Government derives its authority from force, not from any willingness on the part of citizens or citizen organizations. Any church, church records, finances, etc. can be seized with or without participation in 501.c3 tax exemption or any other community resource.
The fact that some sort of sense of fair play has been violated is pure illusion. Government, like God, isn't fair.
Since the constitution was rescinded on October 26, 2001, there are technically no individual rights before the law either.
What I'm trying to say here is that statements of "submitting to authority" are purely academic, since the government can take whatever it wants, any time it wants, for any reason it wants. There is no longer any guarantee of protection.
"Submission to authority" is a cheap preacher's gimmick to get gullible sheep in line to pass donations to the church coffers. We've all heard the line for so long we have come to believe the statement has its own authority. It doesn't.
It has nothing to do with justifying government action or the lack of it. Government takes what it wants by force. Preachers have to use clever ruses, since they have no force of their own. What all of them fail to recognize is that the practice of religion is itself an expression of freedom. It's not required by government or by any corporation. It's entirely up to the individual. So too are contributions of money and time to the religion. In no other part of a man's life is he so free. Preachers, therefore, have to create a false 'hook' to get people programmed into behaving according to the preacher's wishes. Hence, they are told they must submit, when in fact they don't.
The only real authority any man, free or otherwise, that has a legitimate claim upon a man's allegiance is Christ Jesus. Any other person or organization is limited in its claims. No one and no organization has the right to do so.
and that's just me, hollering from the choir loft...
That was a mouthful! And amazingly, it is all demonstrably researchably true!
Since the constitution was rescinded on October 26, 2001, there are technically no individual rights before the law either.
Scripture tells us to
test people, to see if they are of God or not.
1 John 4:1,
"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world."
This only makes sense, when one is sincerely interested in associating with godly people, while avoiding the contamination and influence of ungodly men.
The key, however, to the rejection of the rule of God was Article VI, Clause 3, "The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several state Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but
no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."
The Constitution was a rebellion against Christ and his authority over the nation, replacing it with the rule of man. The Bible warns us,
"Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?" (Isaiah 2:22).
An objection is that the Constitution contains Christian principles and therefore is a sort of halfway covenant. As evidence of this, they may offer that the Constitution presents us with a system of divided authority and diffused powers. Even covenant-breaking historians would admit that Christian principles exist within the Constitution while denying that it is a Christian covenant (the word “God” does not appear in the “Constitution”). The problem with this is that every government that exists contains Christian principles. In fact, any truth or correct "morality" is a Christian principle. All true and good principles are Christian principles because this universe is created and governed by the true and living God who has revealed himself in the Bible. Islamic governments contain many Biblical principles, such as capital punishment. That does not, however, save them from condemnation as apostate covenants. We must return to the question, what sort of Christian principles constitute a Christian government and what make an apostate government? The Biblical covenant model is the Biblical model and therefore the only proper judge of whether or not a state is a covenant-keeping one.
In
Torcaso v. Watkins, 367 U.S. 488 (1961), the United States Supreme Court holds that the state of Maryland can not require applicants for public office to swear that they believed in the existence of God. The court unanimously rules that a religious test violates the Establishment Clause.
This verifies that the U.S. Constitution allows Atheists to rule and make laws for bondservants of Christ!
“We the people...” = the religion of humanism. This is why you have Satanists ruling over you today -- and you signed on to their program voluntarily!
