OUTLINE Rendering to Caesar Rendering to God INTRODUCTION What is the relationship between God and politics? That question will open up a can of worms. And right now in this moment in time when we have been two years under government mandates that have affected various freedoms many are asking this question. We have seen the recent Canadian Truckers Convoy that sparked off other convoys around the world. In our own country we have just seen the end of a 23 day protest outside of parliament. As long as there have been humans who have power over the lives of other humans we have come up against the question of God and politics. Does God expect us to live under tyranny; can Christians engage in civil disobedience and bloody revolution? These questions are not new they were also being asked in the first century. You will remember that the Jews who were God’s people, who had been given the holy land by God and were forced to be under Rome’s authority and put up with their invasive forces monitoring their activities and taking certain rights away from them. There would have been various groups with differing views on how things should work out. There were the Herodians who approved of Israel’s occupation by Rome, who welcomed progress, the legal reforms Rome brought, the improvements to society, and its high culture. Then there were the Zealots who were full of Jewish nationalism and wanted a repeat of the Maccabean revolution. Then there were the Pharisees who saw the Roman invasion as a curse on Israel for her disobedience to God’s law and how a pursuit of holiness who bring about God’s deliverance. Then there were those who were filled with Political Messianism, who were putting their hope in a miraculous military...

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