Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Gems from the North (11) - Tremendous Opportunity

We have a tremendous opportunity today. We are seeing the death of a major faith, salvation through politics. While the rhetoric of the imminent, transnational New World Order is escalating, the economic vulnerability of all government welfare programs becomes more and more visible. The reality of modern political life does not match the reality, any more than the reality of Roman political life in the third century AD matched the messianic announcements on the coinage. Reality will soon triumph. Humanism as a rival religion is breaking down even as it asserts the apotheosis of the New Humanity.

Something must be put in its place. There is no neutrality. There can be no covenantal vacuums. The gangs of Los Angeles testify loudly to this. The Church, however, is not equally confident about this. Christians look at the religion of humanism as if it were unbeatable. They have forgotten what God does each time in history when covenant-breaking men begin building the latest Tower of Babel. They no longer believe in God’s negative corporate sanctions in history.

Churches today are not prepared for the coming of mass revival: theologically, institutionally, financially, educationally, or morally. If we get a mass revival, new converts will inevitably ask: “How Should We Then Live?” If this new life in Christ is defined as “meet, eat, retreat, and hand out a gospel tract,” the revival will leave one more egg on the face of God’s Church (Millenialism and Social Theory pp.326,327).
When this revival comes, I want to be able to answer the question: What will the economy look like in a society where most of the people are Christians?

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