God grants children. Your worthiness is not the issue, but becomes one very quickly. God holds parents accountable. Not on the micro-level of each decision, but on the broader level of acknowledging His Lordship and obeying His Laws.
God does not grant your children to civil government. Most particularly does this apply to modern Western nation states. Not a one of them is compliant with God’s Laws. Many don’t even follow their own laws. At various levels, you may find some contemptuous of state laws and the US Constitution. How is it we have come so far, when a school board files suit to prevent accountability to those whose children are in their care? Don’t just get mad at the school board; dissolve their abusive power over your children.
This will make you an enemy of the government. This very attitude is coming under increasing attack from the various levels of educational authorities. Should you dare to actually pull out of the evil system, you may well be pursued, hounded, employing various standard abuses of the child welfare systems across the country.
We tread a fine line when it comes to balancing the demands of grace and God’s Laws. Grace always trumps Laws, but don’t assume you already know what that means in every case. First, let’s remove one popular false assumption regarding violence. Old Testament violence was a matter of Laws, and seldom a matter of grace. Abraham seems a rare exception, and we could learn much from his applications. But in the New Testament, there is an apparent condemnation of violence. Apparent, I say, because it’s usually taken out of context.
We have no good example of violence in the New Testament narrative. That’s because of the focus; the narrative never points to examples other than persecution for the gospel. Jesus didn’t condemn Peter’s violence, but the inappropriate motives and application. He had already told the Twelve to be armed. Were Peter defending his own children, I know for certain the answer would be different from that in the Garden. Should the state make a grab for your kids, violent resistance is a viable option according to Scripture.
Naturally, we would hope for better planning which prevents this. Look around you. Do you not see the increasing likelihood you will be falsely arrested for reasons which have nothing to do with valid law enforcement? Once in custody, do you honestly believe you won’t be abused? Do you honestly believe confiscated property will be returned reasonably? It varies with locale, and the real excuses for it, but the likelihood of injustice has grown exponentially in just the past two years. As cities, counties and states start scratching harder for revenue, you should expect bogus tickets, confiscations and arrests to soar, and increasing difficulty in getting things set right.
All the more so with government sanctioned kidnapping. Have a plan, because you can be sure they do. It helps if you read up on their tactics, but don’t be surprised if they have gotten more draconian. If you know how they operate, you can plan for it within reason. I won’t get into tactics, and remind you movies you’ve seen are fiction. God and you together can figure it out just fine. One obvious point is making sure your children are your allies.
But if there is one issue in this world where I would encourage consideration of violence, this is it. It’s no different from someone attacking your children for rape or other forms or harm. The worst people you are likely to ever meet work in child welfare. The most extensive, systematic abuse you’ll ever see of children comes at the hands of the local child protective agencies. This is the one place where there are virtually no good judges left. If you do nothing to prevent the kidnapping of your children by the state, you have failed your duty to God.
(I realize this and similar posts I’ve made in the past, here and elsewhere, could be interpreted by overzealous law enforcement personal as some form or instigation to illegal behavior. I have stated the facts, as best I know them, from the Bible. God is unlikely to stop you surrendering your children, but He is already actively pouring out His wrath on the US as a whole, and will surely hold government agents accountable for their sins, same as you and I. When you are confronted by armed and hostile agents, you have to decide for yourself what it takes to keep a clear conscience before God. In the case of taking your children in custody, God has said a violent defense of those children is no sin.)
