In a recent short article, we suggested that in New Zealand, and probably much of the Western world, find ourselves on the ‘edge’ of something. And when I say “something”, I do not mean pink cupcakes with chocolate sprinkles. More the kind of something that Gandalf refers to when sitting with Pippin on the walls of Minas Tirith and says, “It’s the deep breath before the plunge.” The war is about to heat up. It’s been slowly simmering, but the rate of temperature increase is starting to look exponential, and war looks imminent. Let’s hope for better things, but prepare for this eventuality.
What ought we to do in these times? As I continued to consider the ten suggestions for the Christian Resistance which I proposed previously, I realized that many ideas intertwined and overlapped. As you will see, there will be some repetition in our series “The Resistance”, but that is good, because repetition brings ideas to the forefront of our minds, and there are some things that we Christians have allowed to drift to the back of our minds that ought to be front and centre.
So today and tomorrow we look at the first ‘ought’ for the Christian Resistance. We must acknowledge our individual and corporate sin as the reason we find ourselves in this current situation and repent by making changes where Christ in his Word calls for change.
The Sovereign God and Blessing and Cursing
The world that God has created is not random. There is cause and effect. The Scriptures tell us this. When we sow disobedience, we reap His curse. When we sow obedience we reap his blessing. God is not mocked. Sow to the flesh reap corruption, sow to the Spirit, reap eternal life (Galatians 6:7-8). Of course, sometimes that blessing may come wrapped in something looking rather like a curse, but the general truth holds.
This truth holds on the national level too. Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. (Proverbs 14:34). Israel understood that blessing in the land was contingent on obedience (Deuteronomy 28). Nor was this something that only applied to God’s people. God is sovereign over all the nations of the earth as Nebuchadnezzar admitted (Daniel 4:34-35), and God does as he pleases. What he pleases is what is just. He punishes nations for their sin. Sodom was wiped off the face of the earth for their sin. The Canaanites were exterminated for their sin. The rise and fall of nations is all in God’s sovereign purposes and according to his justice.
Currently, our nation is not exalted. We are bowed low under the tyranny of a government that assumes the status of Saviour. We are suffering under their kindness as we go further into debt and businesses close and people lose their livelihoods. Our churches have been prevented from meeting because Christ is deemed by our new gods as non-essential. Laws are being rammed through that overturn the laws of our past which were based on our Christian heritage. We are under the heavy yoke of high taxation and our lives are regulated by unelected bureaucrats. We even have to ask the state for permission to teach our own children and exempt them from the state controlled brainwashing institutions – the public schools. Our nation is under reproach and discipline.
Acknowledge Individual Sin
Now some may wonder why we start here with acknowledging individual sin. We might think to ourselves. I am not responsible for the chaos around me. I haven’t contributed to this state of affairs. I was born into it. No doubt this feels true for many of us. The result of “no fault divorce” was a spike in the divorce rate in the early 80s when I was not yet literate. I was a young chap when sodomy was legalised in New Zealand. Others of us will point to our voting records and say things like, “Well I didn’t vote for these clowns!” While this is partly true, I think we are quite possibly blinded to the extent that we as individual Christians have contributed to this current mess. A big emphasis of “The Resistance” series is to see this and rectify it.
So why ought we as individuals repent as the war looms? Four reasons.
Firstly, we ought to repent because this is what the saints of old modelled for us. Daniel, although a righteous man, included himself in his prayer of repentance asking for God’s forgiveness and the restoration of Israel to their land (Daniel 9).
Secondly we ought to repent, because we too are sinners. Sure, we might not be responsible for the raft of evil legislation that our rebellious and foolish leaders have introduced over the years. Yet before God, we too are sinners. Sin blinds, and there is so much that we don’t know we even need to repent of. We actually need to ask that our eyes would be open to the extent of our sin.
One of our big blind spots is that we have forgotten what God has done for our civilization and all his goodness to us just as the Psalmist confessed that his generation had forgotten what the Lord had done and turned like previous generations to idolatry (Psalm 106). We have assumed our material prosperity is the default of ‘the modern world’ rather than a blessing from God. Our wealth has led to a profound apathy about our faith. Many of us have settled into the comforts of the astounding abundance that God has blessed us within New Zealand, and forgotten God in all of this. Our zeal for Christ’s name and his glory is often missing. Many of us have become proud and think that our wealth is a result of the strength of our hands, our power and wisdom (Deuteronomy 8:17). We need to repent and remember that it all comes from our gracious God. It is the Lord our God who gives us the ability to produce wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18).
Thirdly, if war it is to be, then we must ensure that we do not become tools of the enemy through our own sin and rebellion. Douglas Wilson in a recent article wrote, “You cannot prepare to withstand the enemy when you have made your secret alliances with the enemy.” He went on to point out that a person with a secret porn stash might claim to be on Christ’s side but is essentially on the side of the sexual revolution.
I think Douglas Wilson is onto something here when he targets sexual sin. It should be obvious that this is the sin behind so many other issues in our world today. Sexual libertinism has led to countless divorces, abortions, out of wedlock births and the consequent tragedies related to mental health, gender confusion and crime. It has also led to a more powerful state which steps into the chaos caused by our inability to govern ourselves. Sexual temptation is powerful, and has destroyed the witness and work of countless Christians. We would be wise to repent of any even ‘little’ sins in this area. Compromise here will be used by the enemy.
Each one of us ought to ensure we are not an Aachan, causing death and mayhem to our own side because of secret compromise that allies us with the enemy. So let us look to our personal life; our interactions with family, our secret thought life and see if there ought to be repentance. No doubt there will. We know that if the Lord kept a record of sin, no one could stand (Psalm 130:3). And no one includes me. And you.
Finally, we ought to repent in this looming war, because the resistance requires corporate repentance, and corporate repentance begins with the individual. As individuals call upon God for forgiveness and repent by changing their thinking and behaviour, this turns into families which turns into churches, which turns into subcultures which turns into cultures and nations.
Continued here.