Kysa wrote:
Well, I do think there is good in ending the spread of evil--at least by that one person. But I am also reminded of an ongoing conversation I have with a woman in my Sunday School Class. She says she just cannot pray for President Obama. Yet, I think I have been commanded to pray for him and indeed all leaders. I pray for his salvation. Because really, everything else is just fleeting. Not matter what happens to us or anyone else on this earth, the only thing that matters is what happens to our eternal soul. And more of THIS life needs to be lived in view of that.
So, yes, the right reaction is to pray for salvation before someone dies, and then only rejoice in the death of Christians.
As far as praying for and/or submitting to our current government, one of the biggest problems we have in the 21st century is a lack of perspective. Is our current government somewhat hostile to folks who advocate and follow Scriptural principles? I would say that is a fair assessment. What was the government like that Peter and Paul and Jesus talked about when they said "Submit to the governing authorities" and "Pray for kings and those in authority" and "Pay your taxes" and such? Was it hostile to folks who espoused Scriptural principles? Well, if you define hostile to include execution, financial persecution, etc. then I would say they were. In fact, I would say that the 1st century government they were dealing with was more hostile than our 21st century government.
This is not me saying obey the government to the point of disobeying God, but realize that in a comprehensive analysis of how God's people interacted with governments from the beginning we see that God's people obeyed and submitted as long as that did not require them to disobey God. Even though God could have led His people out of Egypt whenever He wanted and smacked the Egyptian army around like little kids, he still had Moses ASK PERMISSION to lead the people out of Egypt, and keep asking until he was authorized to go. Now, Moses (and God) actively worked to get the government to do what he wanted, but he still submitted even during that process.