Cynical Attack

The recent furore surrounding Kate Forbes’ campaign to become Scotland’s First Minister illustrates the intolerance shown to openly biblical Christians having a place in the public square. Christians are tolerated when we confine ourselves to the ceremonial but face rejection by the opinion formers when we overstep the boundaries and intrude into the public sphere. The progressives’ claim that they are tolerant and uphold the freedom of worship is actually a cynical attack on biblical Christianity. God is reduced to a private hobby for a few somewhat eccentric people, but has no permission to intrude into the public square. For the biblical Christian, the faith cannot be confined to the church building or private devotions but has to be let loose in the world.

How We Respond

How do we react to the side-lining and rejection of Christianity in an increasingly secular world? We witness the progressive impact on society and talk amongst ourselves, click on newspaper comments, and sign petitions. These measures are positive but haphazard and cedes the initiative to the progressives. Our response is piecemeal and haphazard. To respond appropriately we must, first, get beyond the separate instances and discern the underlying ideology (Part 1). Then we must get clear just what we as Christians believe.

Unless Christians wish to be reduced to sniping from the side-lines we must seriously embrace a holistic view of the task of the church and the Christian. This means focusing not only on worship or personal growth in discipleship, but on our outreach to the world and reclaiming our voice in society.

A New Situation

Spiritually and culturally, we are living in Babylon, where people believe nothing and anything. The problem we face is how do we present the gospel to unbelievers, people with no understanding of what Christianity is? This is unlike the past when Christians spoke out in the West, when people generally understood the terms; they may not have been Christians, but when we spoke of God and Jesus they knew to whom we were referring, they knew what sin and salvation were about.

We live in a day of astounding biblical ignorance in all sectors of society.

That background understanding has gone completely; we live in a day of astounding biblical ignorance in all sectors of society. There are decisions being made concerning Christians by functionaries with a ‘profound misunderstanding’ of the Bible. Even in the supposedly religious USA, fewer than half the adults can name all four gospels. A Barna poll revealed that around 12 percent of Americans believe that Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife!

Failed Responses

Principally, the Church has employed two responses to the advance of secular progressivism in society. There are the mainstream churches which, in an endeavour to make contact with the secular world, respond by adopting many of the aims and underlying principles of progressivism, such as progressive sexual mores and critical race theory. This attempt to appeal to woke secularists has failed miserably, alienating many of their members and failing to attract unbelievers. The membership of mainstream churches is disappearing like snow off a dyke – for what is the point of being a Christian if it is essentially little different from the way of the world?

Unless Christians wish to be reduced to sniping from the side-lines we must seriously embrace a holistic view of the task of the church and the Christian.

Then there are the broadly evangelical churches which have been strong on the authority of the Bible and individual doctrines such as the deity of Christ, salvation, and the return of Christ . Whilst holding their own, and in some cases advancing, it has to be admitted that evangelical churches on the whole have made little advance in society. There are individuals and Christian organisations such as Christian Institute and Care which are hard at work combating the excesses of a society which rejects God and exhibits evidences of a culture which is disintegrating. However, they are fighting a lonely battle against great odds. Nearly two centuries ago General William Booth of the Salvation Army described the church as the only army in the world where the generals fought and the privates pelted them with sixpences. Little has changed.

The Big Picture

Evangelicals must consciously recover the wholeness of the biblical picture. God is concerned with the entirety of His creation – there are no black holes in creation outside His concern. The same should hold to those He has left in charge.

The Creation Mandate, Genesis 1:28, 2:15, was given at the very beginning of our existence. Humanity was told to be fruitful, multiply, and to fill and gently subdue and cultivate the earth. Despite sin and our separation from God which followed closely on the heels of this original charge, the creation mandate is on-going and is not in competition with worshipping God; Christians are to care for this world, even as we hope in the second coming of Christ.

In the creation mandate, God not only gives us responsibility for His creation, He gives meaning and dignity to our lives.

As the high point of creation, made a little lower than the angels (Psalm 8:5), we can see beyond ourselves, have concepts of history, aesthetics, think, and can make decisions. Above all, we can relate to God, for we are made in His image. In the creation mandate, God not only gives us responsibility for His creation, He gives meaning and dignity to our lives.

Creation as we see it is abnormal, distorted – it is not the way it was intended to be. We should recognise the creation-wide impact of the Fall, that this isn’t how it should be, how it was meant to be. We all retain the marred and deformed image of God; we are not alienated from our created purpose. We have been given the task of turning the world right side up again. Milton described this as to, “Repair the ruins of our first parents”. The world which is to come is the renewal of the world which we have ruined.

As we are confronted by an intolerant worldview which would reshape society and drive the church to the outer limits, Christians have to get serious about our God given task. Part 3 of Christian Resistance will deal with our reaction as individuals.