Not My President?

This past week the United States of America inaugurated a new president. I don’t like him. I believe he is, as my grandpa used to say, “crooked as a barrel o’ snakes.” I don’t like his vice president. I despise his baby-killing-gender-bending-Marxist-promoting-communist-China-loving-LGBTQ-racist-Orwellian agenda. The Biden administration is an unapologetic enemy to the kingdom of God, no matter all of the “God-talk” they employ. I am one of those kooks who believes the election fraud was so evident that it was hard to believe. No one will ever be able to convince me that Joe Biden was elected legitimately. However, none of that means that I can say that he is “not my president.” He is a legitimate president because the powers-that-be under our Constitution certified him as president.

This situation is nothing new to world history or even to God’s people in particular. For example, God made it clear in Israel who were to be the priests and high priests: the sons of Aaron. As history progressed, the sons of Aaron were even narrowed down in the time of David to the line of Zadok. Only Aaron’s sons through Zadok were to be high priests. Upon the Jews’ return to the land after captivity and exile, the Zadokian line had to be restored when the temple was rebuilt. However, between the rebuilding of the temple and the birth of Jesus, the high priesthood became a position that could be bought and sold or given as a gift by rulers. During the lifetimes of Jesus and his apostles, the high priests were not “constitutionally legitimate.” Nevertheless, neither Jesus nor the apostles refused their authority.

When Caiaphas, the high priest, was plotting to kill Jesus, he prophesied authoritatively in his office as high priest that it was more expedient for one man to die for the people rather than the whole nation be destroyed (Jn 11.49-52).

Paul was not aware who the high priest was who was trying him. The servant of the high priest struck him, and he responded, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! Are you sitting to judge me according to the law, and yet contrary to the law you order me to be struck?” (Ac 23.3). When he was told Ananias was the high priest, he acknowledged his wrong by quoting Exodus 22.28, “You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.” He recognized this illegitimate high priest as a legitimate ruler.

Many other Caesars and kings acceded the thrones of their domains through illegitimate means, yet we are told to obey those certified authorities over our lives. Paul did not tell the Romans that they could say, “Not my Caesar.”

There is no authority that is over us that has not been ordained by God. All of the illegitimacies that we witnessed, all of the wrong people being certified as rulers, they are all now our legitimate authorities. This doesn’t mean that we have to like them or their agendas. Nor does it mean that we should not use all the legitimate resources that we have at our disposal to stymie their agendas and seek to have them removed from power. But it does mean that they are our rulers because we are citizens of these United States.

What that means for Christians is that we must obey laws passed by this administration with its cohorts in Congress as long as they do not command us to sin. They may be (and probably will be) oppressive. We have unjust rulers who will make unjust laws. We must bear up under it patiently.

We must also pray for our rulers. Paul is clear in his instruction to pastor Timothy to teach his church to make “supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thankgivings … for kings and all who are in high positions so that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” (1Tm 2.1-2) These prayers take on different shapes because the purpose of our prayers is that we be able to lead quiet and peaceful lives. While we pray for the health and well-being of all of our rulers, we also pray that God will frustrate their evil intentions, especially when they will directly impact Christ’s church. We pray that God will turn the hearts of our rulers to make just laws, but if they don’t and remain obstinate enemies of God, we pray that God will give their office to another (see Ps 109).

I don’t know what’s coming in the next few years. Quite frankly, I’m not expecting good things. We do have ultimate hope in the fact that Jesus is King. He rules and reigns for the sake of his people and will deliver us eventually. While we are strengthened in the certain hope of our future, we must also live with the reality that King Jesus, the one who has all authority in heaven and earth, has put these wicked rulers over us for some reason. Because we submit to King Jesus and recognize his authority over all things, President Biden is our president.

May God have mercy upon us.