The Outcome Of Loving Your Neighbors
Especially The Ones Who Are Enemies
Is One World
The topic of One-Worldism among evangelical Christians is considered anathema. Rather than an interesting topic for discussion, it’s an evil to be avoided at all cost.
On the odd occasion when the topic is broached, it’s spoken of from one side only and is associated with behind-the-scenes manipulation by Satan and endless conspiracy theories. Anyone tagged as a one-worlder loses all standing among Christian folks.
Pat Robertson’s book, The New World Order (which abounds with conspiracies and gives far more credit to Satan than he deserves), is a good example of how this concept is treated among evangelicals. Robertson’s approach is common and is the reason Christians are loathe to approach this topic in any other way than arms-length.
But is there a way to see a positive side to the issue?
I would suggest that social/political ideas are neither good nor bad and should be discussed openly and often if we’re to gain a useful perspective. The Devil is no more involved with one idea than another, is very willing to distort issues at the cost of humanity and he will gladly use evangelicals to advance his goals whenever he can.
If anything, the Devil loves to breed insecurity and provokes us to think emotionally, which is really just non-thinking. Pat Robertson’s book fuels that outcome.
The Topic Has A Broad Landscape
For Christians, the discussion about one-worldism usually starts with the Books of Daniel and Revelation and focuses mostly on the Antichrist and all the negative effects of his leadership.
To be fair, the Bible does mention him, but only as a future reality. It is a fascinating study but we don’t know when he will be active and the words of Jesus should caution us to avoid the temptation to drag him into the present.
It is not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father has put in His own power.
Although we must avoid obsessing over the issue, a few foundational thoughts are necessary.
According to Scripture, the Antichrist will be dominate, cruel, anti-God (but religious) and destructive. Other than being highly talented, he has no redeeming qualities. He is described variously as:
- The Antichrist (1 John 2:18)
- The man of sin, the son of perdition and lawless (2 Thess. 2)
- The beast (Rev. 13)
- The prince who is to come (Dan. 9)
- Deceiver (2 John 1:7)
He will be a great speaker (though a liar – Rev. 13:5 & Danial 7:25-26), will have political, religious and commercial influence and will dominate the entire world (one-worldism) for a period of seven years. Though he starts out peacefully, he transitions to forceful methods, requiring obeisance from everyone.
As you can tell from the references, much of the information we have comes from the New Testament.
The important point is the discussion doesn’t start with the New Testament. From history we learn that the Antichrist is not the first person to take a totalitarian approach to human government.
It starts all the way back in Genesis chapter 11 at which time an event occurred that intrigues us greatly and bears some resemblances to the events in Revelation. It’s referred to as the Tower of Babel.
The world was one at the time and it was dominated by a leader (Nimrod) with questionable motives. It’s important to note that this leader didn’t make the world one. He only took advantage of the situation to take control.
If we wish to get the right perspective on one-worldism, we have to start with Genesis 11.
The story is both haunting and cryptic.
God Originated One-Worldism
Many details are not made clear but one fact stands out. The world at that time was one. They had one language. The had one culture.
What we can’t know for sure is how populated the world was at the time. Obviously, the numbers wouldn’t be near as great as today but a couple facts can help us speculate.
- This event happened after the flood (Genesis 6-8) and only 8 people survived that event. That’s like saying humanity got a restart on the numbers.
- The time span between the end of the flood and the Tower of Babel is speculated to be between 100 and 700 years. Either way, that isn’t a huge amount of time for the birthing rate to generate numbers.
- The average life span wasn’t as great as before the flood but it was still quite long. Noah lived 350 years after the flood (Geneis 9:28-29).
- It isn’t unreasonable to see how there would be only one language and even one religion at the end of the flood and that situation would have maintained till the Tower.
In other words, Noah’s world started out as one. The Bible plainly says:
The whole earth was of one language and one speech (Gen 11:1).
Noah and his family, though they had divided sentiments, were one and God was the One who set this in motion.
The point is if God did this, one-worldism can’t be completely evil.
One-World And Unity
The Bible endorses the idea of unity and uses words like “good” and “pleasant” to describe it (Psalms 133:1).
All believers are said to be one in Christ (Galatians 3:28, Ephesians 4:4-6) whether we accept it or not, and we are clearly commanded to act accordingly. Jesus prayed for this unity thus indicating that it is the goal toward which we are expected to make an effort.
This unity is to be our intent in spite of that the fact that it is not the natural inclination of all believers (John 17:22).
But we can’t stop with just believers. Jesus also taught us to be unified with non-believers as best we can. He commanded us to love our neighbors (Matthew 22:39 – who may very well be unbelievers) and for good measure, He included our enemies too (Matthew 5:43-44).
Obviously, uniformity with your enemies won’t be a realistic goal, but finding a way to communicate love effectively will bring about unity even when absolute agreement can’t be reached.
Sounds a lot like democracy. Maybe Jesus was teaching us to be democratic without using the word.
One-Personism Is The Problem
In Genesis 11, however, as it often happens, one person rose to the top (Nimrod) who wanted absolute control. A few facts about Nimrod are helpful to this discussion.
- Nimrod was the great grandson of Noah.
- He may have known Abraham.
- He is described as a dominant leader (mighty hunter) who is described as leading an extensive kingdom in Gen. 10:9.
- He is also described as a mighty warrior in 1 Chronicles 1:10.
The tower also has significance.
- It was religious – the intent was to reach up to heaven.
- The motive was wrong – rather than do good, their aim was to make a name for themselves.
- The aim was control not unity – they wanted to avoid the natural divisions that come from scattering.
Unfortunately, those characteristic can easily be applied to many organized religions.
What isn’t obvious from the text of Scripture is the fact that the tower being built was not one stand-alone tower but a system of towers. Archeologists have discovered almost thirty ancient structures (Ziggurats) resembling the description all in the area of Mesopotamia.
They were rectangular, stepped towers with temples on top and were places of worship. Ascending the tower to the top was a ceremonial act of worship that conferred recognition and righteousness on the observer.
This is man-made religion at its best and it could easily become a cult especially when associated with a dominant, controlling leader.
It wouldn’t be strange to think Nimrod would use cultic religious symbols of this nature to control the ever expanding human population.
But here is the important observation.
It’s an obvious fact that the world was one at the end of the flood. They had one language, one religion and a common culture.
Was the one-world situation sinful? Was it wrong? Should we avoid this outcome at all cost?
That’s the impression you get when you hear fundamentalist believers talk about it. The text, however, gives a different impression.
After the Lord ventured down to have a look, almost in exasperation He says:
Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language, and this is what they begin to do. (Gen. 11:6)
His criticism wasn’t aimed at oneness or unity. It was aimed at what they were doing because of it.
The problem wasn’t unification. Finding ways to create constructive cooperation is a good thing but what went wrong in Genesis?
It wasn’t the unity. It was the dominance of one person taking over.
One-worldism isn’t the problem. One-personism is.
But how do you create a unified world without the corrupting effects of one person dominating the whole?
The answer is easy. Democracy!!!
Democracy Is Unity
We should aim for one world. We should want humanity to be peacefully unified. But to achieve that, we must defend democracy at all cost.
Democracy allows many voices to contribute to the discussion. Democracy allows those who wish to have a ziggurat to do so if they wish, but it also allows everyone else to do something different if they wish.
In a democracy, no one is required to go to any particular church. They don’t have to go to church at all.
As Christians, we may wish everyone to believe and be a part of church, but the beauty of democracy is that won’t happen if we don’t develop the ability to make an argument.
In non-democratic societies (dictatorships, totalitarianism) you’re forced to do what THE leader says. In a democracy that doesn’t happen.
One-worldism wasn’t the problem in either Genesis or Revelation. One-personism was.
The scary thing is right now the US government is being led by a lawless, dominant, abusive leader who is using religious sentiment to control the country.
No, I don’t believe Trump is the antichrist but I do believe he is giving us a glimpse of what he’ll be like.
One world is not the problem. One world controlled by one person is.
THINK!AboutIt
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