These things drown men in destruction and perdition. Or in the parable of of the sower we're told that - Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.
This is someone who had faith but it was not a persevering faith. It's a faith that failed that gave way to deceit. This is also mentioned in Hebrews 3 where the author warns against being hardened through the deceitfulness of sin - the same concept.
For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said - Today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.
And shortly thereafter - Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.
Sin is deceitful. You can convince yourself that you're doing right, that you're doing God service even while you're falling into patterns of disobedience and worldly thinking. You can war and run but not as a good soldier, not as a runner who is running the race according to God's rules. It's not about winning (as the world counts such things). It's about being faithful. That's how we glorify God and defy the world. This is how we make our calling and election sure. That's how we shine God's light to both the world and the celestial powers. And thus ultimately that's how we win - not by vanquishing Christ's enemies with the sword but by being united to Christ knowing He will vanquish His enemies - and sin and death itself.
In the end, I'm not interested in trying to make an impact or trying to redeem culture in the way people like Clary define it. And the historical examples that men like him are wont to celebrate are not so cut and dry as many seem to think. Often men have solved one problem even while creating others or exacerbating others. The Magisterial Reformers sought to turn the Church back to Scripture but they made great compromises and inadvertently planted seeds which later would sprout and take Western civilisation in directions they couldn't have dreamed of, nor would they have wanted. By smashing the Catholic consensus they helped foment an epistemological crisis which led to a century of violence. A new epistemology and ethic arose and when combined with the larger context of scientific enquiry and exploration it fomented a lust for resources, trade, and the creation of new financial instruments. This led to new forms of warfare, colonialism, modern banking - things which some dare to still celebrate, but many have realized that these things (especially when viewed collectively) unleashed a new and terrible chapter of evils upon the world.
Many Christians celebrate someone like William Wilberforce for his political activism, but his efforts led to more than the end of the slave trade. It threw economies into turmoil which in turn played a role in the events leading up to 1848 on the continent - a political and economic climate highly detrimental to Christianity. The British Navy was given a mandate that pretended moral authority, but was in reality an expansion of its power and that of the Empire. It reminds me of the farcical nature of the humanitarian geopolitical calls for intervention that were so popular in the 1990's and early 2000's. Powerful nations are always looking for a humanitarian fig-leaf for their imperialism and it's never hard to find an activist stooge to that end. In some cases the stooges are fine with the dual-natured project. Be the hero and get rich at the same time.
Wilberforce's efforts to curtail vice in society would save England (perhaps in part) from mid-century revolutions, but would eventually build up so much resentment that by late century urban church attendance ran around 30%. The numbers seem to be slightly higher in the middle class but the workers at the bottom, those who most severely felt the pressure of the Industrial Revolution and Wilberforce-inspired Victorian legislation were already abandoning the Church with numbers plummeting to under 20%. In many cases sheer exhaustion was probably a contributing factor given the new industrial economy. Church attendance in the rural districts remained high but these economies and societies were being transformed and even destroyed by industrialisation and urbanisation. Within just a few more decades these numbers were in free-fall.
In the name of defending Britain's mannerly and supposedly Christian society, and in the name of supporting the wealth of its ruling classes, Wilberforce supported draconian legislation allowing police to lock up suspects without trial (suspension of habeas corpus), censorship, the use of spies and provocateurs, and while he advocated for reform, he nevertheless supported the workhouse and debtor's prison system. He supported the Gagging Acts, blocked inquiries into the 1819 Peterloo Massacre of protesting workers, and supported legislation to block the formation of trade unions. By helping to crush the spirit of the workers, he helped delay the inevitable social revolution, but a case can be argued that 20th century unbelief was in many ways a pendulum-swing response to the Victorian regime and the perception of its abuses and rum hypocrisy.
And the additional absurdity of the picture is found in the fact that as Britain viewed itself as the paragon of Christian virtue and morality, the suppressors of the Slave Trade - it was in the process of perpetrating the greatest series of thefts and violent conquests the world had ever seen. By the end of World War I, Britain's Empire would constitute one-quarter of the globe. Even the Blockade of Africa (enforced by crews of impressed (or rather enslaved) sailors) was an assertion of power and represented British domination and management of not only international trade, but access to Africa and the Americas. They certainly attempted to justify these appropriations (or conquests) by appeal to laws, treaties, moral duties, necessities, and the like, but the truth is pretty simple. It was avarice, theft, and murder on a massive scale, and a case of willing and utter blindness as to what was being done. It was all for the greater good (don't you know) and yet obviously that's not how it was perceived by the conquered people nor so many of the workers and common people back at home who dealt with the fallout.
From the UK Workers July 2007 issue we read:
'Wilberforce wrote that Christianity "renders the inequalities of the social scale less galling to the lower orders, whom also she instructs in their turn to be diligent, humble, patient: reminding them that their more lowly path has been allotted to them by the hand of God; that it is their part faithfully to discharge its duties, and contentedly to bear its inconveniences." William Cobbett called him the prince of hypocrites, who praised the benefits of poverty from a comfortable distance.'
While on the one hand I do (along with Christ, the apostles, and prophets) side with the poor and reject the Christian embrace of bourgeois values and the trappings of wealth and power, Cobbett (who was imprisoned for his advocacy) was right to point out the hypocrisy of those with wealth telling the poor (the Factory Slaves as Cobbett called them) to simply be content as they lived in damp squalor, struggled to keep fed, with no protections, no safety net, and no accountability in terms of workplace safety. People working 14 hours a day, six days a week and more and yet still destitute are utterly defeated and exhausted and Sunday might be the one day to rest and catch up on other chores and tasks. Is it any wonder the majority of them began to forego church attendance, all the more when the Church and so many Christians leaders like Wilberforce were simply preaching a gospel that reinforced the whole wretched and wicked system? It's no wonder this period saw an explosion of socialist embrace. It's sad that there's more truth found in Socialist publications than the works produced by popular Evangelical hack historians.
I was also reminded of the point made by Christopher Clark in reference to the crisis of 1848 - chattel slaves were mistreated and yet their owners viewed them as an investment. Cruel as they were to them, they wanted them healthy and working. The low-skill industrial worker was completely expendable. The employer didn't have to worry about feeding them or housing them and if injured - they were no longer their concern. The worker was completely on his own, isolated from the historical-cultural connections of the old village and larger clan - a total loss of social networks and safety nets. His entire world was turned upside down and yet so many Christian leaders at the time (including Abraham Kuyper a generation later) simply preached contentment. It's one thing for a Christian to embrace his lot (and be a 'loser') but it's delusional to think the larger population is just going to stand for such a system of exploitation. This is not to say the worker had it worse than the slave - not for a moment would I mean to suggest that slaves somehow had it 'good'. And I'm aware that Southern apologists have used such arguments to defend their system and grant it a kind of moral equivalence or even superiority vis-à-vis their Northern industrial antagonists. The point is not to fall into an argument over chattel slavery vs. low-wage industrial workers but rather to expose the myopic nature of Wilberforce's moral reasoning and the deep problems found within the ethics and theology of those who operate under the same assumptions.
And again it's one thing to embrace the system as a fallen-world reality but something else entirely to sit atop the system and profit from the misery it generates. For Christians to do so is nothing less than obscene and frankly a sign of seared conscience.
We are also reminded of figures like Charles Wood, Chancellor of the Exchequer under the premiership of John Russell. Informed by the moral reformist mindset promoted by the likes of Wilberforce and the rising confusion of laissez-faire principles with Christian idealism, he blocked efforts for Irish relief during the potato famine of the 1840's. He wanted to teach the degenerate Catholic Irish a moral lesson and viewed the catastrophe as judgment for their failings and aberrant ways. Over a million died (1/8 of the population) and perhaps 2 million ended up as refugees - a total demographic transformation of the country. Ironically, the Irish learned their lesson indeed and these events proved seminal in the fomenting of Irish nationalism and all the followed - an issue still not fully resolved even today. The British public couldn't make the connection with the bombs of the 1970's but I guarantee you many in Ireland had no trouble understanding the nature of the fight and just what was at stake. Charles Wood certainly made an impact and transformed culture. Be careful what you wish for.
In the end it must be said, Wilberforce created a shining veneer that was in the end a shining lie, a sham, a vapour that quickly evaporated in the crisis-fires of the early 20th century. Was Wilberforce the Father of the Victorians? Indeed, very much so. And yet I would also say he as much as Darwin, John Stuart Mill, or others is the Father of Modern Secular Britain as well. He wanted to kill the weeds and ended up killing everything in the process. But he did plant seeds didn't he? The field (as it were) became barren and yet is now overtaken by new crops and farmed by others. Rather than reflect and repent, I find many modern conservative Christians in Britain are more likely to blame Thomas Hardy, Coleridge, or perhaps even The Beatles. It's myopic, self-serving, and misguided thinking that ignores the deeper questions that even today have not been reckoned with.
And I'm sure the half-starved factory workers lying in their beds of rags were staying up late to read Thomas Hardy. That's why they quit going to church. It's rather silly but such arguments have been made.
The United States (the heir of Britain) has followed a very similar pattern and will share in its doom. And once again the ill-informed and misguided Christian leadership in the United States in trying to save, fix, and sanctify that which was never good or holy to begin with is spreading poison across the fields - there will be nothing left. The people who are reaping the harvest don't care if there's nothing left and the field is ruined. They'll simply move on and if they can't find another field to consume - they'll start eating each other like they did in 1914.
Actions have consequences, we all know that, and yet no one can really weigh the full import of their actions. Such historical knowledge and interpretation eludes us. It's better to stay humble when it comes to such questions.
Rather than try to shake the world and boast against the powers and bring down the stars, like the Hellenistic syncretizing false teachers we're warned about in the epistles - we're called to be obedient, to be faithful. God ordains the powers that be even if Dominionists won't have it.
Let them rail against God and destroy themselves but get out of their false churches. If you read this and understand what I'm saying and you're part of Clary's church, the CREC, or some other like it - leave! Your very soul is in danger. You're communing with heretics and apostates that are labouring for the adversary just as much as you would be if you were sitting under Jim Bakker, Benny Hinn, or the Bishop of Rome.
Earlier I mentioned how Paul (in 1 Corinthians 5) wasn't concerned with those who are 'outside' - the fornicators, covetous, extortioners, and idolaters. But the apostle is very concerned with those people are 'inside' - inside the Church. They have to be dealt with. And the Church is full of such people and myriad Christians support such people (professing Christ or otherwise). Why? Because it's about money and power again. They form evil alliances, they go down to Egypt and Assyria for help, and the next thing you know you're emulating them, copying their altars (as did Ahaz, the apostate king of Judah).
Christians like Clary and Wilberforce want the Church to change the world but in order to do so they change the identity, nature, and mission of the Church - confusing it with their political entities and allegiances. Here's the bitter irony. They don't change the world. Instead they move the goalposts and thus incorporate the world into the Church. They end up inviting the world 'inside' and we see the fruit of it in the lives so many Evangelical leaders lead. The corruption, thievery, decadence, violence, deceit, and hubris which in turn leads to narcissism, megalomania, and dark perversion. You see this rather poignantly with the leaders who have fallen and been removed (which generally speaking has to be rather extreme in the Evangelical world) and yet can't give it up. They're so important to the Church that they insist on starting a new congregation, a new para-church ministry, or whatever. In their delusional hubris (a sign of their likely reprobation) they see themselves and their leadership as the sine qua non of the Church's existence and flourishing.
The net effect of Constantinianism (helped along by Theodosius, Justinian, Charlemagne and others) is to create a 'Christendom' or counterfeit Kingdom that looks nothing like New Testament Christianity. When such systems go to seed you end up with Star Chambers, Crusades, Inquisitions, and institutions like the Papacy. You end up with men like Charlemagne threatening murder in lieu of baptism and thinking he does God service.
Empires rise and fall. Rather than share their hubris visions and become blinded, let us instead rest in a permanent counter-cultural status, a state of antithesis, abiding faithful, watching, worshipping and living out our faith, always prepared to give an answer, always prepared to count it joy to suffer for His name, always prepared to suffer our goods to be spoiled, always prepared to take up the cross. False teachers like Clary literally mock this basic expression of New Testament doctrine and piety. God help them, they've lost their way and in the end it will be revealed that they are in fact the biggest losers of all.