Pentecost and American Empire

INTRODUCTION:

The giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is thought by many Christians to be the birthday of the Church. But because the Church existed throughout the Old Testament, perhaps it would be better to think of it as the Church’s wedding day, or better yet, as the day of her betrothal. Her wedding will be at the culmination of human history at the marriage supper of the Lamb.

THE TEXT:

“And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it” (Revelation 21:24).

OVERVIEW:

The end of the book of Revelation is a revealing of the glory of the Christian Church. That Church is described under the image of a New Jerusalem, a glorious city (Rev. 21:2). “Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God” (Rev. 21: 9b-10). The New Jerusalem is identified as the Church in Hebrews (12:22), and in Galatians (4:26). The Church is the mother of us all. Consequently, in our text, the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into the Church. The saved nations walk in the light the Church provides. And this means that we have to be very thoughtful about the relationship of the nations to the Church, and in particular be careful about the role of the nation that happens to be dominant at a particular time. In our day, that would be our nation, and it has to be said that there is a great deal of idolatrous confusion on this point.

A BIBLICAL TENSION:

Anyone who wants a state of affairs without a particular nation dominating the landscape wants to live in a world where water runs uphill. In St. Paul’s day that power was Rome. In our day, that power is the United States. So, how do we respond? In the New Testament there were two principles that the apostles readily grasped, and they did so at the same time. In the flesh, we are only capable of grasping one of these at a time.

In the first place, we see a clear readiness to function within the existing system. The apostle Paul told us to submit to the existing authorities (Rom. 13: 1-7), the apostle Peter did the same thing (1 Pet. 2:13-15), Paul had no problem using his Roman citizenship (Acts 22:25), or the Roman roads (Acts 28:15), and he exercised his legal prerogatives when he appealed to Caesar (Acts 25:11; 26:32). The apostles were not lone militiamen.

At the same time, the system was identified as an idolatrous competitor to Christ, and Christians are regularly warned about the necessary collision between Christ and all pagan rulers who would not bend the knee to Him (2 Thess. 2:3-5; Rev. 13:7).  Persecuting rulers are beasts.  Peter disappeared from the book of Acts as a wanted man (Acts 12:18).  The apostle Paul was clever at evading road blocks (2 Cor. 11:32-33). Judge for yourselves. Should Christians obey God or men (Acts 5:29)? The apostles were not cheerleaders for the state. 

BRINGING GLORY IN:

“And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever” (Rev. 11:15). This includes the United States–but we are not permitted to bring an erroneous understanding of the First Amendment in with us. The accomplishments of Americans, which are many and great, are just mounds of rubbish when considered apart from Christ. But when laid at the feet of Christ, the garbage turns to gold.

STRUCTURED LOYALTIES:

We are to have structured loyalties, not one uniform loyalty. “One loyalty” is the mark of one kind of idolater, the ideologue, the unitarian. And inverted loyalties indicate a different kind of idolater. It is this second kind of idolatry that is rampant among American Christians today. We do not structure our loyalties biblically, and this is something we have to learn how to do.

Consider the following two quotations: “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).  This is an echo of something that Rome claimed for Caesar Augustus, and for the Christians to make the counter-claim was high defiance.

And consider this, taken from President Bush’s second inaugural address. “There is only one force of history that can break the reign of hatred and resentment, and expose the pretensions of tyrants, and reward the hopes of the decent and tolerant, and that is the force of human freedom . . .” This is a messianic claim, and it is a false messiah. In this view, does the revelation of God in Christ have a role to play—of course, but it is necessarily a subordinate role, alongside all the other privatized religions in the pantheon of the empire. “That edifice of character is built in families, supported by communities with standards, and sustained in our national life by the truths of Sinai, the Sermon on the Mount, the words of the Koran, and the varied faiths of our people.” Little problem. One of the truths of Sinai is “thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Ex. 20:3).

THE NEW JERUSALEM:

The vision given to us by John is this: one church, many nations; one faith, many tribes. The vision put forth by secular imperialists is this: one nation, many faiths. What is the Temple, and what is brought into the Temple?

This is the day of Pentecost. The nations are invited, all of them. America is invited as well, gloriously. This is the day of Pentecost, and so the Spirit speaks. This is the day of Pentecost, and so the bride (formed by the power of the Spirit) speaks as well. What do they say? “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Rev. 22:17).

The water of life flows out from the New Jerusalem. The king of the earth may not drink of it unless they are willing to come, and bring their glory and honor into the Church. We invite them to do so. The only thing necessary is for those kings, and those prime ministers, and those presidents, to drop their pretensions. But to all of them—because of the great gift at Pentecost—we open the doors, and say come.