(Part 10 in the multipart series “Where We Stand”)
The failure of Christian churches to perceive the secular agendas of the modern age as nothing less than newfangled spins on millennia-old demonic religion is the simple-minded seed of folly that the Bible warns us so strictly about. It is a powerful error to forget that all pagans are by nature destined to sabotage the public spirit with the leaven of greed and malice. It is false doctrine to not believe that evil is evil and darkness is dark.
It’s not that unbelievers can’t ever do good for selfish reasons. It’s that they can only do good for selfish reasons. Over time such asymmetries must descend into the kind of bad judgment (מִשְׁפָּ֗ט) which eventually weighs down, inverts and implodes.
It is folly to join them.
A man who is not converted is a sleepwalker, a pawn in the game of the antichrist, a heedless liar, self-deceived, driven by a mad delusion of fear and shame, worshiping a game of avoidance.
Christianity, assuming that it can function as part of this general herd of humanity, is a recipe for apostasy. Attempting to do “mission” or “ministry” without these biblical categories is like trying to erect a building without a foundation.
At the root of our dilemma is an acceptance of the Bible’s firm teaching about the wicked man, and with it the comforting freedom that we are given to pray for his downfall. This is not to say that Christianity would not rather the sinner turn from his wicked way and live. It is only to say that Christianity knows that many will not, and that when God brings the hammer against them it will be just and meet and good. “Alleluia!” we will sing. “The smoke of her fire goes up forever and ever.” (Rev. 19:3)
A crisis is always also an opportunity for a reformation. As the original Lutherans quickly discovered, the nomenclature of the Bible is stunningly powerful when harnessed as the common tongue. Rediscovering biblical categories amounts to finding the well-driving nails your construction site so desperately needs.
It is a good work to want to see the wicked fall. If you can’t cheer against the bad guy, then you can’t cheer for the good one either.
Till angel cry and trumpet sound,
The Mad Christian