11.04.07
To Caesar and Before Caesar
“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
It was straight from the mouth of Christ that we get the commandment to pay taxes to our government. Just as Caesar’s image was molded into the face of the Roman coin Jesus inspected, we today have the faces of former president’s on the modern US currency, as well as the name of the Federal Reserve and the seal of the United States of America (or something that looks very much like it could be).
There is currently the case of a Finnish pastor who is being brought to court for refusing to conduct a service alongside a female pastor. As it is reported by World Net Daily, when Pastor Ari Norro announced he would have to walk out of the church because a female pastor was going to be a part of the service. The church council then demanded an investigation into the matter, and Norro is now being tried for gender discrimination in a government court.
It is certainly alarming that a group of professing Christians would bring a fellow Christian (and two other Christians associated with the incident) before a secular courtroom, which is directly against Paul’s commandment to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 6:1-7). If there is a dispute within the Church, it is to be dealt with within the Church.
But what has this to do with paying taxes to Caesar? A lot in this context. You see, Paul stated that those Christians who bring their cases before the secular courts are already defeated, for they are showing to the world that the Church is too weak to deal with these things. Here, however, the defeat goes even a little deeper. It has to do with political correctness. In the modern western world, it seems unacceptable to bar women from pretty much any social position. As Mr. Norro pointed out, though, the Bible clearly forbids women from speaking in the Church (1 Corinthians 14:33b-35). Overseers and deacons also require specific qualifications that are exclusive to men (1 Timothy 3:1-12). The word pastor is actually used interchangeably in the New Testament with the terms overseer, elder, bishop, and steward (http://bible.ca/ntx-elders-pastors-bishops.htm). Political correctness in this case goes right against the our biblical instructions.
It is the political correctness which ties this in to paying taxes to Caesar. In a number of places around the world, churches are granted tax exemption from the government on condition that it fulfill certain requirements. Numerous churches have attempted to capitalize upon this little freebie, but they fail to adequately consider that it isn’t quite so free. Or perhaps in some cases they simply don’t care. Whatever the case, the church will still have to pay taxes of compromise. If and when the government requires nondiscrimination with women elders, the church will have to comply or face being shut down by federal taxes.
What then should be done? Are all churches to be under the burden of taxation when many are already tight in trying to maintain church expenses? As it turns out, there is an oft ignored aspect to this all. Yes, we are to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but we do not need to use a bunch of Caesar’s property in order to give to God what is God’s. The very reason why many churches require money and tax exemption is that they are running it more like a business than a church. The early churches didn’t gather in specially built structures, but in homes. They didn’t have salaries for a specialized orator, but discussed amongst each other. They didn’t have to pay any taxes just to gather as a family in their home. Why have we forgotten this? Why, instead, have we come to the point where we defeat ourselves?
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=58484
http://www.ntrf.org/
