Rapture Fever

A Ghetto Eschatology 111
clom is acknowledged as sacrosanct by Caesar’s worshipers; no
realm of autonomy fi-om Caesar is acknowledged except the
conscience, and only if conscience never utters an audible word
of protest. Every barrier to Caesar’s kingdom is regarded as
subject to fiture revision. The foreign policy of the messianic
State is clear: “What’s Caesar’s is Caesar’s, and what’s God’s is
negotiable.”
But why should Christian pietists cite this passage with equal
enthusiasm? Because it is perceived as relieving them from any
personal responsibility to resist the relentless expansion of
Caesar’s kingdom. They follow the lead of the statists and humanists:
Caesar’s kingdom is defined as everything external,
while God’s kh-tgdom is exclusively internal. Conscience must
always remain internal. It must never be allowed to display its
presence by public acts of resistance. This view of civil law
justifies life in the Christian ghetto, far from the seats of influence.
Yet Jesus said to His disciples: “And I appoint unto you
a kingdom, as my Father bath appointed unto me; That ye may
eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones
judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Luke 22:29-30). Ghettodwelling
Christians resent this degree of responsibility
Whose Coin Is This?
Jesus was being challenged by Pharisees who wanted to
compromise Him publicly. They asked Him about paying taxes
to Rome. If He told them that this payment was warranted, the
people would abandon Him. If He told them that such taxes
were not warranted, the Remans would arrest Him. This
looked like a perfect trap. It wasn’t.
He asked them to bring Him a coin. When they did this, He
sprung their trap on them. The coin was a Roman denan”m, a
silver imperial coin used for paying taxes, according to numismatist-theologian
Ethelbert Stauffer. 1 Tiberius Caesar’s picture
1. Ethelbert Stauffen Chtit and the Caesars (Philadelphia: Westminster Press,