In the wake of the siege of Rome by the barbarians in 410 A.D., Augustine defended Christianity against the accusation that Christianity had weaken the Roman Empire thereby making it vulnerable to the attack. Thus, came The City of God.

Hinting at the truth of passages like Acts 18:10 and Jude 3-4, Augustine wrote the following:

But (the City of Christ) must remember that, in the ranks of its enemies, lie hid fellow citizens to be, and that it is well to bear with them as enemies until we can reach them in their profession of faith. In like manner, the City of God itself, so long as it is a wayfarer on earth, harbors within its ranks a number of those who, though externally associated in the common bond of the sacraments, will not be associated in the eternal felicity of the saints…

There is little reason to abandon hope of reclaiming some of these (godless) persons, for among our most notorious adversaries are men destined to be friends, however little they know it. On earth, these two cities are linked and fused together, only to be separated at the Last Judgment. (Augustine, City of God, abridged [Garden City, NY: Image Books, 1958), 63-64.

Is there any better call to evangelism?

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