“Does the Bible really say that cities are evil?”

QUESTION: Someone told me I should move out of New York City because the Bible says cities are evil. Does the Bible really say that?

ANSWER:When God made man, we read that He “planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed ... to tend it and keep it” (Gen. 2:8,15 NKJV). Every pleasant tree and every tree good for food grew there. As a general rule, when God begins something it is perfect. But the longer it is in man’s hands, the greater the decline. So we find in the early chapters of Genesis that it didn’t take long before our first parents had sinned, and for their own good God expelled them from the garden.

Then Cain, Adam and Eve’s first son, murdered his brother Abel. When God dealt with him, he complained that his punishment was greater than he could bear and went out from the Lord’s presence. We then find Cain marrying, fathering a son, and building a city named after him, Enoch (Gen. 4:16-17). The descendants of Cain began the first great civilization. The fact that earth’s first city and civilization were built by Cain after he had turned his back upon God has led some Christians to view cities negatively.

In Genesis 11, after the flood we find the builders of the tower of Babel attempting to build a city for themselves rather than scattering. Nimrod became a mighty man on the earth, establishing a kingdom and building cities. God gives us these facts, but nowhere does He say that cities as such are evil or that His people should not live in them. Throughout the Word He condemns individual cities when their sinful inhabitants are wicked and defiant of God, but He never speaks against living in cities as such. Many people living in a city naturally results in more difficult living conditions and usually a greater concentration of evil. But I repeat, nowhere does God’s Word make a general condemnation of cities.

On the contrary, God’s Word usually views cities in a positive way. The Book of Joshua devotes several chapters (13-22) to listing the cities that God gave as an inheritance to each tribe, and another chapter to listing those given to the priests and Levites. Six cities were set aside in Israel to which a manslayer could flee for refuge. God eventually chose the big city of Jerusalem as the place where He would set His name. The temple was built there at God’s direction. In Nehemiah 11:1-2 people were chosen by lot to dwell in Jerusalem and those who volunteered to live there were blessed; the rest of the people were to live in other cities. The Lord Jesus, the Son of God, was born in nearby Bethlehem, the city of David. Paul, on his missionary journeys, concentrated his efforts on bringing the gospel and the full counsel of God to major cities. And in Revelation, the Church, Christ’s bride, is presented as a tremendous city, “the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God” in a day to come (Rev. 21:2).

In Bible times cities were usually built for defense. Their walls and towers served to protect their inhabitants and to separate them from the world around them. But while they could be a defense against external enemies, they did not protect against the corruption that emanated from the hearts of those who lived in them.

Throughout history there have been those who haven’t recognized the real source of the problem, and have tried to get away from the corruption found in cities by moving away from them. Your friend is evidently of this persuasion. But the problem of evil is not resolved this easily. It’s really a matter of heart, not of geographic location.

Rather than moving away from New York City, Lagos, London, Los Angeles, Montreal, Mumbai or whatever city the reader may live in, why don’t you try to serve the Lord there? Every big city teems with people of all kinds – a mission field on your doorstep!

Answered by Eugene P. Vedder, Jr.