Front-foot Christianity
In my last article I examined the madness that has infiltrated Western society.At its root, it is nothing less than rebellion against God. Here’s something for us to think about …
Cultural Marxism which has created a climate of fear and restrictions, in its guise of ‘political correctness’. has at its root, nothing less than rebellion against God and the Judeo-Christian structures that have underpinned our society for centuries. It ought to be a wake-up call for a slumbering Church, an opportunity for us to ‘get our act together’ before the madness really takes hold. How do we do so? .
I believe that we are now compelled to be ‘on the front foot’ and pro-active in our dealings with the World. We should set the agenda, rather than simply defending our position. Jesus spoke with the authority he had from his Father. We have the same authority:
We should set the agenda, rather than simply defending our position.
For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people.It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope— the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you. (Titus 2:11-15) This passage should be our mission statement for reaching the World. Let’s break it down:
Salvation to all people.The core objective of the Great Commission. If we don’t take this important task seriously, then why has God saved us in the first place? Pass it forward, that’s our goal, whether we accept this or not.
The grace of God teaches us … this reminds us that what follows is not from ourselves.
… to say “no” to ungodliness and worldly passions. What a struggle this has been for Christians in every age. But perhaps there are unprecedented challenges in our day.
… to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives.The proof of the pudding is in the eating. If we reject ungodliness and worldly passions then the evidence will be in the way we live. Our lives must be transparent and uncompromised and a witness to He who lives within us.
While we wait. The ‘blessed hope’ is our reward but perhaps we dwell on it a bit too much rather than getting on with the ‘job in hand’? Let’s dwell on the rainbow now rather than the pot of gold.
Jesus Christ gave himself up for us … not just so that we can be assured an afterlife!
… to redeem us from all wickedness. To separate us from those who live in “the Kingdom of the World’.
… to purify us. Once separated, we need to be made ‘fit for purpose’.
… so that we can be eager to do good. Once made fit, our task lies ahead … to be good people.
These then are the things you should teach … i.e. let’s concentrate on the following:
… encourage and rebuke with all authority. The World needs to see us as people with God-given authority, but not as they understand authority. This is not about social status, corporate power, celebrity or wealth, but it is an authority from above.
How is this manifested? There’s no easy answer, because we so rarely see it exercised in practice. There may have been glimpses of it in earlier times with e.g. Martyn Lloyd Jones (even the atheist Joan Bakewell was in awe of him in a TV interview from the 1960s that is now available on YouTube), Mary Whitehouse (respected from afar, though the liberal media never acknowledged it at the time) and Mother Teresa. The only person who comes readily to mind today is Canon Andrew White, who presents as a real person but with a faith that compels him to work in war zones, despite his disability of Multiple Sclerosis.
if you haven’t already established your authority, rejection is a distinct possibility
We need to have this authority, which requires great courage on our part, if we are going to rebuke others. People are very happy with encouragement and affirmation, but perhaps there is more rebuking to be done if we are going to convince the World that there is a better way. If you haven’t already established your authority, then rejection is a distinct possibility. To explain that, let’s consider the final exultation in the Titus passage.
in the ‘Brave New World’ of Cultural Marxism, Christians are Public Enemy #1
Do not let anyone despise you. Christians are increasingly despised in our society. Why? Is it because we conform to the ‘Christian’ stereotype that has been constructed by our media? It may be an unfair stereotype, but we have to admit that where’s there’s smoke there’s fire! We have to remind ourselves also that in the ‘Brave New World’ of Cultural Marxism, Christians are Public Enemy #1, irredeemable and out-dated, representatives of an authoritarian – even fascist – hierarchy of dominance and oppression. We are seen as closed, judgemental, unloving, narrow and irrelevant. At times we have probably fitted these negative descriptions quite well! And, after all, didn’t Jesus hint that we would be despised? “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. (John 15:18)
We are hated because of Jesus and for what he stands for. It’s not that those who live in the world are naturally repelled by him, but that he who runs amok in the World – the father of lies (and Cultural Marxism) – is poisoning minds against Jesus.
Perhaps we should make a stand against this and really show who Jesus is, rather than spending our energies judging and criticising those who we call “sinners”, particularly those whose sin is particularly objectionable to us? It was the rulers and leaders and teachers of Jesus’ day who despised him,not the ordinary people. While he was walking and talking with them, he was greatly loved in his day. Our goal should be to make Jesus attractive to our generation, to ordinary people rather than those riddled with agendas. If they grow to love us, perhaps they will love our message and He who is at the centre of the message? So, returning to the mission statement for those who wish to communicate with a World gone mad …
For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope— the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.(Titus 2:11-15)
In a sentence, in order to reach our generation we must first examine ourselves, to turn our back from worldly attractions and embrace godliness something that Jesus gives us power to do – so that we can point people in the right direction, to Jesus himself… because they see him in us.
The times they are a-changin’.
It is no longer just what we say, it’s also what we do and what we are.Perhaps it always was! Loud hailers and amplifiers in public places may once have worked to drive home a message that helped to convict folk of their sin and poor standing before God, but these days it is not enough. For a start, because of changing laws in our country regarding ‘hate speech’ and what is ‘acceptable’ and ‘unacceptable’ to say. Following a tried and tested script, loaded with Bible quotes, may land you in jail. Why? if your Bible quotes happen to offend a listener who, rather than being convicted of sin, feels empowered to deflect their guilt (masked with selfrighteous anger) against the ‘giver of the message’. They do this with a quick text, call or email to some ‘hateline’.
More importantly, as we have discovered, people feed their brains in a very different way to how things were even a couple of years ago. Since Brexit, the Western World has changed drastically, but most have not realised it. We are like sheep being coaxed by wolves masquerading as sheep-dogs into great holding pens of restrictions, red-tape and controlled behaviour. We are moving towards a Marxist nightmare of a ‘collective’ where we are all encouraged or compelled to think the same way, with a ‘false tolerance’ of each other in place of the atmosphere of love and brotherhood that only Christ can offer.
In this ‘brave new world’ of a postChristian, post-truth Western culture, all people are flapping around to a certain extent, trying to find an equitable way of getting along with each other without offending. Marxism, communism, capitalism or any other ‘-ism’ is not going to get even close, as history has demonstrated time after time. Only we Christians have the real answer but are mostly too blind to listen to the words of Scriptureand actually live as we are told to. That is why it is more important today to walk the walk as well as, (as Christians have done since time immemorial) … talk the talk. That is our challenge.
Do not let anyone despise you.
How do we do this? Simple … we live the Life.And how do we do that? In an ideal world this question would not need to be asked … because this is the prime directive for all Christians. But in the flawed world in which we live, with our faith diluted through the historical processes governing Christendom,we now need to spell out what ought to be obvious. We will do this in the next issue …
This is an extract from Steve’s new book, Into the Lion’s Den, available at all good Christian bookshops or from the website www.sppublishing.com