今日のニッポンはGHQの仕掛けたWGIP(War Guilty Information Program)により、自責感を植え込まれ、自律して意思決定する姿勢を奪われている。すべての領域において「あなた任せ」の状況である。最近、ようやく国防費を増額する決定をしたが、それも増税によると[1]なぜ国債を出せないのか、これはGHQの仕掛けた「財政法」による縛りのためである。これについてはこちらを参照。。また仕入れる兵器もどうも賞味期限切れのシロモノのようでもある。
That which had been sown as a grain of mustard-seed becomes a great tree; a symbol that represents a great power in the earth. The Assyrian, Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, are set before us in the word as great trees. Such would be the form of the kingdom, which began in littleness through the word sown by the Lord, and afterwards by His disciples. That which this seed produced would gradually assume the form of a great power, making itself prominent on the earth, so that others would shelter themselves under it, as birds under the branches of a tree. This has, indeed, been the case.
We next find that it would not only be a great tree in the earth, but that the kingdom would be characterised as a system of doctrine, which would diffuse itself — a profession, which would enclose all it reached within its sphere of influence. The whole of the three measures would be leavened. I need not dwell here on the fact that the word leaven is always used in a bad sense by the sacred writers; but the Holy Ghost gives us to understand that it is not the regenerative power of the word in the heart of an individual, bringing him back to God; neither is it simply a power acting by outward strength, such as Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, and the other great trees of scripture. But it is a system of doctrine that should characterise the mass, pervading it throughout. It is not faith properly so called, nor is it life. It is a religion; it is Christendom. A profession of doctrine, in hearts which will bear neither the truth nor God, connects itself always with corruption in the doctrine itself.
The parable of the Mustard Seed prefigures the rapid but unsubstantial growth of the mystery form of the kingdom from an insignificant beginning Act 1:15; Act 2:41; 1Co 1:26 to a great place in the earth. The figure of the fowls finding shelter in the branches is drawn from Dan 4:20-22. How insecure was such a refuge the context in Daniel shows.
これこそ現代の社会化された世の組織としてのキリスト教の姿である。エクレシアはからし種から成長し(エペソ=好ましい)、ローマの迫害を受けて(スミルナ=苦難)後、コンスタンチンが公認し、さらにローマ国教会として政治形態と結合し(ペルガモ=結合)、カトリックによる中世の暗黒時代を経て(テアテラ=香の祭事)、いわゆる宗教改革でプロテスタントの諸教派が生じ(サルデス=少数者)、分裂を繰り返して現代に至る(フィラデルフィア=兄弟愛からラオデキヤ=大衆の意見へ)。そして今やあらゆる宗教を統一しようとするNew World Religionへと突き進んでいる。
(1) believers will really become more like God than they now are, and will do this through seeing God as he really is; or (2) believers will realize that they are already like God, but did not realize it until they see him as he is.
For in it God’s righteousness is being revealed, out of faith for faith, according as it is written: “Now the just one by faith shall be living.”-Rom 1:17 (CLV)