Toronto and the City of Man

This is an article I wrote a couple of years ago.
Toronto and the City of Man

Toronto is a remarkable city. It has people from every tribe tongue and nation within its limits, and yet for the most part, they belong to what Augustine called, the City of Man. For many of these inhabitants, they have thrown off the man-made restrictions of their homeland’s culture and have rushed head-long to embrace the liberties of the Western world. Sadly this has resulted in the exchange of one bondage for another. Toronto is teeming with all the fruit of wickedness which a ‘Hollywood’ society can muster. Even a building which was formerly rented by an Evangelical church has been turned into a studio for broadcasting internet pornography.

For the ‘native’ Torontonians, their idolatries are not limited to the brash culture of the strip clubs and gay bars. They also worship their own sophistication, and all the gods in the pantheon of tolerance. Here, political correctness is the civil religion. Christianity, with its distinct truth claims (and therefore declarations of what is false) is deemed to be the greatest heresy. Modern Torontonians feel obliged to belittle anything resembling the Protestant ethic which gave rise to the title, Toronto, the Good.

Today, the City of Man dominates here. It is a City where Man is the measure of all things. Freedom is unbound so that everyone may do what is right in their own eyes (Judges 17.6, 21.25). The City of Man’s desire to be without a King is nevertheless an illusion. Though Torontonians seek to be their own king or god, they foolishly deceive themselves and merely submit to another king, the Deceiver (Rom. 1.21-25, Eph. 4.18, Rev. 12.9).

Toronto and the City of God

Immigrating to Toronto has been a process of great transition for many here. Those who left their homes, families and native cultures to come to a multi-lingual, multi-cultural beehive are often greatly unsettled in their souls as well. In this environment, people who had never heard the truth of Jesus Christ in the gospel are now able to access this knowledge freely and openly. As a result, the Great Commission can no longer be perceived as the domain of the overseas missionary, but Christ’s charge to His disciples , “Go…make disciples of all nations”(Mt. 28.19) takes on a visible urgency.

The gospel is advancing with success in Toronto, but not where you would expect. The new immigrants are the fertile field yielding a harvest today. Churches of almost every ethno-linguistic group imaginable are springing up and flourishing in Canada’s largest city. The Christians in these churches tend to be committed, self-sacrificing, mission-oriented believers. Whether Tamil, Mandarin, Arabic, Ethiopian, or Hispanic, these churches reflect the multi-linguistic, multi-cultural character of the City of God.

Among native Torontonians, the pride of living at the so-called-‘centre of the universe’ has blinded them to the One by whom all things were created, “through Him and for Him” (Col. 1.16). Yet God has not left Himself without witness among these people either. There continues to be numbers of godly, faithful believers gathered together in God-honoring churches throughout the Greater Metropolitan Area of Toronto. Though these may be few in number compared to the masses of lost persons in the city, it must not cause us to despair but to look to the Almightiness of God, that He would move demonstrably in the hearts of men and women here.

The reality of life for a Christian in Toronto is the same as life for a Christian anywhere. Christians have their citizenship in heaven (Phil. 3.20,Eph. 2.19) even though they must eat and sleep and work and play in the midst of the City of Man. But by their lives and their witness to the message of gospel, they summon the City of Man, that it must turn from its ways and repent. Christians hold their allegiance to the One who reigns over all of creation, the One who is the conqueror over sin and death and Satan through His person and work. Christians from Toronto to Tehran announce this truth by the power of the Holy Spirit, in the comfort of Christ, to the glory of God.

Moving Theodicy (closer) to the Center

Often the idea of theodicy (God’s self-vindication) is exclusively connected to the ethical issue known as “the Problem of Evil”. Yet the concept touches on so much more than merely that ethical question (as important as it is). It appears to be a central concept throughout the Scriptures bound up in God’s self-revelation in both word and deed, as well as his very motives for these.

“A New Continent of Literature”

Edgar J. Goodspeed wrote:

To many the New Testament appears as an island of religious literature in an ancient sea. That it is the beginning of a new continent of literature escapes them. Yet the New Testament was the source of a whole range of literary movements that in a few generations gave Christianity a literature that in sheer bulk and vigor dominated the ancient scene.

~ From the Preface, p.vi, in A History of Early Christian Literature Revised and Enlarged by Robert M. Grant. Univ. of Chicago Press, 1966.

On Boldness (παρρησια)

John Owen notes that OT saints had fellowship with God:

• Abraham was a friend,
• David, a man after God’s heart,
• Enoch walked with God.

Yet they did not enjoy παρρησια (boldness, confidence) in that fellowship (p.6 Communion with God).

1. It seems that παρρησια, when used by John to describe the manner of Jesus’ ministry can have the sense of openness, plainness, clarity, etc. Therefore it refers to his speech in terms of contrasts of hidden/revealed; public/ private.

Moule on the genre of “gospel”

C. F. D. Moule wrote the following about the uniqueness of the genre of ‘gospel’:

Imagine (if possible) that an otherwise educated person of our own day, were suddenly presented wtih St Mark’s Gospel. What would he make of it? He would quickly recognize that it was quite unlike any other genre of writing known to him.