So, yes, by all means feel free to comply with (the various edicts/orders and associated admonitions of) 'the authorities appointed by God'...
except insofar as you simply cannot in all good conscience do so, and believe in so doing you would be inevitably transgressing/breaking God's eternal, everlasting (Moral) Law of love and liberty...
Hygiene/hygienic practices - including the likes of quarantining - quite frankly could not be more biblical, it/they really couldn't (be)...
-see, for instance, Leviticus 13:1-15:33, a 'section' of (Older Testament) scripture comprising fully 1/2 % of the entire Bible...
...and also my own blogpost on the matter, on my fifth blogsite, i.e.
http://irymn.blogspot.com - 'I Realize You Might Not Happen to Agree, But This is How I See It Anyhow'...
...in March or April I believe, right at the start of the nationwide New Zealand lockdown...
Making oneself a 'martyr for the Lord' is oftentimes, I would (very respectfully) suggest, simply a convenient pretext for giving the authorities that be *'the fingers', emotionally satisfying, admittedly, but so often productive of no real much less longer-term good...
Indeed, the biblical admonition (given in a wholly different context altogether) in Romans 12:18, but a few short verses earlier (as a matter of coincidental fact), of, as far as possible - 'as much as it lies in you(r keeping)' - be(ing) [i.e.living] at peace with all men [i.e. people], is only too applicable here.
Yes, the apostles John and Peter (in two recorded incidents) in the Acts of the Apostles certainly didn't avoid declaring the absolute necessity 'under God' of rendering implicit (and explicit) obedience to God over against mere humanity - that is, when(ever) the two classes of duty happened to conflict; but of course that was never meant to serve as some sort of catch-all 'get out' (of jail free) clause much less excuse to thumb one's nose at the powers that be when(ever) it happened to suit one('s particular sensibilities, prejudices or political/ideological biases/agenda)...
No, as Jesus Himself said on one occasion (in a scripture seldom quoted): Judge righteous judgment...not according to mere appearance.
And in another two/three contexts (but again wholly relevant and apposite, as it so happens), since said authorities 'stand in Moses' seat'[i.e. of (in this case secular rather than religious) authority] **do as they say...but not as they [so often] do...
Elsewhere advising Peter to pay the requisite temple tax 'lest we ***offend them' [i.e. selfsame authorities] and otherwise 'giv[ing] to Caesar what is Caesar's'...responses which baffled his critics and enemies no end in their profound simplicity and incontrovertible wisdom...
...i.e. enjoining the duty of compliant citizenship upon all citizens within a(ny particular) jurisdiction...
*The two-fingered salute that one-time U S President George Bush (Senior) gave Australians back in the day, intending to indicate victory but unfortunately signifying something else altogether...
**As New Zealand's own (former) health minister, the local M.P. and one-time 'honourable' David Clark, might well have been accused of.
***And that's the reason - alongside sheer cowardice, I'd wager, simply not wanting to get into any unpleasant contention thereabouts - that I've 'positively' avoided this topic up till now, that I've taken so long to write and post this particular blogpost...
But it needs be stated/placed upon the record once and for all, so that when the coming Sunday Law crisis - emanating from the USA, but doubtless 'helped along' by the 'Mother Church''s earnest little helpers and undercover agents (the ancient order of) the Jesuits - comes into its own/pushes front and centre in the 'Time of Tribulation such as never was, no, nor ever will be [again]',
honest-hearted people everywhere will take due heed and may know for a certainty that the then charges of disloyalty and disaffection to the powers that be are of absolutely no validity whatsoever.
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