There’s an old Bob Dylan song called When You Gonna Wake Up? The poignant lyrics list a number of societal ills and challenge the listener to ‘strengthen the things that remain’.
I wonder sometimes if God feels the same way about His people. When it comes to the discipling of nations and the transformation of culture, after our spiritual forefathers did so much to shape the West with a biblical worldview in many areas, in recent decades it seems like the Church took for granted what had been achieved and ‘took its foot off the pedal’. It’s as if we’ve had the snooze button set while society has gradually drifted further away from its Christian roots.
Taking things for granted
People who haven’t lived outside of the West can often take for granted the kind of life and society we have here. For example, in the West we don’t have to bribe our civil servants, politicians, police and courts to get services or justice. Neither do we need to give a costly gift to a surgeon to ensure he performs a successful operation. An employee expects to be promoted on the basis of merit and ability, experience and loyalty, without having to appease his boss by offering his wife.
Create & maintain
It’s important to recognise that a society with a foundation of morality and limited corruption doesn’t evolve automatically. It has to be created. Neither does it automatically remain in its positive condition. It has to be maintained.
In the early 18th century the West was as corrupt as many other nations are today. It was spiritually and morally bankrupt. But it was transformed by spiritual revivals, namely the Evangelical Revival (known as the Great Awakening in the US) led by Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, and John Wesley.
Societal regeneration
These revivals didn’t just result in the regeneration of the human heart. They also led to social regeneration impacting and transforming all areas of public life and society. This included the promotion of equality, the liberation of women, the emancipation of industrial workers, the establishment of evangelical educational institutions (e.g. American universities Harvard & Princeton), religious journalism that provided mass public communication, social benevolence work and activism (prison reform, care for the handicapped and mentally ill, abolition of slavery), and the reformation of manners and character.
Christian teaching was applied to social problems. Nations and societies were built up and discipled by many godly men and women. As a result, the Bible and its worldview became the single most powerful force in the emergence of Western civilisation, with principled and Christian cultures and nations.
Neglected foundations
Sadly, we don’t often appreciate the blessings we have until we lose them. Starting in the 1960s, a counter-cultural movement began to erode the Christian foundations that had been established within society (e.g. the uniquely New Testament institution of marriage and family values were attacked with a sexual revolution that promoted promiscuity, ‘free love’ and gay rights). This developed further intellectually, philosophically and spiritually, with the rise of post-modernism and a New Age movement which rejects absolute truth and the concept of good and evil.
Not everything that has resulted from the collapse of Christendom has been bad. Clearly, not everything before the cultural revolution of the sixties was perfect. Far from it. But there was a spiritual, moral and social foundation and this has been systematically attacked and weakened for several decades, leaving it in a terrible state of disrepair.
While men were sleeping his enemy came and sowed tares
In response to these massive changes, the Church at large has struggled to know how to respond. Some churches have retreated and gone into hiding. Others resort to condemnation and judgement. Many have fallen asleep and become oblivious to the cultural changes and in the process have become irrelevant to society.
Jesus used many parables to illustrate the kingdom of God. In one of them He compares God’s kingdom ‘to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares (weeds resembling wheat) among the wheat, and went away.’
The enemy was able to sow tares because those who should have been watching over the field were asleep.
We are God’s seed in the world
Most Christians are aware that God’s Word is like seed. Jesus spoke about this in the parable of the sower. However, in this parable the seed isn’t the Word of God. It’s the people of God – the ‘sons of the kingdom’ – that are planted in the world (Matthew 13:38).
As God’s image-bearers, we must wake-up and acknowledge what has happened. While ‘sleeping’, we have allowed the Christian foundations of society to fall into disrepair. This has happened partly because of a strategic and systematic attack by the kingdom of darkness; and partly through passivity and neglect. We have offered little resistance as the enemy has sought and obtained a greater occupation of territory.
Sadly, embracing a non-biblical and Platonic dualistic mindset has separated life into that which is ‘spiritual’ and that which is ‘material’ or secular. As a consequence, the transforming gospel of the kingdom has been diluted into a weakened form whose primary and often sole focus is on saving individual souls, with scant attention paid to also transforming and redeeming society and culture. Such work has not be viewed as important. By largely retreating from the public square and other key sectors of society, false and non-biblical ideas and philosophies have made inroads in winning the hearts and minds of people.
Rebuilding what has been lost
But all is not lost. We must hold on to and strengthen the things that remain. This will involve repairing the foundations and countering the enemy’s work with the hallmarks of God’s kingdom – such as truth, justice, goodness, and beauty.
As the Church rises up to reclaim for the kingdom of God what has been lost, we must also rally the troops – the sons and daughters of the kingdom. For God’s mission to be accomplished on Earth will require every disciple doing their part. Every believer needs to be affirmed and equipped in their vocations and callings, to be the sons and daughters of the kingdom that the King has sown and sent out into the harvest field of the world.
In our spheres of influence we must seek to represent a society and way of life based on the precepts and teachings of our King. This has never been an easy task. But it is the mission to which our Lord is committed to see come to pass. And it is also a mission that is guaranteed to succeed for ‘of the increase of His government (kingdom) and peace there will be no end.’ The question is how will we and our generation be judged? For neglect and being asleep? Or, for being awake and advancing God’s kingdom reign?
(Photo by chuttersnap on Unsplash)