Pledging Allegiance to a Political Party

What do you think of Jamie Smith’s thoughts on the apostle Paul and his relationship with Caesar?

[image source_type=”attachment_id” source_value=”2224″ align=”right” width=”120″ autoHeight=”true”] “(We can) understand why the apostles were subjected to torture and imprisonment by the powers-that-be: they were ambassadors of a rival king, acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar precisely because they had pledged allegiance to another king (Acts 17:7). The gospel that Paul preached was politically subversive…

“The gospel that Paul preached was not a message about some private, interior transformation of the heart. It was a message about a new allegiance to a King-in-waiting. As such, there was something radically political about the gospel—which didn’t mean, of course, that Christians sided with a political party. In fact, there was a sense in which Christians, who pledge allegiance to a resurrected King,could never find themselves at home with any party of the empire.”