Types of Prophetic Event (7) - Whacking Society is Suboptimal

The cross changed everything. In the Old Testament age, judgment was often a necessary last resort. In the New Testament age, shaking judgment is a sub-optimal method for changing people and society.

1. Judgment events are mostly indiscriminate. Just as radiation therapy kills the good cells and the cancer cells, the good, the bad and the ugly are harmed equally.

2. Judgment was mostly ineffective in bringing change. Judges, 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles record the history of Israel and Judah. These nations were judged again and again, but they deliberately continued down their path to oblivion without hesitating. Judgement did not turn them around. God had not poured yet out the Holy Spirit, so this was inevitable.

3. Shakings restrained the worst evil. Evil kings and leaders were removed before they could do too much harm. This was the best that Judgment Events can do. The Holy Spirit can do far better.

4. The outpouring of Holy Spirit and the gospel of Jesus provide God with a far better ways for transforming peoples and nations. This reduces the need for judgment and shaking. They are less frequent in the New Testament age.

Gospel and Spirit
Some Christians still believe that God changes the world by whacking it with judgments. They delight in disasters, because they believe he will use them to turn society around. These people do not understand how God works. They have more faith in earthquakes, hurricanes, and economic collapse than they have in the Holy Spirit. This is sad, because God cannot transform society by whacking it with a big stick, because that mostly turns people sour.

Since Jesus death, resurrection and ascension, the Holy Spirit and the gospel are God’s preferred vehicles for transforming society. Repentance comes from hearing the gospel of grace. Faith is a fruit of the Spirit drawing a person to the Father.

God needs people to share the gospel and carry the Holy Spirit into the world. He can only get to the hearts of unbelievers, if we are carrying him into their midst. God can only transform society through a living body that carries the Holy Spirit where he wants to work. Until he gets a body that is up to the task, God will not waste his effort shaking society.

God must transform his church before he can transform society. Then if he shakes a nation, his revitalised church can be salt and light to shape it in a new direction. If the church is not carrying the Holy Spirit into the world, shaking achieves nothing. Society will just carry on down the gurgler, because it knows nothing better.

God prefers to work through the Holy Spirit and the gospel. Prophetic warning of judgment should be rare. Exhortation to proclaim the gospel in the power of the Spirit and should receive far more airtime, because that reflects the Father’s heart.

This full series is at Prophetic Events.

Types of Prophetic Event (6) - Confusion

Christians get confused about these four different types of judgment event.

1. Prophetic people often declare that Warning Events and Evil Events are caused by God. However, when a society that once had a strong Christian influence gets close to the tipping point, God has only limited authority to act on earth. Because most authority on earth has been handed over to the principalities and powers, the best he can do is restrain the worst of the evil. He is still more powerful, but because he is honest and just, he abides by decisions that he made about authority on earth, even when things go haywire.

2. Believing that God has caused events that are the work of the devil is seriously distorted thinking, that causes terrible confusion among Christians. If we do not know what God is doing, it will be hard to hear what he is saying. Christians who think that rampant evil and destruction are God’s perfect will find it hard to obey him, as it is hard to love and serve someone who dishes out wanton violence.

3. God gets a bad name that he does not deserve. The world blames him for warning signs and evil events that are the work of the forces of evil. They prefer to think that he is in control, even though refuse to acknowledge his authority, because this makes them feel better. The truth is that humans have authority on earth. They have allowed the authority to shift, so most evil events on earth are the result of that authority being handed to the forces of evil. Humans are responsible, not God.

4. God always works to bring good out of evil. We must not be confused by this. The fact that God continues working in the midst of evil does not hat mean that he has caused it.

5. When evil is rampant, God may not have sufficient authority to prevent evil events, but he is still omniscient and knows what the devil is about to do. He usually warns Christians in advance, so they can prepare. Some get confused in this situation and believe that God is sending the evil. They say will say, “God is going to do such and such”. This makes God seem a quite nasty, when he is actually trying to be helpful. In these situations, Christians should say, “God has shown me that the forces of evil are going to do such and such. Use the time to get ready”.

6. People who believe that God is always in control will be totally disorientated during seasons when he is not. It is hard to confront evil, if you believe that God has allowed it.

7. Many Christians ignore these distinctions and assume that every traumatic event is a sign of the so-called end times. They like things to get worse and worse, because it means that escape is getting closer. Many assume that nothing can be done, so they sit on their bums and enjoy the playing out of pain. These Christian do not like Judgment Events and Warning Events, because these might shake people back to God, which would hold back the tide of disaster, which would delay their rescue. This distorted thinking makes them powerless.

8. When David disobeyed God by taking a census of his fighting men, God gave him three choices (2 Sam 24:13-14). David chose to fall into the hands of God rather than the hands of men, and the forces of evil.

   Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is very great; bud do not let me fall into the hands of men (1 Chron 20:13).

   This suggests that Israel was somewhere between the opening of the door to evil and the tipping point where evil gets greater control, so God was able to give David a choice between a Judgment Event and a Warning Event. David understood God’s mercy, so he chose a judgment from God over a strike from the enemy.

9. Abraham declared that God would treat the nations of the world with justice.

   Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right (Gen 18:25)?

   His faith in God’s justice led him to expect that God would be generous. Many Christians assume that a just God will be destructive. This difference is revealing. Maybe Abraham understood God’s grace and justice better than modern people.

Types of Prophetic Event (3) - Evil Events

Once a society has moved past the tipping point, evil principalities and powers have freedom to do their stuff.

God is no longer on the throne, so he is powerless to intervene. He has given authority on earth to humans, so if they have passed it on to the forces of evil, rather than to him, he can do nothing about the situation in the short term.

The activities of the forces of evil have the following characteristics.

1. Evil events are often directed against Christians (or Jews), because the devil hates them.

2. Evil events are nasty and hugely destructive, because the devil loves to “steal, kill and destroy” (John 10:10).

3. Evil events are not redemptive. They are just evil for the sake of being evil.

4. God always works some things for good, even if evil is unrestrained. He will always produce good things, event in the midst of the most troubled times.

Between 1933 and 1944, 14 million civilians were killed in Eastern Europe by forces controlled by Stalin and Hitler. A few decades earlier, Germany and Russia had been under strong Christian influence. This shows what can happen when Christian societies slip past the tipping point.

Predominance of evil has been the normal situation in many cultures for most of history. People living in the western world with its strong Christian influence often forget this.

When the people in a society reject God’s protection, the enemy is free to do his stuff, and it is not nice. This is what we are seeing now in many parts of the Western world. Storms and earthquakes, wars and economic crashes are not God’s judgments. They are signs that evil has been given a free hand in our society.

The Holy Spirit does not glorify evil, so Evil Events do not get much attention in scriptures.

For advice on living through tumultous times see Social Collapse and Economic Crisis.