Luther attempted to put the genie back in the bottle by stressing that good Christians should heed the Bible verses that emphasized the duty to respect secular authorities, like Chapter 13 of the Epistle to the Romans: “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.”61 Christian freedom was the certainty that salvation depended on divine grace and faith in God. You might
...more
