Of Perseverance
Hopelessness is the theme of our time.
Good is now called evil, evil good. Political correctness demands that words mean what the loudest want them to mean. Sensible discussion and reasonable conclusions have been ousted by tantrums: 'I'm offended, that's hate speech, you're racist, I'm gonna tell on you, I'll never talk to you again.'
What was once vilified as 'stereotyping' is exalted as the only acceptable view about anyone in a certain group. The cultural value ascribed to personal choice & personal responsibility dwindles fast; we are defined by our caste.
Funnily (or not funnily), slurs and cancellations mostly go only one way. The woke are rarely slated and hated for 'hate speech'. Affirmative biassed action is not labelled racist or sexist or ageist or prejudiced, although it discriminates.
Where can society go, when we aren't even allowed to point out the obvious - like women are women? Or CO2 is essential for plant growth and we could use more of it?
There's another kind of hopelessness: a theological one. It says that a massive world takeover by the satan's power is pre-ordained, that there is nothing we can do to stop it. All our efforts to fight evil powers are at best delaying tactics. Even though we are indwelt by the Spirit of the living God, the God who defeated the evil one and death at Calvary, the Spiritual power that raised Jesus from the dead.
Under this particular theological worldview, we can 'hope' to defer the one world government for our grandchildren to suffer under, not us. We can 'hope' in what some mockingly call a 'Spaceship Rapture' which shall deliver us from evil. One day, we will suddenly leave our neighbours and the rest of creation to wallow in the mess that we helped make.
Then one day God will blow the whole lot up and start again. He is the Originator of consumerism.
How can the church of Jesus preach such self-centredness and nihilism? I can only say here that this is not the only way to read Bible prophecy; and it is not the way that end times have been understood throughout most of church history. More musing on that another time, perhaps.
It's easy to despair that wholesome commonsense, responsibility, real love (the self-giving type) and truth could ever prevail. But they will. The message of Revelation and indeed the whole Bible is: God wins. Especially when it looks impossible.
Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley was once standard reading for high school English classes. For those who didn't delve into the wonders of this poem: it tells of the ancient broken statue of Ozymandias, King of Kings, with an inscription on its pedestal:
'Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Look what happened to Ozymandias:
'Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.'
So with all the enemies of truth and light.
The real target of today's woke furore & climate claptrap is Jesus Christ. His people are his visible Body, located right in the firing line here on Earth where a battle has raged for thousands of years. As Christians, we were warned to expect trouble. Our orders are not that we be ready to be snatched up heavenwards if it all gets too uncomfortable; but that we persevere. No matter what.
Whether an election goes 'our' way or not. Whether or not insanity prevails in public policy and discourse. Whenever liars and control freaks and blind-as-bats über-obedient citizens seem to hold all the cards. When our children think we are delusional, gullible idiots who believe in wacky online conspiracies. When our friends, workmates, churches and governments call us criminally selfish or despicable grannykillers or white racists (even if we're black).
It's almost irrelevant whether Klaus Schwab and his World Economic Forum &/or others create a one world government, covertly or overtly. It's no cause for grim despair. We already have our battle plan. It is the only plan, for every trouble in every age. It is a proven plan. Jesus followed it, and he calls us to follow him.
Jesus lived committed to God, God's worldview, God's timing and God's vision. No one could diminish his freedom. No one could trick him into violating his conscience. No one could take his life before the Father's appointed time (kairos). He told his disciples that he laid his life down. When the right time came, his Father took up that sacrifice. Always the Son of Man walked free, despite the murderous crowds and livid, vengeance-spitting powerbrokers of his era. So will we!
We are to stand, stand and still stand. Love. Forgive. If need be, die - but first we fully live.