"Let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens...lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.." Long before the judgement of dispersion fell upon them, men already had a premonition, dim fear that they might break apart and that their languages might be confused. They sensed the hidden presence of centrifugal, dispersive force.
"This arises from the fact that they have suffered something that might be called the 'loss of center' and that now they have banished God from their midst they no longer have anything that binds them to each other. Always the trend is the same: wherever God has been deposed, some substitute point has to be created to bind men together in some fashion or other...
"All of these are substitute ties, conclusive attempt to replace the lost center with a synthetic center. But this attempt --- is doomed to failure ...
"... In other words, if man is no longer subject to God, then he is under the domination of his instincts, his opportunism, his ambition, his will to power. The day may come when he will stick to nothing if it seems opportune to him. For every one of us has some kind of lord, we are driven to something - if not God, then an idol, if not from above, then from below. That's why I (Thielicke) am afraid of a man who has no ties and am on my guard against him.
"I believe that Hitler was just such an unbound, authority-less person and that we can apply to him (Hilter) Jacob Burckhardt once said of Napoleon, that he was the personification of absence of guaranty. For him (Napoleon) there were no binding ties, humanitarian, legal, or religious The very moment he signed a treaty he was prepared to break it, if this served his interest. For Napoleon thought only of interest and not of any tie of loyalty. of any obligation or authoritative court of appeal."
"All of these are substitute ties, conclusive attempts to replace the lost center with a synthetic center."
How much of our political energy, international relations, our political party pandering, egocentric maneuvering is due to the loss of our subjection to God and thereby placing us on the domination of our instincts etc.
Hitler, Napoleon, Stalin, you name them, even some of the current people who live out opportunism, will to power, ambition, instincts ---- no ties, no loyalty except to their political philosophies and party line!
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