Sunday, February 15, 2009

Can Christianity Unite the World?

No, I haven't gone Christian (never again, as they say) but I do read what various Christians have to say. Check out Dave Black.


One of the greatest fallacies about Koine Greek is that it was chosen for the inscripturation of the New Testament because it was somehow superior to the other languages of the day. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is only one reason (humanly speaking) why the New Testament was written in Greek, and that is a man named Alexander the Great.

Alexander was the first universalist of the ancient world. He had been commissioned by God (or so he thought) to unite the world and then infuse it with the culture and language of Greece. His aim, he said, was “to marry East with West.” He dreamed of a universal empire in which there was neither Jew nor Greek, barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free.

We have seen in recent years a similar dream among certain Americans who think that by spreading democratic ideals (by military force if necessary) they could unite East and West.


Introducing Philippians



The relationship between church and state continues to be a subject of great interest and importance to me, particularly the dangers of statism and its inevitable by-product, nation-worship. For example, I think the flying of the American flag in our churches is a bad idea. In my opinion, it sends all the wrong messages. For one thing, it confuses the kingdom of God with the kingdom of man. We wonder, “Where does America stop and Christianity begin?” For another thing, Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world. It transcends tribe and nationality. And it is God’s primary agent of activity in the world. Because of this, the nation-state is always seeking to usurp Christ’s kingdom authority. Allegiance to the nation replaces (or at least actively competes with) allegiance to Christ.

Of course, we might sooner expect a change in our solar system as to expect that Americans would remove the U.S. flag from their sanctuaries. Once again, the church has bowed to the culture. We seem to think that America has a national religion. This is the myth of a Christian nation – a myth so ably exposed by Gregory Boyd in his book by the same title. What is this myth? It is the unquestioned identification of America with the cause of God’s truth and righteousness. This attitude has long been sacralized in the United States and is an established feature of our national psyche. But is it correct?


Christians without Borders

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