Ah, yes! As the Boomer generation was growing up (maturing might be a better word, but not for that generation), we went through all kinds of deep, philosophical discussions on our walks home during our college years, most of them inspired by the Mary Jane smell wafting from rented student housing porches and bedroom windows in the communities surrounding the colleges.
I remember the “What Would Jesus Do?” question as having its day, too. Depending upon your level of theological maturity, it turned out that Jesus would do pretty much whatever the person posing the question wanted to do or have done to someone else. Our pasts seem to recycle themselves as we grow older. I haven’t seen this myself, but then, my memory isn’t what it used to be either. I choose to count this as a blessing.
Perhaps the question for our time in history should be modified to, “What will God do?” Like the Jesus question, it leaves much room for – shall we say, personalization?
Given that God has already spoken through many of His prophetic voices, we can draw some broad conclusions about His upcoming actions in the world on humanity’s behalf.
The first – and perhaps most important – is that God has never run away from a fight with the other side. Here on Earth the church has repeatedly run away from political fights, educational fights, even library fights. They have even bragged about being above the fray! Much evil has taken over America because the church kept silent as small, evil pilot projects were launched by Satan’s minions to contaminate society with evil’s tantalizing offerings.
Perhaps the church simply did not know the power it possessed to root out evil in our culture by communing with God and requesting His help in the matter. Perhaps the church failed to identify the real enemy. Even a frail enemy can prevail against unskilled defenders who don’t understand the weapons of warfare that they possess, and forget to use their weapons.
Nevertheless, God in His Mercy frequently steps up and thumps the enemy, extracting a cost from him that evil is unwilling to pay. I think what we are now seeing is a Great Awakening among the sleepy church, even if the shepherds are still slumbering between sermons.
The “Left Behind” novel series was perhaps the most potent influencer of inaction against evil by the Body of Christ while on this Earth. Why waste our time and effort if the Big Guy is simply going to move His Believers out of the war, where they can watch the fray at a safe distance? Not our fight!
Unless, of course, God wanted to teach us how to deal with evil on our watch. But with the Rapture right around the corner, why would that matter?
Well, it might matter if God wanted to do something within His Believers to grow them for another assignment not yet identified. Israel fought lots of battles in the Old Testament. Since nuclear, biological and chemical warfare were not exactly common back then, many believers likened that time to ancient history, and remained ignorant.
How many of us expected to be alive when Satan stirred up his slaves to implement a one-world government, which is what we are now contending with among the world’s wealthy and self-anointed rulers?
God is saying, “No! It’s not yet time for that! I’m not finished making you into the world-changers that I need going forward!” Meanwhile, the church isn’t practicing spiritual warfare to defeat its attackers, because it doesn’t know how to do it! We are equally unfamiliar with the attackers’ efforts and the defensive moves available to us in Jesus’ name and because of His Sacrifice on our behalf!
The shepherds have much to answer for because the flock does not know who they are, or the power they possess. The Gospel message is important, but how many times does a body of believers need to be saved and orated away from falling into sin? We are living now with the effect of that choice of teaching. Evil people have directly attacked God’s creation – specifically, men, women, children and the Earth itself. “Well, the church isn’t doing anything. God has obviously abandoned them. Let’s grab it all and become gods ourselves!”
That’s a powerful motivation for evil to continue on its present course. Fortunately, God preserved his response to similar circumstances and challenges to His people in the book of Exodus. In fact, I often hear our age described as, “The Greater Exodus!” It’s certainly worth a careful read, and the effort to find parallels between so long ago and today.
Blessing and Cursing. You choose! Deuteronomy, chapter 11. Read the whole chapter.
Read McMillan’s “Earth’s Final Kingdom.”
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