Required posting of the 10 Commandments on schoolhouse walls violates the Third Commandment.

Do not take the Lord’s name in vain.

Vain in Hebrew is lashav, which means worthless, false, deceitful, or something that is, or a statement that is groundless.

Vain is something that holds no value.

I think we’re all raised to believe that the Third Commandment means don’t use God’s name as a cuss. But it means more than that. It means bearing or invoking God’s name in ways that are trivial, in ways that skirt the sacred and elevate the profane.

The 10 Commandments (properly, in Hebrew, the 10 words) are God’s word. They represent God. The intent of such government mandates to post them is, clearly, to represent God, which, in that manner, also turns them into an idol.

In modern America, the drive to post the 10 Commandments is always politically motivated; thus, it’s appropriating God’s sacred identity and his authority to prop up a partisan agenda.

It’s using state power to promote ideology masquerading as Christian virtue.

It reduces sacred words to civic decoration.

Treating God’s words as tools in a culture war trivializes the text. Such mandates do not honor the Commandments. It takes what belongs to God and drafts it into civil governance.

Posting the 10 Commandments doesn’t honor God. It celebrates human ambition and vanity.

This morning’s study: 2 Timothy 3:1-9.

This passage opens by discussing the “terrible times of the last days” and describes the kind of man we should avoid, as well as how the deceiver feeds on the spiritual weakness of the unthoughtful and unprepared.

To help us understand the last days, let’s look at Hebrews 1:2: “…in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son…”

And 1 John 2:18: “Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.”

From Hebrews, we connect the last days to the coming of Jesus. From John, we see that from the beginning (and Jesus taught this, too) we are to find among us false teachers and liars.

We make a mistake if we read “last days” as a bounded period of time within the present age (in Biblical terms, the present age is the time between the incarnation and the second coming). These are all the last days.

So when we read about the man we should “have nothing to do with,” we aren’t reading (as John makes clear in his discussion of antichrists) that we should be watchful for a singular historical figure.

We should watch for anyone who meets the criteria Paul lays out for us: lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, unforgiving, slanderous, lacking self-control, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Such might claim to love God but deny God’s power. “These are men of depraved minds,” Paul says.

They take advantage of the gullible, those who never come to the knowledge of the truth. They are fooled by false wonders and signs, like those performed by Jannes and Jambres in the court of the Pharaoh, who wished to deceive even with Moses standing there.

So a sign of the gullible is those who support and excuse the kind of narcissist Paul describes.

Paul’s warning applies to us all. We must be on guard in our social circles, within our churches, and, most assuredly, when evaluating civic and political leaders, so that we are not taken in by those who use God to promote their own ambitions.

Polytheism was the universalism of the ANE. All gods are equally good at getting whatever you want from your god.

Israel was told to reject the gods of the nations because they had no power and could not bring about human flourishing. Only Yahweh, and Yahweh alone, could make the rain fall and plants grow.

Polytheism is cosmic anarchy – each one of us doing what is right in our own eyes.

It is the way of oppression. When there is no right and wrong, there is only wrong.

In the ANE, there was child sacrifice, temple prostitution and kings who claimed divinity, killing whom they desired.

In the modern world, Babylon is a conspiracy of self-interest, with each person of ambition grabbing what they can for themselves with little regard for who starves, who is abused, who dies too soon, who can’t get enough to eat or who is poisoned by foul water or dirty air.

And universalism wants to bless this mess, to bless injustice and the oppressors.

Universalism says the creator has no power over his creation. Rather than a God of love who loves his creation so that he wants to put it back to good order, he holds out no promise, no hope for the victims of disorder. The oppressors will ultimately win by receiving the same crowns in heaven as the sat upon, and the spat upon. For the universalist, the meek don’t inherit the earth. Their kingdom never comes. God’s will is never done. He has no power to wipe away every tear.

God tried to turn Israel away from polytheism. The universalists embrace it.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. (DoD photo by U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Madelyn Keech, https://www.flickr.com/photos/secdef/54674702251; Public Domain).

The war passages in the Hebrew Bible are among the most difficult in scripture.

Copan argues that the Old Testament’s warfare texts must be read in their ancient Near Eastern context, where hyperbolic battle language, divine judgment on deeply corrupt cultures, and God’s long–suffering patience all complicate any quick charge that God is violating our modern sense of moral order.1

The most important context starts in the Garden of Eden, where humanity first turns on God, choosing instead to decide good and bad apart from fellowship with its creator.2 The sets up the rest of story, as God works through history to redeem his creation.

Many centuries later, after much travail, Israel is called to be a kingdom of priests who might demonstrate God’s glory to all the nations, that he alone should be obeyed and followed, but Israel repeatedly fails, showing us time and again that when we stop following God, our own schemes often fail. (Exodus 19:5–6, Deuteronomy 4:5–8, Deuteronomy 6:4–5, 13–15, Deuteronomy 26:18–19, Judges 2:10–15, Deuteronomy 28:15, 25, Jeremiah 2:17–19)

The war passages act in the Torah as an archetype for God’s final judgment.3 When God calls his people to war — always as the smaller force — often God commands kings and generals to reduce the number of men going into battle4 — it is against an idolatrous and corrupt people. There is great evil in the land, such as temple prostitution and child sacrifice. (Deuteronomy 9:4–5, Deuteronomy 18:9–14, Judges 7:2–7, Deuteronomy 20:1–9, Deuteronomy 23:17, Leviticus 18:21; 20:1–5, Deuteronomy 18:9–10)

Israel was to trust in God, not in its own strategy or the nation’s own strength.

As Psalm 20:7 reads, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.”

Rebellious kings
When kings pursue their own war plans, the Biblical witness shows it didn’t go well for Israel.

In 1 Samuel 13, when Samuel is late, Saul loses patience. performed a burnt offering himself rather than waiting for the prophet—an act he justified by military pressure and fear that the Philistines would attack. Samuel condemned this as disobedience, declaring that Saul’s kingdom would not endure because he “did not keep the LORD’s command.” This sets the pattern: human initiative in place of divine direction results in the forfeiture of blessing.

In 1 Kings 22, Ahab decided to retake Ramoth Gilead from Aram based on his own reasoning, and though he consulted prophets, he deliberately avoided the one prophet he knew would speak against him. The outcome? Ahab was killed in battle.

In 2 Chronicles 35, when Josiah did not listen to God’s command delivered through Necho of Egypt, Josiah died in battle, shot through the heart by archers.

Each genuine “Yahweh war” was always initiated by the LORD and never Israel; when Israel initiated war without divine approval, the consequences provoked God’s dismay, if not anger and judgment.5

In other words, short of divine revelation, any nation that initiates war is not trusting God but trusting in its own wisdom, the same desire for control that drove Adam and Eve from Eden.

Peace on Earth
So when does God sanction a nation starting a war?

I suggest, based on the witness of Jesus Christ in the Gospels, never.

John Howard Yoder argues in The Politics of Jesus6 that the New Testament portrays Jesus’ life, teachings, and especially his cross as normatively shaping Christian ethics and politics. The way of the cross, then, governs how we read the rest of Scripture. Richard Hays, drawing on Yoder, similarly describes the cross as the theological fulcrum of New Testament ethics, the point at which the biblical story’s moral vision comes into sharpest focus.7

At the cross, Jesus voluntarily gave up his life so that we might have life. That is the way of non-violence, non-resisting, not answering evil with evil. Jesus taught enemy love, not retribution. (John 10:10–11, 17–18, Matthew 5:38–39, Romans 12:17, 21)

When arrested, Jesus declared that “my kingdom is not of this world,” explaining that if it were, “my servants would fight to prevent my arrest.” (John 18:36). This stance is fundamentally at odds with the use of military force. His refusal to mobilize armed resistance—even when facing execution—wasn’t weakness but the expression of the upside-down nature of God’s Kingdom.

For those who might argue that is a utopian posture for a nation, you’re not wrong. But it is individuals who make those “good and bad” decisions about military maneuvers, and individuals who cloak their own wisdom in biblical language should be evaluated, if Yoder and Hays are right, and I believe they are, skeptically.

Jesus was radically counter-culture for a First Century Jew. He didn’t quote war passages from scripture. He preached non-violence and cited scripture focused on love and obedience to God. While most Jews of the era were looking for a messiah who would be a great military leader, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey’s foal. (Matthew 5:38–44, Matthew 22:37–40, John 14:15, Zechariah 9:9, Matthew 21:1–5, John 12:14–15, John 10:11–18, Romans 12:17–21.)

The Constantinian Shift
Prior to Constantine, Christians were overwhelmingly pacifists and committed to non‑violence and enemy love, even as they were being fed to lions and burned as torches in the Colosseum. A combination of Constantine’s politicizing Christianity and Augustine’s Just War Theory meant that Biblically grounded culture of the early Church began to erode.

Over time, that accommodation to state power helped set the stage for the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the bloody battles of the Reformation.

Which brings us to Pete Hegseth.

The man who prefers “war” to “defense” for the department he runs (my pacifist friends say, at least that’s truth in advertising), and inks himself with crusader symbols (the Jerusalem cross and “Deus vult” (“God wills it”)8. In his book, American Crusade, Hegseth frames American Christianity involved in not just a cultural war but as apocalyptic Crusader-like “Holy War.”9

Even when Hegseth speaks of Christ dying for our sins and cites John 3:16, he consistently pairs that message with crusader symbolism and war‑like rhetoric, presenting a Jesus who blesses American military power rather demands peace on earth.10 11

He’s also shown he’s quite willing to outsource war’s moral decisions, the already fallible human calculation over “good and bad” to machines.12

Psalm 144
It’s striking that in this backdrop, Hegseth used Psalm 144 as a blessing for both the mission to capture Nicolás Maduro and the ongoing operation in Iran.13 David’s song isn’t about Israel’s king plotting combat under his power. Rather, David credits God with training his hands for war and fingers for battle, describing God as his fortress, stronghold, and deliverer. This isn’t David boasting about his own martial skill. It’s an explicit attribution of military capability to divine instruction. David isn’t glorifying war or blessing violence, he is acknowledging God’s sovereignty.

The Psalm was particularly meaningful to exiles returning from Babylon, living in a militarily unstable state, as they called to God for his aid. David asks God to “part your heavens and come down” and to “send forth lightning and scatter the enemy.” There isn’t a hint of self-initiative in the Psalm.

It’s interesting that Hegseth would pick one of David’s Psalms, the song of a warrior-king who wanted to build a temple, but God said no, exactly because he was a warrior. The Lord spoke to David, “You have shed much blood and have fought many wars. You are not to build a house for my Name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight.” (1 Chron 22:8) God says plainly enough, war isn’t his ideal solution to wash away man’s sins.

Rather than blessing Hegseth’s military adventures, the Psalm reads like an indictment of his own initiatives.

Losing one’s life
Prior to the campaign against Iran, at the National Prayer Breakfast, Hegseth read from Mark 8 (“whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.”) and then said, “The warrior who is willing to lay down his life for his unit, his country, and his Creator, that warrior finds eternal life.” (Mark 8:34–38)14

Hegseth is confusing the Kingdom of God with his own kingdom. Jesus is not blessing the Roman Legions or even Jewish zealots. He is explaining to his disciples the potential cost of following him. That could mean persecution, even, potentially, to the point of death. Hegseth’s framing baptizes military service with Christian language by suggesting that dying for country achieves the same spiritual reality as dying for Christ in the name of the Good News. Further, life in this passage doesn’t mean solely returning to dust. It means surrendering your entire self to Jesus and living in total submission to him.

Hegseth’s remark is straight-up Crusader talk. In 1095, before the First Crusade, Pope Urban II at Clermont said, “All who die by the way, whether by land or by sea, or in battle against the pagans, shall have immediate remission of sins. This I grant them through the power of God with which I am invested.”15 Neither the Pope nor Hegseth has the power to open the gates of heaven to a warrior, or anybody else.

Armageddon
One of the most controversial topics in Christendom is end-times prophecy. There are Christians who spend entire careers trying to read the signs, mapping Biblical symbols onto modern machinery or nation-states (locusts become helicopters, Gog becomes Russia (or is it the United States? I forget). There are others among us who know Jesus is coming again, but realize that scripture was never intended to be read as a finely tuned GPS.

It seems that under Hegseth, the military has a number of commanders in its ranks who have read more Hal Lindsey and Tim LaHaye than they have a theologically sound Bible commentary on Daniel and Revelation.

There have been more than 200 complaints filed with The Military Religious Freedom Foundation from U.S. service members across all branches since the Iran strikes began, alleging that commanders are invoking biblical “end times” language to justify the war.16

One complaint (filed on behalf of 15 troops) describes a commander telling them the conflict is “all part of God’s divine plan,” citing Revelation and Armageddon and saying President Trump was “anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth.”17

In First Century Judea, both the Pharisees and Zealots were trying to force God’s hand. They thought that through human action, they could subvert divine will to their own desires. The Pharisees believed that if they could just get the people to follow the law more precisely, it would hasten the coming of the Messiah. That God’s people would finally be ready to receive the military savior they long to see.

Meanwhile, the Zealots thought violence was the answer. If they could foment rebellion against Rome, then surely, the messiah would come to save Israel.18

Both groups misread the prophecy (a realization that should humble all Christians who try to figure out when and how Jesus will return).

Jesus, however, “did not play by the rules of any political parties of His day, though he was frequently pressured by people to fit into a category.” As one commentary put it, “He frustrated them with divine delight.”19

God’s will cannot be defeated by human presumption.

That applies to you, to me, even to Pete Hegseth.

1 Paul Copan, Is God a Moral Monster? Making Sense of the Old Testament God (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2011), chapter on Canaanite warfare, pp. 159–188, esp. p. 170. 

2 WTC Theology. “Why God Withheld the Tree (And What That Teaches Us About Desire) | Tim Mackie.” YouTube, 9 Mar. 2026, www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oKhKBJAENc.

3 Robert D. Bergen, “Exodus,” in CSB Apologetics Study Bible, ed. Ted Cabal (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 96.

4 T. Longman III, “Warfare,” in New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, ed. T. Desmond Alexander and Brian S. Rosner (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 836. 

5 Paul Copan, That’s Just Your Interpretation: Responding to Skeptics Who Challenge Your Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2001), 167. 

6 Yoder, John Howard. The Politics of Jesus. 2nd ed., Eerdmans, 1994, p. 9. 

7 Hays, Richard B. The Moral Vision of the New Testament: Community, Cross, New Creation. HarperCollins, 1996, p. 248. 

8 Salam, Armin Rosen and Suhail. “Pete Hegseth’s Tattoos and the Crusading Obsession of the Far Right.” New Lines Magazine, 28 Nov. 2024, newlinesmag.com/essays/pete-hegseths-tattoos-and-the-crusading-obsession-of-the-far-right/. 

9 Hegseth, Pete. American Crusade: Fighting for Religious Liberty, Freedom of Speech, and the Quest for a New American Crusade. Center Street, 2020.

10 One America News Network. “Secretary of War Pete Hegseth Speaks at the 74th Annual National Prayer Breakfast.” Facebook, 4 Feb. 2026, www.facebook.com/OneAmericaNewsNetwork/videos/1436195738155266/. 

11 Rosen, Armin, and Suhail Salam. “Pete Hegseth’s Tattoos and the Crusading Obsession of the Far Right.” New Lines Magazine, 28 Nov. 2024, newlinesmag.com/essays/pete-hegseths-tattoos-and-the-crusading-obsession-of-the-far-right/.

12 Gerl, Thomas. “Without Good and Evil: Military AI and the Architecture of Refusal.” gerl.dev, 28 Feb. 2026, gerl.dev/blog/without-good-and-evil.

13 Kirchick, James. “Pete Hegseth Outright Quotes Scripture in Iran War Briefing.” The New Republic, 9 Mar. 2026, newrepublic.com/post/207564/pete-hegseth-quotes-scripture-iran-war-briefing. 

14 Kaylor, Brian. “At National Prayer Breakfast, Hegseth Says US Soldiers Gain Eternal Life.” Public Witness, 4 Feb. 2026, publicwitness.wordandway.org/p/at-national-prayer-breakfast-hegseth. 

15 “Urban II: Speech at Clermont, 1095.” Internet Medieval Sourcebook, Fordham University, sourcebooks.web.fordham.edu/source/urban2-5vers.asp. 

16 Anadolu Agency. “US Troops Being Told Iran War Intended to Bring About Armageddon, Watchdog Says.” Anadolu Ajansı, 3 Mar. 2026, www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/us-troops-being-told-iran-war-intended-to-bring-about-armageddon-watchdog-says/3849151. 

17 “Watchdog Alleges US Troops Told Iran War Is ‘Part of God’s Divine Plan’.” The Business Standard, 3 Mar. 2026, www.tbsnews.net/world/watchdog-alleges-us-troops-told-iran-war-part-gods-divine-plan-1377341. 

18 James Hastings et al., in Dictionary of the Bible (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1909), 610. 

19 Dan White Jr. and Debra Hirsch, Love Over Fear: Facing Monsters, Befriending Enemies, and Healing Our Polarized World (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2019).

One thing that can easily be overlooked in our reading of scripture is the deep corruption of the later Second Temple period. It is a corruption that Jesus confronts several times, and it is that corruption that ultimately leads to his crucifixion. 

Matthew 17:24-27 is on point in this regard. Peter is confronted about paying the temple tax, and Jesus has Peter do a little fishing so that they might obtain coins to pay the tax.

It isn’t as if Jesus and Peter couldn’t pay the tax — the mission had a treasury and patrons (hence Judas carrying the money bag) — but Jesus is teaching a lesson about both submitting to earthly authority, even if corrupt, and not surrendering your allegiance and dependence on God.

In this era, the position of high priest was purchased from Rome, and it remained within family dynasties. The Temple Tax was of questionable scriptural provenance. The rate was set by the high priest. It had to be paid in Tyrian coins, so the high priest also set the exchange rate. 

The animal sacrifice system had also been corrupted. Annas, in Jesus’s time, sold animals from his own herd for sacrifice, and priests would also reject the animals brought in by families and defective, forcing them to purchase animals at inflated prices from Annas.

The Sadducees considered the temple tax voluntary, but as we can see in this passage, Jews were pressured into paying the tax. This created a two-tier system in which priests and the well-connected could avoid the tax, while everyone else had to pay.

Jesus asks Peter who has to pay — the kings of the earth and their kin, or just “strangers.” Peter answers strangers, meaning the rest of us. 

We see that Jesus recognizes the corruption, just as they did when he flipped tables in the Court of the Gentiles, but rather than encouraging resistance to the Empire, he advises not to cause offense, knowing that God provides and is ultimately the only sovereign.  So he instructs Peter to go fishing so that the Temple Tax might be paid by God, subverting the entire corrupt system. It is resistance through God’s authority, not in our own power.

This is giving to Caesar what belongs to Caesar while relying not on man but God alone. 

Jesus flips tables, he asserts the sovereignty of God, but he turns his back on revolution, confrontation, violence, even to the point of going to the cross.

It’s a powerful lesson in resisting empire through obedience to God, in not conforming to this world, but standing apart from it.

I also want to address the meaning of “authority” in the American context.

I am also stating upfront that my argument addresses my memory of your initial framing: Christians should not protest/oppose ICE immigration enforcement as has been practiced until recently (the administration has displayed an amazing amount of backtracking in the past 24 hours or so ²).

I do not condone the conduct of all the Minnesota protestors. I’ve found it frequently overly aggressive, and I find the insults and profanity profoundly unloving, which no Christian should endorse. That doesn’t mean I agree with the proposition that Christians shouldn’t protest. I’m also not aware of many Christians participating in the protests, though I have seen a few. I actually find it kind of sad that there isn’t a strong Christian presence. I would like to see Christians offering themselves up as arrestees to help agents meet quotas³.

Romans 13

First, let’s look at Romans 13⁴. To do so, we must start with Romans 12⁵. Remember, there were no chapter headings in the original letters. Scripture interprets scripture. In Romans 12, Paul gave a litany of commands that shape the church’s posture toward the world. He told us not to conform to the patterns of the world. He told us not to be proud and to associate with people of low positions. We are to feed those in need and not overcome evil with evil. And importantly, he said that as near as depends on each of us, we should live at peace with everyone.

That doesn’t sound like someone who is blessing the violence of empire. He is describing the posture of a Christian in the shadow of empire — peace-loving, non-confrontational, and pursuing justice and mercy, focused on unity among believers and giving no offense in the normal course of conduct to others in their community. Romans 12 seeks to cultivate a church that is humble, peaceful, Christlike, and that avoids unnecessary conflicts⁶.

Christians should not be stirring up unrest, which is not the same as saying they should conform to empire.

Paul, a Pharisee among Pharisees (Acts 23:6), would also not adopt a doctrine that contradicted scripture, and scripture is clear that God’s people should be champions of justice.

“Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” – Isaiah 1:17

“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” – Micah 6:8

Nor would he contradict Jesus.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you…have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.” – Matthew 23:23

Clearly, we are creating a conflict with scripture and Paul’s own letters and actions, which I’ll get to below, if we take an absolutist stance on Romans 13. As Preston Sprinkles notes in his book Exiles: The Church in Shadow of Empire, we should not read into Romans 13 a pro-government doctrine. That reading “should be tempered by other passages that refer to Rome as a satanically empowered beast ruled by harlots who are drunk on power, violence, and luxury who are destined to destruction (e.g. Rev. 13:17-8).”⁷

So, let’s look at some of the inconsistencies the Romans 13 absolutist stance creates.

• If Jochebed, Miriam, and Pharaoh’s daughter had read Romans 13 and read it the way you seem to do, they would have submitted to Pharaoh’s decree, and Moses would have died as an infant. (Exodus 2:1–10, Exodus 6:20; Numbers 26:59.)

• Moses, according to this reading of Romans 13, should have submitted to Pharaoh instead of listening to God (Exodus).

• In a Romans 13 world, Nathan shouldn’t have confronted David with his sin, calling him to repentance. He should have bowed to David’s greater authority. In such a world, it would be the King’s prerogative to rape another man’s wife and then have that man murdered. (2 Samuel 12:1–15)

• When Herod ordered the slaughter of innocents, Joseph and Mary should have submitted to the sword of empire and not fled to Egypt. (Matthew 2:16-18)

• For Paul, preaching a king other than Caesar was a crime, a crime that would eventually cost him his earthly life. If he believed Romans 13 as you do, he shouldn’t have preached Jesus as the son of God and lord of creation, positions according to Roman law, only Caesar held.

• Finally, Jesus should have submitted to the authorities of the Sanhedrin instead of going to the cross.

Perhaps we should also look at American history? Anabaptist theologian David Bercot wrote a book called In God We Do Not Trust. I think he gets some history wrong, but his central claim is bold: The Founding Fathers violated Romans 13.⁸ You might want to read that book, because if I’m understanding what you are saying, you would agree with that central premise.

And what about the Civil Rights Movement? Should Martin Luther King have just stayed home and kept his mouth shut? Setting aside the evidence that King wasn’t a Christian⁹, he was a great expositor of the Biblical mandate for Christians to seek justice¹⁰. Without his leadership, we would still have Jim Crow, white-only lunch counters and drinking fountains, redlining, and workplace discrimination, and there would never be any Christians to protest lynching. Am I understanding your reading of Romans 13 correctly?

In your reading of Romans 13, the government didn’t do anything wrong at Ruby Ridge¹¹ or Waco, Texas¹², simply because the government has the authority to do what it wants.

Here’s one protest we can at least agree on: Jan. 6¹³ was a sin. No Christian should have participated (I wouldn’t frame it in terms of Romans 13, but more along the lines of avoiding hate, avoiding violence, and not bearing false witness). But if citing Romans 13 is what it takes for us to agree on that point, I’ll join in.

In the absolutist Romans 13 reading, there was nothing wrong with Hitler establishing the Reich Church¹⁴. It was OK to abolish the Hebrew Bible, make Jesus an Aryan, and remove him from the cross because the cross made Jesus weak. Bonhoeffer wasn’t a martyr but a rebel against government authority. The only true Christians in Nazi Germany were members of the Reich Church, and the heretics were part of the Confessional Church¹⁵.

Those are the logical conclusions of an absolutist reading of Romans 13.

But perhaps I’m over-reading your position. Perhaps you might say that those examples go too far and you wouldn’t go along with that absolutist reading of Romans 13. There is a line that could be drawn somewhere. That Christians should oppose injustice, seek to protect the oppressed, afflicted and innocent.

Christian Justice

Where is that line?

Might that line be somewhere that a Christian who opposes Trump’s immigration policy would draw it?

Perhaps we look at the lies the administration tells about immigrants — they’re all a bunch of criminals and welfare cheats who are a drag on the economy — and we say it’s wrong to lie about our fellow image bearers¹⁶¹⁷¹⁸.

Or perhaps we look at how mass deportation is being carried out — depriving people of due process, using cruel and excessive force, taking people — even citizens — into custody without probable cause, and sending people to foreign concentration camps in violation of court orders, as deeply in violation of not only our own laws but what God commands^19202122.

“When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” – Leviticus 19:33–34

“He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing.” – Deuteronomy 10:18

“Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” – Psalm 82:3–4

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you give a tenth of your mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.” – Matthew 23:23

When we use crime as an excuse to mistreat foreigners, we are endorsing injustice. Several studies, including the conservative think tank Cato, have documented that migrants of all types, even undocumented, commit fewer crimes than native-born citizens, including fewer felonies ²³²⁴²⁵. U.S.-born citizens were more than twice as likely to be arrested for violent crimes, 2.5 times more likely for drug crimes, and over four times more likely for property crimes than undocumented immigrants²⁶.

The Trump administration made numerous false claims about many of the men sent to CECOT. Very few of them had proven gang ties, and many of them had no serious criminal record. Yet, they were rounded up like cattle, denied due process, and shipped off to a foreign concentration camp, and then the Trump Administration defied multiple court orders to bring them back, lying about their ability to do so²⁷²⁸²⁹.

This not only violates our own laws but also violates God’s command for impartiality before judges (Deuteronomy 1:17, Leviticus 19:15, Deuteronomy 16:19, Proverbs 24:23).

So I have a hard time accepting “crime” as a real reason for Trump to push for a crackdown on immigrants.

As for the economics of the issue, undocumented immigrants cannot receive SNAP, Section 8 housing, Medicaid, Medicare, or Social Security, even though the vast majority of undocumented workers are subject to withholding and are also subject to all the other taxes we all pay while in the country³⁰³¹.

In 2022, the United States’ 10.9 million undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes—about $8,889 in taxes per person per year. More than a third of that went into Social Security, Medicare, and other social insurance programs, which they are largely barred from accessing³².

In 40 states, undocumented immigrants pay a higher effective state and local tax rate than the top 1% of households, often around 10% of their income, while lacking access to many of the programs those taxes fund ³³.

Undocumented workers expand the labor force and the GDP. Unauthorized immigrants make up about 8.3 million workers—roughly 4–5% of the U.S. labor force. They fill key roles in agriculture, construction, food processing, caregiving, and services. Removing them would shrink hours worked, lower output, and cause a long‑run drop in U.S. GDP of about 6.2% (roughly $1.7 trillion at 2023 levels). Removing them from the economy increases inflation³⁴³⁵.

One study estimated that for every one million undocumented workers removed from the economy, 88,000 native-born workers will lose jobs³⁶.

Economists find that immigrants and natives typically perform different tasks even within similar occupations, which raises productivity and allows natives to move into more communication‑ and management‑intensive roles. Across the 1990–2006 period, immigration’s impact on the wages of U.S.‑born workers without a high school diploma was less than 1 percentage point, while average native wages slightly increased³⁷³⁸.

So the economic argument often made by MAGA to support an immigrant crackdown makes no sense based on data.

As for how ICE is enforcing Trump’s immigration policy, I’ve seen dozens of videos of immigrants having car windows smashed, doors being broken down, being beaten and pepper-sprayed often without probable causeor warrants (speaking with an accent, contrary to ICE, is not probable cause).

God is clear that he stands against unjust governments. The prophet Isaiah tells us that the Lord said,

Woe to those who make unjust laws,
to those who issue oppressive decrees,

to deprive the poor of their rights

and withhold justice from the oppressed (Isaiah 10:1-2)

Ezekiel, Amos, and Jeremiah all warned Kings who were unjust and neglected to properly care for the people, especially the marginalized of society.

Constitutional Authority

Which brings us to the United States Constitution.

I’m not sure whether you would affirm that the U.S. was created as a Christian nation (I wouldn’t), but I think we can both agree that God is sovereign and that the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights are God-ordained.

If that’s the case, if Romans 13 means anything for a Christian, it means that the Constitution, not any man, including the president, is the governing authority. In a Romans 13 context, even the president is bound to obey the Constitution, or he is disobeying God.

The Constitution requires checks and balances, but there are no meaningful checks on this administration. That should appall every Christian who believes in the sacredness of our founding documents.

And this administration has been found to violate the Constitution on numerous occasions.

Here’s a partial list of Conditional violations by this administration:

• Use of the wartime Alien Enemies Act and rapid‑removal programs to summarily deport people (including alleged Venezuelan gang members) without meaningful hearings, raising serious Fifth Amendment due‑process concerns³⁹.

• Deportations of U.S. citizens and others with lawful status, in direct defiance of court orders⁴⁰.

• Executive Order 14160, attempting to end birthright citizenship for some U.S.-born children of non‑citizens, has been repeatedly blocked as “likely unconstitutional,” conflicting with the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause; multiple federal judges have called it “blatantly unconstitutional.”⁴¹

• First Amendment violations: Targeting law firms and universities that challenged his policies or maintained DEI programs, with threats to yank federal contracts and grants in ways courts and legal experts say violate free speech, free association, and viewpoint‑discrimination rules.⁴²⁴³⁴⁴

• Deploying federal forces and National Guard units against largely peaceful protesters, arresting people without charges, and retaliating against critics—actions civil‑rights groups describe as attacks on freedom of speech and assembly⁴⁵⁴⁶⁴⁷.

• Multiple reports document the administration’s habit of ignoring or slow‑walking compliance with federal court injunctions, especially on immigration, prompting hundreds of lawsuits and dozens of restraining orders⁴⁸⁴⁹⁵⁰.

These violations, in a Romans 13 context, put Christians who support Trump in a double bind. They either must affirm that Romans 13 means nothing, not even the slightest check on a government that is disobeying its own laws, or acknowledge that they really do care about the Constitution and affirm that Christians should follow it and expect their leaders to do the same. Christians should not approach Romans 13 with a double standard: one set of rules for Christians they disagree with and another for the politicians they support.

1. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%2013%3A1-7&version=NIV

2. https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/26/politics/wh-minnesota-trump-ice-minneapolis

3. https://immpolicytracking.org/policies/report-ice-directed-to-increase-arrests-to-meet-daily-quotas/

4. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%2013%3A1-7&version=NIV

5. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%2012&version=NIV

6. Preston Sprinkle, Exiles: The Church in the Shadow of Empire (Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2024), 165.

7. Sprinkle, Exiles, 166.

8. David Bercot, In God We Don’t Trust: A Look at the Founding of America in the Light of Jesus’ Teachings (Amberson, PA: Scroll Publishing Co., 2011)

9. Martin Luther King, Jr., “The Humanity and Divinity of Jesus,” (essay, Crozer Theological Seminary, November 29, 1949–February 15, 1950), in The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Volume I: Called to Serve, January 1929–June 1951, ed. Clayborne Carson (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992), 257–262.

10. David J. Garrow, Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (New York: William Morrow and Company, 1986)

11. U.S. Department of Justice, Report of the Ruby Ridge Task Force to the Office of Professional Responsibility of Investigation of Allegations of Improper Governmental Conduct (Washington, DC: June 10, 1994), https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opr/legacy/2006/11/09/rubyreportcover39.pdf.

12. Department of the Treasury, Report of the Department of the Treasury on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Investigation of Vernon Wayne Howell, also known as David Koresh (Washington, DC: September 1993), https://www.policinginstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/DOT-Report-ATF-Investigation-of-David-KoreshSept-1993.pdf.

13. Brian Duignan, “January 6 U.S. Capitol Attack,” Encyclopedia Britannica, last modified January 8, 2026, https://www.britannica.com/event/January-6-U-S-Capitol-attack.

14. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, “The German Churches and the Nazi State,” Holocaust Encyclopedia, accessed January 28, 2026, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-german-churches-and-the-nazi-state.

15. “The Theological Declaration of Barmen,” May 29–31, 1934, in The Book of Confessions, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), accessed January 28, 2026, https://www.creeds.net/reformed/barmen.htm.

16. Alex Nowrasteh and Jerome Famularo, “Immigrants Have Lower Lifetime Incarceration Rates than Native-Born Americans,” Cato at Liberty, September 18, 2025, https://www.cato.org/blog/immigrants-have-lower-lifetime-incarceration-rates-native-born-americans.

17. Alex Nowrasteh and Jerome Famularo, “Immigrants Still Use Much Less Welfare Than Native-Born Americans,” Cato Institute, January 27, 2026, https://www.cato.org/blog/immigrants-still-use-much-less-welfare-native-born-americans.

18. “Correcting the Record: False or Misleading Statements on Immigration.” Center for Migration Studies (CMS), July 24, 2024, https://cmsny.org/correcting-record-false-misleading-statements-on-immigration/.

19. American Immigration Council, “As ICE Courthouse Arrests Continue, Few Immigration Courts Resist Pushing Cases Into Expedited Removal,” November 20, 2025, https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/about-immigration/due-process-and-courts/.

20. Mckenzie Funk and Nicole Foy, “We Found More Than 40 Cases of Immigration Agents Using Banned Chokeholds and Other Moves That Can Cut Off Breathing,” ProPublica, January 13, 2026, https://www.propublica.org/article/ice-immigration-agents-chokeholds-force.

21. Nicole Foy, “More than 170 US Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents,” ProPublica (republished by OPB), October 16, 2025, https://www.opb.org/article/2025/10/16/immigration-ice-arrests-propublica-white-house-deportation-immigrants-sweep/.

22. American Immigration Council, “Immigration Detention Is Harsher and Less Accountable Than Ever,” January 14, 2026, https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/press-release/report-trump-immigration-detention-2026/.

23. Alex Nowrasteh and Jerome Famularo, “Immigrants Have Lower Lifetime Incarceration Rates than Native-Born Americans,” Cato at Liberty, September 18, 2025, https://www.cato.org/blog/immigrants-have-lower-lifetime-incarceration-rates-native-born-americans.

24. Alex Nowrasteh and Jerome Famularo, “Immigrants Still Use Much Less Welfare Than Native-Born Americans,” Cato Institute, January 27, 2026, https://www.cato.org/blog/immigrants-still-use-much-less-welfare-native-born-americans.

25. “Correcting the Record: False or Misleading Statements on Immigration.” Center for Migration Studies (CMS), July 24, 2024, https://cmsny.org/correcting-record-false-misleading-statements-on-immigration/.

26. National Institute of Justice, “Undocumented Immigrant Offending Rate Lower Than U.S.-Born Citizen Rate,” September 12, 2024, https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/undocumented-immigrant-offending-rate-lower-us-born-citizen-rate.

27. David J. Bier, “DHS Doesn’t List CECOT Prison Deportees in Its ‘Worst of the Worst’ Data,” Cato at Liberty, December 23, 2025, https://www.cato.org/blog/dhs-doesnt-list-cecot-deportees-its-worst-worst-data.

28. “The Men Trump Deported to a Salvadoran Prison,” ProPublica, July 23, 2025, https://projects.propublica.org/venezuelan-immigrants-trump-deported-cecot/.

29. “Despite SCOTUS Ruling, Trump Admin Refuses to Return Man It Wrongly Deported,” Democracy Docket, April 14, 2025, https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/trump-abrego-garcia-maryland-return-el-salvador-prison/.

30. American Immigration Council, “Can Undocumented Immigrants Get SNAP or Medicaid? The Truth About Federal Benefits,” November 14, 2025, https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/undocumented-immigrants-snap-medicaid-benefits/.

31. Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), “Tax Payments by Undocumented Immigrants,” July 30, 2024, https://itep.org/undocumented-immigrants-taxes-2024/.

32. Marco Guzman and ITEP Staff, Tax Payments by Undocumented Immigrants (Washington, DC: Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, July 30, 2024), https://itep.org/undocumented-immigrants-taxes-2024/.

33. Marco Guzman and ITEP Staff, Tax Payments by Undocumented Immigrants (Washington, DC: Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, July 30, 2024), https://itep.org/undocumented-immigrants-taxes-2024/.

34. Warwick McKibbin, Megan Hogan, and Marcus Noland, The International Economic Implications of a Second Trump Presidency, Working Paper 24-20 (Washington, DC: Peterson Institute for International Economics, September 2024), https://www.piie.com/publications/working-papers/2024/international-economic-implications-second-trump-presidency.

35. Jeffrey S. Passel and Jens Manuel Krogstad, “What We Know About Unauthorized Immigrants Living in the U.S.,” Pew Research Center, July 22, 2024, https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/07/22/what-we-know-about-unauthorized-immigrants-living-in-the-us/.

36. Michael Clemens, “Trump’s Proposed Mass Deportations Would Backfire on US Workers,” RealTime Economics (blog), Peterson Institute for International Economics, March 6, 2024, https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-economics/2024/trumps-proposed-mass-deportations-would-backfire-us-workers.

37. Giovanni Peri and Chad Sparber, “Task Specialization, Immigration, and Wages,” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 1, no. 3 (July 2009): 135–69, https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.1.3.135.

38. Gianmarco I.P. Ottaviano and Giovanni Peri, Rethinking the Effects of Immigration on Wages, NBER Working Paper 12497 (Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, August 2006), https://www.nber.org/papers/w12497.

39. Trump v. J.G.G., 604 U.S. (2025) (per curiam), https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a9312c83.pdf.

40. “The Trump Administration’s ICE and CBP Have Become a Threat to Americans: Congress Must Ensure That DHS Follows the Law and Adopts Commonsense Reforms.” Center for American Progress, 28 Jan. 2026, https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-trump-administrations-ice-and-cbp-have-become-a-threat-to-americans-congress-must-ensure-that-dhs-follows-the-law-and-adopts-commonsense-reforms/.

41. State of Washington v. Trump, 764 F. Supp. 3d 1050 (W.D. Wash. 2025). See also: American Immigration Council, “Breaking Down Trump’s Attempt to End Birthright Citizenship,” February 7, 2025, https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/blog/breaking-down-trump-end-birthright-citizenship/.

42. Perkins Coie LLP v. Trump, No. 1:25-cv-01234 (D.D.C. March 11, 2025); see also “Report on the Trump Administration’s 2025 Changes to Immigration Law,” New York City Bar Association, October 10, 2025, https://www.nycbar.org/reports/trump-administration-2025-changes/.

43. National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education (NADOHE) v. Trump, No. 1:25-cv-00333 (D. Md. February 21, 2025).

44. Fell v. Trump, No. 1:25-cv-09876 (D.D.C. December 3, 2025); see also “Former Federal Employees Sue Trump Administration for First Amendment Violations,” ACLU of DC, December 3, 2025, https://www.acludc.org/press-releases/former-federal-employees-sue-trump/.

45. Illinois v. Federalized National Guard, No. 25-2798 (7th Cir. January 22, 2026); see also “Supreme Court rejects Trump’s effort to deploy National Guard in Illinois,” SCOTUSblog, December 23, 2025, https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/12/supreme-court-rejects-trumps-effort-to-deploy-national-guard-in-illinois/.

46. “Three arrested in St. Paul church protest as judge rejects charges against Don Lemon,” The Washington Post, January 22, 2026, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/01/22/minnesota-church-protesters-justice-department-arrests/.

47. State of Minnesota v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, No. 0:26-cv-00190 (D. Minn. filed January 12, 2026), https://www.ag.state.mn.us/Office/Communications/2026/docs/00190DHSComplaint.pdf.

48. Trump v. J.G.G., 604 U.S. (2025); see also “Federal Judges Scold DOJ Lawyers Over Courtroom Conduct in 2025,” Bloomberg Law, December 29, 2025, https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/federal-judges-scold-doj-lawyers-over-courtroom-conduct-in-2025.

49. “Immigration Task Force: 2025 Retrospective and the Road Ahead.” Gibson Dunn, 27 Jan. 2026, https://www.gibsondunn.com/immigration-task-force-2025-retrospective-and-the-road-ahead/.

50. Just Security. (2026, January 27). Litigation tracker: Legal challenges to Trump administration actions. https://www.justsecurity.org/107087/tracker-litigation-legal-challenges-trump-administration/

Christians are exiles, pledged instead to God’s upside-down kingdom

Egypt. Assyria. Babylon. Rome. God hates empires.

Empires favor the rich and powerful over the poor and marginalized. They distort God’s design of mutual beneficence, where the poor are fed and the sick are healed. Empire is steeped in sin, idolatry, and the worship of its own outstretched arm of power.

God hates empire. Ezekiel 29:9-10 (Egypt), Isaiah 10:5-6, 12-13 (Assyria), Jeremiah 51:24-25 (Babylon), Revelation 18:2-3 (Rome, where “Babylon” becomes a symbol for Rome and all empires, even to this present age).

Grappling with 1 Timothy 2:11-15

A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman, being deceived, fell into transgression. But women will be preserved through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint._ — 1 Timothy 2:11-15

In Roman and Jewish culture in the First Century, silence was a virtue. It demonstrated self-control. This was especially true of people of lower social ranking in the company of those of higher status.

In Roman philosophical tradition, self-mastery and silence reflected discipline and Jewish wisdom literature praised restraint in speech, especially for those not in authority (Proverbs 10:19; Sirach 13:21-23).

All else being equal, men were of higher status than women, but there were times when women outranked men. Women could own property, become wealthy, gain status, and become patrons and gain influence. Such a woman would be of a higher status than a man with no wealth or influence.

God loves all people regardless of our perceived national interests

Probably most of us are familiar with the story of Jonah, typically from Sunday school, where the story is reduced to a supernatural Aesop fable: God tells Jonah to do something. Jonah refuses and decides to flee to Tarshish (modern day Spain — or the furthest end of the earth, as far away from God’s land as Jonah could imagine). God is angry. The ship is tossed in a storm. The sailors throw Jonah overboard. A big fish swallows him, where he stays for three days. Then the big fish vomits him onto a shore, and Jonah goes and does what God commanded him to do: spread the word in Nineveh.

The Sunday School tale — naturally — glosses over the rich theology of the story.

Jonah, a staunch religious believer, regards and relates poorly to people who are racially and religiously different from him. Nineveh was the largest and oldest city in Assyria, set on the eastern bank of the Tigris River (modern northern Iraq). It was a major center for military and political power during the time of Jonah. Assyria was a sworn enemy of Israel. They practiced torture, mutilation, and mass execution of captives. They worked idols, which included child sacrifice and ritual prostitution. They exploited the poor and perverted justice.

Can we all agree that’s pretty evil?

Yet, the word of the Lord came to Jonah: “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.” If Jonah obeyed, and the city repented, God would relent from destroying the city.

The last thing Jonah wanted was to see Nineveh spared from destruction.

It is natural for Jonah to want to see evildoers punished. Jonah was also a nationalist. He loved his country, so it is also completely understandable for him to worry about the Assyrian capital’s threat to Israel. Love of country often leads us into the sin of hating others who are different from us and are perceived as a threat. When Jonah refused a direct order to bring God’s message to the Ninevites, he was deciding to put Israel’s national and political interests ahead of God’s will.

Jonah had essentially turned his nation into an idol, putting it ahead of God’s justice and mercy.

When Jonah does finally go to Nineveh, his message is half-hearted at best.

Jonah’s sermon was only five words in Hebrew, lacking any call to repentance, mention of God’s mercy, or details of how to avoid destruction. “Forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”

Yet, it was God’s word, and the people heard and repented.

Jonah exits the city but finds no shade. He tells God he wants to die. God provides a shade tree. Then sends a worm that kills it, and Jonah again complains and tells God he wants to die.

Jonah 4: 9-11:

But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”

“I am,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight.

And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

The lesson — all creatures great and small, all the plants of the field, in the high places and the low, are God’s creation. God loves the whole world. And we are expected to do the same, especially its people (see the story of the Good Samaritan).

I see people saying they don’t care about “illegal immigrants.” They’re invading our country. They’re all evil lawbreakers. So any mistreatment of them, any denial of justice, is justified.

This is what nationalism looks like, the same kind of nationalism Jonah used to justify not following God’s command.

What’s God’s command for us? To love our neighbors as ourselves. Who are our neighbors? Everybody, including and most especially the people who are different from us, whom culture scorns and abuses, who are the least among us, who are sinners.

In Micah, we are told, “The Lord your God asks only three things of you, to practice justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.”

For those who say this is a Christian nation, it’s a fair question: How well are we practicing what God commands us to do?