The United States
seems to be getting more and more angry. [Note: this was written within hours of the latest mass shooting--in Las Vegas.] I would assume that, if South Africans can pick this up by watching
world news on their TV sets, so can much of the rest of the world. But South Africa constantly plays its own,
tiring records of wrong to feed its own narrative of injustice, hate, and
violence. We are fed narratives of
violence, no matter where we live, on a daily basis.
In America, this
cultural anger is undoubtedly nursed and nurtured for quite a number of
reasons, not just one. The polarization of
the country itself has to do with an aggressive ‘change’ agenda throughout the
Obama presidency, followed up now with an ‘America Great Again’ change policy
of the Trump presidency. Both options
for change—radically different—fed the culture with fears, anger, and hatred. Anger
is surely also due to the financial crisis in 2008 that was met with socialist
policies that did not restore the economy (when has socialism ever fixed
economic crises instead of create them?).
The economic and educational challenges in American cities only get
worse and are regularly misinterpreted as racial issues—so they become racial
issues. America has a race problem
because it chose to see its social problems as racial, rather than the more
serious, underlying problems that bring social divisions. One recent expression
of anger, illustrating how inane this has all become, is the absurd display of
rage at American football games when the national anthem is played.[1]
The daily news
feeds anger in the populace. News,
whether the 90% of coverage from a hyper-liberal angle, or the 10% from a
hyper-conservative angle, is primarily served as entertainment. And what could be more entertaining than people cutting each other off, making outlandish statements, and offering ‘facts
on the ground’ for the most outrageous challenges to human decency?
The international
news is also a source of collective anger.
We watch the rapid Islamization of Europe and the United Kingdom, this
religion of political dominance (‘Islam’ means ‘submission’—you can call that ‘peace’
if you wish!) finally getting its prize after its defeats by Charles Martel or twice
at the gates of Vienna centuries ago, or in Spain, where it did establish a
foothold for centuries before being defeated five hundred or so years ago.
Europe, frankly, no
longer has an answer to Islam or its uncontrolled immigration.[2] Having opposed the Church for a century,
Europeans now only believe one thing: that nothing is believable. Having lost any sense of innocence in the
first half of the 20th century, they have now lost not only their
identity but also the wherewithal to form an identity (ask Tony Blair about
his ‘multiculturalism’ agenda that has left British society reeling). Europeans have also lost their sense of
purpose, illustrated, no less, in their unwillingness to have children. This is ripe soil for an invasion of people
with a purpose and with an identity who believe in themselves sufficiently to
out-breed native Europeans within two generations (native Europeans are not
having enough children to replenish their numbers). Yet the Islamic take-over of financial
sectors (call them ‘investments’!), neighbourhoods, schools, the building of
mosques with foreign money, the murders, and the raping of Europeans are all
factors contributing to an ever increasing sense of social anger. Of course, Europeans who do not believe in
belief struggle to understand a religion with strong beliefs, especially of
this sort, and their anemic, impotent version of Christianity (choose any state
Church you like as an example) offers them no counter-paradigm. Frankly, there is no longer a solution to
this challenge, and the ‘What if’ that Charles Martel might have asked himself
about the possible invasion of Islam into Europe in the 8th century had
he not stopped it can finally be answered this century. Wait a bit and you will see.
Anger. It is seething in Europe and America, boiling
over. Anger about immigration, anger
about a madman in North Korea, anger about American foreign policies that never
seem to get anything right for three generations, anger about the killings in
the Middle East, anger about the quiet take-over by China and the
ever-advancing face of Islam in Africa.
Half the United States is frothing at the mouth in anger at the president,
and the president appears to be a man who has vowed to get into a bar brawl on
a daily basis. Even our entertainment
and entertainers are serving up anger during any hours of rest we might find.
Christians, too,
are angry—or are struggling with anger.
More Christians in our day are being martyred for their faith than ever
in the history of Christianity.[3] They are being persecuted in the West,
whether in the United States,[4] the United Kingdom,[5] or Australia.[6] Of course, Christians have known since Jesus’
last days in Jerusalem before he himself was put to death by both the Jewish
and Roman authorities that they would face persecution. Jesus warned his disciples of this—their entry
into the time of tribulation in the last days that began with his own
crucifixion (Matthew 24). And Paul
stated flatly that ‘all who desire to
live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and
impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived’ (2
Timothy 3.12-13).
Christians are also angry at the take-over of once strong, soundly
orthodox, missionally engaged denominations in the West. Every mainline, Protestant denomination in
first-world nations has capitulated or is in the process of capitulating to the
post-Christian, even anti-Christian, culture of the West. Every one of them is declining and has been
since, typically, the 1960s. The ongoing
ruination of the Church by its ‘leaders’ is only stemmed by the new, orthodox
Christian denominations that are picking up the pieces of orthodoxy and soldiering
on in the fight of faith.
So, what are we to
do with this anger? In his letter to his
co-worker, Titus, Paul contrasts a life before and a life after coming to
Christ:
Titus 3:1-11 Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities,
to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, 2 to speak evil of no one, to
avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all
people. 3 For we ourselves
were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and
pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one
another. 4 But when the
goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of
works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the
washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly
through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7
so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the
hope of eternal life. 8 The
saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those
who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.
These things are excellent and profitable for people. 9 But avoid foolish controversies,
genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable
and worthless. 10 As for a
person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have
nothing more to do with him, 11
knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.
In this treasure of a text, we see Paul’s
pastoral advice on the somewhat similar issues of his day. He addresses a Church under variable levels
of persecution; he himself would soon be put to death in Rome. He also addresses living in a culture of
hate: ‘hated by others and hating one another’ (v. 3). He addresses irrelevant divisions in the
Church: ‘foolish controversies’ (v. 9).
He addresses more serious divisions in the Church: ‘have nothing more to
do with’ the person who ‘stirs up division, knowing that such a person is
warped and sinful; he is self-condemned’ (vv. 10-11).
Note that Paul does not call for dialogue and
unity over heretical teaching, as, e.g., the Archbishop of Canterbury regularly
does these days as he undermines both Scripture and the historic Church on
issues of homosexuality and transgenderism.
Paul’s solution to false teaching, to the contrary, is not to baptize it
into the Christian Church; quite the opposite.
While imagining himself to be the architect of unity for the Church, the
Archbishop is actually, in Paul’s words, the one who ‘stirs up division’ by
entertaining false teaching in the Church.[7] Paul, in saying these things, is laying out a
pathway to peace for a persecuted Church in an angry world and in the face of
false teaching and division. He is
giving practical advice: warn such a person twice, then have nothing to do with
him. This advice is not feeding anger in
the Church; it is avoiding an ongoing, festering, gangrene of false teaching that
will only spread throughout the rest of the body if not amputated.
Paul also speaks to the deeper issues in a
culture of anger and hate: ‘we ourselves
were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and
pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one
another’ (v. 3). How does he envision
moving beyond this situation? First, he
reminds this Church on Crete that they have experienced an immersion in the
goodness and loving kindness of God our Saviour (v. 4). The culture of anger has been penetrated with
God’s love, and we are the beachhead for God’s loving kindness and goodness in
the world.
Second, Paul reminds the Church that they have experienced God’s grace not
because they were better than others or achieved God’s blessings through their
works. Rather, they are the recipients
of God’s grace. Thus, we have no claim
of superiority over the culture except in what God has accomplished among
us. The culture of anger and hate that
met one of the first missionaries to Fiji was appalling: he began ‘his
missionary career by gathering the heads, hands, and feet of eighty victims who
had been cooked and eaten.’[8] The offer of peace to an angry world comes
with a confession that we ourselves were once ‘children of wrath’ (cf.
Ephesians 2.3)[9]
and proceeds with the restoration of compassion and kindness in the face of
injustices. Paul says, ‘Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse
them’ (Romans 12.14).
Third, Paul reminds the Church of the inward working of God, that
heart-transforming work of the Holy Spirit which prophets from centuries
earlier promised and that was now fulfilled through the outpouring of the
Spirit in the days of the Church. If the
prophets (Isaiah 59.20-21; Jeremiah 31.31-34; Ezekiel 36.24-27) had in mind a
transformation of the heart that would remove sin and restore righteousness,
Paul extends this to a transformation of the heart that removes the poison of hate
in society.
Fourth, Paul reminds this Church of the work of Jesus Christ, the central
teaching of our faith. God poured out
the Spirit on us richly through Jesus
Christ (note the work of the three Persons of the Trinity) (v. 6). Through Jesus we received divine grace,
whereby we were made righteous and were made heirs of eternal life.[10] We do not offer the world an example of peace
without offering them the Gospel: such peace comes only through Jesus Christ
our Saviour. As Paul says in Ephesians, Christ is our peace (Eph. 2.14). As Peter said, ‘… there is salvation in no
one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we
must be saved’ (Acts 4.12). As John reports
Jesus saying, ‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world
gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be
afraid’ (John 14.27).
Fifth, Paul gives us the very decent word of advice that we need to replace
our ‘passing our days in malice and envy’ (v. 3) with devoting ourselves to
good works (v. 8). We have already noted
his sixth and seventh pieces of advice: avoid foolish controversies and have
nothing to do with a divisive person after warning him twice.
We might add, from Ephesians 2, an eighth point: behind the disobedience, sinful
passions of the flesh, and the culture of wrath, stands a spiritual battle for
the hearts of humankind (vv. 1-2). The ‘prince
of the power of the air’ is at work in the children of disobedience. As Christians, we recognise that ‘we do not
wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the
authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the
spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places’ (Ephesians 6.12). Yet, thanks be to God, Jesus Christ has been
raised from the dead and seated at God the Father’s right hand in the heavenly
places, ‘far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above
every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come’
(Ephesians 1.20-21). It is, indeed,
because Christ reigns now that we can say, ‘He is our peace’ (Ephesians 2.14).
We live in an angry world. Some—much—of
it is justifiable, for the world is full of disobedience, persecution, war, and
every variety of sin. Yet, as believers,
we are the bearers of peace—not simply ‘peace’ but God’s peace in Jesus Christ,
a peace poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. An empty West that has lost its desire to
believe anything and its own identity and purpose is faced with two options: a
peace of Islam through its totalizing politics and enforced submission to its
laws and way of life, or a peace through Jesus Christ as God’s outpouring on a
hateful world of His own goodness, loving kindness, grace, mercy, and love.
Apart from divine intervention, we know where things are headed. Yet we also know our, the Church’s, role in
the face of the impending doom: to pick up our crosses daily and follow Jesus,
being his people in a hateful world. We
should not expect justice, but we can still be the physical representation of
divine grace in our day. Not the kumbaya
unity and peace of the Church of England that no longer knows God’s standards,
but the kind that witnesses to God’s peace in Jesus. Jesus was not a divine hippie with flowers on
his blue jeans and singing peace songs with his guitar; he went to the cross to
suffer and die for the sins of the world and so bring God’s reconciliation and
redemption to a hateful world.
[1] Sadly, the reaction to kneeling
during football matches only galvinises patriotic groups, thus dividing the
country even more and, more ominously, developing a nationalism in the country
on the brink of another, possibly horrific war.
None of this is good.
[2] On this, I would say that Douglas
Murray nails the problem but also leaves us without hope of a solution in his The Strange Death of Europe—Immigration,
Identity, and Islam.
[3] See the reports on www.globalchristiannews.org.
[4] See Undeniable: The Survey of Hostility to Religion in America; online at
https://firstliberty.org/undeniable/.
[5] See the ongoing cases in the
United Kingdom addressed by Christian Concern at http://www.christianconcern.com/.
[6] See the catalogue of challenges
Christians face in Australia: Margaret Colwell, ‘Documenting the tide of
bigotry and hatred,’ Mercatornet (22
Sept., 2017); online: https://www.mercatornet.com/conjugality/view/documenting-the-tide-of-bigotry-and-hatred/20446?utm_source=MercatorNet&utm_campaign=0b7cb18fc9-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_09_22&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e581d204e2-0b7cb18fc9-124674403
(accessed 23 Sept. 2017).
[7] In another of the Pastoral
Epistles, Paul says that overseers in the Church ‘must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that
he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those
who contradict it. For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and
deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced,
since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they
ought not to teach (Titlus 1.9-11).
[8] Stephen Neill, A History of Christian Missions, 2nd
ed. (New York: Penguin Books, 1990), p. 251.
[9] While most commentators and some
translations (e.g., the NIV), take this phrase to mean that we were objects of
wrath before a righteous God because of our sins, I think that Paul might well
have had his theology of Titus 3.3 in mind here as well. Certainly, both doctrines are true—and taught
even in Ephesians 2 itself!
[10] While translations regularly
translate dikaien juridically, I
think the moral focus of this passage requires a greater emphasis on the moral
sense of this word: not ‘to justify’ but ‘to make righteous.’
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