It's important to consider the circumstances and the audience behind Jesus' instructions to "render unto Caesar." The Sadducees were attempting to trap Jesus into advocating open contempt for Caesar. He recognized their wicked and hypocritical little game and answered them with a totally truthful response that astonished everyone.
But think about it. There are two components to Jesus' words. We are to "render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's," but we are also to "render unto God the things that are God's." Well, everything ultimately belongs to God. But, most of all, this injunction by Jesus instructs us that government laws cannot trump God's laws – ever.
If government commands you to do evil, as a Christian you must resist. There is no alternative. Citing the "render unto Caesar" line is an apologetic for accountability to God – nothing more, nothing less.
Yet another strawman. Yet another blind assumption without any evidence. Where did Obama command anyone to do evil? Oh that’s right he hasn’t. But once again, let us look back on the president that Mr. Farah supported blindly for the past eight years. I do not recall Mr. Farah or World Net Daily chastising Bush for approving torture. I do not recall them telling Christians to pray for his failure because he was responsible for killing so many people in Iraq. Where was his biblical conviction during the most corrupt presidency in our history? This makes it clear that Mr. Farah is simply, a hypocrite. T hat would be bad enough if he was not insisting to drag God into his hypocrisy.Furthermore, it needs to be pointed out that in America we don't have a Caesar. Never have, never will. You see, our system of government is called a free republic, and it is based on the concept of constitutional self-government. We have no "rulers" in America – except ourselves and our God. We believe in the rule of law, not the rule of men.
I agree, as does President Obama. It is odd that Mr. Farah is so adamant about this since his favorite president, Mr. Bush, had no respect for the rule of law. He circumvented the courts for illegal wiretapping, lied about the FISA courts, co-opted the telecoms illegally and outright lied to Congress multiple times.This is an important distinction, not a semantic one.
I agree. It is a shame that it only furthers the proof of how utterly disingenuous Mr. Farah truly is.Nowhere in the Bible does it teach us to obey evil rulers. Nowhere.
The strawman is complete. Farah creates a false argument that no one is making and pretends he has proven his point. He offered Scripture out of context and Scripture misunderstood as his Biblical proof and nothing to support his charges against Obama. Good job.This is a time for principled biblical resistance, not phony Christian appeasement.
Principled Biblical resistance? There was no principle in this article. There was nothing Biblical either, other than abusing Scripture to fit one’s political agenda. This is not about phony Christian appeasement – it is about a phony Christian article.Here is the real problem. I am not even arguing about obeying evil rulers because it is a strawman. The Bible tells us to PRAY for our leaders and to obey the laws. The problem with saying the Bible does not say to obey evil leaders is that it is ultimately man that then decides what evil is. According to Mr. Farah – Barack Obama is evil. He offers not one scintilla of proof, just his opinion. Based on his opinion and his twisting and distorting the Word of God, he wants Christians to disobey God as he will and actually pray for the failure of the president. In contrast, he gives a blanket pass to former President Bush, ignoring the many and varied evil things he did while in office. Keep in mind that Obama has been president for one day and Bush has eight years to examine. This is not about Christ and Mr. Farah should be ashamed of himself. This article is about one thing, the Republican Party. Mr. Farah is a shill for the GOP; of that there never was any debate. But now he has proven that he will stop at nothing to achieve his political ends, including dragging Jesus Christ through the mud of his own creation.
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