How should Christians think about tyrants and authority?

Jeffrey D. Johnson addresses the important topic of authority from a biblical perspective. According to Scripture, God delegates partial authority to earthly institutions, but no entity, including the state, can assume the place of God. Our conscience should be solely guided by God's Word, and no authority should compel us to act in ways that contradict scriptural commands. The state is not God, and our ultimate allegiance belongs to God alone.

When human authority aligns with God's principles, Christians are called to submit fully to its jurisdiction, as long as it does not require us to disobey God. This involves respecting laws, paying taxes, and fulfilling civic duties. However, when authority overreaches its God-given limits, Christians must refuse to submit to tyranny or directives that endanger their spiritual and physical well-being. Our obedience to God takes precedence over any earthly power.

Acts 5:29 (NKJV): "But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: 'We ought to obey God rather than men.'"

It's very clear, God delegates authority, but not all authority. Only partial authority does He delegate. And so nobody becomes God besides God. The state is not God. If the state was God, we'd have to submit in every aspect.

The state's not God. Only our conscience, and this is with wives to their husbands and children to their parents, and as church members to their leaders of the church, only God rules the conscience. The Word of God is our authority. And when any other authority, any other delegated authority goes against the Word of God, or the principles of scriptures, the direct commands are the principles of scriptures, then we must obey God rather than man. We cannot submit to any authority that tells us to disobey God, but wherever the authority has a proper jurisdiction, they have a jurisdiction, They have a sphere of rule.

In that sphere, which is limited, it's restricted to what God has given them, in that sphere we submit totally. If it's in submission to Christ, we submit totally to it. We pay our taxes when we do what they say. But when they overstep that boundaries, clearly we do not submit to tyranny. We do not submit to evil.

We do not submit to anything that would be a detriment to our spiritual well-being and our physical well-being.