Life & Death

Culture is imploding, collapsing in upon itself. Denying absolutes and objective truth, culture is now without safeguards, consuming itself in a death spiral of spiritual and moral chaos.

In his outstanding essay, “The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World,” David Wells writes:

“The evangelical church has a sense that moral absolutes are evaporating like the morning mist, knows that truth of an ultimate kind has been dislodged from life, (but) apparently does not perceive that in these and many other ways a new worldview is becoming ensconced in the culture.”

He further writes:  “The evangelical church . . . apparently does not perceive that in these and many other ways a new worldview is becoming ensconced in the culture.”

Wells writes, however, that even in a chaotic world, the church of Jesus Christ must remain strong and vibrant. It will do so, he says, not by imitating temporal culture and mitigating eternal truth, but by remaining true to its creation and call – by remaining true to its Creator and Lord.

Rock Solid Whatever

Historically, the church has safely weathered major cultural changes by keeping . . .

 . . . its feet  balanced on the wings of the Spirit,

. . . its hand  firmly fixed to the helm of the Word of God,

. . . its heart  steadfastly set upon the Master, and

. . . its eyes  locked on Eternity.

Whatever the cultural upheavals, the church in history has been a heavenly lamp, shining the brilliance of God’s truth in the world.

It has survived and thrived as it has been a people of the Spirit, its grip resolutely fixed on the inspired Word of God.

Whatever happened on earth, the church in history has been a window of heaven to the earthbound, and so, brought life and hope to people.

It has survived and thrived as it has steadfastly kept its heart fixed not on self, but on Jesus Christ – its eyes focused not on the temporal and cultural, but on the eternal and transcendent.

In Acts 17.6, the church demonstrated just this as it arrived in the European city of Thessalonica, only its second footprint on the Continent, and those who had never seen them – but had certainly heard of them – said of them, “These are those who have turned the world upside down.”

World Upside Down.

That this world needs to be turned upside down again is obvious. Obvious as in “self-evident.”

This is true not so much because of the present crisis in which the world finds itself, but because of the world’s impending eternal separation from God. Jesus Christ is coming again, and yes, He is bringing eternal salvation to those who have believed on Him, but just as surely He is bringing eternal judgment to those who have refused Him.

Judgment. Eternal. Separation. Forever.

Not very PC, I know, but BC nonetheless (Biblically Correct): on this, the biblical prophets are adamant; they do not equivocate.

This present civilizational calamity and its causes are but symptoms of our disease: this world does not know God and it does not want to know God.

The collapse of culture is but the symptom of man’s age-old rejection of his Creator. The internal working of this sin-sickness in the world is now apparent in the death that defines its cultures. Like a hidden terminal cancer now revealed, the world’s impending demise has become evident.

Again, not very PC, but BC nonetheless: on this, the biblical prophets are adamant; they do not equivocate.

Full transformation of culture will not take place until the Creator-Redeemer personally returns to right the world with the establishing of His Kingdom on earth. On this, Scripture is clear:  Jesus Christ will return to the earth and establish true righteousness and justice under His rule. He will turn this world upside down in righteousness and justice when He comes to reign.

Future Reign . . . Present Call

Scripture is also equally clear in recording the Creator-Redeemer’s call to His followers to go into all the world to turn it upside down one life at a time today  with the announcement of His Gospel and the demonstration of His Kingdom.

As we go, give, and live  the Gospel in the world, we demonstrate the reality that in all times and places, the Kingdom of God is unabated and unassailable, undeterred and undiminished, unshakeable and unstoppable: the eternal King and His transcendent Kingdom are among us, even in this culture of death.

Yes, there is a Kingdom to eternally come and a Will to be definitively done, but even now, we can experience that Kingdom and enter into that Will. We can do so by bowing our hearts and lives before its King, Jesus Christ, and the finished work He carried out on the Cross.

The Proviso

However, if the church is to have any effect in turning the world upside down one life at a time, the church itself must first be turned upside down – it must have a new Reformation. The church must return to its creation and its call . . .

. . . a people who once again live, move and have their being in the Holy Spirit,

. . . a people who hold resolutely and absolutely to the inspired Word of God,

. . . a people whose attention is fixed not on self, but on the Savior,

. . . a people whose focus is not on culture, but on the Cross.

The church must return to its biblical creation and call, its biblical mission and message.

In these things, like the 21^st century biblical prophets that we are, we must be adamant and never equivocate.

It’s time for a new Reformation of the church of Jesus Christ.

The (early) church movement would have remained tiny but for one fact: the

            first Christians knew that their faith was absolutely true, that it could brook no

            rivals, and so they sought no compromises. David Wells, No Place For Truth