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True harmony isn’t won through ballots or captured courts; it’s built by people who own themselves and refuse to hand their moral agency to an empire of violence.

Read More: https://thefreethoughtproject.com/solutions/there-is-nothing-social-about-your-social-contract-why-coercion-can-never-create-harmony

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Roman Empire as Kingdom of God

I can already tell at the outset of this piece that this will be a personal, heartfelt missive with likely limited utility but to a very small audience; But, it's the sort of thing I must get out, a literary exorcism, so to speak.

>>> Some Dudes ALWAYS Thinking About the Roman Empire A minister once explained to me that in His divine wisdom, God sent Jesus Christ to the earth specifically during Rome's rule over Judea, because the Roman Empire was a perfect symbol of God's own kingdom. [stares off into the middle distance] The conceptual evidence given for this outlook was the passage about the centurion of great faith and Paul's description of the armor of God. From Matthew 8: "Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me, and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and the slave does it." When Jesus heard him, he was amazed and said to those who followed him, 'Truly I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith." The centurion came to Jesus asking that his slave be healed, Jesus said he would come and visit, and the centurion says if Jesus would only say it is done, it will be. To the centurion, like himself, Christ was "also a man under authority". I think this is a natural, universal habit of man, to see ourselves in others, to wrap a perceived subject in clothes we can understand. Even the divine. By acclaiming the faith of the centurion, the logic went, that Jesus agreed with and authorized the centurion's perception of things. I think that is certainly one way to interpret this exchange. But! many people understood Jesus and his ministry in entirely different ways. I would posit that: in the narratives of Christ's interactions with folks, he often met them at their point of understanding. That he was willing to receive folks from where they were at. I would caution that he was not contained or constrained by one, single view of him.

From Ephesians 6: Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power; put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, for our struggle is not against blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on the evil day and, having prevailed against everything, to stand firm. Stand, therefore, and belt your waist with truth and put on the breastplate of righteousness and lace up your sandals in preparation for the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

The minister pointed to this scripture and emphasized that this symbolic suit of armor was inspired by the Roman centurion armor that all the readers of the letter to the church in Ephesus would have been familiar with, what with the whole having been conquered and occupying imperial patrols to enforce Roman rule.

Much to-do was made of the fact that there was no "back armor" listed, as the army of the Lord never retreats, it must stand firm, ever marching forward quenching the fiery darts of the enemy, and so on. A sort of spiritual "burning of the boats" mentality, the only chance of survival is holding ranks and processing. As an erstwhile English literature educator, I feel it is incumbent upon me to point out that, a LOT of people have a hard time with symbolic, metaphorical language. Specifically, that in a metaphor, a quality OF one thing is being used to explain a quality IN another. People often struggle with the concept that this supposed to be a ONE-WAY transference of meaning. Truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, salvation, and the word of God are to be such vital aspects of our lives that we metaphorical wrap them around us; As identifying and necessary to our daily lives as arms and armor for a soldier. But, folks will often get confused and see metaphors as having two-way meaning transference. In this instance, it looks like, "The holy things of God are like armor and weapons, the armor of the day for winners and rulers (obviously, that's us, guys) were Roman armor and weapons, so ancillary info about Roman style armor and weapons can give us further insights into the holy things of God. Here is a brief treatise on the three tier infantry formation of the Roman Empire and how that applies in church governance, never admitting fault or defeat and..." etc. etc., so on and soforth. That's not how it works!!! This phenomenon is often in direct effect for folks who were presented perspectives from the pulpit when discussions of sound interpretation arise. "I don't care what people think is right, I just believe the whole Bible!" But, whenever they read the passage about the "armor of God" all these ancillary tidbits, "no back armor", "turtle formation", and other things bubble up. Our perceptions and preferences filter our interpretation, with or without personal effort to interpret well. If there is NO effort, then whatever your pump has been primed with, so to speak, will steer your whole outlook.

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