I believe strongly in Augustine's concept of the two cities, the City of God and the City of Man. I believe that Christians are primarily citizens of the City of God who temporarily reside in the City of Man as we await a time in the future when the City of Man will become one with the City of God. I don't believe that the advance of, the prosperity of, nor the happiness of the City of God is contingent on the affairs of the City of Man. In other words, regardless of what happens among the nations of the earth, the Kingdom of God is going to be just fine, thank you very much. Even when the City of Man turns its harshest weapons against the City of God, the City of God will continue to grow and prosper.
Having said that, citizens of the City of God have a duty toward the citizens of the City of Man. It is summarized in the second half of the Great Commandment - to love our neighbors as ourselves. I believe it is this command that provides the rationale for civic involvement, as opposed to some triumphalistic motivation.
And along those lines I came across a terrific word from Chuck Colson about recent nefarious happenings at the UN, particularly regarding the words of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It is so good that, in the post continuation I have posted the entire column. But I don't post them out of a sense of alarmism, or I should say that I don't post them out of alarm on behalf of the church or the Kingdom of God. I think that, no matter what happens in the geo-political realm, the church, the Kingdom of God, the City of God is/are going to be fine.
Yet, Colson's words illustrate a truly alarming ignorance on the part of many regarding potential dangers posed to civil society by people like Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez. And the dangers go beyond the threat just to America. I realize it is internationally in vogue to be anti-American and anti-George Bush (and sadly it is the same here for many Americans) but when I read this kind of stuff, it seems clear to me that the Ahmadinejad's and Chavez's of the world pose a threat to more than just Americans. And, out of love for all our neighbors, both here in America and abroad, it is worth heeding Mr. Colson's words.
BreakPoint Commentaries
By Chuck Colson9/29/2006
Deafening Silence
Imagine an American president addressing the United Nations and concluding his remarks by praying that God would hasten Christ’s return and unleash the apocalypse. What do you suppose public opinion would be?
Well, something even scarier actually happened at the UN last week, and the world said . . . nothing.
That’s because the president in question was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran. At the end of his September 21 address to the General Assembly, he prayed that Allah would send “the perfect human being promised to all by you.”
That “perfect human being” Ahmadinejad prayed for was the Mahdi, a Shiite messianic figure. What made the prayer so scary was that, in Shiite eschatology, the Mahdi’s return will be preceded by an apocalypse that leaves much of the world dead.
Since Ahmadinejad isn’t some nutcase in a backwoods cabin but, rather, the president of an oil-rich nation actively pursuing nuclear weapons, his prayer should have sent shivers down spines. What we got instead is polite applause and business-as-usual.
The response to a speech by Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez was even worse: After Chavez called President Bush “the devil” and joked about smelling sulfur left over from Bush’s appearance two days before, delegates broke into applause and laughter.
Now, President Bush doesn’t need me or anyone else to defend him, but the response to Chavez and Ahmadinejad, both inside and outside the UN, was appalling. It’s more evidence that historian Niall Ferguson is right when he says that “it’s a mad world.”
Ferguson, who teaches at Harvard, compared what happened at the UN to a “university faculty meeting.” “Extravagant, long-winded denunciations of the president is what we’ve come to expect from professors,” not politicians.
The madness is a lot more than rhetorical, however: Ferguson cited the coup in Thailand, rioting in Hungary, and the recent assassination of the deputy chairman of the Russian central bank.
Add to this Islam’s violent response to the Pope’s remarks in Regensburg, and the last thing the world needs to do is encourage an apocalyptic Holocaust-denier and a Fidel Castro-wannabe. Yet that’s exactly what happened.
To his credit, President Bush has shown remarkable restraint. That’s good because somebody needs to be the adult. While we all wish that there had never been a September 11 and that history, as some intellectuals in 1990s proclaimed, was over, we didn’t get what we wanted. As the events of the past few weeks show us, we live in an incredibly dangerous world.
This makes what happened at the UN last week and the silence in its aftermath so shocking. We’re in a clash of civilizations being waged by people, Islamo-fascists, who really do want to destroy us, no matter how much we prefer to think otherwise.
What’s more, as the New Republic recently noted, an “alliance of authoritarian regimes” is using oil as a weapon in its efforts to stop the spread of democracy around the world.
Christians, who should understand the religious and cultural dimensions of this threat, need to help our neighbors understand the volatile world we live in—and the dangers facing Western civilization itself.
For Further Reading and Information
Today’s BreakPoint offer: “Clash of Worldviews: Defending the Truth”—Chuck Colson’s speech on Christianity and Islam.
Niall Ferguson, “Insanity on a Global Scale,” Los Angeles Times, 25 September 2006.
John Hughes, “Don’t Reward Ahmadinejad or Chavez for Their UN Tirades,” Christian Science Monitor, 27 September 2006.
Joshua Kurlantzick, “Crude Awakening: The Coming Resource War,” New Republic, 25 September 2006.
BreakPoint Commentary No. 060814, “Preparing for the Mahdi: What’s Really Scary about Iran’s Nuclear Program.”
BreakPoint Commentary No. 060919, “Proving His Point: The Pope’s Speech.”
HT: Doug Groothuis - the Constructive Curmudgeon
Related Tags: Current Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Foregin Policy, Politics, Politics & Society, Religion, Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran, Chavez, Hugo Chavez, Islam, Muslim, Muslims, Mahdi, United States, United Nations, George Bush, President Bush, Christian, Christianity, Kingdom of God, City of God, City of Man, Augustine, Charles Colson, Chuck Colson
And the Christian response to all this, honed and conditioned by all those sales of Late Great Planet Earth, Left Behind: the Neverending Series, et al?
Sitting on our rooftops with bags packed and End Time Prophecy charts all annotated, reciting --
"Twinkle twinkle coming Christ,
Beam me up to Paradise..."
And --
"This world is not mah home,
Ah'm jus' passin' through..."
Thank you, John Nelson Darby.
Posted by: Ken | October 02, 2006 at 01:01 PM
Nice scapegoating, Ken, as if there were no premillenialist or eschatological errors prior to Darby. Ask Pilate to moveover while you wash your belief system of any personal responsibility for the poor condition of the church in the United States and the West.
David:
It is a deafening silence and, at the same time, a defining silence. It defines the UN and it defines the current condition of our country and, in part, the church: we just don't get it. Islam is a serious threat - not to the City of God, but - to the City of Man. If we don't grasp this soon, it may become too late.
But what can or should those of us in the pews do when our pastors are silent? Where is the Christian leadership at the local level?
Posted by: Mike | October 02, 2006 at 03:32 PM
Mike - and therein lies the rub. How are preachers, the heralds of the city of God to maintain the singularity of their calling as stewards of the message of redemption while speaking to the major issues of the day?
Preachers don't have the task of "rallying the troops" to support some kind of military/political agenda. Yet, we do have the job of loving our neighbors and this will fit in. I don't know - I see your point and agree in large measure but I think too many preachers have been co-opted by political agendas so we have to be careful here.
Posted by: David Wayne | October 03, 2006 at 12:01 PM
Good post, Mr. Wayne. I think it is telling, though, that you find it necessary to caveat your remarks by affirming the city of man-city of God dichotomy. Why would you need to do so, when it is already understood (from your point of view) that the Church as a spiritual entity is completely aloof from the vicissitudes of the corrupt world?
Is it not rather true, that a part of the Church (its institutional structure) and, by extension, the families and nations that are included in its covenantal purview, is subject to worldly trials and tribulations?
I would suggest that those who make an absolute categorical distinction between the two cities suppress the actual unity of life as it is experienced. They are guilty of dividing loyalties that belong together, that coalesce if properly ordered. I do not suppose an absolute distinction between familial and ecclessial loyalties. Nor do I assume a necessary discontinuity between my loyalties to God and country.
To oppose the menace posed by the Axis of Evil (the unholy alliance between radical leftists and Islamists) is in perfect harmony with a godly zeal to defend the Kingdom of God in its present historical incarnation. They really arise from the same motive.
In my view, as soon as we acknowledge the cooperative relationship between church and state implied by the embodied nature of the Kingdom, the better off we will be.
Posted by: Andrew Matthews | October 03, 2006 at 12:18 PM