1-8-24<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some cultural critics and many traditional Christians lament the state of things today. \u201cThings\u201d? Maybe almost everything\u2026 everywhere we look\u2026 even the future is despaired of. Believers \u201cknow the end of the story,\u201d the glorious promises of God, yet among those promises are trials and tribulations, we know. \u201cWhat kind of world are we leaving for our children?\u201d is often asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This angst and pessimism \u2013 or realism? \u2013 is not exclusive to the traditionalists and religious people, however. This is an age of discontent: radicals, revolutionaries, the \u201cWoke\u201d armies likewise are weary, or rebellious, against the current System and what brought societies to this point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is the Age of Discontent, which term is the title of a book of observations by Sigmund Freud. More pertinent is the earlier essay by Brooks Adams, The Law of Civilization and Decay.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Of all the ism<\/em>s that plague us these days, and no matter your place on the philosophical and political spectrums, the strongest is Incrementalism. Surely it is the most insidious. Most of the things that upset most of us were not advocated by us, not designed, not forecast. Yet often we act surprised that certain identifiable decisions were wrong, horribly wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our temples gradually have crumbled; our swamps quietly have risen and spread. Surely, we \u2013 all of us \u2013 have been blind and careless, we have grown sloppy about commitments, and dismissive of standards. Like fallen civilizations of the past, we have a subliminal sense of security that we somehow are immune from decline and self-destruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this we are, of course, fools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If analysis might be useful and lead to course-correction, we should reject the idea that we (let us focus on \u201cChristendom,\u201d so-called Western Civilization) have \u201clost faith.\u201d It is a point of view automatic among the religious; and it is mistaken. Oh, church attendance is down, and we are confronted by statistics that are alarms to those of who work to resist the drift. But a recent book The Secular Age<\/em> cited polls claiming that more than half the population does not belong to an organized religion, only a third believe in life after death, 16 per cent in reincarnation, and only half believe in a higher power. (And of course \u201chigher power\u201d these days can mean gods invented on the spot. Or as my daughter says about the current pathology of those who switch genders every week, \u201cchoosing to be, or believe in, a hairbrush.\u201d) And so forth, as we all know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nature abhors a vacuum. Our problems do not stem from our peoples\u2019 lack of faith, but the situation that people hold to faith in many, many, many things. Indiscriminately. Irresponsibly. Incrementally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course my critique is that Christendom has abandoned Christianity. The \u201cFaith of our fathers\u201d has largely become as attractive to broad swaths of contemporary society as the ties and dresses, dance steps and home d\u00e9cor of previous generations. Christian dogma is seldom asserted in many of our churches. Worship conforms to the latest (and changeable) tastes and demands of audiences. The Biblical \u201cgivens\u201d that underlay government, schools, courts, even the entertainment media\u2026 are no longer a priori <\/em>assumptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Indeed, Biblical standards routinely are rejected, mocked, and suppressed. So what should we expect? People who believe in everything\u2026 effectively believe in nothing. When a society has no standards, we must expect that even \u201cright\u201d and \u201cwrong\u201d are obsolete concepts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We have a natural tendency to feel overwhelmed by the forces of evil. We are tempted, despite our faith in Jesus and the promises of God, to fear that all is hopeless, at least outside our own spheres. I am reminded that when the Communist Whittaker Chambers found Christ and became a patriot, he wrote that he believed in God, but that \u2013 as a citizen in a decaying American society \u2013 he was joining the \u201closing side.\u201d His soul would live in Heaven but his country was doomed. Do you have those feelings?<\/p>\n\n\n\n What I cling to, among many truths and revelations, are the verses about God adorning the lilies of the field, and caring even for small sparrows. Yes, we must know the Truth. Yes, we must fight for our faith and families and future. Yes, the enemies of Christ are many, and are wily and vicious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is worthwhile, and daunting I know, to resist. But how often do we stop and remember that it is His<\/em> fight? God will equip us; the Holy Spirit was sent to strengthen our\u2026 faith. Faith. We cannot cast about to find new faith in new remedies. God\u2019s answers are in front of us. If your simple faith in God and His promises sometime go weak, remember that the Gift of Faith is one of the Spiritual Gifts that He has promised, and we can access at any time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Asking God for more faith, purer faith, mighty faith in Him, is not a sign of weakness. His provision of the Holy Spirit must not be treated as a futile act unless you respond feebly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our world might be drifting, and in directions we hate. As we do battle \u2013 for we must! \u2013 how typical of God that He can encourage us with the simplest, gentlest assurance that His eye is on the sparrow, and we know He watches us too. Let us be happy warriors. The battle is the Lord\u2019s!<\/p>\n\n\n\n + + +<\/p>\n\n\n\n