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Hello, my name is Ed Smith and I teach at church history and Global Studies here at Liberty. And my task this week is to offer a biblical perspective on the rise and fall of nations. Now throughout the ages, a number of philosophers and historians have struggled to get at the idea of a universal notion of history. What is a philosophy of history? Especially as it pertains to the rise and fall of civilizations. We go back to the Greek historian Herodotus, who's considered the father of history, who sought to interpret and get an understanding of world history. Are we fast-forwarding to the middle Ages? And the Arab philosopher called June in North Africa struggled to interpret the history of the rise and fall of civilizations in the African context or from a Christian perspective. One of the most interesting attempts to understand universal history was from the fourth, fifth century African church father and Christian theologian, Augustine of Hippo.

Augustine was born in the year 354, died in 430, and lived most of his life in what is now the country of Algeria. And as the Roman Empire was crumbling, he set out in the early fifth century to write a Christian philosophy of history. In his magisterial work on the city of guide. Let me just set the scene for that. On August the 24th, the year 410, the General Eric lead the Vandal armies into the city of Rome set it on fire. They starve the inhabitants. And really what they did was they wrecked the confidence of the Roman civilization. Rome was considered at that time to be the eternal city. It couldn't be conquered. And so the historian Peter Brown has said it would be just like an army marching into Paris, into the luca, or into Westminster Abbey in London, or perhaps to the White House in the United States and overtaking it and conquering it. Now, the reaction to the conquest of Rome was very different from two different groups. On one hand, you had the, the traditional pagans of Rome that, that worship the deities of Rome, the Roman gods. And they were outraged that the, that the gods had not protected Rome. In fact, they blamed the Christians in the Roman Empire for causing the gods to be angry at Rome and not protecting them. And so they were, they were angered. They were outraged. On the other hand, you had Christians in the Roman Empire that this was the only civilization they had ever known. And what was to become of them as Roman Christians?

Well, when Augustine wrote his work on the City of God, he dedicated the first 10 books or chapters to his pagan audience, and he set out to ultimately dismantle a pagan world view to show that the Roman gods had never really protected Rome, that they didn't exist. And so a Roman pagan worldview wasn't legitimate. But in the second half of the book, Books 11 to 20 to, he directed his thoughts to the Christians of Rome. How do we understand our existence, our identity, when the only civilization that we have known? His falling really asked the question, what is home? Eugene give on, says that what Augustine did in this book is he went beyond Herodotus. And he says that what the City of God is, it is a world history, like Herodotus's work. Yet he doesn't eliminate the relationship of guide telling the story. So for August in the, the exile and the decline of a civilization didn't actually begin with the fall of Rome. It actually began with the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. And it, and it separated out these two groups, what he called the City of guide and the earthly city. His famous work, the interiority and Augustan said that when Adam fell into sin, Adam became an exile from the presence of God. So in Books 11 to 14 of City of God, Augustine shows the origin of the two cities. He says that the earthly city is represented by Caine and the heavenly city, or the CEO of God is represented by Abel. And those two affections. In later books, books 15 to 18, he will chart the history of scripture and the history of biblical revelation, citing figures like Abraham and David and show this duality of the two cities. Conflict and in the final books of City of God.

Augustine speaks of the end of the two cities; the earthly city will end ultimately. And how, apart from the presence of guide and members of the heavenly city will of course, spend eternity with God in heaven. So how Augustine did described these two cities as they were in space and time history? He described the earthly city is being symbolized by Babylon, guided by self-love and independence and self-sufficiency. Its values were, were antithetical to the humility of being a follower of Christ. He said that it makes sense that in the earthly cities will have disasters and we'll have wars. On the other hand, he said that the heavenly city is symbolized by Jerusalem. It's characterized by justice and peace with, with neighbor preferring love for others and for guide. And virtue is achieved and following the model of Christ and throughout the City of God, Augustine will use the term heavenly city and you'll use that the church interchangeably. So that is that people enter the heavenly city or the city of guide, their faith and their allegiance to Christ. What council or encouragement did Augustan give to Christians who were citizens of the heavenly city? But so journeying in the earthly city, what did he say to them? There are three areas.

First is, he said that he wanted to give them an eternal perspective. That is, they sojourn in the earthly city that they were chess temporary pilgrims. They were longing for the heavenly city in this gave them hope to continue on. At the same time, it helped them not to become satisfied by what they could find in the earthly city. Secondly, the earthly city was a place to, to, to train and to, and to exercise by faith of being members of the heavenly city. It was a place to spiritually grow. And then thirdly, he said that being a part of the heavenly city did mean that we escaped from the earthly city. Rather, we sought to, to be agents of light and transformation, bringing the values of the heavenly city to the earthly city, link inclusion for August. In 20 years after they conquered Rome, they actually made their way into North Africa. And the besieged his city of Hippo Regis. Augustine lay dying at the age of 76. Actually, he died from a fever while the Vandal armies were besieging his own city. As Augustine was dying. His disciple and, and biographer for city has said this about him that in his last days, Augustan found strength in the slayings of a wise man. Probably the philosopher Plotinus, who said that no one is great, who was amazed that wood and stone collapse and mortals die. Now while Augustine was encouraged by the words of the Egyptian philosopher Plotinus. In this, he had also share these ideas himself because earlier in his own confessions he wrote, we need not fear to find no home again because we have a fall and we have fallen away from it. We are absent while we are apps that are home falls not to ruin, ruins. Forgot our home is in your eternity. So just a little bit on August in the city of guide and a perspective on eternity. When nations rise and fall.