Where Should Christians Draw The Line?

We (as Christians) are told to obey Caeser (human governments). (Mark 12:17) But should we draw a line and if so where?

 

Or, are we commanded to draw a line at all?

-A

The Bible is silent on where to draw the line, but it should go without saying that we are not to defile ourselves by doing evil or immoral things even if our government commands us to. God would never want us to defile ourselves or do anything that is against His commandments.

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Carry only love. Hate is a burden that is tremendously heavy.

If you want to live like Jesus, love your enemies and give up your life for them.

Well said, Lambslove! Basically, the line is drawn at the point where obeying a human government means disobeying God. And the Bible isn't totally silent on this issue - remember Daniel and friends at Nebuchadnezzar's court.

Good point! I forgot about that!

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Carry only love. Hate is a burden that is tremendously heavy.

If you want to live like Jesus, love your enemies and give up your life for them.

Drawing A Line

For example, had the so-called Christian Germans (predominantly Catholic and Lutheran) in the 1930's and 1940's drawn a line in their obedience to Caesar (Hitler), would not millions of people have lived?

Yes. I've read books by German Christians who kept silent during Hitler's reign and they all say they should have spoken up against him no matter what the cost, but they got comfortable with Hitler, because work was good, money was plentiful and he didn't threaten them. It seemed like somone else's problem, so they did nothing.

German Christians had the right and the responsibility to stop Hitler, or at least to do whatever they could to stop him from letting his evil overtake the western world the way it did.

Why did 12 million people die in the death camps? Because Christians didn't do what they should have done.

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Carry only love. Hate is a burden that is tremendously heavy.

If you want to live like Jesus, love your enemies and give up your life for them.

I oppose civil disobedience in all but the most extreme cases.  John Brown, Martin Luther King Jr., the religious anti-Vietnam war protestors and many others exercised such with mixed results.  Brown, for instance, participated in murders of pro-slavery people in Kansas.  That was wrong.  But his military action in seizing the garrison at Harper's Ferry ultimately led to the Civil War and the end of slavery.  He was a complex man and a fanatic.  Wrong and right.  There are no easy answers.

Is there justification for civil disobedience in America today?  I say no.  I oppose radical actions of environmental extremists such as spiking trees that can physically harm loggers.  Anti-abortion terrorists who bomb clinics and kill doctors and clinic staff ultimately hurt their cause.  They are akin to Al Queda and extremist Islamic terrorists, in my opinion.

 

I would like to think so...
But it might have resulted in a few million Christian Germans added to the fires.
I sometimes wonder if History will look look back at American Christians with equal distain over abortion.

Sometimes politicals/activists want Christians to stay out of politicals... unless we support their cause that is.

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Rom 14:22
(22) Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.

Better "them" than "us", huh?

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Imagine there's no heaven ~ It's easy if you try ~ No hell below us ~ Above us only sky ~ Imagine all the people living for today. Imagine there's no countries ~ It isnt hard to do ~ Nothing to kill or die for ~No religion too ~ Imagine all the people living life in peace. Imagine no possesions ~ I wonder if you can ~ Noneed for greed or hunger ~ A brotherhood of man ~ Imagine all the people sharing all the world.
…I hope some day you'll join us ~ and the world will live as one. --John Lennon