Digest of Biblical Civil Law

Those that claim that Rom. 13:2 forbids the king and his appointed officers from ever being resisted neglect to see that the first verse is the foundation of the second, as shown by the word “therefore.”  Rom. 13:1 says, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.”  Every soul must under their order, which is “be subject” (ὑποτασσέσθω), because they are all ordered by God under Him, his deputies and vicegerents in their various orders and degrees of authority.  This is true of all powers, and therefore all powers must practice subjection.  And to none has God ordered any authority but legal.  Therefore none can have authority that God’s law, whether special or general, written or unwritten, has not allotted them.  God ratifies the laws not contrary to His, and thus the authority to enforce such laws.  Since God has not ordained magistrates to use tyrannous violence, it does not follow that I should be bound to suffer tyrannous violence.  Verse 2 teaches that the sin of resistance is a transgression of the duty of subjection.  Since the duty of subjection reaches no further than the legal authority of the magistrate, the sin of resisting is limited to this.  If this verse does not allow any resistance, then not even passive refusal to obey tyrannous and illegal commands is allowed.  But where the ruler attempts tyrannous and illegal outrageous violence, such as depriving a man of his life, Rom. 13:2 will in no way condemn the resisting by arms.
- Herbert Palmer, Scripture and Reason Pleaded for Defensive Arms (1643), 3-5, at http://webu2.upmf-grenoble.fr/jmilton/ressources/Scripture_and_Reason_pleaded_for_defensive_Armes.pdf.