Sinai.
Jeruselem.
Babylon.
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Slavery. The cry of the oppressed.
Salvation. It is here that God speaks.
Pride. What do you do with your wealth, power and influence?
Exile. You forgot your story. You forgot about your soul. The survivors become servants. It's time to start the story again.
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Don helps Rob to write his best book yet -- miles above the first two books, with much higher concentration and with greater precision too. It's aim is most certainly at us, for we are citizens in the greatest military empire in the world. An empire that finds itself in the middle east invading foreign countries. A middle east where a man was crucified for bucking the empire of his day. And today his words are used when we claim victory over our enemies in the same region.
Confusing?
Could the story of Israel really be the story of us, of our lives, our history, as just another cog in the wheel of how the earth works?
QUOTE
"Most of the Bible is a history told by people living in lands occupied by conquering superpowers. It's a book written from the underside of power. It's an oppression narrative. The majority of the Bible was written by a minority people living under the rule and reign of massive, mighty empires, from the Egyptian Empire to the Babylonian Empire to the Persian Empire to the Asyrian Empire to the Roman Empire.
"This can make the Bible a very difficult book to understand if you are reading it as a citizen of the most powerful empire the world has ever seen. Without careful study and reflection, and humility, it may even be possible to miss central themes of the Scriptures.
"Because what's true of empires then is true of empires now."
"This can make the Bible a very difficult book to understand if you are reading it as a citizen of the most powerful empire the world has ever seen. Without careful study and reflection, and humility, it may even be possible to miss central themes of the Scriptures.
"Because what's true of empires then is true of empires now."
Has America turned to accumulation of wealth and power, consuming instead of sharing, hording instead of blessing?
If so, does that make us the current Empire? And if so, what do we know eventually happens to all Empires? What does history teach us?
And if we in the church see this, is there any way to make it avoidable? Is there anything we can do?
This is a serious, hard, gloomy look at the Christian church residing in the greatest global military empire in history. It's a lot more serious in tone than Rob's previous work, and it really turns the gospel message inside out, from an individual understanding of how this faith is supposed to work, to a global understanding of really, how this faith is supposed to work.
Highly recommended.
