Was God a Counterfeiter? – March 25, 2008

This is an example of thinking outside the box, which I do many times.  But you can only think outside the box, if you are thoroughly familiar with the box characteristics.  I am not trying to be sacrilegious here, nor am I illustrating a particular religious persuasion.  The question comes from Matthew 17:24-27, of the Christian Bible.  In order to pay taxes, Christ told Peter to catch a fish, grab a coin from the fish, and pay the taxes.  Now I ask a philosophical and theological question, which has implications not only for Christianity, but Judaism and Islam as well (since they regard Christ as a prophet).  Where did the coin come from? 

1. If we say that it was created from scratch, then it didn’t exist in the Roman currency in circulation.  Would we say God was a counterfeiter?
2. If we say that it came from the Roman currency in circulation, then what are its origins?  Did someone lose it, like a poor fisherman, who dropped it from a ship?  Did a rich man want to give to the Christian cause, and it was transported from his pocket into the fish’s mouth?

Now we might not know the answer to this question – at least now – but has anyone asked it before?

Randy Kemp

www.randykempcopywriting.com

“The time has come,” the Walrus said, “To talk of many things: Of shoes – and ships – and sealing-wax – Of cabbages – and kings – And why the sea is boiling hot – And whether pigs have wings.”