Europe - God's experiment?

How can we see Europe with the eyes of God?

The past 20 centuries of European history have produced shocking and horrifying events, culminating in two world wars. Yet European history has also produced great events, the development of science and technology, and the resulting welfare society. What should we say to the post-modern western European?

A glance back

Historians, both Christian and non-Christian, agree that the origin and the existence of Europe cannot be understood apart from Christianity. One historian said: 'If there had been no preaching of the gospel, Europe would have remained an insignificant peninsula of the continent of Asia'. At the time of the New Testament, the northern part of Europe was just a dark and remote corner of the Roman Empire. The pagan religions that dominated most of Europe at that time did not create unity. The mythology of the Scandinavians, the worship of nature of the Germans and the fertility cult of the Etruscans, held them all captive in their tribal differences, in a state of fear and animosity towards each other.
All this changed. From the moment the apostle Paul was called to Macedonia through that remarkable vision ('Come over and help us,' Acts 16), up to the baptism of the Icelandic people in the year 1004, the preaching of the gospel and the politically successful development of the Catholic church created a oneness that otherwise would never have existed. The truth of the gospel changed the whole outlook of a pagan European culture. Through such events as the cutting down of the sacred oak at Geismar by Boniface among the Saxons, and the martyrdom of many of these missionaries who went out from Ireland to preach the gospel all over Europe, it was this message that brought them together.

Unity with diversity

The message of the Kingdom left room for diversity in language, dress, living and housing. Observe the differences between Sweden and Italy, or Holland and Spain. Yet it was this that brought an underlying unity. No European village is without a church in the centre. No European thinker believes any longer that history is cyclical. No European politician takes his starting point outside of what are originally Christian values. In spite of all the wars and splits, one European culture emerged with one European heritage.
How should we understand this heritage spiritually? Why did it happen? Believing in God's hand in history, we must say that this was all part of God's plan. It is impossible to explain this one European culture politically or anthropologically. Only in the wider framework of the work of the Holy Spirit can it be understood. Europe became, in a way, God's experiment.

Foretaste

This expression, 'Europe, God's experiment', came from the Dutch theologian Van Ruler, who said: 'The Holy Spirit converted pagan hearts but at the same time he created out of them a Christianised culture. The sinful Pagan existence was not removed but renewed. God's purpose was a visible demonstration of the coming Kingdom as a foretaste of what would happen when Jesus would come back and when all of creation will be renewed.' Van Ruler looks at the history of Europe against the backdrop of the work of the Holy Spirit. 'It was,' he used to say, 'an attempt of God to give a foretaste of the coming Kingdom.'
When people asked Dr. Schaeffer how it was possible to live in a culture when individual persons often were not Christians but where nevertheless the culture circled around Christian values, he would always explain that he looked at European civilisation as 'the fruits of the fruits of the fruits of the Spirit'. It starts with the individual. The fruits of the Spirit in the individual began to live their own life, and create institutions and values in a culture, which make it possible also for non-Christians to participate and so share the fruits of the fruits of the fruits of the Spirit.

Parallel

If this is true, a remarkable parallel emerges between Israel in the Old Testament, in the old covenant with God, and Europe in the new covenant, the times of the New Testament. Just as Israel was to be a type of the first coming of Christ, in the same way we could say Europe was to be a type of the second coming of Christ. In both cases, God in a way tried to give a foretaste of what it meant to be redeemed.
To be redeemed is not just to have a restored relationship with God and a heavenly future. That is merely the beginning. It is on the basis of a restored relationship with God that a restored relationship with the whole of creation, with one's fellowman, with nature, with other nations, and with oneself, will be built. The redemption of the whole of life becomes visible in a culture.
When the gospel came to Europe, a cyclical pagan culture received a hopeful calling. The cyclical lifestyle of the pagans broke and a way to the future opened up. Relationships were renewed, monogamy became the norm, and the family assumed a central place. Authority became delegated authority, such as we read about in Romans 13. Christian values of justice, liberty, human dignity, and responsibility created a completely different culture. This, I suspect, is what God had in mind with the rise of Europe.

A look at the present

Such a line of thought could easily be misunderstood as ugly European nationalism. But that is not my point. We should not be European nationalists, for two reasons.
Firstly, in the dispensation of the new covenant, God calls all the nations to be his disciples; not only the Europeans, but also the Asians, the Africans and the Americans. The Great Commission in Matthew 28 is to preach the gospel to all nations, all peoples, to go out into the nations.
Secondly, Europe has hardly been a good example. We Europeans should never have the attitude of: 'Look at us, see how well we did'. Rather we should say: 'Look at us, see how we failed, learn from our mistakes'. In fact, when making up the balance today of so many centuries of European history, we should all feel very sorry. Right from the beginning there was a deep sinfulness and violence in European culture, in which church and state conspired together. The same Charlemagne who, for the first time created a form of European unity in 800, in one day killed 4,500 Saxons who did not want to become Christians. Later came the crusades. Then the religious wars that broke down the European culture. Then slavery. Then colonialism. And finally, in the 20th century, Europe burst into flames during two world wars. Hardly a history to be proud of at all!

Synthesis

Europe's history has always been a synthesis between real Christianity on one hand, and paganism influenced by the Graeco-Roman civilisation and humanism on the other. Another Dutch theologian, Miscotte, said: 'Europe has always been a synthesis, and it is doubtful if Europeans at any time really gave their hearts to the Lord'. He then quotes Amos, the Old Testament prophet, who asked the Israelites: 'Did you ever turn to me with all of your heart?'. That is the question which should be asked of all European nations in the past. In a way, the Europeans ran away with the secondary Christian values: equality and justice and liberty and brotherhood, but they stayed away from the primary Christian values: the cross of Christ and the coming of the kingdom.
So we should not look at European history as a Christian history. It has always been a synthesis, with Christianity for centuries as the top-layer, and paganism and humanism as the undercurrent. At the time of the Enlightenment, this began to change. By the 20th century, the undercurrent, paganism, had become the top-layer, and Christianity had become an undercurrent. We could perhaps see this as God's judgement on Europe. Observing the 20th century today, our response should first be one of real mourning, of repentance and of prayer. We have become like the people of Israel, led into captivity. In most European countries, we Christians have become a minority in a non-Christian society, just as Israel in Babylon. That is reason for mourning as did Israel in the Babylonian captivity. Remember Jeremiah, in Rembrandt's famous painting, weeping over Jerusalem. As Byron said: 'They who know the most must mourn the deepest'.

The end?

But at the same time we must ask, is this then the end of God's experiment? Did it end in the 20th century? Did God give up? Does he forget what his hand began? Doubts like these also plagued the Israelites in the Babylonian captivity. Esther is the only book in the Bible in which the name of God is not once mentioned. One of its messages is, God is hidden. The literal meaning of the Hebrew name Esther is the hidden one. Jews like Esther and Mordecai at that time thought: 'Let's just adapt, let's be one with the Babylonians; God is hidden anyway, so let me be hidden'. The feast of Pur, 'fate', celebrates the story of Esther. Fate controls history - that is a deep doubt. Yet then we see the marvellous event that took place as soon as Esther came out and revealed her true identity. How amazing that when she came out and revealed her true identity, the Lord came out the revealed his true identity, in faithfulness to the people of Israel, his people! The message of the book is clear: when we are hidden, God is hidden; when we come out, God comes out. What that coming out means can be seen in the history of Esther and Mordecai. They took over public responsibility for their own society in which they lived. That is the direction in which we should move today.

Echo

No-one phrased this more clearly than Jeremiah in his famous letter to Israel in captivity (Jeremiah 19.4-9). He did not say 'form a sub-culture, stay away from Babylonian civilisation, wait for God, save your soul'. No, he said exactly the opposite! He told them (verse 4): 'Build houses and settle down, plant gardens and eat what they produce; marry, have sons and daughters; increase in number there, do not decrease; and seek the peace and prosperity of the city where I have put you into exile'. To the prophets and diviners who told them to be separate, to leave Babylon, Jeremiah says: 'Let them not deceive you, I have not sent them'. When we look at the messages of Jeremiah and of Esther, we must conclude that the calling of the people of God, both in captivity or outside captivity, remains remarkably the same. It is to let the truth of God become visible in a different lifestyle and renewed culture, and take responsibility for that culture.
This is what we can learn from the European past. That which was good in our European history was the belief in the cultural implications of the gospel. God wanted Europe to be an echo of the proclamations of the gospel, through the working of the Holy Spirit. That echo was the renewing effect of the Christian faith in all the areas of life. He planted the fruits, and out of that the fruits of the fruits of the fruits of the Spirit came forth. The early Christians in Europe already, around the beginning of the Constantinian era, were accepting responsibility in government, responsibility for education, for public life, for social care, and for economic growth. I believe that that was not the fall of Christianity as some people believe; this was God-willed renewal of the culture. In spite of all the disasters that have come over us, there is a common Christian heritage that we need to protect and renew.
May God use us again in a different period of Europe's history, less perhaps like a David or a Solomon, but more like an Esther and a Daniel.

Dr. W.G. Rietkerk is the international chairman of L'Abri, and is an ordained minister of the Nederlands Gereformeerde Kerk. This paper is adapted from an address given at the 1993 New Europe Forum in Brussels.