When Jesus said "What belongs to Ceaser belongs to Ceaser, what belongs to God belongs to God' was it refecing a seperation between church and state? If so why do majorty of Christins push for the opposite
by 
Leah
ANSWERS: 8
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Maybe. Or maybe it should be seen in it's context. Maybe Jesus only meant that 'what belongs to Ceaser belongs to Ceaser and what belongs to God belongs to God'.
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First, I'm pretty sure most Christians don't want a theocracy. I think the idea in that saying was Jesus didn't want religion tainted by governmental politics, as it was by the pharisees in his culture.
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I believe he was actually speaking about taxes. And that's probably why to this day churches are tax exempt.
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He was asked a question as a trap. They wanted to see Jesus tell His followers that they didn't owe taxes. And if they did then it would mean they were under Ceasar instead of God. By answering them as He did, He just said 'pay your debts as you are liable'. nothing more. He didn't define what is Gods even though God is in possession of EVERYTHING anyway. Many Christians do not understand seperation of church and state anyway. We live simultaneously in two different worlds. Our world among people with government and our world among Christians under God. One has nothing to do with the other.
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For all its faults, America has really managed to separate church and state. I live in South Africa and the scariest thing about the Bush years was to see that essential distance slowly becoming eroded and America being dragged some crackpot "holy war" discourse. I think it is remarkable that a country with such a powerful fundamentalist lobby, and such strong religious feelings, has sustained the church/state separation. It is one of the USA's proudest achievements and in many ways a model for the rest of the world.
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One could interpret that that way. Because many christians fail to remember that they too are fallible. If the Catholic church became 'corrupt' what's to prevent them from becoming corrupt too?
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Jesus was talking about paying your taxes.
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That is evidence that nothing belongs to God. If something belonged to Ceasar and not God, that means we can claim whatever we want and it will not belong to God.
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