Authority proceeds from God.  When I write “authority,” I mean what the Bible says it is, and it is hierarchical (Romans 13:1-3).  It doesn’t violate scripture.  God created or originated authority.  It is necessary to accomplish His moral will (God’s sovereign will is always going to occur).  Authority orders the divine design of the world.  It will only work the way God designed, if authority is respected.

I’m not saying that all millennials despise authority.  I’m writing about millennials who do, and really anyone who does, but I focus on millennials because this is more characteristic of their generation.  Millennials will still want authority now and especially in the future.  They will need it.  Right now in the short term it is convenient for them to despise authority.

Why should anyone do what these millennials tell them to do?  If they do tell anyone to do, why should they expect them to do what they are told?  Why should these millennials ever possess any authority, if they don’t believe in it themselves?

Many Christian leaders today decry the apostasy of the day.  For all the possible causes, a perverted view of authority explains a lot.  In a rudimentary way, it is the underlying problem.  How?  Why?

God is in charge.  He uses under-authorities to be in charge.  He authorizes institutions — family, church, government, etc. — to order the world He owns.  Satan merely usurps that authority.  The response to authority is obedience.  The attack of authority undermines God’s institutions and then results in disobedience.  Salvation itself comes through the obedience of faith.  The faith is in God, Who is the authority.  His under-authorities are still His authority.  Someone who disobeys those, with the exception of violations of the Word of God, disobeys Him.  They are not believing in Him, because this is how He works, just like He used men for the writing of His Word.  In that sense, obedience to God is obedience to Moses, for instance. 

All of society breaks down with the position of these millennials on authority, really just so they can have their own way, just like Korah and his band with Moses in Numbers 16.  They will justify it or excuse it by saying that their authority is unreasonable or wrong or bad leaders.  They know best about leadership, how it’s supposed to be done.  In most cases though, they can’t even be challenged, these millennials.  They offer no due process, no discussion, no defense.  They are judge, jury, and executioner.  Like Rehoboam of 1 Kings 12, they look to their contemporaries, their friends, other millennials, as proof or evidence that they are right, their cronies on social media.

No one who despises authority as a practice is a Christian.  God is the Author of authority.  Again, I’m not talking about so-called authority that teaches or requires something contrary to the Word of God.  Just because millenials don’t like what they’re being told doesn’t mean that they can call it unscriptural, and that’s their simple, rebellious way out.

The despising of authority starts with not truly glorifying God as God.  The despising of authority is an outgrowth of not glorifying God.  You know someone does not glorify God because he despises authority.  It is indicative of a reprobate mind.

The benchmark or the norm for someone aligned with God is subjection to authority.  His instinct is to do what he is told.  He listens.  With God-ordained authority, he is swift to hear, slow to speak (argue), and slow to wrath (at what he’s being told) [James 1:19].  He is apt to do what he is told, rather than bucking it.

If you are millennial, and you despise authority, don’t expect your spouse to submit, nor your children.  Why should they?  You shouldn’t expect your employees to listen to you.  You don’t listen, why should they listen to you?  The culture that you spawn will be one that will break down because authority is necessary.  Your disrespect will come back on you.  There is no way that your world will work.

The millennial who despises authority won’t be in the kingdom of Jesus Christ, because Jesus expects obedience.  He is the King.  Your Jesus might be something more like a therapist, but the Jesus of the Bible, the only true one, will rule over the earth.  You won’t like His kingdom and you won’t be in it.  It is a kingdom of authority.

2 Peter relates despising authority to lust.  Lust then relates to self, to me, me first.  2 Peter 2:10 says:

But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.

They walk after the flesh.  Their lives are characterized by flesh.  Their music is fleshly.  Their entertainment is fleshly.  Their recreation is fleshly.   Someone who lives according to the flesh doesn’t want the restraint of a authority, hence, he despises it.  He is not afraid to speak evil of authority.   When the authority arrives to restrain, like the Holy Spirit, the Restrainer (2 Thess 2:7), he tears down the authority.

Righteous men are very careful with their authority, especially in public.  Righteous men don’t rebuke an elder, but intreat (1 Timothy 5:1).  This is seen in the servant/master or employee/employer:  “be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling.”  “Fear and trembling” is a non-starter with most millennials today.  It’s a violation of personal wellness and self-care.

Deuteronomy 5:1 says:

And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep, and do them.

There are verses like that all through Deuteronomy.  Moses says, these statutes and judgments that I speak, learn, keep, and do them.  That is how authority works.  Moses says something and everyone learns it, keeps it, and does it.  This is especially the message of the Bible toward parental authority, that is seen again and again in Proverbs.  This generation is even represented by Proverbs 30:11, “There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother.” The book of Proverbs reads very serious about this from God.  I’m going to publish all of these just so that you have them all in one place:

Proverbs 1:8, My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

Proverbs 4:1, Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding.

Proverbs 10:1, A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.

Proverbs 15:20, A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish man despiseth his mother.

Proverbs 17:21, He that begetteth a fool doeth it to his sorrow: and the father of a fool hath no joy.

Proverbs 17:25, A foolish son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to her that bare him.

Proverbs 19:13, A foolish son is the calamity of his father.

Proverbs 19:26, He that wasteth his father, and chaseth away his mother, is a son that causeth shame, and bringeth reproach.

Proverbs 20:20, Whoso curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness.

Proverbs 23:22, Hearken unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old.

Proverbs 23:24-25, The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him.  Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice.

Proverbs 28:7, Whoso keepeth the law is a wise son: but he that is a companion of riotous men shameth his father.

Proverbs 30:17, The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.

Many, if not most, of these statements are axiomatic.  A millennial may question them, but it’s like questioning the transitive property or some other axiom.  They are just true.  As you read them, millennial, you can question them or challenge them or just ignore them, but if they are you, then they are who you are.

You will notice that there is very little about the father and what he’s doing with his son, but it’s about the son and what he’s doing with his father.  If the father is disobedient to scripture, and teaches that, that’s bad, but this isn’t the issue.  There aren’t a series of verses that say, “Father, please thy son and make sure he gets to have his way and live like he wants.  Don’t be too scary.  You don’t want to hurt his feelings.”  Your millennial companions might listen to your complaints and justifications, but in the judgment of God, you are still guilty.  You won’t escape this judgment of God without repentance.  It’s on you, no one else.