Deliver Us From Evil

Alexander the Great illustrates the point. It is said that when he was dying at Babylon, Alexander crawled out of his tent on all fours at midnight, intending to drown himself in the Euphrates River. He hoped his body would be lost and that men would then believe that he was, in truth, immortal. But his attempt failed. His wife brought him back to die in his bed, and posterity would laugh at that attempt by one who conquered the world but lived under such a self-deluding and farcical notion.
Alexander could not accept his human limitations, and as he toyed with playing god he was dragged back to his chambers to die as a man, out of control. The Greeks had long believed that the very con–cept of human excellence could be pursued only if man’s purpose was first known. Purpose and performance had to be tied togethe

The Greeks have given to us our philosophical categories; the Ro–mans have given to us much in our legal categories; the Hebrews have provided a base for our moral categories; and the English have given us our very language and the principles of representative government. (One may add to England’s bequest architecture, institutes of learn–ing, and a wealth of other strengths.) Many who ignore this heritage do so, not so much out of willfulness, as from a chronic disinterest in history. A knowledge and appreciation of history is difficult for a cul–ture so enthralled by the moment, a culture that shuns the discipline of a larger context in any study.

The Jews were chosen to preserve traditions, and so that Messiah might arise; the Greeks were chosen for the realizing of art, science, and philosophy; the Romans were chosen for the developing of the state, law, and jurisprudence. And the Americans, too, have been appointed to a providential mission, continuing the work of Greece and Rome, but accomplishing yet more. The AmericanRepublic is to reconcile liberty with law.2

At the center of the old city [Jerusalem] stands the Church of The Holy Sepulcher, reputedly on the sight of the original Calvary and the origi–nal Garden of The Resurrection. It stands, but only because ugly steel scaffolding permanently supports the walls inside and out. This church is one of the dirtiest, most depressing buildings in all Christendom. It should be torn down and rebuilt. This is not possible, however, because the Church of The Holy Sepulcher belongs jointly to the Abyssinians, Armenians, Copts, Greeks, Syrians and Roman Catholics, and their priests will

hardly speak to one another, let alone cooperate in a joint enterprise of rebuilding. Each communion preserves its own separate chapel, and conducts its own ceremonies; and to make the situation ludi–crous, the keys of the church have been entrusted to a family of Muslims who in order to answer the call of Allah five times daily, have turned the entrance into a Muslim Mosque. Nowhere in all the world can you find a more tragic symbol of the mutilation of Christ’s body than the Church of The Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.2
The only difference between the Church of The Holy Sepulcher and the self-defacing influence of those who attacked scriptural authority in Western Christendom is that the keys of the kingdom were handed over to secular powers as the voice of God in the Scriptures was silenced by those to whom it was entrusted.