Several examples of civil disobedience are found in the New Testament. When Peter and John were arrested by
the Jewish authorities and commanded not to speak or teach in the name of
Jesus, they answered:
"Whether it is right
in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; for we
cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard." Acts 4:19
So
they went on teaching in public and were arrested again. The high priest said
to them:
"'We strictly charged
you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your
teaching, and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us.' But Peter and the
apostles answered, 'We must obey God rather than men."' Acts 5:28
It
was a brazen statement before a hostile crowd. But to fully understand what was
happening here, we have to look at what took place just hours before this
meeting.
But
a curious thing happened that night which delivered a very clear theological
statement to the early Christians.
“But
an angel of the Lord came at night, opened the gates of the jail, and brought
them out. Then he told them, “Go to the Temple and give the people this message of life!”So at
daybreak the apostles entered the Temple, as they were told, and immediately
began teaching.” Acts
5:19-21
After Peter was arrested and jailed (again) for preaching about Jesus this happened:
“The
night before Peter was to be placed on trial, he was asleep, fastened with two
chains between two soldiers. Others stood guard at the prison gate. Suddenly,
there was a bright light in the cell, and an angel of the Lord stood before
Peter. The angel struck him on the side to awaken him and said, “Quick! Get
up!” And the chains fell off his wrists. Then the angel told him, “Get dressed and put on your sandals.” And
he did. “Now put on your coat and follow me,” the angel ordered. So Peter left the
cell, following the angel. But all the time he thought it was a vision. He
didn’t realize it was actually happening. They passed the first and second guard posts and came to the iron
gate leading to the city, and this opened for them all by itself. So they
passed through and started walking down the street, and then the angel suddenly
left him. Peter
finally came to his senses. “It’s really true!” he said. “The Lord has sent his
angel and saved me from Herod and from what the Jewish leaders had planned to do to me!” Acts 12:5-17
When Paul and Silas persisted in preaching the Gospel they were arrested, beaten badly and thrown into prison. But they didn't stay there long:
“A mob quickly
formed against Paul and Silas, and the city officials ordered them stripped and
beaten with wooden rods. They were severely
beaten, and then they were thrown into prison. The jailer was ordered to make
sure they didn’t escape. So the jailer put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet
in the stocks. Around midnight
Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners
were listening. Suddenly,
there was a massive earthquake, and the prison was shaken to its foundations.
All the doors immediately flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off! The jailer woke up
to see the prison doors wide open. He assumed the prisoners had escaped, so he
drew his sword to kill himself. But Paul shouted to him, “Stop! Don’t kill yourself! We are all
here!” Acts
16:22-28
Now if you and I tried to spring someone from
jail, we would be breaking the law and end up in prison ourselves.
But
here we have God doing exactly that.
The
jail break in Acts 5 left a very clear message to the early church — when it
came to preaching the gospel they were not subject to human laws — which led
the Apostle Peter to say Christians must “obey God, rather than men.”
But
the Apostle Paul is adamant in issues not pertaining to this exemption;
the early Christians were subject to those in authority unless they put restrictions on their freedom to worship, freedom to witness or their freedom to enjoy His Word.
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