Theological Journal – September 7 Nikolai Berdyaev, Russian writer, in 1925.
"Christianity cannot be wholly either with the rightist camp, nor with the leftist camp, nor with the centrist camp, since in all these camps there can be the same triumph of the godless kingdom of Caesar.
"People become spiritually
close and united or spiritually distant and divided not at all because they are
rightists or leftists, not because they are for monarchy or for republic. It is
not at all in these external spheres that the relationships of people are
determined.
"The Church of Christ in
this world always was and will be oppressed—either by a false protection,
converting it into a tool of the state, to Caesar's ends, or by
persecution."
"The third period of
Christian history brings with it a final freeing of Christianity from the
temptations of a pagan Roman imperialism, from utopian visionary dreams about
the universal might of tsar or pope... The Christian world is being freed from
those pagan and anti-Christian temptations, is being cleansed, is being
rendered more spiritual and deeply profound.
"In the Kingdom of God
there will be nothing of a resemblance to the kingdom of Caesar, to the present
order of the natural world. It will be a real transfiguration of the cosmos, a
new heaven and a new earth." (H/T Chris Green)
The punch line in this wonderful
statement is “The Christian world is being freed from those pagan and
anti-Christian temptations, is being cleansed, is being rendered more spiritual
and deeply profound.” Though it may not seem or feel like it as we go through
it, this is what is happening in our midst in America today. The more the right
and the left reveal themselves more partisans for their political causes, the
more it will become clear that the church of Jesus Christ has nothing to do
with such commitments. It has rather a passion for “faith working through love”
and a robust hope in God’s renewal of all we truly value and need.
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