The
Church in the World
What will it take to awaken the Church? Or is this just
Judgment and Strong Delusion?
How do we respond? Do we need to just keep at it, keep
persevering in our small corners of the world, doing what we can to expose
lies? Do we just keep telling the truth and hopefully rescue people from the
great destructive lie that is at the heart of our social system which the 'Church'
has happily wed itself to?
It has loved the world and called it the Kingdom of
God.
What can we do? We're not even to that point yet. We
can't even begin to ask that question until we better understand what is
happening. And at this point we're dealing with corpses sitting in the pews. Until
these people are stirred, there won't be anything to do other than be voices
crying in the wilderness. At least those of who are awake and alive can
exercise vigilance and be thinking about the lives we lead and the technology
we use.
Our Constitution while certainly flawed helped to
create a society that allowed for a good deal of freedom. It contained within
it various internal contradictions and thus the seeds for its own destruction.
Today it is rapidly becoming obsolete. You can't have a militarized empire and
democracy. They don't go together. The Establishment made its choice long ago.
We need weep no tears for the Babylon of America. We just need to understand
what is happening and begin to think through how to live in light of the new
society.
The leaders of the Evangelical world have little wisdom
to impart. We need to start thinking in truly antithetical terms... an exercise
and ability the False Church has long worked to destroy. Even today those who
profess to be teaching it through the forming of Christian Worldview are in
fact teaching worldliness and all the lusts and pride that go with it. Their
theology is rooted in the same power-paradigm. They have sprinkled the blood of
Christ on the foundations of the system and don't seem to realize it. Strong
delusion is at work.
We need to think about money, work, technology,
government and time. These are all the same issues Christian leaders and
commentators are talking about. But they're getting it wrong. They can't see
because they're invested in the system or some narrative tied to it. Other
commitments are blinding them to what is happening now. Rather than realize
from our perspective this has nothing to do with partisanship, they have chosen
to ignore the voices of protest because they come from the Left. They do so
foolishly and at their own peril.
The world is changing. We all know it has been for many
years but the Church seems to just keep going along with it. There's been no
antithesis. We're on the verge of making some serious sociological leaps and
the Church needs to be vigilant.
I fear the Christian Right will act foolishly and
dangerously and bring down a great deal of grief on the Church.
The Right fears Global Socialism and tyrannical
government. I argue that they are in fact for tyrannical rule when it suits
them. Nevertheless it is ironic that their economic and geopolitical policies
are leading to such instability and danger that authoritarianism is almost
necessary to keep social order. It's kind of like they create a self-fulfilling
prophecy.
Globalization isn't global socialism. It's Capitalism
reaching beyond money into what money is really about...power. Its monopolistic
instincts have moved beyond currency and into the mechanisms that create,
sustain and protect it.
If in light of these future changes the voices of
criticism, dissent and Truth become security violations and possible treason
then a small faithful segment of the Church will be persecuted while the larger
section applauds it.
Am I advocating some kind of activism? No. Sartre would
call me a Quietist. And yet even speaking out is reaching a point that it is
considered subversive and activist. If that's the case, then I guess we had all
better be activists. But for now we need to just start thinking and reflecting
on what's happening and how we can serve Christ in these new and strange times.
You can't kill the beast. If you lop off one head,
another simply appears. Only Christ can destroy it. Our job is to shine light
by telling the truth and to be faithful witnesses.
The 'stop the world I want to get off' approach won't
work. We still have to raise our children, make a living and reach the lost. A
lot of people increasingly are required to have a phone strapped to their hip
at all hours.
Let's start thinking and putting things together.