Our First Allegiance

Our first allegiance is to God. As Christians there is no two ways about it. If it is between God and the whole of humanity our allegiance is still to God. But this does not mean that Christians should a agitators to change society into some sort of pseudo theocracy. In the Muslim world we see that happening in Iran and Afghanistan etc. This road only leads to religious imperialism.

Jesus Christ is King, yet He did not agitate to remove king Herod (whom He called "that fox"). He did not join that sect called the Pharisees who were self styled champions of the Jewish religion, in fact He was their most vocal critic. He even commanded His followers to pay their Roman taxes, a colonial power. Many don't understand His ways then, and many don't understand His ways now.

The fact is that God is God. His powers don't change whether on earth or in heaven. But something did change, at least temporarily. When God created Adam, He gave him dominion over the seen world. He did not take it back. Man still have the dominion over the world. But when Adam disobeyed God, he allowed Satan to have dominion over him. So that now we see the kngdom of man in the nations but we also see the dominion of Satan over this kingdom of man through men.

But now God has given authority to the new man, who is Jesus Christ. he said, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations..." He has all the authority, but His specific command is to go make disciples. So when the priest commanded Peter to not preach, He says that we must obey God not men. For when the higher authority comes the lesser must give way.

The fact is, we have authority to preach the gospel. Whether laws or governments or threats of violence, all must give way to this authority.