In Part 1, I highlighted the tragedy that many Christians do not believe that their nation needs to be discipled and made a ‘great nation’. This has led to gospel reductionism and the Church retreating from active Kingdom engagement within the sectors of society.
This has contributed to the fact that we now find ourselves living in days reminiscent of the time described in the Book of Judges, where “there was no king and everyone did as they saw fit.” (Judges 21:25).
How have we come to this?
Church Neglect
One reason is that as intimated above, we as God’s people have failed to keep discipling the nations (Mt.28:19). Our Christian forebears did in the past which is why so much of Western culture has been shaped by biblical foundations and values. However, over time nation discipling gave way to a focus solely on saving souls with a retreat from discipling culture and the public square. 1 (see reasons for this in footnote)
The tragic consequence is that secularism and other ideologies have filled the void, leaving the once prophetic voice of God’s people an irrelevant and expired input from the past.
As in the time of the Judges, when desperation resulted in a cry for a deliverer (judge), today, many cry out for God to send another revival. However, as in the case of the judges and in the case of revival, both are only temporary measures. Only genuine transformation, at both an individual and national level, will bring about lasting change (see blogposthttps://catalystmin.org/do-we-need-another-revival-reformation-or-something-else/) .
Is the Sun Setting on the West?
Research into the triumph and demise of prominent civilisations has concluded that there are 8 stages that a civilisation goes through:
- bondage to spiritual growth
- spiritual growth to great courage
- courage to liberty
- liberty to abundance
- abundance to complacency
- complacency to apathy
- apathy to dependency
- dependency back to bondage. 2
Some believe that Western civilisation is currently between the 5 to 6-stage, with many forces trying to facilitate a transition to 7.
As the people of God, we have witnessed this gradual decline over a number of decades. We have ‘lost’ much of the ‘abundance’ and cultural blessings that we have enjoyed and perhaps taken for granted. In the past, Western society looked to the Church for moral guidance and direction for their nations. Now it hardly gives it the time of day.
As people’s dependency has shifted away from God to government, like boats, nations have drifted away from their moorings. Here in Europe we are witnessing cultural suicide as nations continue to walk away from the very source that made them strong – the Word of God. We are abandoning our spiritual heritage and amputating the heart and soul of what made Western civilisation great.
At the same time, we are now seeing growing evidence of an agenda to make people more reliant and dependent on government for more of what is needed in life.
Silent Spectators
But as the Church, have we been largely silent from the sidelines? While saddened by the consequences of our nations turning away from God’s ways, have we felt powerless to reverse the trend? Perhaps we have reasoned that it wasn’t our responsibility any way and we needed to focus on more ‘eternal’ matters?
We have done this to our peril. The key question is whether there is still hope for the West? Is the Church just to remain faithful to winning people to Jesus while waiting for Jesus’ return to deliver us from this growing darkness? Can and should the Church do anything to try and ‘stop the rot’?
Wake-Up Call!
YES! This is not the time to remain either ‘complacent’ or ‘apathetic’. It’s time to wake up!
“And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.” (Rom. 13:11-12).
We need to wake up from any apathy or complacency. Not woke up, wake up! We need to realise the urgency of the hour. There is a war taking place between two kingdoms, between the kingdoms of light and darkness. There is a battle raging which is threatening our God-given freedoms, our God-given design for marriage, the family, and the lives of our children and future generations. There are invisible forces working against human flourishing, which are instead designed to put people back into bondage and dependency. We are to put on the armour of light.
Rise & Shine!
When things are the darkest, God calls His people to arise and shine (Isaiah 60:1–3). And it’s in times of darkness that God’s glory shines ever brighter, and He does this through us. As God’s people we need to wake up to the realities of what is really happening. We need to come together in unity for the purpose of advancing the Kingdom of God.
1. There are a number of reasons for this such as:
– reacting to the growing threat of secular-humanism through anti-intellectualism and an over-emphasis on grace, at the expense of law and truth:
– the growth of pre-millennial eschatology/dispensationalism (popularised in the twentieth century) with a focus on ‘the rapture’ and Heaven, at the expense of placing value and importance on wise stewarding of the Earth;
– focusing almost entirely on ‘soul-winning’ (popularised by evangelist, D. L. Moody), at the expense of a wholistic gospel with an emphasis on advancing the Kingdom of God;
– the return of a spiritual/secular divide (or ‘evangelical gnosticism’) which considers some areas of life or certain activities or vocations (e.g. evangelism), as being more ‘spiritual’ than others (e.g. nation building);
– a world mission focus directed solely towards unreached people groups (popularised by American missiologists Donald McGavran and Ralph Winter), but not on saving nations as well;
– a secular and Roman Catholic attack on the concept of ‘nation’, in favour of a united European continent.
2. From the foreword by Dr. Ben Carson, in the book, According to Plan: The Elites’ Secret Plan to Sabotage America, by Kevin D. Freeman.
3. Some content for this post is taken from Kingdom Mission Vol. 1: Rediscovering the Vision, by Peter J. Farmer & Stuart Simpson.
(Photo: Catherine Hughes on Unsplash)