When Caesar And Christ Collide

Chuck Colson is preparing for his new book, God & Government, and shares some thoughts.

He states,

conflicts between religious conscience and political mandates are unavoidable. Both church and state assert standards and values. Both seek authority; both compete for, in the case of God, ultimate allegiance, and sometimes in the case of the state as well.

The conflict is especially apparent in the Judeo-Christian tradition. The assertion that God is King has been an offense to the proud and the powerful for millennia—and one of the reasons Jews and Christians alike have been systematically persecuted.

During the first centuries after Christ, Christians were martyred not for religious reasons (after all, Rome was a land of many gods), but because they refused to say, “We have no king but Caesar.” Thus the Roman government saw Christians as political subversives—subject to flogging, imprisonment, and execution.

Hey, that kinda reminds me of pro-lifers! Political subversives...except without the other three things....yet. We must be on the right track!

But read the article. It's short and emphasizes how important it is for both Church and State to fulfill its God-given role for the good of man and the glory of God.

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