In Romans 13.1, Paul says, Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God (ESV). The notion that everyone should be subject to governing authorities is sometimes misinterpreted as a subjection to authorities simply because they are in authority. This is a mistaken view. Paul is saying that people are under authorities because their authority is derived from God and because their authority rests on their exercising the law. In saying so, he is not offering some new insight or political theory. His point was uncontroversial. Plato’s Laws begins with the accepted view that state laws ultimately derived from the gods. So, for example, the Cretans believed that Zeus gave their laws to them and the Lacerdaemonians (Spartans) believed that they received their laws from Apollo (1.624). This belief is not a mere nod to religious devotion. ...
Orthodox churches should not accept the baptisms of mainline denominations that have chosen to revise their teachings such that they are no longer orthodox in theology or ethical practices. Many looking at this question content themselves with whether the right form of baptism was administered—baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This idea stems from what the Church decided in the Donatist Controversy, that baptism was still valid despite the theological or ethical state of the priest administering it. That decision should be separated from the challenge facing the Church in our day, where the form of orthodoxy is still practiced but the substance of orthodox convictions and practices are rejected. This crisis of the Church today centres around homosexuality and gender ideology, but it is not limited to it. Because of this revision of orthodox teaching in what were once orthodox denominations and churches,...