Civil Disobedience

It can be. Romans 13 makes it clear that we are to submit to the governing authorities that God has put over us for the collective good, even when we disagree with their decisions. So Christians are not permitted to engage in civil disobedience for “any” reason simply because we have a higher King Jesus. Our King Jesus tells us He is in control of who leads the nations and commands us to submit to them. But Jesus is also higher than any earthly authority that He has put in place for His purposes. So if any earthly authority demands that we directly disobey Christ, we can and should peacefully and non-violently obey Jesus first and foremost. Peter’s example in Acts 4:19-21 is a great picture of this. We see it a second time in Acts 5:17-42, that the apostles were even willing to go to prison and almost be killed to obey Christ over the earthly rulers, but not fight physically against them for their freedom. They trusted God’s sovereign hand in how their persecution played out.