Church Without Walls: Post-Soviet Baptists after the Ukrainian Revolution, 2013-14, Joshua T. Searle, 2016

he Free (Macon: Mercer, 2011), 108-26. out their activities in compliance with the laws of the land and in accordance with the higher, moral law of truth and justice. However, obedience ends where evil begins. It is not the government, but moral conscience informed by the teachings of the Scriptures, which determines what is good and what is evil. If a contradiction arises between our duty of obedience towards the state and our biblically-informed convictions concerning good and evil, then “we must obey God rather than any human authority” (Acts 5:29). Baptists, in common with all Christian citizens, are called upon to distinguish between good and evil, and thus to legitimise the power that protects from evil, and to delegitimise the power that serves evil. When those in power violate their legal and moral boundaries, they should not only be denied obedience, but should be actively resisted, as great Christian leaders such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King demonstrated. Thus, in distinguishing between good and evil, the church is responsible for submitting to legitimate authority which acts in accordance with the constitution and moral law. At the same time, the church has a sacred duty to resist lawless authority, which rewrites laws for itself and turns the legal system into a tool for the misappropriation of power and wealth by the state authorities. Unfortunately, among many post-Soviet Baptists, we hear about obedience much more often than about resistance. Usually biblical proof-texts, such as Romans 13, are cited out of context to build a case for passive toleration of evil and corrupt regimes. Yet, if we read the Bible carefully, we see many examples of resistance to oppressive power. For instance, in 1 Samuel we read about God’s stern disapproval of the establishment of political power in Israel. In Ecclesiastes the Preacher decries all political authority as vanity and hollow conceit. In the New Testament, the condemnation of political authority is even more explicit. Jesus declares that control of political power is in the hand of Satan (Matthew 4:9). Paul asserts that all political powers are destined for annihilation and judgement (1 Corinthians 15:24) and in the Book of Revelation all political powers and institutions are condemned and destroyed together with the great Babylon in the final apocalyptic conflagration that precedes the coming of a new heavens and a new earth.*® Servile obedience to godless and lawless authorities is not only contradictory to the teachings of the Scriptures; it is also inherently shameful, immoral and demeaning, and even * See John Brigg’s “Preface” to Freedom and the Powers: Perspectives from Baptist History, edited by A. R. Cross and J. H. Y. Briggs (Didcot: Baptist Historical Society, 2014). criminal. Such obedience constitutes a grievous violation of the natural order of good and evil and calls white that which is black (Isaiah 5: