“Let us not forget why the Christians were killed. They were not killed because they worshiped Jesus…Nobody cared who worshipped whom so long as the worshipper did not disrupt the unity of the state, centered in the formal worship of Caesar. The reason the Christians were killed was because they were rebels…We may express the nature of their rebellion in two ways, both of which are true. First, we can say that they worshipped Jesus as God and they worshipped the infinite-personal God only. The Caesars would not tolerate this worshipping of the one God only. It was counted as treason…If they had worshipped Jesus and Caesar, they would have gone unharmed, but they rejected all forms of syncretism…[Second], no totalitarian authority [or] state can tolerate those who have an absolute by which to judge that state and its actions.”
Francis Schaeffer, “How Should We Then Live” (1976 A.D.)
No comments:
Post a Comment