They’ve joined forces,” Angela Stent, a Russia expert who served at the National Intelligence Council and wrote “ Putin’s World: Russia Against the West and with the Rest,” told me. “I’ve never seen a joint statement from both leaders using this kind of language. experts described the lengthy statement, which was riddled with false and accusatory language, as startling. Putin described the broader strategic partnership with China as “unprecedented.” Xi said that their joint strategy would have a “far-reaching influence on China, Russia, and the world.” “It’s a pretty striking step closer to an alliance and shows that they’re very much aligned in their vision of the world order in the twenty-first century,” Alexander Vershbow, a former U.S. Politically, the document claimed that there is “no one-size-fits-all” type of democracy, and heralded both forms of authoritarian rule in Moscow and Beijing as successful democracies. “This statement might be looked back on as the beginning of Cold War Two.” The timing and clarity of the communiqué-amid tensions on Russia’s border with Europe and China’s aggression around Taiwan-will “give historians the kind of specific event that they often focus on.”īeyond security, the declaration also pledged collaboration on space, climate change, the Internet, and artificial intelligence. “This is a pledge to stand shoulder to shoulder against America and the West, ideologically as well as militarily,” Daly said. Although it falls short of a formal alliance, like NATO, the agreement reflects a more elaborate show of solidarity than anytime in the past. But the new and detailed five-thousand-word agreement is more than a collection of the usual tropes, Robert Daly, the director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, at the Wilson Center, in Washington, told me. “There are no ‘forbidden’ areas of cooperation.”Īgreements between Moscow and Beijing, including the Treaty of Friendship of 2001, have traditionally been laden with lofty, if vague, rhetoric that faded into forgotten history. “Friendship between the two States has no limits,” they vowed in the communiqué, released after the two leaders met on the eve of the Beijing Winter Olympics. The world’s two most powerful autocrats unveiled a sweeping long-term agreement that also challenges the United States as a global power, NATO as a cornerstone of international security, and liberal democracy as a model for the world. Seeing the glory of God in Christ initiates what some scholars call "progressive sanctification," meaning that we will become more and more like Him as we are changed by the Spirit over time.In their matching mauve ties, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping last week declared a “new era” in the global order and, at least in the short term, endorsed their respective territorial ambitions in Ukraine and Taiwan. Paul insists that it is the Spirit of God who makes this happen in all of those who are in Christ Jesus. ![]() This is not something we accomplish for ourselves through study or discipline or self-will. Not only are those in Christ finally freed to see God's glory, but they begin to become God's glory as they begin to become like Christ. Paul writes that this change happens from "one degree of glory to another" or "from glory to glory" in the Greek language. This act of seeing, of understanding, the nature of Christ begins the process through which God transforms His children into the image of Christ. We can now see Him for who and what He is. With the veil gone, all those in Christ have unveiled faces, boldly looking at Christ, who is the glory of God. ![]() Now Paul shows that this moment of spiritual revelation is followed by spiritual transformation. Only then does God's Holy Spirit act to remove the veil of hardness and allow those in Christ to see God's glory as He has revealed it in Jesus. Only in Christ is sin forgiven once and for all. God removes this "veil" between Himself and people only when they come to Him through faith in Christ. It is not through study or attempts at obedience or even through religiously following the law. ![]() Paul has described the only way for this separation between sinful humans and God's glory to be removed. In that condition, God's glory was unbearable to them. Their sin had caused their minds to be hardened. Moses' face so powerfully reflected God's glory that he covered it with a veil to protect the Israelites from even the reflection of God's presence with them. Paul has been referencing Exodus 34, which describes how the skin of Moses' face would shine after meeting with God.
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