Obey The Laws of the Land (Romans 13:1-14)

I've been about to pull my hair out seeing so many people, mainly Christians quoting Roman 13 that we are to obey the law of the land.  So let's look and see what it says.

1 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. ² Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.

Now let's look at some scripture that clearly shows that even the apostles disobeyed
 
Acts 5:27-29
27 And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest asked them, 28 saying, “Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this Man’s blood on us!”

29 But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men. 

So clearly there is a distinction between when a person must follow God's law and that's when the law of the land has drifted and tried to usurp God's laws.  

 We must not forget Daniel, who was not to pray to God.  In Exodus the midwives were told by Pharaoh told them to kill all the male babies.   They feared God and did not obey Pharaoh and God rewarded them.  Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were commanded to eat “from the king’s choice food and from the wine which he drank,” they respectfully refused.  Rahab the harlot disobeyed the land because she feared God and hid the men and she was rewarded.   In fact in Hebrews 11 many of the faithful had to obey God rather than man.  

  Obviously we want to do things with respect and love but when an action clearly conflicts with God's laws in making us do something that violates our conscious we have to obey God.  

 Now some of these faithful still submitted to the beatings and punishment by the government.    So you have to be prepared that even though you do the right thing you may get punished, even to death.   But also those people will have to answer to God on judgement day as to why they put themselves in the place of God and changed the laws that violate God's commands.   Especially since they were allowed to be in such a position they will have a harsher punishment as well.