Quotes about Authority
Whoever shall now contend that it is unjust to put heretics and blasphemers to death will knowingly and willingly incur their very guilt.
— John Calvin
Authority forgets a dying king.
— Alfred Lord Tennyson
Jesus] invoked a different kind of power: love, not coercion.
— Philip Yancey
Jesus was not crucified for being a good citizen, for being just a little nicer than everyone else. The powers of his day correctly saw him and his followers as subversives because they took orders from a higher power than Rome or Jerusalem. What would a subversive church look like in the modern United States?
— Philip Yancey
The church has allowed itself to get so swept up in political issues that it plays by the rules of power, which are rules of ungrace
— Philip Yancey
Change came from below, as it usually does, rather than being imposed from above.
— Philip Yancey
When the church joined with the state, it tended to wield power rather than dispense grace.
— Philip Yancey
When the church has occasion to set the rules for all society, it often veers toward the extremism
— Philip Yancey
the Bible gives no direct advice for citizens of a democracy. Paul and Peter urged their readers to submit to authorities and honor the king, but in a democracy we the citizens are the "king.
— Philip Yancey
who are we to sit in judgment of God's moral government of the universe?
— Philip Yancey
It is difficult, if not impossible, to communicate the message of grace from the corridors of power.
— Philip Yancey
The church works best as a force of resistance, a counterbalance to the consuming power of the state.
— Philip Yancey