We Believe in Being Subject to Kings . . .

We learn the following from Paul the apostle (1 Timothy 2:1-6):

I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;

For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;

Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

It’s important to remember that at the time, the kings and “all that are in authority” were openly hostile to believers in Christ, persecuting and killing them as they were found, and as tempers ebbed and flowed. Paul lived in the time of Nero, emperor of Rome, not a friend to pretty much anybody. And nobody got to elect these leaders, either.

Not, he notes, because the kings and rulers were all that good, but because the prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks were “good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour.”

We have a similar admonition in the LDS Church:

We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law. (Articles of Faith 12)

Again, no addenda. Not subject to good kings, or presidents we like, or laws we coincidentaily happen to believe. The church re-emphasized this in a statement released today.

That’s hard to accomplish.

But it’s the goal.