The question facing Christians today is ‘How can we live in an increasingly anti-Christian world in such a way that, when put to the test, we choose the Lord despite the cost we might encounter?’ This is no idle question. The great business Christians should be about today is preparing ourselves and our families for an uncertain future.
The long-term future is certain. We have read the book and know how this story ends: in the triumph of God. But in the short and intermediate terms, if we read the signs of the times correctly, here in the West we face an increasing retreat from Christian standards and rejection of God and those who acknowledge Him.
What should we do?
The most dangerous path to take is that of accommodation. Experience shows that the compromises necessary to appear safely and comfortably different from the world, as one who is a Christian but not outstandingly so, very quickly become baked into the soul and become part of our real character. The assumed outward appearance becomes the reality, and we lose our faith. We end up no different from the world around us.
Wherever we encounter the harms of this post-Christian society we have firstly to refuse to participate and then to do what we can to resist.
We cannot retreat from the world into a self-imposed Christian ghetto, where we abandon the world to its degradation and maintain our purity. We have been called out of the world but remain in the world; we have been given a new direction in life but have to live that life and bear witness in the same old fallen world.
As our world grows more chaotic to live in we have to be willing to rearrange our priorities. We cannot stop trying to stem the tide of unbelief and the harms that it brings socially as well as spiritually. Wherever we encounter the harms of this post-Christian society we have firstly to refuse to participate and then to do what we can to resist. To ignore wrong is to do wrong.
However, our priority should become the strengthening of our own spiritual life and creating clusters of believers who share the commitment to following Christ in our families, congregations and localities. The disciplines of discipleship enabling us to live out our faith in a real way have to become our guidelines. Building each other up in faith and passing that faith on to our children and those around us must become our prime concern. As Paul reminds us in Galatians 6:10, we are to ‘do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith’.
We cannot do as we have done in the past and leave such important work to denominational structures and congregational leaders. Accepting personal responsibility for ourselves and those around us is vital for our own development. By doing this we cultivate the spiritual strength to resist the pressures to conform to a world increasingly at odds with Christianity. Being in the world but not of the world is never easy, and in the future it is going to be even more difficult.
Continuing decline
Please God we will never have to face the martyrdom that many of our brothers and sisters in Christ face today. But here in the West we are already seeing people losing their jobs, having their businesses attacked, and being ostracised because they uphold Christian principles. Seeing the direction of travel in the West, it is only realistic to use the time we have to prepare ourselves, our families and our congregations for eventual persecution.
Seeing the direction of travel in the West, it is only realistic to use the time we have to prepare ourselves, our families and our congregations for eventual persecution.
Please don’t accuse me of being alarmist and say, ‘That can never happen here.’ History proves you wrong. Today we have already been living with the impact of de-Christianisation for two or three generations. Not only has society moved further from its Christian roots but our mainline churches have increasingly rejected traditional orthodox Christianity. Hiding your head in the sand is rarely an advisable tactic.
Unless the Lord intervenes in reformation and revival, matters are only going to get worse. As a Scot I live in a country which was once known as ‘The land of the Book’ due to our public fidelity to Scripture. Today Scotland is proudly at the fore of destructive progressivism, and to uphold biblical standards in public is to invite ridicule.
Walk together
Although our primary responsibility is personal, it is imperative that we find each other. When struggling through opposition we can feel very alone. Just think of Elijah, under pressure and utterly certain that he alone was left (I Kings 18:22), whilst all the time the Lord had 7,000 ‘that have never bent the knee to nor bowed to Baal’ (I Kings 19:18).
Father Richard John Neuhaus, a Lutheran who became a Catholic priest, and Chuck Colson, a criminal who became an Evangelical leader, spoke together of the ‘ecumenism of the trenches’. Not the big business managerial ecumenism of denominational mergers, but the real ecumenism of Christians from different traditions holding on to their own tradition while supporting, encouraging and praying for fellow Christians in their own locality who are facing the same struggles.
I found that I had more in common theologically and culturally with the traditionalist Catholic priest than I had with the modernist Episcopalian Protestant.
On the ground, in the front-line trenches, we have more in common with other orthodox Christians of differing traditions who are serious about their discipleship than we do with many in our own traditions. In one parish where I ministered there was a small ministerial fraternal, the local Roman Catholic priest, the neighbouring Episcopal priest and myself. I found that I had more in common theologically and culturally with the traditionalist Catholic priest than I had with the modernist Episcopalian Protestant.
To help prepare us for the future, our greatest need is finding a way to connect with each other and build on those personal relationships so that we can walk together in unity Ephesians 4:1-6. This we can do within our own circle: even if there is only one other, we can lean together.
It is my prayer that the Lord will raise up someone with the skills necessary to enable those living in lonely situations to connect with other disciples.
The Rev. Dr Campbell Campbell-Jack is a retired Church of Scotland minister; now a member of the Free Church of Scotland. Check out his many incisive articles on his blog, A Grain of Sand.
