The Breakdown of Democracy

Image: A man poses in front of a burning car during a protest Atlanta, Georgia. Photo: Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images/AFPSource:AFP

Below is an excerpt taken from Chapter Three (The Breakdown of Democracy) in Stanley Payne’s book The Spanish Civil War. There are many similarities between Spain of the 1930s and the USA today. The leftists' attempt to overthrow the traditional, conservative, religious democratic republic of Spain and replace it with a revolutionary, communistic, atheistic authoritarian regime failed. Will the leftists succeed in overthrowing the USA today? Or will tradition, religion, and freedom prevail? Time will tell. The excerpt below points out some of the machinations used by the leftists to overthrow the democratic republic of Spain and eliminate their political enemies. Watch for the same tactics to be used in the USA today. In fact, many of these tactics are being used now...

The variety and volume of constitutional violations [committed by the leftists] in Spain between February and July 1936 were without precedent in the history of parliamentary regimes. They included: 

• The great strike wave, featuring many strikes without practical goals but seeking instead to dominate property, often accompanied by violence and destruction.

• Illegal seizures of property, especially in the southern provinces, sometimes legalized ex post facto…

• A wave of arson and property destruction, especially in the south.

• Seizure of churches and church properties in the south and east.

• Major economic decline… with a severe stock market decline, flight of capital, and in some southern provinces the abandonment of cultivation, when the costs became greater than market value…

• Broad censorship, with severe limitations on freedom of expression and assembly.

• Several thousand arbitrary arrests…

• Virtual immunity for members of the (leftist) Popular Front parties, who were rarely arrested…

• Politicization of justice through the creation of a special tribunal to censor and purge the judiciary, as well as through regulations and policies to facilitate political arrests and to place rightist parties outside the law.

• Dissolution of rightist groups, beginning with the Falangists in March and the Catholic trade unions in May, and moving to the monarchist Renovacion Espanola in July.

• Increasing electoral coercion, culminating in the suppression or opposition activity in the special elections of May in Cuenca and Granada.

• Arbitrary municipal and provincial government, with most local administration placed in the hands of appointees of the central government. Municipal elections originally scheduled for March 31, 1936 were postponed sine die.

• Politicization and subversion of the security forces.

• Growth of political violence, albeit very unequal in its extent in different parts of the country…

Gil Robles sharply protested such unprecedented abuses, observing that every day he read in leftist newspapers declarations that “the enemy must be smashed” or one must “practice a policy of extermination.” He continued:

“I know that you are carrying out a policy of persecution, violence, and extermination against everything that is rightist. But you are profoundly mistaken: however great may be the violence, the reaction will be greater still. For everyone killed another combatant will rise up… You who today are fostering violence will become the victims of it. The phrase that revolutions, like Saturn, devour their own children is commonplace, but no less true for so being. Today you are complacent, because you see an adversary fall. But the day will come when the same violence that you have unleashed will be turned again to you.”

Stanley G. Payne, The Spanish Civil War (pp. 59-61)

America’s civil religion is deceptive and dangerous

Image:

The Apotheosis of Washington, as seen looking up from the capitol rotunda, by
Constantino Brumidi (1865)

There are several interconnected myths or theological themes that permeate American civil religion. Most if not all of these themes have been present for many years (even dating back to before the nation’s founding), but of course they have evolved with the nation.

One foundational theopolitical conviction or sacred myth is exceptionalism, the idea that the United States has a unique place in God’s plan, that it is in some sense chosen. In American history this exceptionalism has manifested itself in such beliefs as the Puritan “city on a hill” (Matt. 5:14), Manifest Destiny, and the identification of the U.S. as “the light of the world” (Matt. 5:14; John 8:12; 9:5). Similar to and sometimes growing out of exceptionalism is American messianism, the notion that the U.S. has a special, central vocation in the salvation of the world, particularly through the spread of American practices of freedom and American-style democracy. This belief in an exceptional role and messianic destiny to spread freedom is the backbone of America’s national religion. Arising from it is a myth of innocence, of possessing “an element of messianic inerrancy.” This third myth holds that America always operates in the world according to the highest principles of ethics and justice, and that when criticized or attacked, America is the innocent, righteous victim.

Belief in an exceptional, messianic role naturally generates another sacred conviction (and associated practices), that of extreme patriotism, extreme love of country, and even nationalism, the belief that one’s nation state, in this case the U.S., is superior to all other nation states. “Nationalism” (as I am using it here) is extreme devotion to one’s country as “the greatest nation of earth” and therefore worthy of nearly unqualified—and sometimes thoroughly unqualified—allegiance. This devotion is often based on the conviction that the nation is chosen, blessed, and commissioned by God, its power and wealth being signs of God’s approval. The U.S. is “one nation under God.” Thus devotion to one’s country and its mission in the world is ultimately a religious devotion. Greatness is defined especially as financial, political, and/or military strength, and this definition carries with it the conviction that both America and Americans should always enjoy and operate from a position of strength and security. Weakness is un-American; Americans want to be number one. For many, these kinds of secular strengths are seen as manifestations of power from God.

American civil religion values human liberty and rights as a divine gift and considers it, perhaps on par with strength, as one of the highest national values. The protection and furtherance of freedom is therefore a divine mandate and mission. The operative notion of both political (corporate) and personal (individual) freedom is that of God-given (inalienable) rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, an idea derived from both the Enlightenment and from one of the most important sacred texts of this civil religion, the Declaration of Independence. A corollary myth is a form of secularized Calvinism, the notion that hard work mixed with a degree of generosity toward others will inevitably result in greater and greater freedom and prosperity, often understood as a sign of God’s blessing. (The so-called “prosperity gospel” is an offshoot of this myth.)

Yet another sacred myth in American civil religion is that of militarism and sacred violence. This is the conviction that part of America’s exceptionalism and messianic place in history is its divinely granted permission, indeed its divine mandate, to use violence (killing of native peoples, invasions, wars, etc.) when peaceful means are undesirable or unsuccessful. Such allegedly sacred violence has justified various forms of expansion and, more recently, of the messianic mission or protecting and promoting freedom and justice. This myth can foster a crusade mentality (“ridding the world of evil”) rooted in an apocalyptic dualism, but without the corollary commitment to nonviolence we will find in Revelation.

The “myth of redemptive violence undergirds American popular culture, civil religion, nationalism, and foreign policy,” argues Walter Wink [Engaging the Powers, 13]. It underwrites the belief that killing and/or dying for the nation—especially in military service, and particularly dying for one’s country—is the highest form of both civic and religious devotion. After all, the civil religion argument goes, quoting but misinterpreting Jesus, “greater love has no man that this, that a man should lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13; RSV).

These are some of the basic sacred myths and convictions of American civil religion. This ideology, or theology, has remarkable parallels with the Roman imperial theology discussed above.

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It has often been said that the most common idols in the West are Power, Sex, and Money; with this I am not in any profound disagreement. However, inasmuch as these idols are connected to a larger vision of life, such as the American dream, or the inalienable rights of free people, they become part of a nation’s civil religion. I would contend, in fact, that the most alluring and dangerous deity in the United States is the omnipresent, syncretistic god of nationalism mixed with Christianity lite: religious beliefs, language, and practices that are superficially Christian but infused with national myths and habits. Sadly, most of this civil religion’s practitioners belong to Christian churches, which is precisely why Revelation is addressed to the seven churches (not to Babylon), to all Christians tempted by the civil cult...

The sacred myths of civil religion are expressed, reinforced, honored, and propagated in sacred symbols, spaces, rituals, and holy-days. These occasions use sacred language, music, texts, and stories. Space does not permit a full discussion, but some of these American symbols and practices—often with close parallels elsewhere—are listed here.

Some Symbols and Practices of American Civil Religion

Sacred Symbols and Spaces:

• National flags as sacred objects

• Nationals flags (sometimes juxtaposed with “Christian flags”) in churches

• Crosses in military of other non-church contexts (e.g., military medals in the form of a cross)

• Blending of Christian and national images (e.g., cross and flag, Jesus and flag)

Sacred Rituals and holy-days

• Civil rituals made religious

• Official days of prayer

• National feast/holy days (e.g., Memorial Day, Independence Day, Veterans’ Day)

• State funerals

• Moments of silence

• Congressional chaplain

• Prayer at political and civic events

• Prayer around the flag pole

• National days of prayer, prayer breakfasts

• The pledge of allegiance, at school or other civic gatherings, to the flag as icon of the nation “under God”

• The national anthem at sporting events

• Swearing on the Bible

• Chaplain’s prayers before military combat missions

Religious rituals made civil

• Pledge of allegiance in church

• Recognition of military or veterans in church at national holidays

• Prayers for those “serving our country” or “the/our troops” in church

• Sermons and children’s sermons on patriotic themes

• Use of patriotic music in worship

• Religious events on national holidays

• Religious gatherings in times of national crisis

Sacred language

• War as “mission”

• “Sacred” duty/honor

• Divine passive voice: “we are called” (e.g., at a certain moment in history, usually before a war)

“God bless America”/“God bless our troops”

• Echoes of/allusions to the Bible in civic and political discourse

• Attribution of biblical language for God or God’s people to the U.S. (e.g., “the light of the world”; “city on a hill”)

• Lack of theological specificity (e.g., the omission of Jesus’ name from public prayer and Scripture reading)

Sacred music/national hymns

• Patriotic songs or sacred devotion with much (“God Bless America”), some (“America/My Country Tis of Thee”), or even no explicit religious language (the national anthem)

• Hymns with explicitly nationalistic and militaristic language (e.g., “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” “Navy Hymn)

• Hymns with allegorical militaristic language interpreted literally and nationalistically (e.g., “Onward Christian Soldiers”)

Sacred Texts

• The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights

• Famous speeches by sacred leader and heroes (e.g., Patrick Henry, Abraham Lincoln, Douglas MacArthur, John Kennedy, Martin Luther King)

• Biblical texts that seem to underwrite national values such as freedom and redemptive violence

Sacred stories of sacred leaders and heroes (“saints”/“martyrs”/“prophets”)

• Founding Fathers

• Leaders in crisis (e.g., Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage)

• Great warriors (e.g., Patton)

• Veterans in general

These various aspects of American civil religion come to expression in two kinds of venues: the civil and political (speeches, parades, school events, sporting events, military ceremonies, etc.), on the one hand, and the religious (church worship services), on the other.

From this listing we can recognize another aspect of the similarity between Roman and contemporary American civil religion. The former involved the politicization (specifically, the imperialization) of the sacred, and the sacralization of the political (specifically, the imperial). This is parallel to what happened in the U.S.: many civic and political events have a religious dimension, and religious events sometimes take on a civic and political—specifically nationalistic, and even militaristic—dimension. This process continues to this day, despite the formal constraints of law and consequent changes in practice (such as the abolition of school prayer).

One major difference, however, is extremely important to recognize: the syncretism of Rome’s civil religion involved the blending of Roman ideology and pagan religiosity, but the syncretism of American civil religion involves the blending of American ideology and Christian, or at least theistic and quasi-Christian, religiosity. The early church had a natural suspicion of Roman civil religion because it was so blatantly pagan and idolatrous—though even it could be appealing. Contemporary Christians can much more easily assume that Christian, or quasi-Christian, ideas, language, and practices are benign and even divinely sanctioned. This makes American civil religion all the more attractive—that is, all the more seductive and dangerous. Its fundamentally pagan character is masked by its Christian veneer.

Michael J. Gorman, Reading Revelation Responsibly (pp. 48-50; 56; 50-54)

Solomon and his Temple prefigure Christ and his Church

Image: The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon, by Edward Poynter (1890) See full resolution here

When I read the prophecy about David’s son in 2 Samuel chapter 7 I can’t help but think it refers to two different sons: Solomon and Jesus. And when I think about Solomon and the Temple he built I also think about Jesus and the church he built. It seems as though the early rein of king Solomon and the Temple prefigures the coming of our Lord Jesus and his church.

Have you ever wondered why God didn’t allow king David to build the Temple because he was a man of war who had blood on his hands? King Solomon was allowed to build the Temple because he was a man of peace. Being a man of peace enabled king Solomon and the Temple he built to prefigure Jesus, who is the Prince of Peace (see: Isaiah 9:6), and the church he would build.

When Jesus teaches that we are to be perfect even as our Father which is in heaven is perfect and that, like him, we are to be loving and kind to both the just and the unjust, to both the good and the evil (see: Matthew 5:43-48), he is revealing to us far more than that which was revealed, to those who lived during Old Testament times, through Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms (although hints of this fuller revelation can be found in the Old Testament).

Solomon and the Temple are the pinnacle of the Old Testament revelation and religion, and they prefigure (or, point to) the coming of Christ and his church. Jesus Christ gives us the full and final revelation of God, and his church is full and final religion.  

“The Lord’s method in dispensing the covenant of mercy was to clarify his teaching more and more the closer the day of full revelation approached. That is why, in the beginning, when the first promise was made to Adam, there was no more than a glow, so to speak, of a few small sparks. After that the light gradually grew and intensified day by day, until the Lord Jesus Christ, the Sun of righteousness (Mal. 4:2), putting every cloud to flight, fully illumined the world.” (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion 1541 Edition (p. 446)

Nathan the prophet tells king David that his son will build the temple and that his kingdom will be established forever

“And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men: But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever”  (2 Samuel 7:12-16).

David a man of war; Solomon a man of peace

Then he called for Solomon his son, and charged him to build an house for the LORD God of Israel. And David said to Solomon, My son, as for me, it was in my mind to build an house unto the name of the LORD my God: But the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and hast made great wars: thou shalt not build an house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight. Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about: for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days. He shall build an house for my name; and he shall be my son, and I will be his father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever (1 Chronicles 22:6-10).

Construction of the Temple completed. God’s promises and warnings

“And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished the building of the house of the LORD, and the king's house, and all Solomon's desire which he was pleased to do, 2That the LORD appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared unto him at Gibeon. And the LORD said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually. And if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my statutes and my judgments: Then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever, as I promised to David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel.

“But if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them: Then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people: And at this house, which is high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why hath the LORD done thus unto this land, and to this house? And they shall answer, Because they forsook the LORD their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath the LORD brought upon them all this evil” (1 Kings 9:1-9).

1 Kings chapters 9-10 records the completion of the Temple as well as the incredible wealth and wisdom of king Solomon, which was so fabulous that the queen of Sheba heard of his fame and traveled to visit Solomon and prove him with hard questions (see: 1 Kings 10:1-13).

This brief period was the pinnacle of the entire Old Testament religion. It was all uphill to this point and it’s all downhill after this point, until Jesus comes into the world in order to fulfill all that was spoken of him in the writings of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms (see: Luke 24:36-49). 

By 1 Kings chapter 11 king Solomon had disobeyed the Lord and his downfall had begun (see 1 Kings 11:1 and following).

King Rehoboam makes cheap imitations to replace Solomon’s golden shields

“So Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and took away the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king's house; he took all: he carried away also the shields of gold which Solomon had made. 10Instead of which king Rehoboam made shields of brass, and committed them to the hands of the chief of the guard, that kept the entrance of the king's house” (2 Chronicles 12:9-10).

The Temple destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon

“And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem: And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man's house burnt he with fire” (2 Kings 25:8-9).

Jesus speaks of the Temple as his body

The Temple that existed during Jesus day was the second Temple, construction of which began when the Jews returned to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon around 516 BC. This Temple underwent extensive renovations during the reign of Herod the Great from 20-10 BC and was referred to as Herod’s Temple. This second Temple was a poor imitation of the first Temple, Solomon’s, which had been destroyed by the Babylonians more than 500 years before Christ was born.

“Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body. When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said” (John 2:18-22).

Jesus foretells the destruction of the second Temple

“And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, he [Jesus] said, As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down (Luke 21:5-6).

The second Temple was destroyed in 70 AD

“The Roman legions surrounded the city and began to slowly squeeze the life out of the Jewish stronghold. By the year 70, the attackers had breached Jerusalem's outer walls and began a systematic ransacking of the city. The assault culminated in the burning and destruction of the Temple that served as the center of Judaism.

“In victory, the Romans slaughtered thousands. Of those sparred from death: thousands more were enslaved and sent to toil in the mines of Egypt, others were dispersed to arenas throughout the Empire to be butchered for the amusement of the public. The Temple's sacred relics were taken to Rome where they were displayed in celebration of the victory.” (The Romans Destroy the Temple at Jerusalem, 70 AD, EyeWitness to History (2005)

The Church as the body of Christ

“For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another (Romans 12:4-5).

“Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular” (1 Corinthians 12:27).

“And that he might reconcile both [Jews and Gentiles] unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby” (Ephesians 2:16)

“And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence” (Colossians 1:17).

The Church as the Temple

“Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:19-22).

“To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:4-5).

“For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17).

Jesus mentions Solomon, twice

It's interesting that Jesus mentions Solomon, his wealth, and his wisdom. By doing so he is pointing to Solomon and his early reign, before his fall into sin, as the pinnacle of the entire Old Testament. He also mentions the queen of Sheba. 

“And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?” (Matthew 7:28-30).

“The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here” (Matthew 12:41-42).

Technopoly is totalitarian technology

With the rise of Technopoly, one of those thought-worlds [technological or traditional] disappears. Technopoly eliminates alternatives to itself in precisely the way Aldous Huxley outlines in Brave New World. It does not make them illegal. It does not make them immoral. It does not even make them unpopular. It makes them invisible and therefore irrelevant. And it does so by redefining what we mean by religion, by art, by family, by politics, by history, by truth, by privacy, by intelligence, so that our definitions fit its new requirements. Technopoly, in other words, is totalitarian technology.

Neil Postman, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology (p. 48) 

Review: The Presence of the Kingdom, by Jacques Ellul

Review: The Presence of the Kingdom, by Jacques Ellul


I’ve read quite a few of Jacques Ellul’s books over the years but I just got around to reading his first book, which was written in 1948: The Presence of the Kingdom by Jacques Ellul https://amzn.to/2ls7k8J


I had high hopes for this book, and I wasn’t disappointed. Ellul can be a challenge to read. And the fact that he wrote in French, and everything he wrote must be translated, doesn’t help. But it’s mostly his thinking that is challenging. Most people, including myself, simply haven’t thought about things as much as Ellul did, so it’s hard to get a grasp on his thinking.

The Presence of the Kingdom is the easiest of his books that I’ve read thus far, and this is probably because it’s his first book and the many thoughts he later fleshed out are, in The Presence of the Kingdom, in a more germinal stage.

This makes the book more interesting to me because, although he expands upon his ideas in later books, this book allows me to think for myself, and try to imagine where we should go next, as though he never wrote another book, which is exactly what Ellul was hoping for when he wrote The Presence of the Kingdom.

We need to know where we are before we can know where we need to be going. We need to realize the trouble we’re in and how to get out of it. We need to reach the world for Christ by living a different style of life in the world around us.

If you want to know why politics and wars never solve problems but only create new ones… if you want to know why we can never say “no” to the latest new technology… if you want to know why communication technology has created a lack of genuine human relationships… if you want to know how we can reach the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ… buy this book. You’ll be very glad you did.

Rarely, after reading a book, do I feel like buying a case of them and passing them out to neighbors, friends, and strangers on the street. But with The Presence of the Kingdom I feel like doing exactly that.

“At the present moment we are confronted by a choice: either a mass civilization, technological, ‘conformist’ — the ‘Brave New World’ of Huxley, hell organized upon earth for the bodily comfort of everybody — or a different civilization, which we cannot yet describe because we do not know what it will be; it still has to be created, consciously, by men. If we do not know what to choose, or, in other words, how to ‘make a revolution,’ if we let ourselves drift along the stream of history, without knowing it, we shall have chosen the power of suicide, which is at the heart of the world. But we cannot have any illusions; confronted by the power of organization, our revolutionary knowledge can scarcely be used. On the other hand, where are the men and women, at the present time, who have a true sense of ‘revolution’?”

Jacques Ellul, The Presence of the Kingdom (p. 31)

“We do not have to strive and struggle in order that righteousness may reign upon the earth. We have to be ‘just’ or ‘righteous’ ourselves, bearers of righteousness. The Bible tells us that where there is a just man justice prevails… Thus justice is not a goal to attain, or a balance to be acquired, but it is the gift of God, free and inexplicable, which exists in our life so that our means are not intended to ‘bring in’ justice, but to manifest it.”

Jacques Ellul, The Presence of the Kingdom (p. 66)

“When I speak of ‘life’… I simply mean the expression of the Holy Spirit, working within us, expressing himself in our actual life, through our words, our habits, and our decisions. Thus what we need is to rediscover all that the fullness of personal life means for a man standing on his own feet in the midst of the world, who rediscovers his neighbor because he himself has been found by God. In the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit we receive the answer to this work of God, and we are bewildered because we are no longer very sure about the way forward, which no longer depends upon us. The end, as well as the means, has been taken away from us, and we hesitate as we look at this way which lies open before us, whose end we cannot see; we have only one certainty, and that is the promise which has been made to us of a certain order, which God guarantees: ‘Seek ye first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all things shall be added unto you’ (Matt. 6:33).”

Jacques Ellul, The Presence of the Kingdom (pp. 77-78)

“Day after day the wind blows away the pages of our calendars, our newspapers, and our political regimes, and we glide along the stream of time without any spiritual framework, without a memory, without a judgment, carried about by ‘all winds of doctrine’ on the current of history, which is always slipping into a perpetual past. Now we ought to react vigorously against this slackness—this tendency to drift. If we are to live in this world we need to know it far more profoundly; we need to rediscover the meaning of events, and the spiritual framework which our contemporaries have lost.”

Jacques Ellul, The Presence of the Kingdom (p. 138)