Selections from the RPCNA Testimony on the Civil Magistrate

4. Every nation ought to recognize the Divine institution of civil government, the sovereignty of God exercised by Jesus Christ, and its duty to rule the civil affairs of men in accordance with the will of God. It should enter into covenant with Christ and serve to advance His Kingdom on earth. The negligence of civil government in any of these particulars is sinful, makes the nation liable to the wrath of God, and threatens the continued existence of the government and nation.
Phil. 2:10; Rom. 13:4; Ps. 132:12; Ps. 103:17-19; Ps. 2:10-12.

5. We reject the view that nations have no corporate responsibility for acknowledging and obeying Christ.

6. It is the duty of every Christian citizen to labor and pray for his nation’s official and explicit recognition of the authority and law of Jesus Christ, Preserver and Ruler of nations, and for the conduct of all governmental affairs in harmony with the written Word of God.
1 Tim. 2:1-2; Phil. 2:9-10; Acts 2:1-39; Ps. 2:8-12; Esther 4:14.

7. We deny that constitutional recognition of Jesus Christ means union of church and state.

8. We reject the teaching that Christians should not seek the establishment of Christian civil government.

9. No particular form of civil government is commanded in the Scriptures. Any form of civil government which observes the duties and limitations set upon it by God in His revealed Word is acceptable to God.
Ex. 18:21-24; Prov. 29:14; Deut. 1:16-17.

10. We deny that simply having a democratic or republican form of government insures God’s approval and blessing.

11. All officers and employees of a civil government are to be servants of God for good. They are responsible to God for the discharge of lawful duties rightfully assigned to them by human authority. Neither their official position, however, nor the orders of their superiors, nor the will of the people, exonerates them from blame for any unscriptural action or inaction.
Rom. 13:3-4; 2 Chron. 19:6-7; Prov. 29:26.

12. We reject the view that it is wrong to wage war in defense of life, liberty or religion.

13. Citizens cannot abdicate their responsibility to determine the moral legitimacy of a particular war and to govern their participation accordingly. Such decisions should be made prayerfully in the light of Scripture and with the counsel of the church.
Acts 5:29; 1 Sam. 14:44-45.

14. When justly administered, capital punishment is a scriptural application of civil authority.
Rom. 13:4; Gen. 9:6; Acts 25:11; Num. 35:29-34.

15. The Christian, when such action involves no disloyalty to Christ, ought to be involved in the selection of and to vote for civil rulers who fear God, love truth and justice, hate evil, and are publicly committed to scriptural principles of civil government.
Ex. 18:21; Deut. 16:18; 2 Sam. 23:3; Rom. 13:3.

16. It is sinful for a Christian to take an oath which compromises his supreme allegiance to Jesus Christ. It is also sinful to vote for officials who are required to take an oath which a Christian himself could not take in good conscience. Voting involves the voter in responsibility for any act required of the official as a condition of holding his office.
Deut. 10:20; Isa. 45:22-23; 2 John 1:11; 1 Tim. 5:22.

17. The Christian must profess publicly and the Church must witness, that Christ is the Ruler of every nation. Whatever the official action of the civil government of a nation may be, the Christian in his civil actions must always exhibit his loyalty to Christ. The Christian must relinquish every right or privilege of citizenship which involves him in silence about, or denial of the supreme authority of Jesus Christ.
Matt. 5:13-14; Prov. 3:5-6; Ps. 37:7; Matt. 22:21; John 17:14-15; Mark 13:9.

18. We reject the portion of paragraph 3 after the colon. […kingdom of heaven:…yet he hath authority, and it is his duty,…Their rejection is in relation to MAgistrates calling councils and synods, which the Church of Scotland also qualified in their ratification of the Confession – SA.]

22. Both the Christian and the Church have a responsibility for witnessing against national sins and for promoting justice.
Amos 2:6-8; Amos 5:14-15.

23. The failure of a civil government, through negligence, ignorance, or rebellion, to recognize the authority of Jesus Christ does not cancel its just authority. A civil government, though guilty of many sins, still has authority in so far as it furthers some of the scriptural ends of civil government.
Matt. 22:21; Rom. 13:1; Rom. 2:14; Acts 23:5; Ex. 22:28.

24. Due submission of all persons, cheerfully rendered, to civil officers and to civil government in general, is pleasing to God. No person, however, is required by God to obey civil authority when such authority demands that the citizen or subject do that which is clearly contrary to the law of God as revealed in the Scriptures. In such cases the duty of the Christian is to obey God rather than men. The Christian has a special obligation to render due submission to civil authority in order to express his loyalty to Jesus Christ, to prove his concern for the welfare of all men, and to bring honor to the name of Christ.
1 Pet. 2:13-14; Rom. 13:5; Acts 5:29; Titus 3:1.

25. The only submission which a Christian may promise to any civil government is due submission in the Lord. Any promise of submission or oath of allegiance beyond this is sinful. If and when the civil government of a nation requires, as a condition of civil service or of holding office, an oath which implies that civil allegiance transcends the swearer’s convictions of conscience and obedience to God, it is the Christian’s duty to refuse such an oath. It is within the corporate power of the Church, acting through its courts, to declare that facts or circumstances which may exist in a specific situation render the taking of a civil oath sinful.
Gen. 25:33; Matt. 22:21; Eph. 6:12; Matt. 4:10; Deut. 10:20.

26. It is the duty of the Christian to ascertain whether any prescribed oath of allegiance to the civil authority involves acceptance of unchristian principles stated or implied in its constitution of government. If the oath of allegiance to civil authority explicitly or by clear implication requires support of anti-Christian, atheistic, or secular principles, then the Christian must refuse on these grounds to take the oath of allegiance.
Acts 5:29; Acts 4:18-20.

28. It is the duty of the Christian Church to testify to the authority of Christ over the nations, against all anti-Christian, atheistic, and secular principles of civil government, and against all sinful oaths of allegiance to civil governments. When the Church by orderly processes in her own courts determines that the oath of allegiance to a civil government compromises the Christian’s loyalty to Christ or involves the Christian in the support of sinful principles of civil government, the Church must require her members to refuse such sinful oaths.
Acts 4:24-29; Eph. 5:11; Rev. 3:15-16; Acts 15:28-29; Rev. 2:13-14.

29. When participating in political elections, the Christian should support and vote only for such men as are publicly committed to scriptural principles of civil government. Should the Christian seek civil office by political election, he must openly inform those whose support he seeks of his adherence to Christian principles of civil government.
1 Chron. 16:31; 2 Cor. 6:14-18; 2 Chron. 19:6-7; Dan. 2:48; Eph. 4:25.

30. God alone is Lord of the conscience, and the decisions of civil courts cannot determine for the Christian what is morally right and what is sinful. However, since civil government is an institution of God, it is within the legitimate province of the civil courts of a nation to determine what the nation’s laws and required oaths of allegiance mean or do not mean. A decision of a civil court cannot legitimize sinful conduct, but it can place before a Christian a factual situation upon which a moral judgment can be made. It cannot be proper for the Christian to assume that an oath of allegiance implies sinful requirements, when the civil courts have explicitly contradicted such implication. Every oath must be understood in the sense intended by the authority requiring the oath. It is for the Christian and the Church to decide whether this sense involves sinful requirements.
Matt. 22:21b; Rom. 13:5; Eccl. 8:4; 1 Thess. 5:21.

Independence Found Only in Jesus, the ‘King of kings’

Psa 2:10-12 Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him.

Psa 47:1 [To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah.] O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph. v2 For the LORD most high [is] terrible; [he is] a great King over all the earth. v3 He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet. v4 He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved. Selah.

v5 God is gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet. v6 Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises. v7 For God [is] the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding. v8 God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness. v9 The princes of the people are gathered together, [even] the people of the God of Abraham: for the shields of the earth [belong] unto God: he is greatly exalted.

Psa 22:27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. v28 For the kingdom [is] the LORD’S: and he [is] the governor among the nations. v29 All [they that be] fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul. v30 A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. v31 They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done [this].

Psa 95:1 O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. v2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. v3 For the LORD [is] a great God, and a great King above all gods. v4 In his hand [are] the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills [is] his also. v5 The sea [is] his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry [land].

v6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker. v7 For he [is] our God; and we [are] the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, v8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, [and] as [in] the day of temptation in the wilderness: v9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. v10 Forty years long was I grieved with [this] generation, and said, It [is] a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: v11 Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.

Psa 117:1 O praise the LORD, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people. v2 For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the LORD [endureth] for ever. Praise ye the LORD.

Psa 72:1 [[A Psalm] for Solomon.] Give the king thy judgments, O God, and thy righteousness unto the king’s son. v2 He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment. v3 The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness. v4 He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor.

v5 They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations. v6 He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers [that] water the earth. v7 In his days shall the righteous flourish; and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth.

v8 He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. v9 They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust. v10 The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. v11 Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him.

v12 For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and [him] that hath no helper. v13 He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy. v14 He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in his sight.

v15 And he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba: prayer also shall be made for him continually; [and] daily shall he be praised. v16 There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: and [they] of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth. v17 His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and [men] shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed.

v18 Blessed [be] the LORD God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. v19 And blessed [be] his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled [with] his glory; Amen, and Amen.