"Whoever is not with the Lord Jesus Christ is against Him." - Matthew 12:30 - He/She who is not with me is against me, and he/she who does not gather with me scatters. - Matthew 12:30 - "John said to Jesus, 'Master, we saw a man who is not one of us casting out devils in your name: and because he was not one of us we tried to stop him'. But Jesus said, 'You must not stop him or her: no one who works a miracle in my name is likely to speak evil of me. Anyone who is not against me is for us." - Mark 9:38-40 -   

What and Who is Beelzebub/Beelzebul in the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible. In post-biblical Judaism and in Christianity, however, Satan became known as the "prince of devils" and assumed various names: Beelzebub in Matthew 12:22-32; Luke 11:14-23, often cited as Beelzebul and Lucifer (the fallen angel of Light) an Angel, more specifically a 'Seraphim' or 'Cherubim' (a type of celestial or heavenly being), who was once under the Archangel Gabriel and revered as a Philistine Deity named "Baal Zebul". Either way, Beelzebub/Beelzebul fell and joined with Lucifer to become high-ranking Demon in Hell. In another word, the prince of devils and in the Old Testament, in the form Baalzebub, it is the name given to the god of the Philistine city of Ekron - 2 Kings 1:1-18 - 

"After the death of Ahab Moab rebelled against Israel. Ahaziah had fallen from the balcony of his upper room in Samaria, and was lying ill; so he sent messengers. saying to them, 'Go and consult Baalzebub the god of Ekron and ask whether I shall recover from my illness'. But the angel of the Lord/Yahweh said to Elijah the Tishbite, 'Up! Go and intercept the messengers of the king of Samaria. Say to them, "Is there no God in Israel, for you to go and consult Baalzebub the god of Ekron? Yahweh says this: The bed you have got into you will not get out of; you are certainly going to die." And Elijah set out.

The messengers returned to the king, who said, 'Why have you come back?' 'A man came to meet us' they answered 'and said, "Go back to the king who sent you and tell him: Yahweh says this: Is there no God in Israel for you to go and consult Baalzebub the god of Ekron? For this, the bed you have got into you will not get out of; you are certainly going to die." He said, "This man who met you and said all this, what was he like?' 'A man wearing a hair cloak' they answered 'and a leather loincloth,' 'It was Elijah the Tishbite he said.

Ahaziah, the king, then sent a captain of fifty soldiers with his contingent to Elijah, whom they found sitting on top of the hill; the captain went up to him and said, 'Man of God, the king says, "Come down"'. Elijah answered the captain, 'If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and destroy both you and your fifty men'. And fire came down from heaven and destroyed him and his fifty men. The king Ahaziah sent a second captain of fifty to him, again with fifty men, and he too went up and said, 'Man of God, this is the king's order: "Come down at once"'. Elijah answered them, 'If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and destroy you and your fifty men'. And fire came down from heaven and destroy both you and your fifty men. Then the king sent a third captain of fifty to him, with another fifty men. The third captain of fifty came up to Elijah, fell on his knees before him and pleaded with him. 'Man of God,' he said 'let my life and the lives of these fifty servants of yours have some value in your eyes. Fire has fallen from heaven and destroyed two captains of fifties, but let my life have some value now in your eyes.' The angel of Yahweh said to Elijah, 'Go down with him; do not be afraid of him'. He rose and accompany him down to the king, and said to him, 'Yahweh said this, "Since you sent messengers to consult Baalzebub the god of Ekron, the bed you have got into you will not get out of; you are certainly going to die"'.

And, in accordance with the word of Yahweh that Elijah had uttered, he died. Since he had no son, his brother Jehoram succeeded him, in the second year of Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah. The rest of the history of Ahaziah, and his career, is not all this recorded in the Book of Annals of the King of Israel? - 2 Kings 1:1-18 -   

-  Jesus and Beelzebul / Beelzebub  -

Then they brought to Jesus Christ a blind and dumb demoniac; and Jesus cured him, so that the dumb man could speak and see. All the people was astounded and said, 'Can this be the Son of David?' But when the Pharisee heard this they said, 'The man casts out devils only through Beelzebul, the prince of devils'. 

Knowing what was in their minds Jesus said to them, 'Every kingdom divided against itself is heading for ruin; and no town, no household divided against itself can stand. Now if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; so how can his kingdom stand? And if it is through Beelzebul that I cast out devils through whom do your own experts cast them out? Let them be your judges, then. But if it is through the Spirit of God that I cast devils out, then know that the kingdom of God has overtaken you.

Or again, how can anyone make his way into a strong man's house and burgle his property unless he has tied up the strong man first? Only then can he burgle his house.

He/She who is not with me is against me, and he/she does not gather with me scatters. And so I tell you, every one of men's sins and blasphemies will be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And anyone who says a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but let anyone speak against the Holy Spirit and he/she will not be forgiven either in this world or in the next. - Matthew 12:22-32; Luke 11:14-22 -

Every miracle phenomenon or true miracle story was a sign that God's salvation was present. But not only did the kingdom come; it came in great power, because the dead were raised and Satan was bound.

Your dead will come to life, their corpses will rise; awake, exult, all you who lie in the dust, for your dew is a radiant dew and the land of ghosts will give birth. - Isaiah 26:19 - Luke 7:11-19 -

Though your body may be dead it is because of sin, but if Christ Jesus is in you then your spirit is life itself because you have been justified; and if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, then he who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you.

So then, my brothers/sisters, there is no necessity for us to obey our unspiritual selves or to live unspiritual lives. If you do live in that way, you are doomed to die; but if by the Spirit you put an end to the misdeeds of the body you will live. - Romans 8:10-13 -

In other words, there are 4 (Four) significant "Incontrovertible" Miracles in the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible: (1) Healing Miracle - Curing and restore of physical illness - Matthew 14:34-36; 12:9-14; 15:29-31, etc - (2) Exorcism Miracle - Casting out devils, demons and unclean spirits - Matthew 8:16-17; 9:32-34; 12:22-24; 17:14-18, etc - (3) Nature Miracle - Calming storms, feeding multitudes - Matthew 8:23-27; 14:13-21, etc - (4) Restoration Miracle - Walking on the water, Raising the dead/restoring to life - Matthew 14:22-33; 9:23-26, etc - 

In the Old Testament, God revealed Himself as Lord over nature, as Saviour of Israel, and as Judge of the nation's enemies. Miracle, like these were not as frequent during the days of the writing prophets. But one unusual miracle was the recovery of prophet Hezekiah as well as the miracles in Jonah and Daniel. In fact, prophecy itself can even be interpreted as a miracle, and God revealed Himself during this time through the spoken Word. 

As with the Old Testament, the New Testament miracles are essentially expressions of God's salvation and glory. Why did Jesus perform miracle? Jesus answered this question Himself. When in prison, John the Baptist sent some of his disciples to Jesus to see and check if Jesus was "the one who is to come" - Matthew 11:3 - Jesus told them to inform John the Baptist of what He had done: "Go back and tell John what you hear and see; the blind see again, and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised to life and the Good News is proclaimed to the poor; and happy is the man who does not lose faith in me." - Matthew 11:4-5 - 

With these words, Jesus declared that His miracle were the fulfillment of the promises of the Messiah's kingdom as foretold by prophet Isaiah 24:18-19; 35:6; 61:1 - Jesus' miracles were signs of the presence of the kingdom of God. - Matthew 12:39 - This theme of the miracles pointing to the kingdom of God was developed and deepened especially in the Gospel of John. Apostle John presented the miracles of Jesus as 'signs' and 'spiritual truth.' - John 2:1-11; 4:46-54; 5:1-18; 6:1-21; 9:1-41; 11:1-57 - 

The first of the three contacts which our Lord Jesus Christ had with pagans, and therefore with the foreign mission, was with the Roman centurion; the second, was with the daughter of the Syro-Phoenician woman; and the third, with the young man possessed of a devil in the land of the Gerasene. There were many elements common to all three miracles. 

The first two miracles were performed at a distance. Probably the centurion was a member of the Roman garrison stationed at Capernaum. By birth, therefore, he must have been a heathen. It is very likely that he, like the centurion Cornelius, whom Peter baptised and like the eunuch in the court of the Queen of Ethiopia, had become at least sentimentally attached to the worship of Yahweh/Jahve. This Roman official had been in the country long enough to know that there was a strong wall of partition between Jew and Gentile. 

This explains the fact that when his servant lay sick, even to the point of death, he did not directly approach Our Blessed Lord Jesus, but sent some Jewish elders with the request that he would come and save his servant's. When they came to Jesus they pleaded earnestly with him. - Luke 7:3-4 -

The second miracle performed by Our Lord Jesus on a pagan was the healing of the daughter of the Canaanite woman. The woman is described as coming from Canaan and being Syro-Phoenician descent. She was, therefore, completely set apart from the Jews. Jesus left that place and withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. Then out came a Canaanite woman from that district and started shouting, 'Sir, Son of David, take pity on me. She shouted even more louder because her daughter was truly cruelly troubled by an evil spirit. But our Lord Jesus said not a word in reply. Thus, Jesus disciples came and urged Him to 'Send her away' and wanted to be left alone. 

As she continued to earnestly plead and worship Him, Our blessed Lord Jesus proceeded to test her faith with a seemingly hard remark: "It is not right to take the children's bread/food and throw it to the dogs." The children the Lord Jesus referring to were, of course, the Jews. The term "dogs" signified contempt, and it was not beyond the Jews to apply it often to the Gentiles.

As the Roman centurion endured a seeming delay, so this woman suffered a stunning rebuff. She, however, responded with a perfect act of faith: "True sir, and yet the dogs eat the scraps that fall from their master's table." 

- Matthew 15:21-28 - Jesus left that place and withdrew of Tyre and Sidon. Then out came a Canaanite woman from that district and started shouting, 'Sir, Son of David, take pity on me. My daughter is tormented by a devil.' But Jesus answered her not a word. And his disciples went and pleaded with Him. 'Give her what she wants,' they said 'because she is shouting after us.' Jesus said in reply, 'I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel'. But the woman had come up and was kneeling at his feet. 'Lord,' she said 'help me.' Jesus replied, 'It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the house-dogs'. She retorted, 'Ah yes, sir; but even house-dogs can eat the scraps that fall from their master's table'. Then Jesus answered her, 'Woman, you have great faith. Let your wish be granted.' And from that moment her daughter was well again.

"And yet ours were the sufferings he bore, ours the sorrows he carried. But we thought of him as someone punished, struck by God, and brought low." - Isaiah 53:4 - "The next day, seeing Jesus coming towards him, John said, 'Look, there is the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world." - John 1:29 - "That evening they brought him many who were possessed by devils. Jesus cast out the spirits with a word and cured all who were sick. This was to fulfil the prophecy of Isaiah: He took our sickness away and carried our diseases for us." - Matthew 8:16-17 - 

- The calming of the storm -

One day, Jesus got into a boat with his disciples and said to them, 'Let us cross over to the other side of the lake'. So they put to sea, and they sailed he fell asleep. When a squall came down on the lake the boat started taking in water and found themselves in danger. So they went to rouse Jesus saying, 'Master! Master! We are going down?' Then Jesus woke up and rebuked the wind and the rough water; and they subsided and it was calm again. Jesus said to them, 'Where is your faith?' They were awestruck and astonished and said to one another, 'Who can this be, that gives orders even to winds and waves and they obey him?' - Luke 8:22-25 - Matthew 8:23-27 - Mark 4:35-41 -

- Feeding multitude / The miracle of the loves -

Some time after this, Jesus went off to the other side of the Sea of Galilee- or of Tiberias- and a large crowd followed him, impressed by the signs Jesus gave by curing the sick. Jesus climbed the hillside, and sat down there with his disciples. It was shortly before the Jewish feast of Passover.

Looking up Jesus saw the crowds approaching and said to Philip, 'Where can we buy some bread for these people to eat?' He only said this to test Philip; Jesus himself knew exactly what he was going to do. Philip answered, 'Two hundred denarii would only buy enough to give them a small piece each'. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said, 'There a small boy here with five barley loaves and two fish; but what is that between so many?' Jesus said to them, 'Make the people sit down'. There was plenty of grass there, and as many as five thousand men sat down. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and gave them out to all who were sitting ready; he then did the same with the fish giving out as much as was wanted. 

When they had eaten enough Jesus said to the disciples, 'Pick up the pieces left over, so that nothing gets wasted'. So they picked them up, and filled twelve hampers with scraps left over from the meal of five barley loaves. The people, seeing this sign that he had given, said, 'This really is the prophet who is to come into the world'. Jesus, who could see they were about to come and take him by force and make him king, escaped back to the hills by himself. - John 6:1-15 - Matthew 14:13-21 - Mark 6:32-44 - Luke 9:10-17 - 

- Jesus walks on the water -

That evening the disciples went down to the shore of the lake and got into a boat to make for Capernaum on the other side of the lake. It was getting dark by now and Jesus had still not rejoined them. The wind was strong, and sea was getting rough. They had rowed three or four miles when they saw Jesus walking on the lake and coming towards the boat. This frightened them, but Jesus said, 'It is I. Do not be afraid.' - John 6:16-20 - Matthew 14:22-33 - Mark 6:45-52 -

"It was Peter who answered. 'Lord,' he said 'if it is you, tell me to come to you across the water.' 'Come' said Jesus. Then Peter got out of the boat and started walking towards Jesus across the water, but as soon as he felt the force of the wind, he took fright and began to sink. 'Lord! Save me!' he cried. Jesus put out his hand at once and held him. 'Man of little faith,' Jesus said 'why did you doubt?' And as they got into the boat the wind dropped. The men in the boat bowed down before Jesus and said, 'Truly, you are the Son of God'." - Matthew 14:28-33 -

- The resurrection of the dead -

Then some Sadducees - who deny that there is no resurrection - came to Jesus and they put this question to him, 'Master, we have it from Moses in writing, if a man's brother dies leaving a wife but no child, the man must marry the widow to raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first married a wife and then died leaving no children. The second married the widow, and he too died leaving no children; with the third it was the same, and none of the seven left any children. Last of all the woman herself died. Now at the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be, since she had been married to all seven?'

Jesus said to them, 'Is not the reason why you go wrong, that you understand neither the scriptures nor the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, men and women do not marry; no, they are like the angels in heaven. Now about the dead rising again, have you never read in the Book of Moses, in the passage about the Bush, how God spoke to him and said: I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob? He is God, not of the dead, but of the living. You are very much mistaken. - Mark 12:18-27 - Luke 20:27-40 - Matthew 22:23-33 -

- Cure of the woman with a haemorrhage. The official's daughter raised to life - Matthew 9:1-38 - Mark 2:1-12 - Luke 5:17-26 -

While Jesus was speaking to them, up came one of the officials, who bowed low in front of him and said, 'My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her and her life will be saved.' Jesus rose and, with his disciples, followed him.

Then from behind came a woman, who had suffered from a haemorrhage for twelve years, and she touched the fringe of his cloak, for she said to herself, 'If I can only touch his cloak I shall be well again'. Jesus turned round and saw her; and he said to her, 'Courage, my daughter, your faith has restored you to health'. And from that moment the woman was well again.

When Jesus reached the official's house and saw the flute-players, with the crowd making a commotion he said, 'Get out of here; the little girl is not dead, she is asleep'. And they laughed at him. But when the people had been turned out Jesus went inside and took the little girl by the hand; and she stood up. And the news spread all round the countryside. - Matthew 9:18-26 - 

Faith is an act of trust or reliance on God, and its lead to one to learn more of God and grow. Faith without and no works may be the understanding and practices of many. You and I believe in God - is credible enough, but the demons and devils have the same belief, and they tremble with fear. Do realise, senseless peoples, that faith without good deeds is useless and dead.

"Believe in order that you may understand" - Saint Augustine of Hippo - 

Faith is a "substance" of things hoped for; the proof of things not seen. In order to understand more deeply and spiritually, this reflection on the two types of substance - hypostasis and hyparchonta - and on the two approaches to life expressed by these terms, we must continue with a brief consideration of two words pertinent to the discussion which can be found in the tenth chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews. It refer to the words hypomone - Hebrews 10:36 - and hypostole - Hebrews 10:39 - 

Hypo-mone is normally translated as "patience" - perseverance, constancy. In other words: Knowing how to wait, while patiently enduring trials, is necessary for the believer and faithful to be able to "receive what is promised." The word hypostole, on the other hand, means shrinking back to lack of courage to speak openly and frankly a truth that may be dangerous. Thus, hiding through a spirit of fear that leads to "destruction."

"God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power and love and self-control" - 2 Timothy 1:7 - that is, by contrast, is the beautiful way in which the second letter to Timothy describes the fundamental attitude of the Christian.

"Be confident now, then, since the reward is so great. You will need endurance to do God's will and gain what he has promised. Only a little while now. a very little while, and the one that is coming will have come; he will not delay. The righteous man will live by faith, but if he draws back, my soul will take no pleasure in him. You and I are not the sort of people who draw back, and are lost by it; we are the sort who keep faithful until our souls are saved." - Hebrews 10:35-39 - 

"So stand your ground, with truth buckled round your waist, and integrity for a breastplate, wearing for shoes on your feet the eagerness to spread the gospel of peace and always carrying the shield of faith so that you can use it to put out the burning arrows of the evil one. And then you must accept salvation from God to be your helmet and receive the word of God from the Spirit to use as a sword." - Ephesians 6:10-17 - 

Finally, grow strong in the Lord Jesus Christ, with strength of his power. Put God's armour on so as to be able to resist the Satan and his devil's and evil tactics. For it is not against human enemies that we have to struggle, but against the Sovereignties and the Powers who originate the darkness in this world, the spiritual army of evil. That is why you must rely on God's armour or you will not be able to put up any resistance when the worst happens, or have enough resources to hold your ground. 

Perhaps, the most memorable of Apostle/Saint Paul's allegories, however, is found in Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible in Galatians 4:21-31 - Hagar and Sarah, Ismael and Isaac.

"Ismael was born to the bondwoman, Hagar, and by the doing of Abraham and Sarah. In other words, without God interference and promises. (Hagar, was Abraham's and Sarah's slave) Hagar and Ismael are symbolic of the Old Covenant: the law from Mount Sinai that brings all flesh into bondage.

Isaac was born to a free woman, Sarah, and by the doing of God. In other words, with God promises and interference. (Sarah's was the wife of Abraham's) Sarah and Isaac are symbolic of the New Covenant: the 'Gospel of Grace' from Mount Calvary that gives spiritual freedom. When Saint/Apostle Paul's concluded by saying, "When the Lord Jesus Christ freed us, He meant us to remain free, "Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery." - Galatians 5:1 - 

So then, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free woman. Thus, we must reject the bondage of legalism, that is, salvation for keeping the law only. Explicitly, we should attain our salvation to live by faith and love in the Lord Jesus Christ and by keeping God's law. Amen!

"You want to be subject to the Law? Then listen to what the Law says, It says, if you remember that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave-girl, and one by his free-born wife. The child of the slave-girl was born in the ordinary way; the child of the free woman was born as the result of a promise. This can be regarded as allegory: the women stand for the two covenants.

The first comes from Mount Sinai, and whose children are slaves, is Hagar - since Sinai is in Arabia - and she corresponds to the present Jerusalem that is a slave like her children. The Jerusalem above, however, is free and is our mother, since sacred scripture says: Shout for joy, you barren women who bore no children! Break into shouts of joy and gladness, you who were never in labour. For there are more sons of the forsaken one than sons of the wedded wife. Now you, my brothers, like Isaac, are children of the promise, and as at that time the child born in the ordinary way persecuted the child born in the Spirit's way, so also now. Does not scripture say: Drive away the slave-girl and her son; this slave-girl's son is not to share the inheritance with the son of the free woman? So, my brothers and sisters, we are the children, not of the slave-girl, but of the free-born wife." - Galatians 4:21-31 - 

"My brothers and sisters, you were called, as you know, to liberty; but be careful, or this liberty will provide an opening for self-indulgence. Serve one another, rather, in works of love, since the whole of the Law is summarised in a single command: Love your neighbour as yourself. If you go snapping at each other and tearing each other to pieces, you had better watch or you will destroy the whole community.

Let me put it like this: if you are guided by the Holy Spirit you will be in no danger of yielding to self-indulgence, since self-indulgence is the opposite of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit is totally against such a thing, and it is precisely because the two are so opposed that you do not always carry out your good intentions. If you are led by the Spirit, no law can touch you. When self-indulgence is at work the results are obvious: fornication, gross indecency and sexual irresponsibility; idolatry and sorcery; feuds and wrangling, jealousy, bad temper and quarrels; disagreements, factions, envy; drunkenness, orgies and similar things. I warn you now, as I warned you before: those who behave like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. What the Holy Spirit brings is very different: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control. There can be no law against things like that, of course. You cannot belong to Christ Jesus unless you crucify all self-indulgent passions and desires. 

Since the Spirit is our life, let us be directed by the Spirit. We must stop being conceited, provocative and envious." - Galatians 5:13-26 -  

"Brothers and Sisters, if one of you misbehaves, the more spiritual of you who set him/her right should do so in a spirit of gentleness, not forgetting that you may be tempted yourselves. You should carry each other's troubles and fulfill the law of Christ. It is the people who are not important who often make the mistake of thinking that they are. Let each of you examine his/her own conduct; if you find anything to boast about, it will at least be something of your own, not just something better than your neighbour has. Everyone has his/her own burden to carry.

People under instruction should always contribute something to the support of the man/woman who is instructing them.

Don't delude yourself into thinking God can be cheated: where a man/woman sows, there he/she reaps: if he/she sows in the field of self-indulgence he/she will get a harvest of corruption out of it; if he/she sows in the field of the Spirit he/she will get from it a harvest of eternal life. We must never get tired of doing good because if we don't give up the struggle we shall get our harvest at the proper time. While we have the chance, we must do good to all, and especially to our brothers and sisters in the faith." - Galatians 6:1-10 - 

To fall in love with God is the greatest of romance, to seek Him the greatest adventure, to find God the greatest achievement. - Saint Augustine of Hippo - 

If without passion, without zeal, without fervor, we are lifeless and faith is so easily cast aside. Faith refers to a belief in or confident attitude toward God, involving commitment to His will for one's life. Sadly, in modern times, faith has been weakened in meaning so that some people use it to mean self-confidence. Hence, reason therefore needs faith if it is to be completely itself; reason and faith need one another in order to fulfill the true nature and their mission. Let us put it very simply; people needs God, otherwise he and she remains without hope. Hope refers to want or wish for with a feeling of confidence, expectancy and desire. Hope does not arise from the individual's desires or wishes but from God. Genuine hope is not wishful thinking but a firm assurance about things that are unseen and still in the future. Love of country, love between friend, love of work, love of one's profession, love between parents, children, family members, love of neighbour and most importantly, love of God. Amid this multiplicity of meanings, however, one in particular stands out, that is, love between man and woman, where body and soul are inseparably joined and human beings glimpse as apparently irresistible promise of happiness. This would seem to be the very epitome of love; all other types of love immediately seem to fade in comparison. 

"There was a lawyer who, to disconcert Jesus, stood up and said to him, 'Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?' Jesus Christ said to him, 'What is written in the Law? What do you read there? The lawyer/He replied, 'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself'. 'You have answered right,' said Jesus 'do this and life is yours.'" - Luke 10:25-28 - Mark 12:28-31 - Matthew 22:34-40 - 

"If I have all the eloquence of men or of angels, but speak without love, I am simply a gong booming or a cymbal clashing. If I have the gift of prophecy, understanding all the mysteries there are, and knowing everything, and if I have faith in all its fulness, to move mountains, but without love, then I am nothing at all. If I give away all that I possess, piece by piece, and if I even let them take my body to burn it, but am without love, it will do me no good whatever. 

Love is always patient and kind; it is never jealous; love is never boastful or conceited; it is never rude or selfish; it does not take offense and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in other people's sins but delights in the truth; it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes. Love does not come to an end." - 1 Corinthians 13:1-7 -

Life in the true sense is not something we have exclusively in or from ourselves; it is a relationship with God. Amen! Amen!

-     WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY     - 

Wishing you, 'Happy Reading', and may God, the Father, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ, fills your heart, mind, thoughts, and grants you: The Holy Spirit, that is, Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude, Fear of the Lord, and also His fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Trustfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Amen! God blessing be upon you!

Why do you call Me, "Lord, Lord" and not do what I say?' "Everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words and acts on them - I will show you what he/she is like. He/She is like a man/woman who when he/she built his/her house dug, deep, and laid the foundations on rock; when the river was in flood it bore down on that house but could not shake it, it was so well built. But the one who listens and does nothing is like the man/woman who built his/her house on soil, with no foundations: as soon as the river bore down on it, it collapsed; and what a ruin that house became!" - Luke 6:46-49 - 

If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16 - 

I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you now. But when the spirit of truth comes, he will lead you to the complete truth, since he will not be speaking as from himself, but will say only what he has learnt; and he will tell you of the things to come. He/She will glorify me, since all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine. Everything the Father has is mine; that is why I said: all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine." - John 16:12-15 -

Your generous contribution and support is profoundly cherish. I sincerely pray that: God blessing be upon you, always. Amen! Bank transfer: Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah - Public Bank Berhad account no. 4076577113 - Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  

THE CITY OF GOD  -  BY SAINT AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO  - "HERE is a book that written over fifteen hundred years ago by a mystic in North Africa. Yet to those who have ears to hear, it has a great deal to say to many of us who are not mystics, today, in America... THE CITY OF GOD is the autobiography of the CHURCH written by the most CATHOLIC of her GREAT SAINTS....... THE CITY OF GOD, FOR THOSE WHO CAN UNDERSTAND IT CONTAINS THE SECRET OF DEATH AND LIFE, WAR AND PEACE, HELL AND HEAVEN." - 

INTRODUCTION BY THOMAS MERTON - One of the great cornerstone in the history of Christian thought, The City of God is vital to an understanding of modern western society and how it came into being. Begun in A.D. 413 by Saint Augustine, the great theologian who was Bishop of Hippo, the book's initial purpose was to refute the charge that Christianity was to blame for the fall of Rome (which had occurred just three years earlier). Indeed, Saint Augustine produce a wealth of evidence to prove that paganism bore within itself the seeds of its own destruction. However, over the next thirteen years that it took to complete the work, the brilliant ecclesiastic proceeded to his larger theme: a cosmic interpretation of history in terms of the struggle between good and evil. By means of his contrast of the earthly and heavenly cities-the one pagan, self-centered contemptuous of God and the other devout, God-centered, and in search of grace - Saint Augustine explored and interpreted human history in relation to eternity. After you finish The City of God it becomes clear why some have suggested that most of Western thought could be read as "a series of footnotes to Augustine." This edition of City of God, in the Marcus Dods translation, is complete and unabridged. The introduction is by Thomas Merton, Trappist monk and author of The Seven Storey Mountains and The Waters of Siloe.  

In the world. "The City of God" is a monumental theology of history. It grew out of Saint Augustine's meditations on the fall of the Roman Empire. But his analysis is timeless and universal. That is to say, it is Catholic/Universal in the etymological sense of the word. It is also Catholic in the sense that Saint Augustine's view held by the Catholic/Universal Church, and by all Catholic tradition since the Apostles. It is a theology of history built on revelation, developed above all from the inspired pages of Apostle/Saint Paul's epistles and Apostle/Saint John's Apocalypse.

To those who do not know Saint Augustine, the figure of the great Bishop of Hippo (the modern name of the city is Bona) may seem quite remote. And to one who attempts to make his first acquaintance with Augustine by starting to read "The City of God" from the beginning without a guide, the saint may remain an unappealing personality and his book may appear to be nothing more than amaze of curious, ancient fancies.

Saint Augustine of Hippo stands as one of the greatest and most influential of Christian theologians. "It may be safely predicted that while the mind of man yearns for knowledge, and his heart seeks rest, the Confessions will retain that foremost place in the world's literature which it has secured by its sublime outpourings of devotion and profound philosophical spirit."

It should be borne in mind that the Confessions was not intended to be an intellectual exercise, removed from the everyday realities of life. In it, Saint Augustine seeks to lay bare his heart, his soul - before God and before his fellowmen. It is an honest book and a book that speaks to the heart first of all.

We, moderns may find some difficulty in his allegorizations, especially those found in the last three books. But one translator aptly remarked, "Where the strict use of history is not disregarded, (to use Augustine's expression) allegorizing by way of spiritual meditation, may be profitable." Certainly his insights are not to be despised!

Born in 352, in a small city of Tagaste, Africa (in what is now Algeria) Augustine lived in the time of the growing ascendancy of the Christian Church and the growing decline of the Roman empire. It was scarcely a quarter of a century earlier that the great Council of Nicaea had been held, and there were heresies and schisms throughout the Christian world that still held sway over hearts and minds. Donatists continued to hold that many Catholic Orders were invalid because they came through 'traditori' 

(those who had denied the faith during the severe persecution and had later repented and been restored to the Church).

In his later years, Saint Augustine would spend much effort in fighting for the unity of the Church against their schismatic beliefs. Arianism (denying the full divinity of Christ) succeeded in winning the allegiance of the Emperor and his mother, and echoes of that threat to the peace and unity of the Church continued to resound throughout Augustine's lifetime. But for Augustine personality, his sojourn among the Manicheans gave the background for much of the material we find in the Confessions. After his schooling under a harsh tutor in Tagaste, he was sent to Madaura for a short time. Family finances forced his return home and resulted in an idle year, 369-370. He was then sent to Carthage, to what would be equivalent to a University, where he distinguished himself in the rhetorical school. His father died in 371, but his mother continued to support his schooling with the aid of a wealthy patron, Romanianus. It is evident that he continued to cherish high ambitions for his worldly success. While at Carthage, Augustine came under the influence of the Manicheans and took a mistress, to whom he was faithful for fifteen years. To them was born one son, Adeotus.

After some years of teaching at Carthage, Augustine decided to go to Rome. His mother opposed the idea, but could not dissuade him. After a brief stay in Rome, he was appointed in 385 as Public Teacher of Rhetoric at Milan, where he first came under the influence of Saint Ambrose. In 385-386, the Empress Justina demanded the surrender of two churches to the Arians. Saint Ambrose led his people in a refusal to surrender the churches, even when confronted by military force. Augustine was aware of this crisis, but he was not personally involved.

Ten years spent with the Manicheans had brought Augustine many intellectual difficulties with their system. Although they had encouraged his own sceptical approach to the Sacred/Holy Scriptures, they had not satisfied his thirst for sure knowledge nor his growing uneasiness with his disorderly life. With his mother's help, Augustine's mistress was dismissed and arrangements were made for his marriage, which had to be postponed because his intended was underage. But his struggles with the flesh resulted in his taking a new mistress because he felt morally incapable of making a better choice. He chronicles the inner struggles which led, with timely help from Ambrose, to his departure from the Manicheans and his conversion to the Catholic faith. He was baptized at Easter, 387, along with his son, Adeotus. Having resigned his position as professor of Rhetoric, he and his company were waiting for a ship to make their way back to Africa when his mother suddenly became ill and died at Ostia, the port of Rome.

The next year, having returned to Tagaste and sold his property there, Augustine set up a monastic kind of community with a few friends, continuing his writing. In 391, with much misgiving on his part, he consented to be ordained presbyter at Hippo, a nearby city of about 30,000. The Church was not strong there, its population being a mixture of pagans, Jews, several schismatic sects, and a large group of Donatists. In 395 (in violation of the eighth canon of Nicaea) he was made assistant bishop to the aged Valerius, and succeeded him as bishop the following year.

It was not long after his election as bishop that he began the Confessions, completing them probably in 398. Thus they represent his thought and the account of his life in its midstream. He wrote this book "at the request of friends who begged him to commit to writing those recollections of his former life to which he often referred in private conversation. He consented for the characteristic reason that he desired his friends to mourn and rejoice along with him as they followed his retrospect of past years, and on his behalf to give thanks to God."

Augustine's years as bishop involved struggles with errors he believed to be a threat to salvation and to the welfare of the Church on several fonts: Manicheans, Donatists, Arians and Pelagians. In addition to these very real battles, the Roman empire itself was under mortal assault. It is one of the great ironies of history that as Augustine finished his immortal City of God in the quiet of his monastic residence, the Vandals were pillaging the countryside of North Africa. "While the Vandals besieged Hippo, Saint Augustine died (August 28, 430) in the sanctity and poverty in which he had lived for many years. Shortly afterward, the Vandals destroyed the city, but left his cathedral and library untouched."

Sending the Confessions to a friend, Augustine wrote, "In these behold me, that you may not praise me beyond what I am. Believe what is said of me, not by others, but by myself."

Saint Augustine began to write this book three years after Rome first collapsed and opened its gates to a barbarian invader. Alaric and his Goths sacked the city in 410. Rome had been the inviolate mistress of the world for a thousand years. The fall of the city that some had thought would stand forever demoralized what was left of the civilized world. Those who still took the pagan gods seriously - and it seems they were not a few - looked about them for a scapegoat upon which to lay the guilt for this catastrophe. The Christians had emerged from the catacombs and had been officially recognized by the converted Emperor Constantine.

Nevertheless Christianity remained the object of superstitious fear on the part of many, and it was inevitable that the bad luck that had befallen the Empire should be blamed on the Catholic Church. St. Augustine took up his pen in 413 and set about proving the absurdity of such a charge. This furnished him with the subject matter for the ten books of "The City of God" - a work that was written slowly, and appeared in installments over a period of thirteen years.

But the topic that first engaged his attention - Christianity versus the official pagan religion of imperial Rome - is not one that will strike us, today, as a living issue. Nor was it altogether worthy of the genius of Augustine. After several years of writing he abandoned this aspect of the problem, and left it to be disposed of by a certain Orosius, who will probably never find his way into the catalogue of the Modern Library. We owe him at least a debt of gratitude for having set Augustine free to write about the problem that really interested him: the theology of the "two cities" and of the intervention of God in human history.

The saints does not settle down to treat the real theme of his work until he reaches Book Eleven. And even then, he takes such a broad view of his subject that his approach to the main point seems to us extraordinarily unhurried. He pauses to solve many questions of detail. He embarks on a historical exegesis of the Old Testaments in order to show how the "two cities" have entered into the very substance of sacred history.

Finally he completes this extraordinary panorama with a view of the final end of the two cities, and of their respective fates in eternity. How many peoples will have the patience to follow him through all of this? Those who do so will certainly find themselves profoundly changed by the experience, because they will have been exposed to a summary of Christian dogma. It is an exposition that can only be fully appreciated if it is read in the spirit in which it was written. And "The City of God" is an exposition of dogma that was not only written but lived.

Heaven is a word that expresses several distinct concepts in the Sacred Scripture/Holy Bible:

1. - As used in a physical sense heaven is the expanse over the earth. The tower of Babel reached upward to heaven. God is the possessor of heaven. Heaven is the location of the stars as well the source of dew. - Genesis 1:8, 11:4, 14:9, 1:14, 26:4, 27:28 -

2. - Heaven is also the dwelling place of God. It is the source of the new Jerusalem.

Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, 'Truly, Yahweh is in this place and I never knew it!' He was afraid and said, 'How' awe-inspiring this place is! This is nothing less than a house of God; this is the gate of heaven!' - Genesis 28:16-17 -

And now war broke out in heaven, when Michael with his angels attacked the dragon. The dragon fought back with his angels but they were defeated and driven out of heaven. The great dragon, the primeval serpent, known as the devil or Satan who had deceived all the world, was hurled down to the earth and his angels were hurled down with him. Then I heard a voice shout from heaven, "Victory and power and empire forever have been won by our God and all authority for his Christ now that the persecutor who accused our brothers day and night before our God has been brought down.

They have triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the witness of their martyrdom because even in the face of death they would not cling to life. Let the heavens rejoice and all who live there but for you, earth and sea, trouble is coming because the devil has gone down to you in a rage knowing that his days are numbered." - Revelation 12:7-12 -

The city prepared and built by God for those who are faithful to Him. Known as the heavenly Jerusalem this is the city that is to come. They lived there in tents while he looked forward to a city founded, designed and built by God. - Hebrews 11:10 - They can hardly have meant the country they came from since they had the opportunity to go back to it; but in fact they were longing for a better homeland, their heavenly homeland. - Hebrews 11:15-16 - These references in Hebrews find their fulfillment in Revelation chapter 21 and 22. The New Jerusalem is illuminated by the glory of God. It serves as the dwelling place of God among His redeemed forever.

3. - Because of the work of Christ on the Cross, heaven is, in part, present with believers on earth as they obey God's commands. - John 14:1-4 - The word heaven also used as the name of God, the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of heaven are often spoken of interchangeably. - Luke 15:18; John 3:27; Matthew 4:17; Mark 1:15 -

At the end time a new heaven will be created to surround the new earth. This new heaven will be the place of God's perfect presence.

For now I create new heavens and a new earth, and the past will not be remembered , and will come no more to men minds. Be glad and rejoice forever and ever, for what I am creating because I now create Jerusalem "Joy and her people Gladness". I shall rejoice over Jerusalem and exult in my people. - Isaiah 65:17-19 -

For as the new heavens
and the new earth I shall make
will endure before me
it is Yahweh who speaks
so will your race and name endure

From New Moon to New Moon,
from sabbath to sabbath,
all mankind will come to bow down
in my presence, says Yahweh.

And on their way out they will see
the corpses of men
who have rebelled against me,
Their worm will not die
nor their fire go out;
they will be loathsome to all mankind. - Isaiah 66:22-24 -

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; the first heaven and the first earth had disappeared now, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, and the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, as beautiful as a bridge all dressed for her husband. Then I heard a loud voice call from the throne, 'You see this city? Here God lives among men. He will make his home among them; they shall be his people, and he will be their God; his name is God-with-them. He will wipe away all tears from their eyes; there will be no more death, and no more mourning or sadness. The world of the past has gone.' - Revelation 21:1-4 -

Heaven is the dwelling place of God. The word heaven is also used as a substitute for the name of God, especially to the pagans. God is the possessor of heaven. The kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven are often spoken of interchangeably and it is because of the work of Christ Jesus on the Cross, heaven is, in part, present with believers on earth.

A man can lay claim only to what is given him from heaven. - John 3:27 -

I will leave this place and go to my father and say: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you - Luke 15:18, 21 -

And now war broke out in heaven, when Michael with his angels attacked the dragon. The dragon fought back with his angels, but they were defeated and driven out of heaven. - Revelation 12:7-8 -

At the end of time, a new heaven will be created to surround the new earth. This new heaven will be the place of God's perfect presence. Then, there will be a literal fulfillment of heaven on earth. Heavenly City - the city prepared and built by God, for those whom God's loves and who are faithful to Him. It is also known as the heavenly Jerusalem, this is the city that is to come. The New Jerusalem is illuminated by the glory of God. It serves as the dwelling place of God among His redeemed for ever and ever. New Heaven is a term which, when used with new earth refers to the perfected state of the created universe and the final dwelling place, for those whom God's loves and of the righteous one.

For now I create new heavens and new earth, and the past will not be remembered, and will come no more to men's minds. Be glad and rejoice for ever and ever for what I am creating - Isaiah 65:17 -

They lived there in tents while he looked forward to a city founded, designed and built by God; but in fact, they were longing for a better homeland, their heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, since he has founded the city for them. - Hebrews 11:10, 16 -

But what you have come to is Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem where the millions of angels have gathered for the festival, with the whole Church in which everyone is a 'first-born' and a citizen of heaven. You have come to God himself, the supreme Judge, and been placed with the spirits of the saints who have been made perfect - Hebrews 12:22-23 - Revelation 14:1, 21:10 -

Rooted deep in Jewish thought was the dream of a new heaven and a new earth, a recreation of the universe that would occur following the Day of the Lord. - Isaiah 13:10-13; Joel 2:1-2, 30-31 - The concept of a recreated universe is closely related to the scriptural/biblical account of the Creation and the Fall. - Genesis 1:1 - and the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. - Genesis 3 - It is because of their sin, "the creation was subjected to futility and the bondage of corruption." The need for a new heaven and a new earth arises from man's sin and God judgment, not from some deficiency or evil in the universe.

It may come as a surprise to some to learn that St. Augustine quite spontaneously regarded contemplation as a communal endeavor. Solitude may be necessary for certain degrees of contemplative prayer on earth, but in heaven contemplation is the beatitude not merely of separate individuals but of an entire city. That city is a living organism whose mind is the Truth of God and whose will is His Love and His Liberty.

God created Adam as a pure contemplative. Material creation was subject to Adam's reason, and the soul of Adam was perfectly subjected to God. United to God in a very high degree of vision and love, Adam would have transmitted to all mankind his own perfection, his own liberty, his own peace in the vision of God. In Adam all men were to be, as it were, "one contemplative" perfectly united to one another in their one vision and love of the One Truth.

Original sin, an act of spiritual apostasy from the contemplative vision and love of God, severed the union with God that depended on the subjection of Adam's will to the will of God. Since God is Truth, Adam's apostasy from Him was a fall into falsehood, unreality. Since God is unity, Adam's fall was a collapse into division and disharmony.

All mankind fell from God in Adam. And just as Adam's soul was divided against itself by sin, so all men were divided against one another by selfishness. The envy of Cain, which would have been impossible in Eden, bred murder in a world where each self-centered individual had become his own little god, his own judge and standard of good and evil, falsity and truth.

Saint Augustine traces the history of this divided city of conflict and hate through all history from the fall of Adam to the end of time and even into eternity. But at the same time he contemplates and exposes to our gaze the history of that other City, planned by God to repair the work that Adam's sin could not be allowed to ruin. It was in the "new Adam," Christ, that man was to be raised again to the friendship and vision of God - not indeed the contemplation Adam had enjoyed in Eden, still less the clear vision of beatitude: but heaven was to begin on earth in faith and charity/love. God would be "seen" but only in darkness and man would be united in "one Body" but only at the cost of struggle and self-sacrifice.

The whole of history since the ascension of Jesus into heaven is concerned with one work only: the building and perfecting of this "City of God". Even the wars, persecutions, and all the other evils which have made the history of empires terrible to read and more terrible to live through, have had only this one purpose: they have been the flails with which God has separated the wheat from the chaff, the elect from the damned. They have been the tools that have fashioned the living stones which God would set in the walls of His city of vision.

The difference between the two cities is the difference between two loves. Those who are united in the City of God are united by the love of God and of one another in God. Those who belong to the other city are indeed not united in any real sense: but it can be said that they have one thing in common besides their opposition to God: each one of them is intent on the love of himself/herself above all else.

In Saint Augustine's classical expression: "These two cities were made by two loves: the earthly city by the love of self unto the contempt of God, and the heavenly city by the love of God unto the contempt of self." (Book 14, c. 28) The earthly city glories in its own power, the heavenly in the power of God.

But the topic that first engaged his attention - Christianity versus the official pagan religion of imperial Rome - is not one that will strike us, today, as a living issue. Nor was it altogether worthy of the genius of Augustine. After several years of writing he abandoned this aspect of the problem, and left it to be disposed of by a certain Orosius, who will probably never find his way into the catalogue of the Modern Library. We owe him at least a debt of gratitude for having set Augustine free to write about the problem that really interested him: the theology of the "two cities" and of the intervention of God in human history.

The saints does not settle down to treat the real theme of his work until he reaches Book Eleven. And even then, he takes such a broad view of his subject that his approach to the main point seems to us extraordinarily unhurried. He pauses to solve many questions of detail. He embarks on a historical exegesis of the Old Testaments in order to show how the "two cities" have entered into the very substance of sacred history.

Finally he completes this extraordinary panorama with a view of the final end of the two cities, and of their respective fates in eternity. How many peoples will have the patience to follow him through all of this? Those who do so will certainly find themselves profoundly changed by the experience, because they will have been exposed to a summary of Christian dogma. It is an exposition that can only be fully appreciated if it is read in the spirit in which it was written. And "The City of God" is an exposition of dogma that was not only written but lived.

What do we mean when we say that Augustine lived the theology that he write? Are we implying, for instance, that other theologians have not lived up to their principles? No. That possibility is not what concerns us here. It is more than a question of setting down on paper a series of abstract principles and then applying them in practice. Christianity is more than a moral code, more than a philosophy, more than a system of rites.

Although it is sufficient, in the abstract, to divide the Catholic religion into three aspects and call them creed, code and cult, yet in practice, the integral Christian life is something far more than all this. It is more than a belief; it is a life, that is to say, it is a belief that is lived and experienced and expressed in action. The action in which it is expressed, experienced and lived is called a mystery. This mystery is a sacred drama which keeps ever present in history the Sacrifice that was once consummated by Christ on Calvary.

In plain words - if you can accept them as plain - Christianity is the life and death and resurrection of Christ going on day after day in the souls of individual men and in the heart of society.

It is this Christ-life, this incorporation into the Body of Christ, this union with His death and resurrection as a matter of conscious experience, that Saint Augustine wrote of in his "Confessions." But Augustine not only experienced the reality of Christ living in his own soul. He was just as keenly aware of the presence and action, the Birth, Sacrifice, Death and Resurrection of the Mystical Christ in the midst of human society.

And this experience, this vision, if you would call it that, qualified him to write a book that was to be, in fact, the autobiography of the Catholic Church. That is what "The City of God" is. Just as truly as the "Confessions" are the autobiography of Saint Augustine, "The City of God" is the autobiography of the Church written by the most Catholic of her great saints.

That is the substance of the book. But how is the average modern people going to get at that substance? Evidently, the treatment of the theme is so leisurely and so meandering and so diffuse that "The City of God", more than any other book, requires an introduction. The best we can do here is to offer a few practical suggestions as to how to tackle it.

The first of these suggestions is this: since, after all, "The City of God" reflects much of Saint Augustine's own personality and is colored by it, the reader who has never met Augustine before ought to go first of all to the "Confessions". Once he gets to know the saints, he will be better able to understand Augustine's view of society. Then, no one who is not a specialist, with a good background of history or of theology or of philosophy, ought not to attempt to read the City, for the first time, beginning at page one.

The living heart of the City is found in Book Nineteen, and this is the section that will make the most immediate appeal to us today because it is concerned with the theology of peace. However, Book Nineteen cannot be understood all by itself. The best source for solutions to the most pressing problems it will raise is Book Fourteen, where the origin of the two Cities is sketched, in an essay on original sin.

Finally, the last Book (twenty-two), which is perhaps the finest of them all, and a fitting climax to the whole work, will give the reader a broad view of Augustine's whole scheme because it describes the end of the City of God, the communal vision of the elect in Paradise, the contemplation which is the life of the "City of Vision" in heaven and the whole purpose of man's creation.

In Saint Augustine's classical expression: "These two cities were made by two loves: the earthly city by the love of self unto the contempt of God, and the heavenly city by the love of God unto the contempt of self." (Book 14, c. 28) The earthly city glories in its own power, the heavenly in the power of God.

***  Nevertheless, the facts that the two cities are opposed to one another does not mean that they cannot peacefully co-exist here on earth. It does not mean that they should agree upon a modus vivendi. They can come to terms, and it is well that they should do so. The temporal advantage of worldly society is well served when the citizens of heaven still living in the world are protected by the temporal power. And although the Church as a whole can only profit by persecution, nevertheless temporal peace is a greater blessing, and one to be prayed and worked for, since it provides the normal condition under which most men can safely expect to work out their eternal destiny.

Was Saint Augustine planning a temporal theocracy, a Holy Roman Empire in The City of God? It is abundantly clear that the City he described is the Kingdom of Christ which, as Jesus told Pilate, is "not of this world." Nevertheless, that does not mean that Augustine would necessarily have frowned upon a temporal theocracy. But it certainly entitles us to suppose that he would have placed very high hopes in one.

The real value of this book, then, is not to be found in the help it may offer in solving immediate problems of policy in the world. What it offers us is something far more important. It opens our eyes to the deep and vital view of history which is the Christians and mystical view, the vision of Saint Paul and of the Evangelists who knew that Christ had come into the world to "draw all things to Himself" - John 12:32 - and who saw that "all things worked together for the good of them that love God" - Romans 8:28 - because all the good and evil of history, all the prosperity and adversity which come upon the saints in this life serve only to forward the growth of the Mystical Christ "unto a perfect man and unto the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ" - Ephesians 4:13 - This eschatological view of history contemplates with joy the running out of the sands of time and looks forward with gladness to the Christ." The City of God, for those who can understand it, contains the secret of death and life, war and peace, hell and heaven.

***  Abbey of Gethsemani - January 4, 1950. 

-     WELCOME TO SACRED SCRIPTURE / WORD OF GOD / HOLY BIBLE READER'S COMMUNITY     - 

Wishing you, 'Happy Reading', and may God, the Father, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ, fills your heart, mind, thoughts, and grants you: The Holy Spirit, that is, Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude, Fear of the Lord, and also His fruits of the Holy Spirit, that is, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Trustfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control. Amen! God blessing be upon you!

Why do you call Me, "Lord, Lord" and not do what I say?' "Everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words and acts on them - I will show you what he/she is like. He/She is like a man/woman who when he/she built his/her house dug, deep, and laid the foundations on rock; when the river was in flood it bore down on that house but could not shake it, it was so well built. But the one who listens and does nothing is like the man/woman who built his/her house on soil, with no foundations: as soon as the river bore down on it, it collapsed; and what a ruin that house became!" - Luke 6:46-49 - 

If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow in all ways into Christ Jesus, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to it function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in love." - Ephesians 4:15-16 - 

I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you now. But when the spirit of truth comes, he will lead you to the complete truth, since he will not be speaking as from himself, but will say only what he has learnt; and he will tell you of the things to come. He/She will glorify me, since all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine. Everything the Father has is mine; that is why I said: all he/she tells you will be taken from what is mine." - John 16:12-15 -

Your generous contribution and support is profoundly cherish. I sincerely pray that: God blessing be upon you, always. Amen! Bank transfer: Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah - Public Bank Berhad account no. 4076577113 - Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.