Quotes about Empire

If an EHM is completely successful, the loans are so large that the debtor is forced to default on its payments after a few years. When this happens, then like the Mafia we demand our pound of flesh. This often includes one or more of the following: control over United Nations votes, the installation of military bases, or access to precious resources such as oil or the Panama Canal. Of course, the debtor still owes us the money—and another country is added to our global empire.

Fear and debt. The two most powerful tools of empire... Most everybody thinks military might is the driver of empire, but war's important because it--and the threat of it--instills fear. People are terrified into parting with their money. They take on more debt... Whether we owe money or favors, debt shackles us. That's why the economic hit man approach is so effective. More so than war.

The dregs of Romulus.

The enemy casts a shadow, big and dark and menacing. But there's no substance behind it. It has a stinger, but it's lost its venom. It has a bark, but no bite. We'll all suffer death in the lowercase. But by Christ's good graces, no one need suffer death in the uppercase. Death at that scale has been undone. Death still has battalions on the ground, pitching battle, making havoc, quibbling and collaborating among themselves. But the empire backing them has collapsed.

Caesar's messengers didn't go round the world saying, 'Caesar is lord, so if you feel you need to have a Roman-empire kind of experience, you might want to submit to him'.

The heirs of that liberal theology are today keen to marginalize the Bible, declaring that it supports slavery and other wicked things, because they don't like what it says on other topics such as sexual ethics. But if you push the Bible off the table, you are merely colluding with pagan empire, denying yourself the sourcebook for your kingdom critique of oppression. The Sadducee didn't know the Bible or God's power; that's why they denied the resurrection and supported Rome.

Unlike those in Philippi (perhaps including some of the Christians) whose citizenship is in Rome, the true citizenship of Jesus' followers is in heaven. This does not mean that Paul is here talking about their 'going to heaven' one day, any more than the Roman citizens in Philippi would expect to go to live in Rome one day (as people sometimes mistakenly suppose). Rather, they are part of the extended empire of 'heaven'.

It took not only genius but considerable [70] chutzpah to see, and to say, that the symbol which spoke of the horrible 'justice' of Caesar's empire could now speak of the restorative justice of the true God.

Now it pleased Darius to appoint 120 satraps to rule throughout the kingdom,

So Daniel prospered during the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian.

Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census should be taken of the whole empire.

achieved by the Roman