion and love for others.  Thus the individualist by definition has a greater motive and greater drive to do good works, knowing he will be individually judged in accordance with them.  By contrast, collectivists like to hide behind and take credit for the collective accomplishments of the group rather than being judged on their own merits.  Unfortunately for them, the Day will reveal all the places where they padded their resume with the accomplishments of others.

Collectivism, not individualism, is the new kid on the block.  The ideas of the atheist Karl Marx in the mid-nineteenth century sowed the seeds worldwide progressivist thought and gave rise to unionism with its mob violence and totalitarian communist experiments across the world leading to the deaths of tens of millions.

The group ideals of the collective rarely remain those of the members.  Instead, they morph over time to reflect the interests of the self-appointed leaders, who use the masses to solidify their own power and privilege.  Thus the sacrifices made by the individuals for the collective interest only bear fruit for the demagogues in power.

One might say, what about team sports?  Isn’t that an example of positive collectivism?  To be sure, all the individuals work toward a common victory, and individuals are inspired and made better by the greater purpose of the team and by the team members around them.  But the team itself is transitory.  At the end of the season it is every man for himself securing the best available contract and he’ll be just as committed to the “collective” next year when he shows up for training camp in a different color uniform ready to play for the division rivals.  The collective is transitory and ethereal and has no permanent existence.  Individuals are forever.

Another example of collective might be a corporation.  Everybody who works for the corporation is a “team player” doing their part for the collective to help the bottom line.  But stop paying them and see how committed they are to the team.  Ultimately individuals are committed to their own interests and survival.  The collective is a myth.

Or how about the nation?  We are all patriots.  “God bless the USA” we say.  We’ll even put our lives on the line to defend the country.  However what about when the nation no longer represents the ideals we grew up with?  Ultimately, every relationship that each of us has with a group or collective is merely a marriage of convenience.  Ultimately we are all individuals who stand or fall before the master of heaven.

Surely the church is a permanent collective to which our devotion is undying, right?   We all attend church on Sunday.  We may lay our lives down for the brethren.   And just like with a sports team, we are individually inspired, challenged, and made better by the believers that surround us.  But what if the leaders of our congregation take a wrong turn theologically and trample sacred Biblical truths?  We’d run out of there like a house afire.  Sure, we would join ourselves with other believers, but the body of Christ in its universal entirety is only discerned and discernible by the Lord himself.  We submit ourselves to godly leadership, we encourage the brethren, we use our gifts for mutual edification, but it is the Lord Christ whom each of us individually serves and we are (and must be) individually connected to the head, that is Christ.  Our primary devotion is to Christ Himself.  His promises are to us individually.  Historically, the church took on the form of a surpassing collective only when the dynamic life of and power of the Holy Spirit gave way to hierarchical authority structure, mindless ritual, rote recitation and slavish asceticism.  Under this anti-Biblical pattern, individualism and individual creativity and expression were crushed, giving rise to the aptly named “Dark Ages”.  This darkness only persisted as the common man was held in the bonds of fear and deprived of light of the Scriptures.  The New Covenant is not made with the church.  It is made with individual believers who together comprise the church.  As Jeremiah declares concerning this covenant, “they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.”  The very word “church” (ecclesia) means “called out ones”, that is to say, “called out individuals”.

The irony that collectivists don’t seem to recognize, although it has been repeated time and again on the world stage, is that while individualism benefits the collective, collectivism crushes the individual.  Thus collectivists never fail to kill and devour the goose that lays the golden eggs.  In both society and in the church, individualism is the only viable foundation for progress and achievement.  Individualism dominates the pages of the Bible.  Individualism is the natural perspective of anyone who reads and believes the Scriptures.  The claim that American Christianity has been weakened by American individualistic ideals has no basis in reality.  It would be more accurate to say that the inherent principles of Christianity and the Scriptures, including the primacy of the individual, made America a great nation.