God's purpose

"Hindsight is 20/20" so the saying goes.

Starting a new year, we often look back at the previous year and wonder "what happened and why?". It's easier to look back in history and see God's hand in history than it is to look at our own current situation.

When I was in high school I, like many my age, hated history.  It all seemed so unnecessary at the time.  Then when I got into college I had an awesome college professor at the University of Illinois Champaign/Urbana by name of Professor Thomas Scanlan.  Sadly he passed away in 2009, but I feel he left part of himself here with me.   He taught a class called "Roman Achievement" in a theater that would sit 2000 students.  I was one of those lucky few that got to sit and listen as he showed slides and discussed the entire Roman history and culture (all without notes).   Through this class he showed how those in the past were not much different from us today and that we owed much of our culture and world to them.

It was during this class that I saw what God was doing "through" the Roman Empire to advance HIS goal of reaching out to a broken world.  The Romans provided everything he would need to deliver his gospel.  (I later found out that he was a long time member of the Catholic church as well)

Roman roads:
  "Make straight the way of the Lord!"  (John 1:23, Is 40:3) .  This verse often is used for John the Baptist, but I also feel it has prophetic message about the coming Roman Empire which would make the straightest, flattest, easiest to ride on roads of its time.  Rome did not go around mountains, they went through them.  Rome did not go down into gorges, they built bridge straight through them.  Rome did not simply travel on dusty cattle trails, they built roads of brick and stone.  These roads were of coarse used so they could move their armies to wherever they were needed as quickly as possible.  But GOD used these roads as well.  Jesus and his disciples walked these roads constantly and could go from one part of Judea to the next.  Later Peter, Paul and other apostles would walk these highways and carry the good news to the entire Roman empire.


Roman coin:

  Before Rome, every city and country had their own coin.  Traveling was made difficult because you had to exchange your coin for theirs (or just carry gold with you).  But under Roman rule, the entire world was using the same coin.  It was like the VISA card of old.  Good anywhere and anytime.




Greek Language

The Greek language gave the disciples 3 main advantages never before seen.

Globalization 
    The entire Roman world spoke Greek/Latin.   Communicating the gospel would never be easier.  Under Alexander the Great, the Jews were forced to translate their scriptures to Greek.  This would never have been done on their own accord.  But thanks to the Greek Empire, it was accomplished.  This meant that the whole world would have access to the scriptures and not just Hebrew/Aramaic speaking Jews. It also allowed peopled like Paul to write letters to a large variety of audiences (Corinth, Galatia, Thesolonica, etc) using a single language and no need of a translator.  These letters would later be compiled into what we now know as the New Testament Epistles and be read by other people outside of those original recipients.

Exactness to detail
    Another advantage that the Greek language presented to the early biblical writers as its exactness.  With a word for every use (for example there were 4 different words for "love"), a writer could describe what happened with great detail so there was little or no confusion on the readers behalf.  Some of this is lost in its translation into English, but scholars are able to return to the original text and determine the writers full meaning.

Complete alphabet
   Finally Greek had one additional advantage over Hebrew. Vowels.  The Hebrew language lacks vowels and so a reader must "insert" them as they read.  For example, we can still read the following statement below:

    Th quck brwn fx jmpd vr th lzy dg

But some may be a little harder to figure out.

     Fr scr nd svn yrs g r fthrs brght frth n ths cntnnt  nw ntn, cncvd n lbrty, nd ddctd t th prpstn tht ll mn r crtd ql

   The reader must already "know" what they are reading otherwise, words like "thus" and "this" or "at" and "it" or "to"  would be indistinguishable.

 

Roman Peace:

The Roman Peace (called "The Pax Romana") was an integral part in the spreading of the Gospel to the world.  The Roman empire supplied over 500 years of relative peace.  The world would never know a time of peace as long as this ever again.   This peaceful time allowed the disciples to travel to every corner of the Roman empire with relative safety.   This peace also gave the people of Rome the luxury of contemplating the Christian faith and doctrine.  I say "luxury" because often when we are afraid we hunker down as humans and often become afraid to change our ways .. especially our religious ways.  In ancient culture this was even more the case since when wars, disease or natural disasters befell them, "the gods" were thought to be angry and man felt that he needed to appease them to make things right again.   It is during those times when people are most resistant to hearing about other religions and other gods (don't want to upset the apple cart). This luxury was used by God for his good as well as the good of those living at this time.


Roman Justice System:
   While not perfect, it was a major improvement over what was before.  The existence of written case law and consistency was necessary.   The Roman concept of religious plurality was an important ingredient for the spread of Christianity.  Of course, later on, Rome would declare it illegal to be a Christian as it was not well understood and did come in conflict with the Roman religion of emperor-worship, but early on it was largely ignored and allowed.   Compared to previous "governments" where the religious priests were politically connected to the kings and leaders and often prevented other faiths from taking hold, this world view was a welcome and improved change over previous empires which sought to erase other cultures religions. All Rome wanted from the regions they captured was their money (taxes) and their allegiance. Religion was, for the most part, inconsequential to them.


God's purpose for all of this:
One of my favorite Bible verses is Romans 5:6

     You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly

The words, "at just the right time" reminds me of what we often see in the movies.  Often they contain what screen-writers call "an inflection point".   It's a time when all seems lost and the main character is going to die or lose everything that things change for the better.  It's at "just the right time" help arrives in either the form of the police, the military, or the needed legal witness comes into court.

So also, "just at the right time.... Christ died for the ungodly".   When all the pieces were in place, God came and dwelt among us, lived with us and later died and rose again for us.  Did the people at the time see what God was doing?  Probably not.   The people of Rome thought that all these comforts and improvements were all for their use and amusement, but God had bigger purposes in mind.  At the same time, many of the Jews were angry and frustrated by being taken over first by the Greeks and later by the Romans.  They wanted their own country back.  They yearned for the days of David and Solomon again.  The glory days of old.  They thought that if they could just turn their hearts and people to God and keep all of his commandments (especially the Sabbath laws) for just one day God would reward them with a messiah to rule them like David on a physical throne.

We are, in some ways, not much different than them.   We too "yearn for the days of old".  We want leaders like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to reappear and rule like they did.  We "yearn" for a country where we don't have 60,000 pages of tax law, and 200,000 or more pages of regulations.  There are some people who we wish were our leaders but are not.  We hope that the SCOTUS would overthrow Obama-care but they don't.  We hope the people would wake up and elect Romney but they don't.  We long for the media news outlets to return to "journalism" and "hard news" rather than daily drivel they provide.

We cry "What are you doing God?"

But God is involved and nothing happens unless he allows it to happen and his purpose is larger than ours.  I believe we want our country back for our own selfish desires.  We want it back so we can return to our selfish ways.  We want it so we can depend less on him and more on ourselves.  That is the underlying truth of the matter.  We want our country back to the ways of old so we can rest in that glory, like the Jews of Jesus time did.  I am sure many prayers were sent up to God in that time and the answer kept coming back: no No and NO!

Maybe we are getting that same answer today for the very same reason.  Maybe God is using our current situation for HIS greater glory.  (I don't pretend to have some great insight here into God's plan, as I am just as blind as you are)  Maybe the United States role in God's plan has reached its apex, and now it's time to start a new chapter towards his final ending.  To me, we have set ourselves up for a global-economic-collapse the world has EVER seen since the destruction of Rome.  And like Rome, the US has provided all the ingredients (money, communication, travel, weapons) for this final chapter.

While this may cause fear and trepidation for many, for those who believe, we know that God has a greater purpose in mind:

                         THE SALVATION OF THE WORLD!

Does this mean we should stop trying to correct the course our country is on?  Of course not! To me, knowing God's purpose changes how I see things around me and my outlook towards the future.   We may yet lose this "earthly battle", but knowing God has a greater purpose allows us to have hope even when everything seems to be going against us. You might say its a "win-win situation for us".  We cannot lose.  If we fight for our country's future and change its course.. great!  If we fight and it does not change its course and like the Titanic hits its "economic iceberg" ... we know it will be for God's purpose and in the end we win!

No matter what we have the hope of a better future.