In 410 A.D., barbarian king Alaric led an army of Visigoths into Rome, besieging the city and starving it into submission. His troops then sacked the city for three days. After eight centuries of world dominance, the Roman Empire was overthrown.
The world was shocked to see Rome pillaged and the Empire essentially dead. Rome’s defeat by a band of churlish rabble is akin to the Kansas City Chiefs losing to my high school’s junior varsity team or the mighty New York Yankees getting unceremoniously bounced from a tournament by the Little League World Series champs. In athletic events, the losers often look for the culprit, the Jonah who attracted the storm that sank the boat, the Roy Riegels who ran the wrong way, the Bill Buckner who whiffed on the slow grounder. Thus, the Romans looked for their Judas.
Christianity had become the state’s official religion in 380, so Roman leaders and citizens found an easy scapegoat: Christians and Christianity. Rome had prospered for 800 years while worshiping a great pantheon of gods. Now shocking wrath had come upon them — all for worshiping the crucified savior of this interloper monotheistic religion. In the eyes of empire leaders, it had taken Christianity and its adherents only 30 years to destroy an empire they believed would last forever.
Enter Augustine of Hippo, one of the most important of the early church fathers. Saved in a garden in Milan during the summer of 386, rescued by grace out of a life of sexual sin and cult membership, Augustine helped frame and defend some of the most vital biblical doctrines, particularly in the area of soteriology such that the term “Augustinianism” later became a synonym for biblical orthodoxy.
Augustine penned what became a famous work, City of God, in which he rebuked the empire’s leaders and pagans for such false accusations. In the first 10 books of City of God, Augustine critiqued Roman pagan religion with its pantheon of deities. He argued that paganism is spiritually and morally corrupt; he sought to show that Christians, because they are ultimately citizens of the city of God, make the most faithful and moral citizens.
The author reached the core of his argument over the final 12 books: In the end, there are only two cities — the city of God and the city of man. Each city is animated by contrasting loves: love to God (and neighbor) drives the city of God, and the city of man operates out of an idolatrous love of self. These are radically contrary principles: one is self-seeking, the other seeks the good of neighbor and the glory of God. The Roman Empire belongs to the city of man and the church to the city of God.
Perfect peace and justice will be found only in the latter.
Augustine’s work is a masterpiece, providing both an apologetic and historiography for the Christian faith. The work is filled with hope as Augustine points Christians to the great hope we have in the future because of Christ, a hope the pagans do not enjoy. City of God is an enduring guide for Christian living in a post-Genesis 3 world, particularly as turmoil boils globally and locally in this U.S. election season.
Here are a few ways City of God helps us as we think about church and state, important elections, and Christian citizenship as we approach a crucial U.S. presidential election.
1. Our ultimate allegiance is the city of God.
In recent times, it has come to feel like Christians in the U.S. are defined by their commitment to the Republican party or another conservative political cousin. I’ve been a registered Republican since the mid-1980s and was privileged to punch my first chad for Ronald Reagan, a man I’ve admired ever since (the new Reagan movie is tremendous, btw).
Yet, I’ve come to realize that new leaders and new laws are not going to transform our world into a society of truly righteous people and policies. While laws and policies are important, the power of the gospel transforming sinful hearts is the only force that will redeem culture and give Christians the world for which they long. Thus, as Augustine argued, we are simultaneously citizens of two cities, but the city of God is ultimate for believers.
Paul, in Romans 8, points us to the new Jerusalem as the city in which creation and culture will be utterly transformed. This world, like the Roman Empire, like ancient Babylon, which Augustine references, may be crumbling but there’s a new city coming one day in which there will be no sin, no suffering, no devil, no death. That city will crush the cities of man and will be the capitol of an eternal country in which spotless righteousness and perfect justice rule every day.
2. We ought to care about elections and politics at all levels, but they are not ultimate because our best life is later, not now.
I believe it is the responsibility of every citizen to get out and vote if possible, but this truth will soothe us if the candidate we support does not win: Jesus wins in the end. If Christians gain the White House, sweep Congress, and put righteous leaders in the governor’s mansions of all 50 states, it still won’t fix the fundamental problems of sinful hearts behind society’s problems.
We certainly should vote for the candidates whose policies best align with sacred Scripture, but even then, we will fall far short of utopia. Contrary to what some wildly misguided but popular theologies tell us, the Christian’s best life is not now — it’s later.
3. Wickedness may seem to be winning — as seen in the policies of godless leaders — but God and His people win in the end.
It’s easy to feel demoralized by the cultural rot that surrounds us. Conservative leaders seem to have lost their nerve in opposing abortion, a flood of illegal aliens have crossed our southern border bringing crime numbers to historic highs, surgeons are butchering young people and calling it “gender reassignment,” wars rage in strategic places across the globe, and presidential candidates are targeted by would-be assassins, while grocery bills and mortgages have climbed to frightening dollar amounts. On a temporal level, voting has perhaps never been more vital in our land.
But in the face of all that, we must remember two important truths: (1) We live and move in a world that is captive to sin and death, and (2) there’s a new world coming. The book of Revelation reminds us that the seed of the woman, Jesus, has defeated the seed of the serpent, Satan, and there’s coming a day when King Jesus’s kingdom will be fully consummated and the aforementioned decay will be no more.
4. Beware of overly mixing God and country.
Don’t confuse the two cities. We can confuse them in two ways: treating the USA as if it were the new Israel or as if it was, at some golden age past, a wholly Christian nation. It’s neither. Remember, the city of God trumps (no pun intended) the city of man.
I’m deeply grateful to have grown up in the United States. I realize our freedom has come at great sacrifice to many. My father was a paratrooper in World War II who made three jumps in combat, my father-in-law did two tours in Vietnam. By God’s grace, they came home, but many of their colleagues did not. My son plans on serving in the Army after high school. A knee injury kept me from fulfilling my dream of being an Army Ranger; looking back, it’s clear God had a different plan for me. I don’t have a single anti-American cell in my body and am joyfully patriotic, but I need to be reminded that I am a citizen of Christ’s kingdom first and an American citizen after that. As much as I love our country, our flag, our way of life, I must not worship it. Worship belongs to the One who is sovereign over both cities. We do well to remember our first love, which will keep us from anguishing over much if our earthly kingdoms fall.
Remember the True King
Augustine was correct: We will either love God and neighbor supremely or our ourselves supremely. The OT prophet Daniel is a tremendous, inspired study on Christian citizenship and heart allegiances. In 2:21, Daniel reminds us of something that’s important for us to remember as we approach the first Tuesday in November: “[God] changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings.” And in a few weeks, He will do it again.