by Greg Mundis

Dear Friends:

Render Unto Caesar

"Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's."

Jesus' statement is arguably one of the most quoted portions of Scripture to help us understand a Christian's responsibilities to civil government and the church.

In the United States and Romania, elections will be held in the very near future. Both elections will determine the course of the government for the next term. We as Assemblies of God personnel living overseas have an apolitical stance in that we don't endorse any particular party where we serve. We feel that our position in the country is to preach the gospel and let the morals and values of people's choices who accept the gospel determine their conscience, choices, and political persuasion. We take seriously the command of Jesus to go into all the world to disciple the nations and, with that in mind, we invest our human or financial resources to train people to become like Christ. This is not saying that our example, Christ, did not have opinions regarding the politics of His day. Jesus referred to the governor of the province as a "fox" (Luke 13:32) because his moral example and his values were certainly less than honorable.

Christians have been called-whether in the context of the United States or Romania-to be the "salt and light" of society. We are not to be political persuaders, but we are to be a moral- and value-oriented percentage of the population to help keep the consciousness of the civil government and civil society aware of the choices they are making. Our obedience to Scripture and its authority provides us with the moral and value compass pointing toward "a true north."

Having said this, we are thankful that we can-as Paul admonished-pray for our leaders. We can obey the civil government as appointed by the Lord no matter which political party comes into power. As long as the civil authorities' mandates do not infringe upon the higher biblical mandates, we as good Christians and Assemblies of God personnel can obey the laws of the land with good consciences.

It was our joy to be in Romania with the chairman of the Pentecostal World Fellowship, Dr. Thomas Trask, to meet with civil authorities, including the mayor of Bucharest, the minister of religion and culture, and the prime minister of Romania. In each of these meetings, we were able to pray and share, from a global Pentecostal constituency of 625 million believers, the biblical values that are important for Pentecostal believers.

We pray that the elections in the United States and Romania will glorify God and that the will of the Lord will be done in each electorate.

Your colleague for souls in Europe,

God Bless ,
Greg Mundis
AGWM Europe Regional Director

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