They blamed the Christians . . .
and returned to earth worship
The evidence of social decay was all around. A once great civilization was beleaguered and in ruins. Economic hardship and environmental devastation were rampant. Not only that, the Christians were blamed for all of this. It was the Christians, declared the educated elite, who brought about these catastrophes. The only solution, they said, was a return to paganism and earth worship.
Does this sound familiar? It could be taken from a lecture in any number of classes at ASU. It is a message heard in the mainstream media day after day. But I was thinking of Augustine and the City of God. Augustine wrote that book during just such a time and to respond to that exact criticism. “It is the fault of the Christians.”
Today, we see this same behavior by non-Christians. Christianity is blamed for any ills and abuses of “the West.” Christians supported capitalism, which led to slavery, exploitation, and the destruction of the environment. The secular professor just takes this to be an axiom and interprets course material through such a lens without any self-reflection or critical analysis of this assumption.
We also see this same solution declared by non-Christians. They tell us we must return to earth worship and a cyclical view of human society. They tell us that witchcraft and paganism best exemplified this view of the world, and Christians unjustly persecuted both. According to this view, the Christians worship the sky god, who is patriarchal and distant. The earth goddess is nurturing and present. Only by a return to this pagan worship can the earth be restored.
Christians are ready to examine themselves and confess wrongdoing. And so, when confronted by this pagan presentation, many Christians respond by taking ownership of past events and promising to do better. And while there is always room for self-reflection, its appropriateness depends on the context. Consider David and Goliath. Goliath mocks the people of God. David immediately responds by engaging Goliath. Goliath and the Philistines may have had complaints about what they viewed to be unjust treatment. But David knew this was a much larger conflict between belief and unbelief, and he was ready to engage the unbelief.
Now, return to Augustine. He, like David, takes on unbelief. Augustine does not defend Christians as perfect. But, nor does he say, “We’ve all done bad things.” He finds the same error in both the Christian and the non-Christian: unbelief and the failure to love God. He does not accept the premises of the pagan critique against Christians. Instead, he grounds his analysis of truths about good and evil revealed in both general and special revelation.
Christians will do well in our day to imitate Augustine on this. Do not accept the premises of the unbeliever’s critique. And remember, their main complaint is not against Christians but against God. They are at enmity with God. They have been alienated from Him and, in their own power, have no way to be reconciled to Him. They are under His wrath, and rather than repent in the name of Christ, they curse their Creator. In their darkened mind, they turn to worship the creation and the lusts of their own bodies.
Christians, do not fear man. They will rage and blame Christianity because they rage and blame God. They cannot understand affliction or why troubles occur in this life. But Christians do know of the providential rule of God. We know that events are not random, and they are not ultimately due to humans but are the work of God. Augustine calls Christians to repent of having feared man rather than God and of not loving God and praising Him for all of His works.
Augustine gets right into the problem, and I want to do the same in this series: why is life so filled with suffering?