Quotes about Authority

The poor complain that they are governed badly. The rich complain that they are governed at all.

Faith is decisively determined by the object of faith, namely, God and His Word. This does not ... imply that Scripture ... derives its authority from the believer's faith: this idea is already rendered untenable by the very nature of faith, which rests on and trusts in the Word of God.

The authority of God's Word is not an arbitrary, external authority. It is a wooing and conquering authority. Scripture's authority does not demand blind obedience, rather a subjection that spells redemption, a subjection to Christ whereby he is never out of view in which acceptance occurs with joy and willingness.

But that was not the Royal Way; the King's servants didn't have to stoop.

Scripture tells us to submit to governing authorities. That's a valid command—most of the time. However, when we fear God, there comes a time when we must resist human government and yield to a higher authority. Government is given to protect the good and to punish the bad (see Romans 13:3). When government protects the bad and punishes the good, then our submission to legal authority may have to end. This becomes the source of persecution for righteousness' sake.

The Lord said to Moses, "See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh." —Exodus 7:1 Jesus gives us the same privilege God gave to Moses—to speak for Him to a hostile world.

It's better to obey God rather than men.

intended to subserve. That certain sultanism of his brain, which had otherwise in a good degree remained unmanifested; through those forms that same sultanism became incarnate in an irresistible

Now, as you well know, it is not seldom the case in this conventional world of ours—watery or otherwise; that when a person placed in command over his fellow-men finds one of them to be very significantly his superior in general pride of manhood, straightway against that man he conceives an unconquerable dislike and bitterness; and if he had a chance he will pull down and pulverize that subaltern's tower, and make a little heap of dust of it.

The United States wore empire on its brow

What of it, if some old hunks of a sea-captain orders me to get a broom and sweep down the decks? What does that indignity amount to, weighed, I mean, in the scales of the New Testament?

I. A Fast-Fish belongs to the party fast to it. II. A Loose-Fish is fair game for anybody who can soonest catch it. But what plays the mischief with this masterly code is the admirable brevity of it, which necessitates a vast volume of commentaries to expound it.