The Muslim man I spoke with in the ministry was a retired college professor. He responded to the query of what ill would he fix had he the power to do so. Peace, he said. It was humankind’s greatest need; however he was quite sure the world was “regressing” in that department. He remembered warfare well from surviving it in his native Bangladesh before fleeing to the United States decades ago. He still had nightmares about it, he said. He could identify with the 120th Psalm, where it says at the end:
“I have been dwelling far too long with those who hate peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war.”
He had assured me at the outset that he was all set in the religion department, doubtless confusing us with churches who would call upon him to be “saved” that very day. I told him on the 200th time I called, I would ask him if he wanted to be a Jehovah’s Witness, but it wouldn’t happen until the 200th time—and what were the chances anything would go on for so long a time? In the meantime, it was just conversation. With that, I was able to introduce the above psalm about peace.
To his concern that mankind was regressing, I pointed out the reason: God did not create humans with the ability to govern themselves. No more than he created them to fly—it’s an ability they do not have. All efforts to rule invariably end in some variation of Ecclesiastes 8:9, in which “man has dominated man to his injury.” It is mankind’s entire history, through countless variations in government.
It’s why the Bible speaks of God fulfilling that need, of his ruling over the earth, rather than man-made governments. And that people tend to cringe when they hear such terms as “government by God” for fear that whoever tells them this also view themselves as the enforcers, a hair’s breadth away from pulling out guns to coerce anyone not on board. In the case of God’s kingdom, however, humans can do nothing to bring it about, I assured him. All they can do is advertise it and live according to its principles now. God has to bring it. If he doesn’t, we’re stranded out there on a limb. But we’re convinced he will.
He was fully involved in the discussion at this point. He observed how people must live their faith, it must be truly in their heart, rather than the carry-on baggage that amounts to ‘Say one thing but do another.’ It’s a noble thought, I agreed with him, and plainly true. However, even when people do this it does not negate “man dominating man to his injury.” Not all governments are mean. Some are nice. None—mean or nice—can overcome the inability of man to rule. It has to be a superior arrangement, not of men, but of God.
We’ll see where this goes. Possibly, nowhere. But it might. I handed him one of those cards with the QR code leading to the home Bible study offer—he could look it over if he wished. There was also written in my personal contact information, in case we don’t meet up again anytime soon (or at all). I also told him he must not be put off by how very simply it was written. He was a college professor and anyone taking his courses had a certain level of rigor they had to meet, but this way not true of people in general. He had no problem with this at all; he had lamented how hard it was to get his American students to work, many of them, as though they thought they were still in high school.
Often when I speak with college students, I will say the same. “Now, you’re in college. That means you’re smart. (It’s a good sign when people demur at this; if they puff out their chest and take it in stride, that’s a bad sign—but few do that.) But most people are not in college and they’re not especially smart. If they are, they’re consumed with the everyday affairs of life. If you write over everyone’s head, what have you accomplished? Think of the text simply as the glue that binds the Bible verses together—for they are the real sources of knowledge.
Oh, and back to that “man dominating man to his injury” downside of human self-rule? It’s in that context that the “new heavens and new earth” of 2nd Peter is best understood. Heavens are an apt analogy for human government in those Bible times. They might scorch you one minute, drench you the next, freeze you the moment thereafter—and there wasn’t a thing you could do about it. In most respects that is still true of human governments today, even participatory ones, in which your input is not exactly zero but close to it. The “new heavens” is God’s just government to come and the “new earth” is those constituents who will benefit from it.
****** The bookstore
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