Is criticism of
government biblical?

One of the less public, but earnest debates especially among Bible-believing Christians today is whether the almost continuous barrage and criticism against government, particularly of the conduct and actuation of the President, is Biblical.

Another related question is, if we have to replace GMA, who do we replace her with?

I wish to address these concerns in this column today: There is an observation that certain elements of Philippine society have become endlessly critical of government, that government cannot seem to do anything right, and that the Biblical injunction of submission to authority, all have become lost in a culture of endless government-bashing and criticism.

It is true, Christians are called upon to submit to authority (Romans 13, Titus 3), and to pray for their government leaders (I Tim 2:1-3).

It is equally true, however, that Christians, especially prophets, are called upon to openly and verbally rebuke and pronounce judgment on government when it has so departed from God's established ways of righteousness. A classic example of one such prophet is Amos. He was originally a farmer. But God called him to pronounce judgment on two evil kings, Uzziah of Judah (792-740 B.C.) and Jeroboam II of Israel (793-753). In his 9-chapter book in the Old Testament, he unleashes what might be a verbal equivalent of machinegun fire on evil governments. The only positive theme there is the call for repentance (chap. 5), and a promised restoration if Israel repents (chap. 9 v. 11 ff). But it is practically a litany of bombast and castigation.

After Solomon, forty kings reigned over the divided nation of Judah and Israel, and a majority of these kings were a disaster. The prophets spanning that period (930 to 586 B.C.), especially the likes of Ezekiel, Elijah, Elisha, etc., spent much, if not all of their lives denouncing and warning evil king after evil king of his idolatry, corruption, oppression of the poor, luxurious living on unrighteous gain. Many of the prophets never lived under the regime of a good king.

An example of one such prophet who spent his entire life pronouncing judgment, but who never saw any good come out of the kings and the people he lambasted, was Jeremiah. The book Jeremiah in the Old Testament is the longest in the Bible, containing more words than all other books in the entire Scriptures. While it pronounced hope for those who would change, it is practically an endless, machinegun fire staccato of judgment upon an idolatrous, corrupt, oppressive bureaucracy and people. So bad was the situation that he had to write a separate book entitled Lamentations (weeping or crying), where he recorded his tears for the irreversible judgment that had come upon his nation because of its hard-headedness and his longing and faith for restoration and change.

AND VERY IMPORTANT OF ALL: None of these prophets ever stopped their taking to task their governments simply because there was a problem as to who should take over. The prophets simply rebuked and pronounced judgment, and if the one who took over was equally evil, hard-headed, or bad, the prophets just kept at it, and kept on going.

Going back to the Philippines:

We say we are the only Christian nation in the Far East. We say we are very religious. We say we worship the God of the Bible. With all the more reason the example of the Bible, especially of its prophets, should bear upon us. Now we should pray for GMA and her government, as well as all our officials. We should submit to government (and we do that, among others, by paying our taxes). But if this government refuses to answer questions on its legitimacy, by simply "noting" questions and objections relative to the Presidential election when the canvass was going on in the Senate (remember Sen. Pangilinan's endless "noted", "noted", "noted"), when it will not look for Garci but would wait for him to just come out at his own sweet time, when it will kill three impeachment complaints in Congress designed to find out the truth, when it will not issue an "invitation for questioning" against Joc-joc Bolante in connection with the fertilizer scam, but will make warrantless arrests of others, when it will appoint generals to high positions after they have been suspected of involvement in election fraud, we do have a serious problem here in our hands.

Of course, the prophets never called for armed rebellion against the governments they denounced. In fact, many of them were killed for their speeches, but not for armed rebellion. One of them, and this was in the New Testament already, literally lost his head for rebuking the extra-marital affair of the King. In case we forget, he was John the Baptist, Jesus' own first cousin. He rebuked Herod's illicit relationship, something not even connected to governance, and promptly lost his head, which was placed on a platter.

So should we go slow on our government? Perhaps, that will be answered if we ask another question: do we want righteousness in government?

That is the question everyone of us should ask.*