The History of the World in a Tweet
Deep down, my assumption often seems to be that the purposes of God are progressing in proportion to the acceptance Christianity (the gospel, the church, the scriptures) is receiving. It’s as if the marginalisation of Christian belief in the public square in America - which certainly seems to be happening - is somehow a setback for God and his kingdom. In the cold light of day, of course, I know that’s not true. God reigns, Obama doesn’t, secularism doesn’t, and when the rulers of the earth take their stand against the LORD and his anointed, the one enthroned in heaven laughs. But, drenched as I am in popular media that assume and proclaim the connection between popularity and success, I find it all too easy to forget that. Most noticeably, I find it all too easy to forget the transience of worldly things, the eternity of God and his kingdom, the permanence of the church, and the irrelevance, in the grand scheme of God’s global purposes, of what contemporary leftish American politicos think about 1 Corinthians 6.
So to restore some perspective, particularly on this last point, I tried to summarise the history of the world in a tweet, from a few different angles. It was quite cathartic, actually.
Imperially:
Minoan, Hittite, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Roman, the kingdom of God, Frank, Holy Roman, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, British, Soviet, American
Biblically:
God creates world. God creates man. Sin conquers man. God creates Israel. Israel creates gods. God conquers sin. God rescues Israel. Israel rescues man. God rescues world.
Missionally:
“So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily” (Acts 19:20).
Scientifically:
God created the earth. And for the next 4.6 billion years, it sped through space at 65,000 miles an hour, and got slightly cooler.
In current affairs:
... fire, language, farming, writing, wheels, cities, maths, astronomy, sanitation), Yeshua, (dams, telescopes, printing, steam engines, penicillin, electronics, flight, the Internet ...
Any more suggestions?