“For God has not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
2 Timothy 1:7
HOW DO YOU GET TO YOUR DESTINATION WHEN YOU DON’T KNOW: “WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON?“
It’s hard to deny that a vast majority of people are feeling apprehensive and insecure about the social, economical, and political landscape of the world in which we live today. I believe one young woman summarized the general spirit of our times when she said, “I don’t know a single person my age that isn’t full of anxiety and stress.” Although we can’t make blanket statements that apply to everyone of all ages and circumstances, I certainly don’t believe her impressions are far from the general mood of society. I too sense an undercurrent of cultural jitteriness when I speak with friends and acquaintances. Most, but not all, seem to be trying to force an external look of self-confidence that is somewhat contradicted by their intermittent confessions of the doubts and fears they hold.
Even though I know many Christians that have a complete faith in Jesus Christ, believe strongly in the Word of God (the Bible), and are confident about their eternal destiny, there still remains a sense that certain questions aren’t being answered that need to be. Ironically enough, if we go by the last three decades I don’t think most are confident to be certain what the right questions are to ask. This is not something that has just come about recently through our current pandemic or economic hardships, although these things certainly magnify our difficulties and perplexities. Personally, if I had to condense all these doubts and fears down to one question in the hearts of most people, I’d say it is: “What in the world is going on? Really!” That question may come across as too broad, vague, or even unoriginal to you; but I’m going to suggest that its lack of interest is probably because of an inward skepticism and disbelief from past disappointments from those who have promised a lot and offered little. Yet, I’m going to begin to counter that disbelief and skepticism by making the point that there can literally only be so many reasons for our present condition.
The Bible was not written last summer while some people were on vacation in the Mediterranean. Compiled within a few centuries after Jesus death and resurrection we’ve had 6000 years of Judeo-Christian history available to us. Horses, chariots and cooking with wood are quite distinct from cars, tanks and gas stoves, but their moral and ethical implications amount to zero. Some things change over time; other things never change. The kind of moral and ethical breakdown we’re seeing today isn’t new and therefore its root causes are well known and documented more than any other time in history. Take for example a study done by the Fuller California police department and California department of education. they documented the changes of school disciplinary problems between 1940’s and 1980’s. They went from talking, chewing gum, making noise, running in the hallways, getting out of place in line, wearing improper clothing, and not putting paper in wastebaskets, to drug abuse, alcohol abuse, pregnancy, suicide, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, arson, and bombings. There was no pixie dust that descended from the sky on Fuller; nor did these changes take place because of our modes of transportation, what we were eating, urban development, or the popularity of new electric appliances. It was a moral issue with spiritual problems; the Bible does not waver on that point. Decadence comes from sin, and sin comes from rejecting God’s Word — plain and simple.
Time after time I’ve seen people with the greatest ability to answer complex questions resort to indifference, evasion, or appear confused over simpler matters when it involved personal discomfort or possible social discord. That’s why I think it’s so important to reword the question; not so much because it doesn’t express our current atmosphere of doubts and fears, but because it reinforces a certain level of dishonesty that has placed us in our present circumstances. Rather than asking “What in the world is going on?”; we’d be far closer to heading in the right direction if we were to ask, “Why are we so unyielding and determined not to want to know ‘What in the world is going on’?” My experience over the last forty years has been to witness the way in which most are intentional to evade, deny and excuse the obvious issues that confront us today – idolatry.
By simply eliminating the possibilities of what we’ve already tried and tested over the last 50 years it should become obvious that the only plausible explanation for our current condition of such outrageous social decadence is undetected spiritual idolatry of gargantuan proportions. Futhermore, these idols can only be alluding us because of a determination (albeit unconscious for the most part) not to confront them head on because of personal loss of a “style of life” we have so muchcome to cherish and justify. Now we might be getting somewhere closer to the real answers these young people and serious Christians are looking for!
It must be obvious to you by now that I don’t believe our present confusion is necessary, and that young Christians, and older ones too, certainly don’t need to be as much in the dark as they are when it comes to understanding, “What in the world is going on in 2020?” To me, our situation today is the clearest example of the “Gideon Syndrome” we could possibly have any where in history. Taken from the life-lessons of Gideon, in Judges, chapter 6, this spiritual breakdown manifests itself in three ways, and all three bounce off of each other to form a ricochet effect: (1) Biblical illiteracy (poor personal devotions and knowledge of truth), which leads to; (2) an insufficient grasp of “the mystery of creation” (the BIG picture), which in turn leads to; (3) an inability to identify and articulate the gods or idols that our present age worships and the devil exploits through “the spirit of our age.”
Jesus said: “And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because there deeds were evil. For everyone practising evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God. (John 3:19-21)
Now, let me quickly say I’m neither inferior or superior to you as a fellow Christian. If I was reading this for the first time I wouldn’t be very impressed or want to hear most of the things that have been said so far; even likely to be highly skeptical or opposed to it. In the first case, who wouldn’t be put out by someone saying that their generation is full of undetected idolatry; let alone have missed diagnosed, participated in, and want to evade. Furthermore, I would believe that the preaching and teaching I’ve heard from well known Christian leaders is accurate and that we’d all know if something this spiritually colossal and devastating was taking place. Consequently, I too would probably default to “been there, done that, didn’t find anything” sentiment and want to move on. After all, we haven’t been exposed to anything new under the sun for decades when it comes to explanations of our wayward culture – “Yep, heard it all before!” There are quickly three things I want to say in response to that before we move directly into our discussion.
First, I am convinced that the desire for many to want to finally know “what’s wrong and how to fix it” is extremely high and Christians are willing to listen for at least a bit. We’ve reached a critical mass of confusion and decadence in the West and many Christians are fed up with being culturally in the dark; realizing that if something radical doesn’t take place we’re headed for disaster on every level — and they’re right. So to that end, I believe the Holy Spirit has been preparing hearts for an explanation and revival for some time – creating a longing for a withdraw from cultural bondage and greater presence of the Spirit’s power.
Secondly, this is exactly the problem all the great men and women of faith have consistently had; Gideon is a prime example we’ll look at next. It wasn’t his fault for being born into an idolatrous generation and social setting. However, until the angel showed up Gideon chose, subtly and subconsciously, to blame God for all the problems they were having with their “enemies” (the Midianites), rather than the idolatry that had saturated his community. Gideon had grown up indoctrinated with a religious syncretism (superstitious); one that blended a staunch belief in God along side the windfall of being able to indulge in all the corrupt practices that secular idols provided. The two not only became one, but a perfectly “reasonable” way to live — Yahweh (the Lord) and the Canaanite gods of Baal/Ashtoreth, “What’s not to love!” In this sense, and I say this carefully and in context, God is not concerned about “where we are” and “what we’re doing” right now; rather, “what we plan to do about what’s going on,” when we genuinely find out where we are and what the causes are. When John the Baptist showed up it wasn’t to say, “It’s all over folks, prepare for the worst.” Rather, he was called to prepare the way for Jesus by making them aware that sin was still sin, and they needed to acknowledge the truth of God’s Word — it hadn’t changed. And when Jesus came next, He said specifically – “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:17) John told them what was condemning, Jesus came to free the people from condemnation: “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 8:1) The revelation of idolatry is not to condemn, but to glorify the grace and truth that comes to us in Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul also reminds us that the greater the sin, the greater the grace –
“Moreover the law entered that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom. 5:20,21)
Lastly, in the third case, I’m not asking you to believe anything yet; all I’m asking is that you listen to what I’m going to say because I don’t believe you’ll have heard it this way before. If you just give me a little bit time, I’m hoping to explain in detail “What in the world is going on!” and how, to one degree or another, you really didn’t have a choice but to be born into the historical and spiritual age we find ourselves in today — like Gideon, Abraham, Joseph, Samuel, or the kings such as David, Hezekiah, and Josiah, or even Daniel and Esther. They didn’t choose when or where they would be born. So you and I are right where we’re supposed to be, exactly where the Lord wants us be — “for such a time as this!”
So let’s get started . . .
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