The Power of the Sword

 In his recent work, 'Letter to the American Church", Eric Metaxas points out that the Christian community in Germany almost entirely missed out the warning signs in the 1930's regarding how National Socialism would take and abuse the levels of power to bring a process of control to completion. Abusing these means to bring every aspect of the national order, including the spiritual dimensions of life, into the sphere of direct control beneath an ideology currouption, sealing the culture in a cult of death, thus nothing was outside the sphere of their influence.

Metaxas notes that this was achievable due to 1: The social fracturing of the county caused by the war, 2: The Fusion that existed in the country between the secular powers and the influence these brought upon the structure of the church and 3:  The impoverished spiritual state of the German church itself, which had given so much away to secular approaches to the message and place of the message of Christianity. It is no wonder then that the church generally proved to be a bent force when facing the far more strident and advancing creed of the new social strident messages of the day.

This work, however, makes an even more vital observation in respect to the sorrowful state of the church in our times.

In an earlier section, Metaxas also touches upon the radical changes that commenced in the American church in the 1950's, when the state, which according to the American constitution, is supposed to be something entire separate to the church in the nation, begun to introduce policy which impacted directly upon what a minister was allowed to say and teach from his pulpit on Sunday's if he wished to remain in post. Here we see how the supposedly 'healthy' nature of 'democratic' sate influence has continue to grow and control the role of Christianity in a fashion that is tightly controlled and restricted for the last 60 years amidst Western society.

The depths and spans of such control became fully evident in 2020, when these states closed the churches entirely in respect to there normal functions, and since that period, the direct influence of what is deemed state dogma continues to feed directly into the regular nature of church life, meaning that further restrictions can be introduced when deemed necessary by the state.

This process of the use of the sword of state to curtail and steer church authority is of course not new. In his excellent study of the nature of the church in relation to this issue, The Subversion of Christianity, Jucques Ellul shows how such processes have been at work amidst the Christian community in an obvious and corruptive manner since the 4th century onwards, meaning that the Spiritual nature of the message and significance of the faith has so often become subverted to other political and economic ends, where the power of the sword of the state has become the primary focus and the crucial truth of the Gospel has become buried in the process of placing secular power and position first.

The same is so often the case today, especially in respect to the war Christian belief systems so often interpret present concerns or events through the lens of a secular requirement to see that certain 'powers' are defined as 'good' (godly) in what they say or do,  even what this means ignoring the actual need and suffering of other Christians who are effectively ignored in the manner that certain events are defined and understood through such partial analysis.

Perhaps the greatest tragedy in all of this, as Ellul and Metaxas both state, is the manner in which the church continually looses sight of its true message and role as a result of effectively siding with powers and ideas that leave the culture bereft of a vital spirituality which Christ brings to save a truly change this fallen world.

It has, no doubt, always been the case, and the kingdom comes in spite of such troubles, but it would be something if Christians at least woke up to the realty of this estate.

Excellence or Folly.

 "But in a great household, there are not only vessels of Gold and Silver, but of wood and clay - vessels for honour and dishonour". 2 Timothy 2:20.

Back in the heady days of my youth in the mid 1970's, whilst being at a boarding school in West Sussex, I had the opportunity to attend for a couple of summers the developing "canvas" of 'new' notions expressed at the Caple Bible weeks held in the grounds of what was then Elim Bible College. There, I  witness first hand the sprouting of the "renewal" movement which would become identified with the Restoration teachings of the likes of Ern Baxter,  Derick Prince (of the Fort Lauderdale Five) from America, and the likes of Bryn Jones, Arthur Wallis and Terry  Vergo from the UK as they brought "Restorationism" to the Charismatic Movement with a fresh wave of enthusiasm. 

Whilst I swam amongst these waters for a few years, I was never comfortable with the various spiritual emphases of the movement as a whole, especially as certain spiritual requirements came to the fore and the teaching took a far more dispensational and zionist stance, leaving those of us who asked why such things were right when they argued with scripture looking for another home. That lead me to seek a home for a time in the reformed wing of Christianity, but I soon discovered this to be just as moribund by extreme Calvinism and legalism as its Charismatic relation. This lead to my digging deep into church history to find those believers who were truly worth listening to both in the past (The Apostles, Irenaeus) in the Reformation (Martin Luther) and in our own age (C S Lewis) who sought to point correctly to Christ and the exclusiveness of His unique and entirely saving work.

Whilst my particular experiences may have been particular in some respects to myself, the general tenor of the last four decades of what has occurred amongst many church groups will be familiar to many. As the general "direction of travel" of all of this is known,  where it has lead - the "downgrade" as Spurgeon referred to it in the 19th century, has most certainly lead to a large 'going to seed' of the spiritual crop of our times. Many have become bewildered with the political nature of the direction of what was deemed 'godly' became squared to a very particular interpretation of the nature of Spiritual anointing amongst the social well being of the national population of a region of the Middle East, often to the entire expense of the rest of the global church and other considerations.

What this, in effect means, is the Gospel itself and the very work of God as Saviour becomes subservient to other, more supposedly immediate concerns and needs (in the news and in the 'presenting' nature of what is currently defined as 'spiritual'), leaving the church without its true voice and the world bereft of the vital call of the good news as a consequence. The violence of this estate, which has grown like a cancer over the last century, leaves Christianity buried at the very hour that the world so deeply needs the vital light it is meant to bring.

Service in this hour means raising a voice that will never prove popular as it calls us to refuse the easy road of perceived 'anointing' that others loudly proclaim, and walk the far harder pathway 'less travelled'  if we really want to bring actual worth and value to this generation. May Christ enable us to do so!

The Darkness of an eternal winter.

 Scripture speaks profoundly of the emptiness of the soul and the world without God, and we are about to experience that realm in a deluge of blackness spreading for our called 'leaders', as experienced this week in England -

So as we reach the end of some very candid exchanges in the Covid enquiry this week, what conclusions can we reach about where we are and where the new incoming bolicvies of the World Health Organisation and the UN are taking us next…

1. There is no recognition that the policies employed (especially the use of lockdowns and an experimental vaccine) were in any way incorrect, so they will be we employed again continually in the years ahead, and will be even more draconian than last time.

2. Those independent minded media groups and individual experts that sought to question these approaches - and were proved RIGHT by the findings to do so! - have been thoroughly criticised and marked as a trouble to be corrected/surpassed this week, so will clearly be even more 

3. The New On Line Safety Act is already being employed to curtail any opinions which are not mainstream. There is clearly going to be far more censorship on mainstream platforms in the months ahead, and with the WHO being given the authority to call for lockdowns anywhere they determine there to be a threat, never mind an actual problem, bringing with that severe restrictive methods upon anyone, the world is about to enter a new phase of authorities unseen in many places before.

2020 was the moment that the genuine freedoms of our country died, along with the established church giving way to total authorising, and we are about to begin to experience the full consequences of this on a massive level.

This is just the first real implementation, however - what is coming in the next 12-14 months as the full ramifications of A I implementation begin to bite into our society is going to be fare more horrendous as humanity becomes incarcerated by a new and far despotic manner of total submission to something without any sense of basic goodness than has been experienced in the moral social restraints of everyday life.

The days coming are going to be black.

In parts of the country already, growing numbers of people are already without the basic necessities of everyday life, and this is increasing each day.

Those who role us are involved in the most malevolent forms of evil when it comes to the genuine needs of the neighbours.

The Official cover reposonse has spread a blight of wickedness and evil amongst us, and that savage pall of savage darkness is about to become much, much thicker in all of our lives.

When these things unfold, dear Christian, look up, for your redemption is drawing near, not in the false hope of dispensationalism, but in His glorious coming to establish a new eternal creation as the Kingdom of Heaven renews creation into it's eternal state as the Home of Christ's reign forever.