PAPER NO. 63
THEOLOGICAL FOUNDATION
Prologue
The City of God has foundations. It has walls and gates. Once she was sought after—Abraham sought for the city with foundation; and Augustine. One enters through her gates by understanding. By faith we understand, good and evil. Now she lies desolate—walls broken down by divisions within. Her children depart from her. Unless the Lord had left us a remnant, we would have been like Sodom, and like Gomorrah, a graveyard, full of dead men’s bones.
Son of man, can these bones live? Prophesy unto her the Word of the Lord. The stone the builders rejected has become the head of the corner. This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.
Hear the Word of the Lord:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him; and without him
was not any thing made that was made.
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
And the light shines in the darkness;
and the darkness comprehended it not.
Man, made in the image of God, is crowned with light and honor, and given rule over the creation, by which he comes to know God, in all that by which he makes himself known. But man turned aside. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. No one seeks God. No one understands. No one is righteous, no, not one. All lie in the slumber of sin and death, in the darkness of meaninglessness.
And God said, Let there be light. Grace and Truth—in its fullness, came by the Word of God, incarnate, in Jesus, the anointed— Christos, the Messiah. By the Spirit, he sends out his Word, like a river, that brings life once again to the City of God. He is the resurrection and the life, who raises the dead, spiritually, by rebirth, by re-creation. And, he cleanses us from all sin, by the Truth. The Logos is Truth.
She, who sat in the dust, will be without spot or stain or wrinkle, glorious, with his glory. Arise, shine, for thy light has come! All kings of the earth shall bring their glory into her. She, who once was forsaken, will be the Everlasting City. In the strength and joy of beauty, she will be the City with foundations.
