Sources as diverse as the Bible and Socrates advise people to submit to their government even to the point of going to war

THE BIBLICAL ARGUMENT:

GOVERNMENT IS ORDAINED OF GOD

A shocked mandarin in Manchu robe in the back, with Queen Victoria (UK), William II (Germany), Nicholas II (Russia), Marianne (France), and Mutsuhito (Japan) cutting up a king cake with Chine ("China" in French) written on it.

Scripture seems emphatic on this point.  Government is of God.  Whether in the religious or the civil realm, God is the God of order and not of chaos (Genesis 9:6; 1 Corinthians 14:33, 40).


OLD TESTAMENT DATA ON GOD AND GOVERNMENT

The Ancient of Days (William Blake, 1794)

From the very beginning, Scripture declares that humankind is to "have dominion over ... every living thing that moves upon the earth" (Genesis 1:28).  Humankind is to be king over all the earth.  After the fall the woman is told, "Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you" (Genesis 3:16).  When Cain killed Abel, the text implies that he failed to realize that he was his "brother's keeper" (Genesis 4:9-10).  Finally, when the whole antediluvian civilization had become corrupt and "the earth was filled with violence" (Genesis 6:11), God destroyed it and instituted human government.  God said to Noah and his family after the flood, "For your lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning ....' of every man's brother I will require the life of man."  For "whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image" (Genesis 9:5-6; man = humankind).

The Pyramid of Capitalist System is a common name of a 1911 American cartoon caricature critical of capitalism, closely based on a Russian flyer of c. 1900. The graphic focus is on social stratification by social class and economic inequality

In brief, God ordained human government.  Adam was given the crown to reign over the earth.  And then evil became rampant, and Noah was given the sword to enforce that rule.  Government is of God both because order is from God and because disorder must be put down for God.  Humans have the right from God to take the lives of unruly human beings who shed innocent blood.  Government is invested with divine power.

Battle scene from the Morgan Bible of Louis IX showing 13th-century swords

The sword given to Noah was used by Abraham when he engaged in war against the kings who had committed aggression against Abraham's nephew Lot (Genesis 14).  This passage indicates God's approval of wars that protect the innocent from aggressors.

Samuel anoints David as King, Dura Europos, Syria, 3rd century CE

Although the specific form of government changed throughout the Old Testament, there is a reiteration of the principle that government is of God.  In Mosaic theocracy, the powers of government are quite explicit: "You shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe" (Exodus 21:23-25).  Even when Israel set up its monarchy contrary to God's plan (1 Samuel 8:7), God nevertheless anointed their choice of a king.  God said to Samuel the prophet, "Hearken to their voice, and make them a king (1 Samuel 8:22).  Later Samuel said, "Do you see him whom the LORD has chosen?" (1 Samuel 10:24).  Even before David was king, he was commanded to fight against the Philistines, who were robbing Israel (1 Samuel 23:1).


Since government is given by God, it follows that to disobey government is to disobey God

The spiked heads of executed criminals once adorned the gatehouse of the medieval London Bridge.

As far as the governments of Gentile nations were concerned, the Old Testament declares that "the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes" (Daniel 4:5).  And from the rest of Daniel's prophecy, it is clear that God ordained the great Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek, and Roman governments (Daniel 2-7).  Thus the text indicates that God has ordained government wherever it is found.  And since government is given by God, it follows that to disobey government is to disobey God.  If, therefore, the country's government commands a person to go to war, biblical activism argues that one must respond in obedience to the Lord, for the Lord has ordained the government with the sword, the power to take lives.

NEW TESTAMENT DATA ON GOD AND GOVERNMENT

Ecce Homo ("Behold the Man"), Antonio Ciseri's depiction of Pilate presenting a scourged Jesus to the people of Jerusalem.  In this scene, Jesus Christ, "in whom all things were created" (Colossians 1:16), submits to government.

The New Testament confirms the view of the Old Testament that God has ordained government.  Jesus declares that we should "give to Caesar what is Caesar's" (Matthew 22:21).  That civil authority is God-given is further acknowledged by Jesus before Pilate: "You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above" (John 19:11).  Paul admonishes Timothy to pray and give thanks "for kings and all those in authority" (1 Timothy 2:2).  Titus is exhorted to "remind the people to be subject to rules and authorities, to be obedient" (Titus 3:1).  Peter is very clear: "Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him" (1 Peter 2:13-14).


He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to being punishment on the wrongdoer

Hester Prynne at the Stocks - an engraved illustration from an 1878 edition of The Scarlet Letter

The most extensive passage in the New Testament on the relation of the Christian to government is found in Romans 13:1-7.  The first verse makes it clear that all government is divinely established: "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established."  Therefore, "he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves (verses 1-2).  The further reason given for obeying a ruler is that "he is God's servant to do you good .... He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to being punishment on the wrongdoer" (verse 4).


Government is ordained of God and whoever resists one's government is resisting God

Pieter Brueghel the Younger, The tax collector's office, 1640

Paul writes, "This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, who give their full time to governing" (verse 6).  In view of this, the Christian is urged to "pay all of them their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue dis due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due" (verse 7).  What is especially significant about this passage of Scripture is that it is the New Testament's reiteration of the power of government to take a human life.  Christians are urged to obey the existing governor or king, "for he does not bear the sword in vain" (verse 4).  Government, with its power over life, is "ordained of God," and whoever resists one's government is resisting God (Romans 13:1-2).  It would follow from this, according to biblical activists, that one ought to respond to the government's call to take part in war because God has given the authority of the sword to governing authorities.

THE PHILOSOPHICAL ARGUMENT:
GOVERNMENT IS HUMANS' GUARDIAN

The Death of Socrates, by Jacques-Louis David (1787)

Activism is defended by arguments outside the Bible as well.  One of the most powerful defenses of this position comes from Plato's dialogue Crito.  In it, he offers three explicit reasons (and two more implied ones) why a person should not disobey even a government that is unjustly putting him to death.  The scene is the prison where Socrates awaits his death after he has been charged with impiety and sentenced to drink the cup of poison.  Socrates' young friend Crito urges him to escape and evade the death penalty.  In reply, Socrates gives five reasons for obeying an unjust government, even to the point of death.


Government is the human's parent

Charity, by French painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau

One ought not disobey even an unjust government.  "First, because in disobeying it he is disobeying his parent."  By this Socrates means that under the sponsorship of government, the individual is brought into the world.  One is not born into a lawless jungle but comes into this world under the parentage of the state.  The state makes one's very birth more than barbaric: it is a birth into a state of civilization rather than into anarchy.  Just as parents spend months in preparation and anticipation for a child, many years have likewise been spent in maintaining the state, which makes a civilized birth possible, and these years may not be lightly regarded later because a person finds oneself at odds with the government.  If one were to disobey the government, says Socrates, would it not reply, "In the first place did we not bring you into existence?  Your father married your mother by our aid and begat you.  Say whether you have any objection to urge against those of us who regulate marriage.  None, I should reply."


Government is the human's educator

Adriaen van Ostade, The Schoolmaster, 1662

Socrates offers another reason for obedience to one's government.  "Second, because it is the author of his education."  The implication here is that the very education making persons what they are (including their knowledge of justice and injustice) was given to them by their government.  They are civilized, and not barbarian, not only by birth but also by training.  And both the birth and training were made possible by the government that is now demanding one's life.  What can one reply against governments that "after birth regulate the nurture and education of children, in which you also were trained?  Were not the laws, which have the charge of education, right in commanding your father to train you in music and gymnastic?  Right, I should reply."  From this it follows that government could say to us, "Since you were brought into the world and nurtured and educated by us, can you deny in the first place that you are our child and slave, as your fathers were before you?"  And if this is true, people are not on equal terms with their government.  They have no more right to strike back at it and revile it than one does to hit one's mother or father.  Even if government would destroy us, we have no right to destroy it in return.  Persons who think that they do have such a right have "failed to discover that [their] country is more to be valued and higher and holier far than mother or father or any ancestor."  Government is not only prior to the individual citizen, but also superior to the citizen as well.


The governed have a duty to obey government

Marie Antoinette's execution on October 16, 1793



The third reason Socrates gives for a person obeying the government is that "he has made an agreement with [it] that buy pledging allegiance to that government, binds them to its laws.  By the very fact that one takes a given country as one's own country, that person has thereby made a tacit covenant to be obedient to its commands.  Hence, "when we are punished by [our country], whether with imprisonment or stripes, the punishment is to be endured in silence; and if she leads us to wounds or death in battle, thither we follow as is right."  For if people accept the privileges of education and protection of their government, then they have thereby implicitly agreed to accept the responsibility to obey their government's laws, submit to its penalties, and even to go to war for it.


The governed are free to leave their government

The execution of Robespierre.

There are at least two other implied arguments that Socrates uses to content that one ought not disobey one's government.  "Anyone who does not like it and the city, l may go where he likes ... But he who has experience of the manner in which we [rulers] order justice and administer the State, and still remains, has entered into an implied contract that he will do as we command him."  Socrates makes it clear, however, that whatever emigrating a person is going to do must be done before being indicted or drafted by one's country.  To flee in the face of one's responsibilities to the government is "doing only what a miserable slave would do, running away and turning your back upon the compacts and agreements which you made as a citizen."  Those who are not willing to obey their country should find another country that they can obey.  Persons who assume the protection and privilege of a country by constant presence there as citizens must not seek exile simply because the country's demands are undesirable.


Without government, there would be social chaos

 Ministry of Interior Iraqi Federal Police perform a riot control demonstration in the civil disorder management course on Camp Dublin, Baghdad, Iraq, Aug 20, 2011.

Another reason one should not disobey one's government is implied in Socrates' question "And who would care about a State which has no law?"  An unjust law is bad, but no law is even worse.  Even a bad monarchy is to be preferred to anarchy.  Any government is better than no government at all; if people were to disobey their government in what they felt was unjust or undesirable, social chaos would result.  If obedience to government were determined individually or subjectively, then no law would be immune from some citizen's disapproval or disobedience, and the result would be chaos.  To adapt a phrase from Scripture, having no laws that are binding on all citizens would be for everyone to do what is right in their own eyes (cf. Judges 21:25).  And the result would not be a society but a social chaos.


Even a government that is closed to its citizens would be better than one open to revolution among its peoples.  In these give arguments Plato states the major points used as basis for activism.  Persons should always obey their government because it is their guardian.  Government, even one that seems to be unjust, should be obeyed to the point of going to war.  For without government, humans would be no better than savages, living in a state of ignorance and anarchy.  Hence, no matter how undesirable their responsibilities to their government may be, persons nevertheless are obligated to obey it as their parent and master.

Source:  Geisler, Norman L. Christian Ethics: Contemporary Issues and Options, 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010, pages 220-224.