The Saviour's words that those who are not against Christians are thereby ‘for’ them may seem somewhat strange at first sight. After all, there are plenty of people in the world who have nothing against Christ, or even against Christianity, but... on the whole, they have nothing ‘for’ them either. They are simply...
The Saviour's words that those who are not against Christians are thereby ‘for’ them may seem somewhat strange at first sight. After all, there are plenty of people in the world who have nothing against Christ, or even against Christianity, but... on the whole, they have nothing ‘for’ them either. They are simply indifferent to all this, either remaining agnostics or choosing other spiritual traditions and paths for themselves.
Can such a position be described as being ‘for’ Christ or ‘for’ Christianity? If Christianity is seen as a new religion of some kind, the answer can, of course, only be no. Every religion needs adherents, preferably conscious, active ones, convinced that they are right, who can spread that religion and bear witness to its truth.
But Christianity is not a new religion; it is a new life. Life with Christ in His Kingdom, which He has brought into the world. And life is not as simple as views and convictions, whether political, social, scientific or even religious. One can become an adherent of particular views or convictions only when one fully understands and accepts them. Of course, every religion has followers who are not particularly versed in its theological subtleties, or sometimes even its doctrinal ones. Yet even these followers, with little understanding of the finer points, express their support for their religion quite consciously and unequivocally, sometimes even more resolutely than everyone else. With life, however, it often happens that people spend all or most of it without ever reflecting on how, by what and why they live.
The same is true of the life of the Kingdom, which has now drawn near, as the Saviour says. A person may sometimes feel the breath of the Kingdom without really understanding what is happening to them or what they are encountering. This has happened often since Christ's coming, because the Kingdom has drawn near to everyone, not only to Christians. It is an objective spiritual reality, not a spiritual experience belonging to some particular denomination, still less one monopolized by it. Today anyone can feel the breath of the Kingdom, provided, of course, that they do not reject in advance everything connected with Christ and Christianity. In that case, someone who seems to have nothing to do with Christianity may turn out to be ‘for’ Christ and ‘for’ Christians, if, naturally, they take their experience and their life seriously.
Of course, such ‘anonymous’ Christianity does not yet guarantee that a person will consciously embark on this path, but they will most likely not become an enemy of Christ and Christians either. This means that the path into the Kingdom will be open to such a person, and the opportunity to walk it may remain available for a considerable time—as long as the One who brought the Kingdom into the world wishes.
8 A promise that Jerusalem shall be restored, Zec 8:1-8.
That the whole church shall be established and increased, Zec 8:9-23.
8:2 Jealousy - With great care that she should not, as formerly, sin against my love, and her own welfare, and with a great desire to do her good, and to rescue her from her enemies. Fury - With heat of anger against her enemies.
8:3 Shall be called a city of truth - Her citizens shall love the truth and speak it, shall worship me in truth of heart, as well as in the true manner prescribed to them.
8:4 Old men - Formerly war, or famine or pestilence, and wasting diseases, cut off men and women before they came to old age.
8:6 Marvellous - These things may seem strange to this people.
8:7 The east - country - Persia and Media, which lay east from Jerusalem, and were now masters of Babylon.
8:8 In truth and in righteousness - This signifies both God's part, and their part; on God's part truth, on their's righteousness, obedience to God's righteous law.