An Historical Excursus

     Once upon a time i took a graduate school course on the origins of World War One, and as a life long history "nut", have read other books on the subject. "The Guns of August," by Barbara Tuchman is an accessible summary. Historians have advanced numerous views on the origin while they bewail the irrationality of a seemingly inevitable process.
    As the U.S. enters the ninth day of a government partial shutdown, and lurches towards a Oct. 17 date to increase the debt limit or not, only God knows the outcome. Yet the parallels seem obvious. A deeply divided Europe in 1914 resembles a deeply divided US a century later. The increasingly irrational and stubborn Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany has his counterpart in our current President. The ineffectiveness and unwillingness of other leaders seems eerily familiar.
     Perhaps a deal will be made. Very possibly the Republicans will cave as they have so often before. Certainly the roughly 250 billion dollars that the US Treasury takes in each month is more than enough to pay the 30 billion or so needed to pay the interest on the debt. But this paragraph assumes rationality on the part of the decision makers which their predecessors did not have.
    I believe that the Biblical key to understanding the rise and fall of nations is found in Acts 17:26. "And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place..." (ESV) Ultimately God determines the outcome of human history. One result of the First World War was the destruction of three Empires (Russian, German, and Hapsburg) and the mortal wounding of a fourth. (British Empire)
    What then should followers of Jesus Christ do in times like these? Preach the Kingdom of God, and make disciples.