Sixty-year-old Jan Davis was a professional parachutist. She was also involved in the dangerous sport of “BASE jumping.” “BASE jumping” is leaping off fixed places, plummeting toward the earth for a few seconds, and then pulling your parachute chord. The letters B-A-S-E represent the fixed places from which one can jump: B (buildings), A (antennas), S (spans, bridges), and E (earth, cliffs).
On October 22, 1999, Jan and four other jumpers were in California’s Yosemite National Park to jump off the 3,200 foot granite cliff known as El Capitan. They were jumping to protest the fact that the Park had made BASE jumping illegal in the wake of the six deaths and numerous injuries that jumpers had incurred in the Park. In the minds of Jan and her group, their jump would prove the safety of their sport. Jan’s husband had come along to film the event, and several reporters were also on hand.
Jan was the fourth of the five jumpers. She launched off the cliff, fell for twenty seconds, and then fatally crashed into the rocks. As it would later be learned, her chute had failed to open properly. Her husband and the reporters stood there stunned, having just watched Jan plunge to her death. The husband even had it on film.
I’m really not trying to be insensitive to the Davis family, but I think we can glean a spiritual lesson from Jan’s needless death. Over and over again the Bible warns against the sin of rebellion — such as rebelling against a logical law that has been enacted. Consider the following passages (all from the N.K.J.V.):
1. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry… (1 Samuel 15:23)
2. An evil man seeks only rebellion; Therefore a cruel messenger will be sent against him. (Proverbs 17:11)
3. There are those who rebel against the light; They do not know its ways Nor abide in its paths. (Job 24:13)
4. “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land; But if you refuse and rebel, You shall be devoured by the sword”; For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. (Isaiah 1:18-20)
5. God sets the solitary in families; He brings out those who are bound in prosperity; But the rebellious dwell in a dry land. (Psalm 68:6)
It is with these verses in mind that I ask you, “Are you, in some way, playing the rebel these days?” If you are, my next question is, “Do you really think that God is going to let your rebellion go unpunished?” If He did that, He’d become a rebel Himself, a rebel against His own written word. And since that isn’t going to happen, your wisest move is to quit playing the role yourself.
The Disciple's Road 
In Star Wars the rebels were the good guys. Just saying. (Or maybe trying to start a conversation.)
Well, I guess my answer to that would be that a whole lot of what goes on in the movies doesn’t mesh with the Bible. Like a lot of rock songs, rap songs, and country songs, Hollywood loves to glamorize the life of the rebel and make it seem “cool.” But God’s written word teaches otherwise.
Touche. Boat Rockers fight against the status quo that has become abusive or a rut. Like you said, not to trivialize these seven deaths, the people (some of them politicians) that were part of the making of this new law, are also the ones that make laws condoning the murder of millions of babies. So, though I understand your intent to show rebellion in the hearts of humans concerning sin, your question applies to me.
Am I, in some way, playing the rebel? Yes I am. But, not in regard to accepting sin, but in trying to get rid of it. The body of Christ has in many ways gone astray. Many Godly traditions have become a rut, and many of our leaders have become abusive. This abusiveness has led to many lay people being abusive too. Sin is still so rampant in the church that its hard for me to not say something. Not that I’m not sinning myself, I often include myself in my finger pointing as there are three fingers pointing back at me. I do my best to take the plank out of my eye before pointing to the speck in someone else’s eye. Some of these sins are not ones I’m participating in, as in sexual abuse of children or adultery. These things have to be pointed out.
Now whether the disagreement on non-essential doctrine issues and all the other stuff that usually comes along with those discussions should really be happening, is up for debate in of itself.
What I’m saying is that I suspect that I am being pointed out as rebellious by my fellow Christians, not necessarily by you, when I am only trying to do what’s righteous. When sin has the light put on it, those sinning often accuse the light shiner, no? I have been called rebellious by my own husband, when I was only doing what I was told by My Heavenly Father and following Biblical teaching that I was participating in. I do want to go to Biblically based marriage counseling as to make sure my perspective is correct and righteous, but at this time my husband is refusing to go to counseling. We need prayer and I will continue to do my best to be a Godly woman and wife. I appreciate all the prayers you have sent up already, please don’t stop as we desperately still need them.
I do understand that rebellion can be a somewhat nuanced issued. For example, John MacArthur has drawn criticism for trying to make the case that America’s founding fathers were wrong in revolting against the British government. But didn’t Moses and the Israelites violate Romans 13:1-5 in rebelling against Pharaoh? And didn’t Moses’ parents do the same thing in refusing to kill him? Even before that, didn’t Israel’s midwives do it as well (Exodus 1:17)? Along the same lines, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did it in regards to bowing down before Nebuchadnezzar’s image of gold, and Daniel did it in regards to Darius’ decree to pray to no other gods. Moving into the New Testament, the apostles didn’t rebel against the authority of the Roman government but they surely rebelled against the authority of the Jewish Sanhedrin (Acts 5:24-29). Then again, it’s not insignificant that Romans 13:6 says “For because of this you pay taxes…” The American colonists, the Jews in Egypt, the Jews in Babylon, and the apostles in Jerusalem were not paying taxes. So, maybe that’s a very important loophole to the matter of submitting to the powers that be. As for your submission to your husband, well, all I’ll say is that 1 Peter 3:1-2 is a pretty binding word concerning husbands who don’t obey the word of God. It’s not that I’m trying to beat you over the head with that passage, but it’s just another one on the list of passages that teach submission.