Ambassadors of the Kingdom
The City of man requires idolatry. All must bow before the symbol of its total claim. Religion is tolerated when it supports the claims of the state, the party, the institutional hierarchy. But those who say, “We must obey God rather than men” are always condemned as traitors or exiled as aliens. Yet the calling of Christ’s kingdom not only separates a man from the world, it also sends him to the world. In this time of the kingdom we are pilgrims, for the mountain of Christ’s rule is the heavenly Zion; but in the task of the kingdom we are ambassadors, for we have been sent by the King to proclaim his terms of peace to his rebellious realm.