Francis Schaffer wrote a book called “A Christian Manifesto.” In it he wrote a chapter on the use of Civil Disobedience. His conclusion was that against popular opinion there are cases in which resistance to government is not only appropriate but also required. It is appropriate for individual people to defend themselves whether by protest, fleeing, and even force if necessary. This is a pattern that King David followed in his life. It is also appropriate for corporate groups or communities to defend themselves by protest and force as well. These are the most viable alternatives to defending our own rights and privileges in our day and age.

As Christians we often do not think about how we can change the laws and governments. Most of the time we let things slide by and we let laws pass that are against our moral judgments simply because we do not think. Christians should be thinking about the type of society we are living in today, and we should be resisting the narrow and bigoted humanist views. This means that we should be using the appropriate forms of protest available to us today because honestly folks, shouldn’t we use our freedom while we still have it?

We have set back and let the government take over everything that the original government of the United States did its best to restrain, bound, and resist. If we realize that we have been looking at everything in small fragments and have failed to see anything in totality then we realize that we could have been doing something all along. Schaffer says now that, “we are at war” and so “one either confesses that God is the final authority, or one confesses that Caesar is lord.” Leaving us with the question, will we do anything about it, or will we set back and let this relativistic, narrow, humanist view take over everything, even our own churches?

Shaffer claims that there comes a time when force is needed, even physical is necessary. As Christians we should never take the law into our own hands, but when we can no longer flee or protest then we must use force in our defense.

Take abortion for example. In the case of abortion we should aggressively support a human life bill, we must actually enter into the courts seeking to overturn the Supreme Court’s decision, and we should take political and legal action against hospitals and abortion clinics that perform abortions. This is an example of Christian using force to change the system. The same thing can be done with the current issues of homosexual marriage. That is exactly what the gay-rights activists are doing… Instead of doing something about it Christians just sit on the sidlines spitting insults and opinions at the current movement without taking action at all.

The government cannot be put in the place of God for Christians. At any point in time where a Christian obeys the government and disobeys God then he is replacing God with his government, and that should never be. Schaffer makes the statement that if there is no place for civil disobedience, then the government has been put in the place of the living God. The early Christians performed civil disobedience even when it cost them their lives simply for the fact that they would not obey the government over God. This is also the case of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendego in the book of Daniel. They would not obey the government over God, and they would rather die than be disobedient. Is this not how we should be today? God has set the standard and the example in his word of proper civil disobedience.

In his last chapter, Schaffer states that we have been foolish to not see the whole picture. It was our own blind foolishness that caused us to see everything in bits and pieces. We have let a false view of reality slip into our society and now we face a big and powerful enemy, the humanist worldview. Christians need to realize that we are required to make the appropriate response to any law that is contrary to the living God. This type of resistance must be for every area in government that is contrary to God, it can’t be just certain things.

What we need now is all Christians to stand up against the other worldviews, and to take the steps necessary to break the hold which the humanist view has on government, law, media, the schools, and even our own families. That would fulfill not only the scripture, but it would also fulfill what the law originally intended, freedom for all. It is the responsibility of those who know better to not only understand the problem, but to take action against it. If we continue to allow this view to take over everything in our society, even to the point of obeying the government over God, then how can we possibly be loving the Lord our God with all of our heart, mind, and soul?