PATRIOTISM - AND THE DECLINE OF A CHRISTIAN NATION
(Please read: Romans 13: 1-7; Revelation 18: 1-10 for background)
Part I
It all happened a few years ago – one of those “aha” experiences in life. My wife, Sara, and I were making our first of several tours of Greece. Landing in Athens and ascending the Acropolis to explore the famous Parthenon built in 438 B.C. was breathtaking. When we returned in the late afternoon to experience almost alone the Parthenon bathed in the magic of Mediterranean light, it was as if the Divine Presence had descended in soft, but radiant, glory.
Soon to come in our tour was a cruise of the Aegean to Ephesus, Santorini and other historic sites. Then we would be off to the Peloponnesus to Corinth, site of one of the earlier Christian churches, then to the ancient center of healing, Epidaurus, and then on to the original Olympic Stadium. Let it be said for the record that I ran a footrace in that ancient stadium with others. And I won! What does it matter that all the other contestants were at least 10 years older than I!
But on this particularly beautiful summer morning in Greece, we were in Delphi (Delphee, not
Delpheye as Americans like to say) - yes, Delphi, one of the oldest religious sanctuaries in the world.
Located about two hours northwest of Athens, Delphi is built into the side of the Parnassus Mountains. Since at least 400 B.C. worshippers had come from all over the world to perform drama, participate in Olympic style games, and to offer sacrifice – all in honor of the gods.
However, the chief attraction was the world famous Oracle of Delphi. Kings and leaders of the earth would make pilgrimages to Delphi, offering vast treasures for the divine counsel of the Oracle.
The Oracle worked like this. Inside the Temple of Apollo toward the front, the priests would stand around a large hole in the stone floor. Below the hole was a priestess or Pythia who drank the waters of the sacred Castalian Spring, chewed on laurel leaves and breathed in the vapors from the volcanic fissure beneath the hole. In time she was, in effect, “high” in a drug-like trance.
The king would then approach the priests with his question which the priests conveyed down through the hole to the “stoned” (as we might say today) priestess. “Shall I go to war?”, asked the perplexed king. The priestess babbled out incoherently. The priests would interpret the babbling ambiguously and say, “The most valiant and worthy king will win.” Egotistically, the king confidently went to war believing he was the most valiant and worthy.
King Croesus, during his war against Cyrus, was advised by the Oracle: “If Croesus crosses the river Aly, he will destroy a great kingdom.” He did, but not Cyrus’s, but his own.
So Delphi was an “aha” experience, but even more significant was what happened next. In front of the ruins of the Temple of Apollo is a large, rectangular stone altar standing about four feet high. It was donated by the citizens of the island of Chios and is thus dubbed the Chian Altar. Our small group of eight was standing around that altar listening intently to our excellent guide. She said in dramatic understatement, “For over eight hundred years people from around the Mediterranean world offered animal sacrifice on this altar.” I was leaning on the altar at the time and began to imagine the rivers of animal blood flowing over the sides. I stepped back.
And then,” said our guide in subdued but dramatic voice, “those sacrifices stopped abruptly in 395 A.D. when the Christian Emperor, Theodosius I, forbade pagan sacrifices throughout the Empire.”
My study of history and my personal presence at the Altar of the Chians in Delphi converged in an overwhelming existential “aha” experience.
Here I was at one of the most important religious sites of the ancient world. And here I was at the very place where the emerging power of a Christian Empire flexed its muscle to suppress other religions in the name of Christ. It was an overwhelming “aha” experience of the convergence of history and personal presence.
(To be continued)
