Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) bashed former President Trump online and said Christians who support him “don’t understand” their religion.
“I’m going to go out on a NOT limb here: this man is not a Christian,” Kinzinger said on X, formerly known as Twitter, responding to Trump’s Christmas post. “If you are a Christian who supports him you don’t understand your own religion.”
Kinzinger, one of Trump’s fiercest critics in the GOP, said in his post that “Trump is weak, meager, smelly, victim-ey, belly-achey, but he ain’t a Christian and he’s not ‘God’s man.’”
No, he said give Caesar his taxes because that’s a moral and legal obligation. Here’s the NIV translation, which makes it clear (Mark 12:15-18):
Nowhere in that exchange did he mention what it would be used for, just that it’s Caesar’s and he deserves it back. That’s it, that’s the only mention he made of the government, and he mentions the current leader, not the state itself (e.g. he could’ve said “Rome” instead of “Caesar” if he wanted to make commentary about the government).
And later in that same chapter, he talks about the offering of the widow:
He obviously cares far more about the gifts to God than the taxes paid to the government, so the whole point of the exchange was to highlight that gifts to God are more important than obligations to governments.
You can also look at the rich man that came to Jesus asking what he lacked (the camel through the eye of the needle thing), and the advice was to give to the poor and follow Jesus, not to become a philanthropist and lift the poor out of poverty. The gift God cares most about is humility and meekness, so giving to the poor was never the point, the point was to eliminate worldly desires to serve God.
That’s a constant theme throughout the New Testament, especially in the gospels. When Jesus healed people, he didn’t do it to ease their suffering, he did it to give them a chance to repent and serve God. Every time he did so, he admonished them to repent and sin no more. The focus is always on the next life and serving God, not on this life.
And that’s why I’m disgusted with many modern Christians, they like to donate large amounts for recognition instead of quietly giving like Jesus did. They’re like those people in the temple giving large amounts, not the poor widow who gave the only pennies she had. Your gift to others should be live and compassion, trying to amass wealth to give more to the poor misses the point.
Nope. Julius Caesar was long dead by this time. Tiberius was the emperor when Jesus lived. After before him, Augustus.
These aren’t gifts because there is coercion involved that is far greater than government coercion. If you don’t redistribute your wealth to the poor, you are going to be tortured forever by the devil. Anything the government can do to you pales in comparison to Yahweh’s coercion.
You made this part up. Again. He didn’t say anything about obligations to governments, except that you should pay your taxes.
Starting with Tiberius, Roman emperors gave their heirs the name “Caesar,” such that “Caesar” came to be known as the term used for the emperor or his heir (i.e. it’s the root of kaiser in German, tsar in Russia, “qaysar” in the Ottoman Empire). Tiberius wasn’t born with the name and adopted it later, and took the honorific “Augustus” when he took the throne. So “Caesar Augustus” was the emperor, and “Caesar” was either the emperor (shorthand) or the heir. It’s kind of like a mix between family name and title, so “Caesar” can refer to any of the line of dictators following Julius Caesar, or it can refer to the title of the emperor or his heir.
So that’s why I understand “Caesar” in this context as whoever the ruling dictator is, not the government or society as a whole. This isn’t an admonition to act in the greater good, but to show obedience to those in charge, which is a theme I’ll get back to later.
Jesus never says this. The only thing that’s close is the “eye of a needle” allegory, and the intention seems to communicate that it’s incredibly difficult, though not impossible. He has been more explicit about hard requirements elsewhere:
Matthew 5:20
John 3:3,16
John 3:16
So Jesus hasn’t hesitated to use direct language, so it doesn’t make sense to take this as “it’s impossible.” In fact, just before the “eye of a needle” allegory, he says it’s merely difficult.
Mark 10:20-23
So it’s not the money itself that’s the problem, but the love of money. You’re not going to hell because you have a lot of money, you’re going to hell because you love it more than God, who has been explicit in what’s most important.
Matthew 22:36-40
A wealthy person should feel obligated to help their fellow man because that’s what God would do. But the actual law is to love God and your fellow man with all your heart, and that’s possible while having a lot of wealth, just incredibly unlikely because most with wealth get it by being selfish.
In short, if you feel God wants you to give everything away, you should not hesitate to do it, and that hesitation is what damned the rich young man, despite being otherwise righteous.
His Apostles did, such as Paul:
Romans 13:1-7
Jesus taught obedience consistently, and the Apostles taught what Jesus taught, so I see this as a retelling of what Jesus taught, not something new Paul came up with.
So to me, the message is very clear, Jesus and God expect obedience, both to earthly rulers as well as heavenly ones. And here’s how Jesus expects leaders to rule:
Matthew 20:25-28
So you must obey your leaders, and Jesus expects to leaders to serve those they lead. In that way everyone serves each other, but there’s also order.
Edit: couldn’t get the spoiler block to behave, so I can’t hide all the noisy verses.