>> But people say, “Christ kept his distance from all such revolutionary
>> ideas, having in view only the spiritual uplift of mankind.” Yet,
>> when he looked upon the temple of the Jews, when he came in touch
>> with the false gods of nationalism and culture which stand opposed to
>> the kingdom of God, he gave warning about the greatest sort of
>> overthrow. “Not one stone shall remain standing upon another” is what
>> he said about the proud national shrine of the Jews; and he saw
>> destruction fast coming upon the capitalistic social system of that
>> time.
>>
>
> He considered that the immediate result of his advent would be the
> greatest of revolutions; and he warned his disciples that things would
> be very violent. Of course, he went on to say that this was not the
> true end. At the very end, things shall proceed without violence. The
> Son of Man, the Man of Men, will come as a bolt of lightning lighting
> up the whole world. That suggests that God’s thought and will shall
> drive universally and with power into human hearts, creating the
> people that God would have. And at that point we will be ready for a
> new heaven and a new earth.
>
However, if we were to bring together all the words of Jesus and the
apostles dealing with the final purpose of human history, we would soon
discover that, in spirit, Jesus concerns himself with the political and
social situation, that his kingdom could not come or even be conceived
apart from the overthrow of the established order. And he thought of this
overthrow in essentially violent terms.
--
Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt
www.blumhardts.com
|
