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| Series Theme: "Culture Wars" |
| Chapter 3: Coping with our Past
CONTENTS:
PART 3.1 The Need to Face our Past Failures Focus Failure to remember & Discern What is the Enemy Strategy? Why has God allowed this to come about? The Example of Race The Example of Sexual Equality
PART 3.2 The Need to Obtain Balance to Overcome Focus The Divine Perspective God's Strategy The ‘Hard Man' mentality Summary-Recap
PART 3.3 “Your Answer hasn't worked!” Focus A Misplaced Trust The Perennial Evil Question Race? Gender Summary-Recap
PART 3.1 The Need to Face our Past Failures
Gen 15:16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.'
Focus: It is easy to live in a land and as the moral quality of life slowly deteriorates, fail to appreciate that deterioration and indeed simply come to accept it. The Church is called to be alert to such things and stand out as salt and light to hold back the deterioration. In the last century we have failed to do this, and this we need to face up to.
Failure to Remember & Discern: What is remarkable about Israel's four hundred years in Egypt was that they had been warned what would happen, that the initially comfortable life in Egypt would deteriorate until they became slaves and all around them the Egyptians would be worshipping gods of virtually every aspect of life there. Meanwhile in the land of Canaan the spiritual quality of life was also deteriorating to such a measure that the idolatry there even involved sacrifice of their own children.
The fact that Moses had to warn Israel again and again and again (in Deuteronomy) against the idolatry of that land before they went in to take it, suggests (as seen with the Golden Calf on Mount Sinai and various other incidents in their travels,) that Israel never fully appreciated how awful that was, which may account for why it arose in their history time and again in the following centuries.
The Lord wants us to wake up and understand and confront the enemy, get it in perspective, and then prepare to take back ‘the land'. But it requires faith! Jesus taught about thinking through the task ahead of you (Lk 14:28-32) and that is what I believe we need to do here. We need to become like ‘the men of Issachar' (1 Chron 12:23,24) who stood out as those who “understood the times,” AND, please note, “knew what Israel should do.” There's a challenge!
What is the Enemy Strategy? In many parts of the Church, teaching about ‘spiritual warfare' has fallen out of favour but the Bible, nevertheless, reveals a spiritual battle that goes on all the time throughout time-space history. I have become aware that those subjects I referred to as aspects of the culture wars of today, are the things being used behind a much bigger enemy strategy that I would express as, “to distort truth, to change the way people think, to undermine Christian values and belief in God, to cause division and confusion in society AND the Church, and to create attitudes and ways of living that are contrary to God's design that will bring destruction of society.” So let's try and become aware of these things in these days.
Why has God allowed this to come about? If God is sovereign – and we believe He is – then why has He allowed this state of affairs to arise, why have all areas of life in the West become tainted with wrong thinking, constant declarations of guilt, and an undermining of truth? The answer has to be because He has given us free will and allows us to mess up, but He always wants us to learn from such experiences. Possibly, therefore, these things are happening because He saw our teaching and practice-base in the Church was weak, and we needed to be challenged to deepen our understanding AND just perhaps we needed to become more caring and compassionate in the way we view others who may be struggling with these issues.
We will look again more thoroughly at unity and divisiveness later but now, suffice to say, there are areas where we need to be rethinking our world while carefully holding on to the Scriptures. Now the sad thing about all this is that if we had been the people God wanted, probably none of these things used in the culture wars could have happened. Some of these things, the gender wars, racial conflicts, to name but two, are examples of times in history where the Church was just not being salt and light in the world that it could have been. Having said that, an examination of the bigger picture of history shows that, although that was true, there were times when the Church was standing out as salt and light and bringing amazing changes to society, and we will try to pick this up as we proceed.
The Example of Race: IF the Church had been strong, it would have stood up long before it did and stopped the Atlantic slave trade happening, but it wasn't and didn't. History shows us – and we'll consider slavery as a topic on its own later – that even in the first centuries of the Church, although standing against the might of custom across the world that permitted slavery was too much to ask at the time, there were notable Christian leaders who bought slaves to free them. And yes, it was largely the influence of the Church that eventually worked for abolition of the slave trade (although I am told there are probably more slaves in the world today than ever before!) When we come to examine race we will seek, with the help of others, to portray a more accurate picture than that which has recently been portrayed, that has only brought false guilt and much confusion, as well as a rampant dishonesty on the part of many who have been shouting for the needs of those they perceive as the abused.
The Example of Sexual Equality: But then there was the case for equality of women (again, we'll pick up the subject of equality later on) which took feminists a great deal of anguish to change. Historically the woman looked after the home, had and raised children, and was there for the husband who went ‘out to work' to earn the money to keep them. He was also the one who went to war to protect them. But history changes and the negative outlook on women, that denied them voting rights and gave them lower wages when they ‘did work', needed to be changed and was challenged by suffragettes, the advent of technology, the arrival of mass wars needing more than just the men, and eventually proper birth-control, which changed everything dramatically. But if the Church had been powerful and had a voice and declared God's mandate for family life, it could have been the cause of change, not the feminists' who claimed, initially at least, ‘anything goes sexually.'
PART 3.2 The Need for Balance in Understanding
Focus: To balance potential feelings of failure and (false) guilt, we must get a broader understanding of life and of God's view of us. This will create in us a security to release faith to speak and act.
The Reality of our Failures: So I have been hard on us, suggesting we could have been and done more as ‘The Church' in challenging injustices in the world, if not to prevent them happening, at least to be in the forefront of helping face and deal with them honestly. But, and this is not to justify or make excuses for our guilt – that we have to just take to the Cross – there are realities we need to be aware of in all this that we not only need to be aware of, but also have at our fingertips in times of conflict and challenge:
1. The magnitude of sin in the world is too big for one person or even a small number of people to deal with. We briefly referred to slavery earlier. The website ‘antislavery.org' declares, “40 million people are estimated to be trapped in modern slavery worldwide, 1 in 4 of them are children, almost three quarters (71%) are women and girls and over 10,000 were identified as potential victims by the authorities in the UK in 2019.” It is only organisations dedicated to countering slavery that can impact and so we, the individual, have to content ourselves with supporting them financially and encouraging them. Or take the so-called ‘Porn Industry', that is known to abuse women and children and fires unwholesome sexual desires, an industry that according to Google makes $2.6 billion to $3.9 billion annually. Should we survive, our descendants in fifty years' time may look back and wonder why we tolerated these things for so long.
2. The reality is that we individuals (Christian or not) are sinful people who so often struggle with life, often getting it wrong and yet God still works with us, and it is the reason Jesus died for us. It's a poor excuse but we are so often too busy surviving to worry about countering the sins we see recorded in the media. This is a call to rise up and become the strong people of grace we are called to be.
3. A further reality is that we work with the revelation & understanding we have at the moment. The more I look back on my role as a leader in the past, the more I am aware of failure in the light of what I now know and have learnt today. Yet God blessed our limited service ‘back then'. The fact that we didn't do it perfectly in the past should not undermine our faith that calls us to become those people of care and compassion who speak out and work to good in society and refute the lies that have been pouring forth in the last two or more decades.
4. Because life is a constant learning experience, we are to grow in our outlook and activity and aim for better today and tomorrow, better than we achieved yesterday. This is an extension of the previous point but it places the focus on us changing, growing, and becoming people who do, in reality, become world-changers. May it be so.
The Divine Perspective: So that is just one side of what is going on but there is an even bigger truth at play that I have been more and more aware of in recent years – the role of the Son of God in the world today. In Revelation 5 we see Jesus “standing at the centre of the throne,” (v.6), in the place of supreme rule. In Psa 110:1,2 we read the prophetic declaration, “The Lord says to my lord: ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.' The Lord will extend your mighty sceptre from Zion, saying, ‘Rule in the midst of your enemies!'” i.e., the Messiah, the Son, was to rule until all their enemies were subdued, but he would rule in their midst during that process.
The apostle Paul also has a similar insight when he wrote of Jesus' rule, “Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority, and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.” (1 Cor 15:24,25) The fact that, as we noted previously, God allows mankind to use their freewill (badly) so wrong things happen, does not mean that God is impotent or doesn't care. If we look and listen carefully, we may find He is, in fact, very active in all spheres across the world.
God's Strategy: So, if Jesus is ruling in the midst of his enemies – the bringers of lies, untruths, deceptions, perversions, distortions of God's design, those seeking in Jesus words to “make [others] into a replica of (them)selves, double-damned.” (Mt 23:15 Msg) – what is he actually doing? Well, we might simply suggest he is doing as we just said, what God has always done, let mankind go to the depths until they come to their senses (see Rom 1:24-32) and witnessed throughout the book of Judges.
But that is the world, what about the Church? Well, there appear to be various ways the Lord deals with the Church when it has allowed itself to slide away from the New Testament design: allow persecution to arise against it to purify it, or bring Holy Spirit convicting Revival, or sometimes just to allow difficulties to arise, sins to become obvious, to bring people to their senses and cry out to Him to come afresh. In the twenty-first century we have seen a number of leaders who have ‘fallen', revealing the poor structures of accountability in the Church. “It is time for judgment to begin with God's household.” (1 Pet 4:17) Perhaps it already has, but we just didn't realise it.
Matt 25:24,25 “‘Master,' he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man… So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground.”
The ‘Hard Man' mentality: The verse above comes from one of Jesus' parables that tells, in modern versions, of a master handing out bags of gold to his servants before he goes away for a while (the footnote still notes in that in Greek it was ‘talents' – a talent was worth about 20 years of a day labourer's wage.) One of them makes excuses why he had not made use of the money while his master was away – he had a bad attitude about his master! Which raises the question, how do we feel about God? The fuller our understanding of our loving, compassionate, accepting God, the more secure we will feel in making ourselves available to Him to face the truth about ourselves, come in repentance and receive cleansing and fresh empowering and then stand up, question, challenge and discuss with those who present teaching contrary to that found in the Bible. Faith flourishes in a secure atmosphere.
Summary-Recap: We have sought to provide the balance of a wider perspective of life, of the magnitude of sin in the world, our own limitations and learning capacity but, even more, sought to focus on God's place and activity in world. All of this needs us to feel secure in His loving acceptance of us and our ongoing shortcomings as He works out our redemption. It is a slow process.
PART 3.3 “Your Answer hasn't worked!”
Jer 7:4 “Do not trust in deceptive words and say, ‘This is the temple of the Lord!” Isa 6:8c “I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!'
Focus: Trusting in past institutions will not help, only obedience to God and a gentle, caring, and compassionate, teachable heart that isn't put off by modern conflicts and isn't afraid to challenge ‘new truths'.
A Misplaced Trust: Jeremiah found himself in Jerusalem as a part of a religious people – Judah – a people who apparently espoused God and trusted in the fact that in Jerusalem they still had the temple. Read Ezekiel and you see the revelation given to that prophet in Babylon, that back in Jerusalem there was idolatry being carried out in secret in the temple! (see Ezek chapter 8). Isaiah had previously warned Israel, roughly a century before, that their apparent signs of spirituality were just a cover up (see Isa 58). Today the cultural crusaders are espousing a new form of ‘spirituality' (at least two modern writers see them as seeking to create a new religion) that claims to be ‘the truth' and denies all objectors. We thus need to restate our belief and total trust in God AND in His word, the Bible.
The Perennial Evil Question: What the coming studies will seek to do is listen carefully to what is being said but having done that, reflect on what we will find and ask, what is the truth about this? Now (and this is a sign of my age) back in the middle of last century, an American Pastor by the name of Francis Schaeffer found himself with a unique ministry in Switzerland that focused on the reality of the Spiritual Life and on answers of truth in the light of modern questions. He arrived at a simple strategy for testing people's claims over their beliefs. He said we all have ‘presuppositions' – assumptions about life that we each have and tend to take for granted. Very well, he said, invite that person who has displayed their presupposition to take it to their logical conclusion.
The most classic one that I think comes up time and time again is, if God is so good, why doesn't He act to stop all evil? The most simple of replies is, “So what would you like Him to do? You obviously don't like His inactivity in respect of human free will which causes all evil and harm, so what would you like Him to do?” Stop Wars! How? How? In this instance the question must be, what would you like Him to do – without overriding the free will He has given us and which makes us what we are.
Race? Let's try it with race. Your antagonist comes with, “You are white, you are guilty of racism!” Answer: what do you want me to do? Say sorry! But what then? What do you mean? Well just assuming for a moment that I am guilty – even though that actually is a false assumption on your part – how will my saying sorry change the past AND the world today? Well you can make reparation for all those who were slaves! Have you ever worked out how to value that and how much it would come to for every family, and how the world will afford that without going into bankruptcy? And what will coloured people who aren't descended from slaves feel when they see you getting a handout? Oh, and while you're at it, why shouldn't my family receive something from the government for my forbears having to work for a pittance down the mines? Can you come up with a solution to your angst that will actually change the state of life of your coloured family without causing a backlash from anyone else… and so on and so on. When the odds are being shouted, can we first look at what actually happened in history (and be surprised) and then can we ask how all this ‘fits' the biblical picture of fallen mankind and the only solution to all these problems.
Gender? The challenge may come – “I'm gay!” So, why are you pointing that out; do you want me to proclaim I'm straight? “But we are discriminated against!” Am I discriminating against you? “You won't let me….” If that should be so, could you suggest why it may be? Do you not realise that your demands of me are demands that I change my life and such demands may be inequitable, unjust? Is that fair? Now okay, these are only surface arguments but they may help clear the water that may seem muddy to one or other of us. In the course of it, may I express my concern for you, that you feel like this, even though I am not demanding you change? You seem to be insisting that we cannot love one another while we disagree with our own views of life.
Now you may be reading this and immediately coming up with alternative viewpoints – which is good because we are at last thinking and getting ready to talk openly and without hostility. Is that a possibility, that we can talk with love and without hostility? I have to warn you that one modern writer on racism says these activists will not listen to you, so set are they in their presuppositions (to use Schaefer's favourite word).
Summary-Recap: For discussion to open up and loving care to be shown, we first have to come to the table with gentleness and respect? (1 Pet 3:15) Can we do that? We'll think some more on this in the coming pages.
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