Looking Further

"Don't fear, little flock. It is the Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom". Matthew 12:32.

The days are changing fast. With Christians in the West now facing prison and being imprisoned for their faith for the first time in centuries, it's time for us to us to begin to reckon with the realisation that our way of practicing the faith is clearly in a state of closure, and that we need to begin to consider how we face that personally and together as the church.

In respect to this, we would do well to remind ourselves of several key insights. The general issue (our subjective manner of seeking to avoid the problem) is addressed well in Lewis' work, The Abolition of Man (as well as his essay, Subjectivism), which encourages us to make a deep and vital diagnosis of our present malady ('the old  approach initiated the likes of proper manhood, the new merely conditions') and requires us to see the true reason and nature for convictions of responsibility and duty  towards God and each other. Lewis reminds us that we simply cannot afford to be superficial in our analysis of the present changes, or in our response to these - genuine spirituality will be clinical and cutting in its charitable negation of our present follies.

The essential nature of such crucial understanding can be evidenced in the way that Christians are currently looking at various current events (if they are looking at all - subjectivism, as The White Horse Inn noted this week, is now so prevalent in evangelicalism in general, that many church goers are without any discernment whatsoever). This verifies that trouble that Lewis and others have been seeking to address for a very long time.

A very helpful piece recently made available on the reality of persecution helps us to look at what may well be about to unfold generally amongst us biblically.

As we face the shifting sands of the world, it's imperative we find ourselves anchored to the unchanging, objective nature of God's actual work to us in His beloved Son.