What passes for “world order ” in the 21 st century was created in the German region of Westphalia in 1648. It was created without the involvement or even the awareness of most other continents or civilizations . It was created to end the Thirty Years’ War (1618-48), which was like a wildfire in which political and religious disputes commingled . Combatants resorted to total war against population centers . After nearly a quarter of the population of Central Europe died from combat, disease, or starvation, the leaders of the nations and religions involved met to define a set of arrangements that would end the bloodletting . ● Religious unity had fractured with the spread of Protestantism. ● Political diversity remained because autonomous political units had fought to a draw . The arrangements they made created what we now call the “ sovereignty of the state. ● A multiplicity of political units, none powerful enough to defeat all others.
If Jesus dropped by your church or home, what do you think he would say? Based on what we have learned about the Jewish Jesus that founded the Kingdom of God Movement in first century CE Galilee, it would not be, “ Are you saved? ” Instead he would ask: What are you teaching your children and grandchildren? Why would that be the first thing Jesus would want to know? When God saw that the evil of the man was great in the earth, every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all day long, and that the earth was filled with violence – He wiped the entire human population (except for one family) off the earth with a flood . The path that led an entire generation to their deaths can be summed up in God’s words – “ the inclinations of their heart were evil from their youth .” In a previous email, Nations Will Guard the Way of Yahweh With Abraham’s Sons , I discussed why God chose Abraham: Abraham will teach his children how to guard the way of Go