---
title: Acts 25:11
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/acts-25-11/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/acts-25-11.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Acts 25:11
testament: NT
section: Acts
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Acts 25:11

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> If, however, I am guilty of anything worthy of death, I do not refuse to die. But if there is no truth to their accusations against me, no one has the right to hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar!”

## JW Usage

Acts 25:11 is not heavily featured in Watchtower teaching on "Christian neutrality." The blanket doctrine — no voting, no jury service, no running for office, no petitions, no flag salute — struggles to accommodate an apostle who uses the Roman legal system as a tool for gospel advance.

## Protestant Usage

"I appeal to Caesar!" (NWT). Paul deploys the full civic machinery of his Roman citizenship — the right of appeal, the legal venue, the imperial court — to advance his trial and eventually bring the gospel to Rome itself (Acts 28). The apostle who wrote "my citizenship is in heaven" (Philippians 3:20) also used his earthly citizenship for kingdom ends. Paul does not treat civic participation as compromise with Satan's system; he treats it as a providential tool. Pair Acts 25:11 with Romans 13:4 (where the NWT itself calls the governing authorities "God's minister") and 1 Timothy 2:1-2 (Paul commands prayer *for* kings and those in high positions). At the door the gentle question is not whether Christians should be partisan — it is whether a doctrine that would have forbidden a faithful Witness from marching at Selma, signing the Voting Rights Act, or sitting on a jury convicting civil-rights-era murderers can consistently be called the fruit Jesus names "good."

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [The Civic Cost of Cosmic Neutrality](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/cosmic-neutrality-civic-cost.md) — Jesus said 'my kingdom is not of this world' — not 'my followers must abandon the world' (John 18:36) [Practice]