Jared Longshore's Blog, page 31

Slow to Wrath in the Middle of a Great Work

Proverbs 14:29 says, “He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: But he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly.”

It’s striking how God’s commands scale in difficulty depending on the circumstances. Are you slow to wrath? Well, it depends. Am I sitting on a dock of the bay watching the tide roll away? Or am I in the middle of closing a months-long business deal with a cranky and lazy partner? It is one thing for mom to hear that a feverish child just vomited down the side of his bed on a lazy Sunday afternoon. And it is another to hear that news when you’re in the fourth quarter of dinner prep for a family of six. 

When the spirit of dominion takes root in God’s people, that is a sign of his kindness. And that particular gift comes with a variety of temptations. One is the temptation to be quick to wrath. We know there is a lot on the line. Our society falls apart with every passing day. And amid that decay, we seem to be resolved to run with men, and even try our hand at running with horses if the Lord would grant us the ability. But when you run that hard, your blood really gets pumping. It is then that it is very easy to bite, grab, snap at a kid or a co-worker, slander a teacher, or complain that someone keeps merging into your lane.

First, thank God that He has given you such a high calling and such an advanced test. Confess any and all sinful anger. And ask God for a great heart to do great works with a cool and unhasty spirit.

The post Slow to Wrath in the Middle of a Great Work appeared first on REFORMATION & REVIVAL.

Rod Dreher and the Moscow Mojo

Andrew Isker’s book, “The Boniface Option,” received a critical review from Rod Dreher. Dreher’s main issue? Alleged resentment and anger in Isker’s work. I can’t comment on Isker’s book since I haven’t read it, but Dreher seems determined to link this “grumpy muffin” spirit to Moscow. 

Here’s the essence:

Dreher’s subtitle: “If ‘The Ben Op’ Came from a Brawling Calvinist Memelord in Moscow, Idaho…” 

In his article, Dreher asks, “What kind of world will Isker create? What about dissenters, Christian or not? What about women? Is everything destined to become Moscow, Idaho?” 

Dreher’s conclusion: ” When I finished The Boniface Option last night, I could only imagine a future in which Douglas Wilson’s brogue is stamping on a fake, disgusting, corpulent, but all too human face, forever.”

A couple of years ago, I interviewed Rod Dreher on The Sword & The Trowel Podcast. We discussed his book, “Live Not By Lies,” which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Shortly after that, my family and I moved to Moscow. We’ve been here for two years now, deeply ingrained in the community. I’m a minister at Christ Church, dean at New Saint Andrews College, and our kids attend Logos School. We live amidst the well-known Kirkers vs. the children of darkness divide. I share this context so that you can know where I stand and have another perspective by which you can judge Dreher’s critique of Moscow more fairly. 

You don’t have to be a sage to know that my trying to explain how badly Dreher misjudged Wilson won’t do much good. I could tell you that Doug Wilson is a cross between Tom Bombadil and Santa Claus. But those who have done their homework already know that to be the case, and those people who are unfriendly are pretty set in their ways. 

But, there might be readers who, like Rod Dreher, believe that Moscow is a hotbed of conservative Christian resentment over our crumbling civilization. They’d be mistaken, and in a big way. Dreher does pinpoint a real problem but fails to embrace one of the solutions:

The Dilemma

The problem, as Dreher often points out, is that the world has gone mad. We need something like the Benedict Option, but it’s so bad out there that it’s pulling the faithful in two wrong directions.

Direction one: Some think you can be sinfully angry and righteous, clinging to Christianity and sanity while drowning in bitterness and rage, as Dreher warns. You can watch the news, be appalled by paganism’s latest advances, and wring your hands, uncertain about what to do.

Direction two: You can surrender your cares, anger, and bitterness to the unfaithfulness of clown world. Folks taking this second option have had enough of self-righteous, reactionary conservatism, but without genuine community or a game plan, they become desensitized to the corruption around them.

Dreher likely sees both these pitfalls. His review of Isker aims to steer clear of the first one. Whether Isker is guilty of it (again, I haven’t read his book), Dreher is right that many conservatives are growing angrier and more resentful.

However, there’s a path that avoids both extremes, though it’s challenging and rare. It’s the road of faithfulness, renewal, reformation, and revival – a path filled with the spirit of the Narnians:

“Instead of being grave and mysterious like most Calormenes, they walked with a swing and let their arms and shoulders go free, and chatted and laughed. One was whistling. You could see that they were ready to be friends with anyone who was friendly, and didn’t give a fig for anyone who wasn’t.”

If I might speak plainly, that is just the spirit that has, generally speaking, taken over the Kirker community here in Moscow. It’s a rare thing, and worth of emulation. The general thankfulness, festivities, and cheerfulness of the place are no secret. 

Take, for instance:

A video of Christ Church singing Christmas Carols downtown amid heckling, responding with cheerful “Merry Christmas” and a simple move across the street.

Clips of block parties (here and here) thrown by Christ Church in downtown Moscow, where everyone, Christian or not, enjoys free food (hundreds of pounds of tri tip at this last one) and the best party in town.

The spirit of cheerfulness tied to a fearless apologetic approach, which has been taught and can be found in various resources (here, here, and here)

Doug’s debates with Christopher Hitchens – a display of winning not only arguments but also hearts – a spirit that resonates well in Moscow.

We need a jolly spirit as we press on, and Dreher seems to overlook that Moscow’s saints have been blessed as a shining example of the spirit we need. Does every place have to be Moscow? Of course not, but I invite Dreher to come and see for himself. The proof is in the pudding; something remarkable is happening here.

Look no farther than our sea shanties:

To the Word Sea Shanty

Sea Shanty – Psalm 136

Doug has already extended an invitation to Rod. We would love for him to come and speak in Moscow. I will go ahead and underscore this offer. As dean of New Saint Andrews, I arrange outside speakers to address our entire faculty and student body at what we call Disputatio. This is an open invitation for Rod to come address New Saint Andrews College. Let’s make it happen, beer, psalms, and tri tip included.

Here’s a snap shot of the spirit around here:

The post Rod Dreher and the Moscow Mojo appeared first on REFORMATION & REVIVAL.

Full and Hungry

You don’t have to look far into the history of the church to find, on the one hand, those advocating a life of wealth and, on the other, a life of poverty. You will find those commending a theology of glory and a theology of the cross. “Christianity is really about feasting,” says one. “No, Christianity is really about fasting,” says another. 

Paul seems to walk into that conversation and say, “Hey guys, I have done it all, and I’ve found gratitude and fullness no matter the condition.” That’s Philippians 4:11, “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” He went through seasons of being honored, and seasons when his name was mud. He knew what it was to push back from a table and need to take a nap because the food stuck to his ribs. And he knew what it was like to run on an empty stomach. At times he had enough to share and at times he needed someone else’s stuff to keep him alive.

Now, what do you do with a guy who is really good in all situations? He can’t be manipulated. He can’t be thrown off course. Find a man who only knows how to abound. Well, good on him. But what is going to happen to him if God tests him like Job and he loses everything. Come to find out, he’s an abounding man who is weak. 

The poor man says, “Yeah, that’s right. Poverty is where it’s at.” But take that poor man who only knows how to be in need. What happens to him when the Lord opens up the windows of heaven on him, and he has not room to store so much bread and wine? He breaks under the pressure of all those heavy material blessings and the responsibility that comes with them.

What is the solution? We must know how to hustle joyfully and gratefully when we are full and when we are hungry. How do you do that? Well, you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.

The post Full and Hungry appeared first on REFORMATION & REVIVAL.

He Became Poor and We Became Rich

Scripture says that our Lord was rich and became poor. Not without reason, of course. He became poor so that we might become rich. And become rich we have, every one of us. Our wealth is here laid out before us. 

David could say that the LORD had put more joy in his heart than vain men had when their grain and wine abounded. We can and must say the same with him. But, we can say more. We live in the new covenant. We live in the year of the Lord’s favor. We live in that age in which the Son of God has taken upon human flesh and given it as life for the world. He has given his flesh and blood for us. 

As the old hymn says, “Here he gives Himself to us as bread. Here as wine we drink the blood He shed.”

That means that your wealth is not merely some idea. Your wealth is not imaginary. Your wealth is not even immaterial. Your wealth is a man. You have been yoked to Him, bound to Him. He is your head. What your head gets, you, His body, get. How could you not? He’s not a decapitated head.

This Second Adam, to whom we have been bound by covenant, is no mere man. He is a man-King. He owns Nebraska. Nebraska is ours in Christ. Things are ours. But you must always remember that they are ours in Christ, which is something altogether different than things being ours apart from Christ.

As we come to this table, we come as one rich body. So come grateful for this grace of God; and come assuming the responsibility laid on the rich man: Be rich toward God. Come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

The post He Became Poor and We Became Rich appeared first on REFORMATION & REVIVAL.

Ezekiel’s Temple

Introduction

It is common for Christians to consider that the Spirit of God is given to us. But we often forget that the Spirit is also given through us. Ezekiel’s temple vision is one place where we see this truth. The Spirit flows out from the Christian Church to heal all of the sick places.

In Ezekiel 47, the prophet has a vision in which he is brought to the door of the temple where waters issue forth, run down by the side of the altar, and flow east (v. 1). The man with Ezekiel took him a thousand cubits east and this river was to the ankles, another thousand and the water was to the knees, another thousand and the water was up to his loins, and after another thousand it was deep enough to swim (v. 3-5). 

On both banks of this river were many trees (v. 6). The man told Ezekiel that the river flowed down to the desert and eventually would reach the sea, resulting in the sea being healed (v. 8). This river would give life. There would be so many fish that fishermen would spread their nets and catch boatloads of various kinds (v. 9-10). While the river will bring healing and blessing, there are some marsh places that will remain unhealed (v. 11). Because the waters from the sanctuary feed the trees, they won’t die. They will produce new fruit for food and leaves that will heal like medicine (v. 12). 

Ezekiel’s Temple Is the Christian Church

The temple Ezekiel sees is the Christian Church and the river flowing from that temple is the Holy Spirit. This becomes clear by considering two other texts of Scripture closely associated with Ezekiel 47.

In Revelation 22, right after John beholds “the bride, the Lamb’s wife . . . the holy Jerusalem” (Revelation 21:9), he sees the river of life as Ezekiel did. It proceeds out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. On either side of the river, there is the tree of life, bearing fruit every month with leaves that were for the healing of the nations (Revelation 22:1-2).

The second text is John 7:37-39 where Jesus cried out on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, calling those who were thirsty to come to Him and drink. Christ said, “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38). John adds, ” But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:39).

In addition to these two texts, the context of Ezekiel 47 contains indicators that Ezekiel’s temple is a vision of the Christian Church. A few chapters prior, Ezekiel prophesies of the new covenant, saying, “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them” (Ezekiel 36:25-27). This new covenant is depicted in the valley of dry bones in the very next chapter (Ezekiel 37). 

The temple vision follows. Strikingly, the east gate of the temple remains closed, and it is only opened for the prince to enter (Ezekiel 44). This east gate reminds us of Eden, the first temple, and the Cheribums that were place at the east of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life. The only one who could enter back into Eden through that east gate was the Second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is that prince from Ezekiel’s vision, who has entered back into Eden through the east gate, so that we might enter back in through Him. 

It is no coincidence that a prophecy of the new covenant and a depiction of Christ coming to His temple as the Second Adam, the Man-King, precedes Ezekiel’s vision of the river of Living Water proceeding from the temple. These signs point to this temple being the Christian Church from which the Spirit goes forth to heal the nations.

East of Eden?

A great amount of confusion comes because we do not know where we are. Many Christians think that they are still east of Eden. But God has said that in the day He cleanses His people, “they shall say, ‘This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden'” (Ezekiel 36:35). Ezekiel’s temple vision was full of Edenic imagery (cherubims and palm trees). And in Christ, the prince, we have come back into Eden to worship God as forgiven and free people. 

We may not be east of Eden. But there are some still out there in those desert places to which the river flows. Many Christians make the mistake of thinking that the muck of the marshes will climb their way up to the temple of God and pollute it. But water flows downhill after all. We have believed in Christ and just what He promised has come to pass. The Holy Spirit—the river of living water—flows out of our hearts to the world bringing fruit and healing with it.

Knowing where we are is foundational. Knowing that the river is flowing is essential. But we must progress to see how this particular operation works. Christ is the source of this Living Water. We are not the headwaters. Apart from Christ, all you have is the flesh. But Christians walk by the Spirit. We come to Christ and drink. Doing so, we find that water has welled up in us and flows from our hearts. 

“The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come . . . Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17).

The post Ezekiel’s Temple appeared first on REFORMATION & REVIVAL.

Take Heed How You Build

When we fell in our father Adam, our work became fraught with difficulties. But our sin does more than simply make work hard. Our sin has also made work risky. I don’t simply mean that we can now climb up ladders and fall down to break bones. I mean that the fruit of our hands itself is put in jeopardy by our sin. The spirit of the age rejects this truth. It says that you can live like a wretch and keep your business in order. You can keep your immorality in one compartment of your life and keep your entrepreneurial endeavors in another compartment, unstained by your envy, lust, and temper.

But Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3 that every man must take heed how he builds on Christ. Yes, you have Christ as the foundation. And thanks be to God for that. But some will build with gold and others silver. Still others will build with wood, hay, and stubble. And what you have built will be brought into the light and tested by fire to show whether it was the real thing or not. 

Put it this way: You never get away with sin. And this is God’s kindness to us. You may be able to hide it for a short while. It may not destroy your grades, your company, or your family in an instant. But hear this soberly. The rot always rots. You work far too hard to ruin your work because of unconfessed sin. 

God is going to test all of the little projects you are working on and all of the big ones too. So take heed how you build. Build in holiness. Build in wisdom. Build in humility and gratitude. Build diligently and always build while confessing your sin.

The post Take Heed How You Build appeared first on REFORMATION & REVIVAL.

Come to Christ

Every Sunday at this table you are reminded to come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ. You are not merely coming to bread and wine. You are coming to a living man. A human. A human who is also God. Your God. Your Savior, who was made like you in every way yet without sin.

Nothing satisfies apart from this Christ. Work, apart from Christ, is empty. Rest, apart from Christ, never refreshes. Eating and drinking, apart from Christ, will not bring joy. Fasting, apart from Christ, leaves you but a pharisee with the devil as a father. So you must ensure that you come to Christ in faith and not merely to that which represents Him.

As you come to this table in faith, you truly participate in Christ. You feed on Him spiritually. He is here among us in a special and peculiar way at this table. So we should come mindful of His presence among us here.

As we do, we are training ourselves for how we should always live. When Christ said, “Take, eat, this is my body. Do this in remembrance of me,” He was teaching us how to come to this table; and how to live every day. You must live in remembrance of Him, recalling that He is with you always.

Why do you work hard when no one is watching? Because Christ is with you. Why do you mortify those sins that have not yet manifested themselves before the eyes of others? Because you live before the face of God. How can you rest from your many labors without anxiety about all of the deadlines out in front of you? Because Christ is with you always and will never leave nor forsake you. So come remembering Him. Come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ.

The post Come to Christ appeared first on REFORMATION & REVIVAL.

More Than a Celestial Uber Driver

Well, let’s dive right in, shall we? As of late, it is like we are caught in a cosmic makeover show in the reformed and evangelical world. Donald J. Trump was the material cause, maybe. But he was not the originating cause. We are dealing with political disagreements that stem from doctrinal disagreements. But we didn’t see the doctrinal differences until the political revealed them. Thus we’re all befuddled and scratching our heads.

Now, there’s this thing called Christian nationalism that’s decided to park itself in our mental garage. Imagine those gospel-loving folks, sipping their cold brew and minding their own business, when someone barges in with the notion that even the posh chambers of the Capitol in Washington, D.C. are part of Christ’s property portfolio. Well, you can bet your last biscuit that those ostensibly devoted Kuyper theology fans are blinking in disbelief. They’re good with Christ claiming every inch, until you mention that one square inch is smack dab in the middle of our political hubbub. That is when they give you the side-eye, worried that you are watering down the salvation message and bringing back the days of poor Obadiah Holmes’ misadventures.

And that’s just the beginning of our troubles. The unity tasted at the conferences so many attended, where all were belting the same gospel tune under the Together for the Gospel banner, has hit some rocky terrain. And this unpleasant terrain can’t be pinned on simple assertions, “Oh, they have sold doctrinal purity for a political end,” from the one side, or “They have chugged the pietism punch” from the other. No, we’re dealing with a whole new flavor of division soup. Sure, there are those who have made shady deals for political clout, and sure, some folks have been sipping pietism like it is the nectar of the gods. But our present division is messier than that.

Some might want to slap a “Made in Politics” label on our current divisions, saying that our fractured nation’s squabbles have infiltrated our Christian camaraderie. So, the fix is to boot the political mess and get back to the basics: systematic theology, gospel preaching, ecclesiology, and whatnot. This, they say, will lead us back to the golden days. Those who advance this sentiment are likely to argue that we should forget that some evangelical bigwigs marched in BLM parades while the world went up in flames. Perhaps the memory of those sulfur-scented COVID times will fade away. Well, no, they won’t. 

Let me hasten to say that I am eager for the unity that we once had. But, we cannot slap a Band-Aid on our troubles and heal our wound lightly. We have to get down to the pesky doctrinal blunders that have been lurking around our reformed and evangelical world like uninvited party guests. They have been with us for quite a spell, causing us to trip over our own shoelaces when it comes to things like critical race theory, bizarre Trump infatuations, and bowing down to the CDC during the Corona circus.

We could point to several doctrinal shortcomings that left us in our present pickle. But let me go to the central one. The heart of the matter has been our Christless Christianity. That is a risky statement to make. It is an attempt to move the Overton window which may be a push too far for some. I understand your hesitation. We used to boast that our unity was built on Jesus. But I’m here to put a pin in that balloon.

We were indeed unified in the gospel in a sense. Everyone would have said that the good news involved Jesus dying and rising. Conversion? We had that underfoot. Testimonies about God finding us in the far country and bringing us home? They were our bread and butter. We must say amen to all of that. 

But—and this point is like smelling salts to clear away the fog—our unity missed Christ born of the Virgin Mary. Yes, Him. Our unity was not firmly grounded in that little detail. It was near about a disembodied faith as if Charles Taylor himself dropped by and gave it the “excaranated” seal of approval. Sure, we could go on about Christ’s divinity, and every Reformed leader would attest to His humanity. But the telos of that humanity? Well, that was like a whisper in a windstorm—hard to find.

I am not advocating for some doctoral dissertation here. I’m not insisting that the common evangelical must become Bavinck or Aquinas in order to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. I’m just waving my arms and shouting from the rooftops: we have reduced the humanity of Christ to the truth that He went to the cross as our substitute and will come back for an encore. That, of course, is essential. But there is more that has been revealed.

Does our faith really say Jesus popped by Earth just to ferry souls up to the pearly gates? No, not even close. He is more than a celestial Uber driver. He is the Second Adam, dishing out life to us flesh-and-bone creatures. He came not to condemn the world but that the world might be saved, the whole kit and caboodle. That includes our present political circus.

We were not ready for the challenges that came upon us in political fashion, which were not merely political challenges. It is not as if we lost the political challenges, but we kept all of the souls of our people clean and ordered. No, the challenges came upon us in a particular manner, under a particular guise. And these challenges ravaged the church of Christ. We were vulnerable to these attacks because we bought into a great dichotomy between the spiritual and the physical, the heavenly and the earthly, the corporate and the individual, the inner and the outer. And here is the kicker; we bought into all of these dichotomies because we had previously bought into a great dichotomy between the divinity of Christ and His humanity. We did not see the implications and applications of the truth that the Son of God took upon Himself human form.

Said another way, many Christians are not sure why Christ did not have to die once for each individual. Our outlook has become so atomized that we are left thinking that this arrangement would fit, even though we shrink back from the notion. But why? Why did one death work for so many individuals? Well, because Christ took upon our nature and stood in our place as our head and representative. He did what the first Adam failed to do. He insists that the telos of the salvation he has provided for us include that original mission, to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and have dominion. But filling the earth with a bunch of physical creatures who will then fill the earth with the rule of God sounds a whole lot like Mere Christendom. And while our fading-in-influence evangelical leaders know we have deadly cracks in our society’s foundation, they still want to warn you about all of those “Christ is Lord” signs that Canon Press keeps putting up across the nation.

But back to this much-needed recovery and renewal of our unity. We need more than a patch-up job. We need to grow up, to embrace the faith of our forefathers. The faith once for all delivered to the saints is not just about flicking the Gospel switch and getting zapped by heavenly electricity. The Gospel isn’t an abstract idea; it’s a person. And that person is not just about a ticket to heaven. He’s about recreating the whole world.

If Kuyper was right, and he was, then the bride of Christ must announce what the Second Adam has said, “Every square inch is mine.” And that includes the land trod by the rich men north of Richmond.

The post More Than a Celestial Uber Driver appeared first on REFORMATION & REVIVAL.

The Belly Goddess

Martyn Lloyd Jones once said that most of our problems in life come from the fact that we listen to ourselves rather than talk to ourselves. I will add that we listen to a certain part of ourselves: our belly. I do not mean our physical appetite exactly. I mean the belly that the Bible talks about as the seat of our feelings, or our emotions. We set up this belly-goddess-of-our-emotions as prophet, priest, and king. 

Whatever our emotions tell us, whatever prophecies they utter, we assume they must be infallible. They must be mediating some all-important mystical truth to us. It couldn’t simply be that we had some bad chicken. 

Then we treat our emotions as some priestly offering. We say, “I offer my feelings to the Father as a living and holy sacrifice.” But that text in Romans 12 says that we are to offer up “our bodies” as sacrifices. 

In the end, we discover that our belly-emotions have fulfilled all three mediatorial offices of Christ as they become our king. Wherever the belly leads, we go. And she keeps the people of her dominion on a short leash, so they never know the great lands of maturity.

Emotions are not themselves sinful. They are not to be altogether avoided. But when they begin to instruct you, when you sit at their feet and start to take notes as if they are an all-wise rabbi, or when your life begins to center itself around your emotions like Israel’s worship did the sacrificial altar, or when you become the loyal subject of your emotions, then your worshipping your belly, and she’s a tyrannical little goddess. 

You were not made to serve your belly. Your belly was made to serve you. You were not made to fight for some well-balanced emotional well-being. You were meant to fight your enemies with your belly.

The only way to do that is to trust Christ. The man who believes on Him, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water.

The post The Belly Goddess  appeared first on REFORMATION & REVIVAL.

A Solution for Our Secular Age

In another world, some very naughty dwarves tumbled through a stable door. But the inside of this cowshed was anything but ordinary. Within was a lush and open land canopied by a deep blue sky. Breezes fresh enough to make an old man young blew where they wished, making the thick leaves of the countless shiny fruit trees dance. The dwarves, however—though in this garden world—could not see, smell, or taste it. A girl named Lucy, a boy named Eustace, and a king named Tirian approached them—

“Look out!” said one of [the Dwarfs] in a surly voice. “Mind where you’re going. Don’t walk into our faces!”

“All right!” said Eustace indignantly. “We’re not blind. We’ve got eyes in our heads.”

“They must be darn good ones if you can see in here,”” said the same Dwarf whose name was Diggle.

“In where?” asked Edmund.

“Why you bone-head, in here of course,” said Diggle. “In this pitch-black, poky, smelly little hole of a stable.”

“Are you blind?” said Tirian.

“Ain’t we all blind in the dark!” said Diggle.

“But it isn’t dark, you poor stupid Dwarfs,” said Lucy. “Can’t you see? Look up! Look round! Can’t you see the sky and the trees and the flowers? Can’t you see me?”

“How in the name of all Humbug can I see what ain’t there? And how can I see you any more than you can see me in this pitch darkness?” (C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle).

We are all dwarves now. We have lost our ability to see what is there.

Many years ago now, there was a very popular song by the very popular evangelical artist Michael W. Smith. Mr. Smith was looking for a reason, roaming through the night to find his place in this world. It was a real struggle. But hindsight clarifies that Mr. Smith did not have it so bad after all. He at least had a world in which to be lost. He had a night in which to roam. The youth of the 90s may have felt a little out of place. But the generation growing up today does not have a place in which they can get out of sorts. You could still get turned around in Mr. Smith’s day because there was an ordered cosmos in which to do so. Modern man, on the other hand, does not know what it means to be lost. He has not only become disenchanted with the world. But he has come to believe the world itself is disenchanted, and a disenchanted world is no world at all.

Many Christians have resolved themselves to this disenchanted world, this voided cosmos. They have grown accustomed to living in the dark. They have read C. S. Lewis. They are ready to go to Narnia when the good Lord calls them home. But they have forgotten that Narnia is here. We live in a land of wizards and flaming heavenly horses:

“And when they shall say unto you, ‘Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter’ . . . To the law and to the testimony” (Isaiah 8:19).

“And Elisha prayed, and said, ‘LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see.’ And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha” (2 Kings 17).

But these are not our instincts. Americans went through COVID hanging on every word from the CDC. But, it is fair to say, that angels killing people by means of a virus was not at the forefront of their minds. The notion that the celestials have anything to do with a virus seems absurd to modern man. But, you don’t have to go to Greek Mythology to hear about angelic destruction by means of sickness—

So the Lord sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men. And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the Lord beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of the Lord stood by the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite” (1 Chronicles 21:14-15).

Someone is going to call foul right about now—”This guy recommends praying instead of taking your vitamin C.” That sort of knee-jerk reaction is a common instinct in our disenchanted world. We have forgotten that one can believe in cherubim and molecules. Things used to be different.

In his tome, A Secular Age, Charles Taylor wrote of the enchanted world, “the world of spirits, demons, oral forces which our predecessors acknowledged” (Secular Age, 29). We used to live in a world of solids and gods. And, of course, we still do. But, like the dwarves, we are oblivious. Taylor reminisced of this enchanted world, “in which spiritual forces impinged on porous agents, in which the social was grounded in the sacred and secular time in higher times, a society moreover in which the play of structure and anti-structure was held in equilibrium; and this human drama unfolded within a cosmos” (Secular Age, 61) But, “all this has been dismantled and replaced by something quite different in the transformation we after roughly call disenchantment” (Secular Age, 61)

Put simply, the Christian faith is supernatural. To be a Christian is to believe in angels and demons, heaven and hell, the spirit and the body, the underworld and resurrection, the Godman. If the supernatural fabric is incinerated, then there will be no Christianity left.

You don’t have to be the keenest cultural analyst to see that we are on the verge of an old-school holy war. From one vantage point, it is fair to say our disenchantment is wobbling. We contract women’s wombs and leave the leftover embryos in the freezer. In our times, a man given to homosexual acts can ponder extracting his sister’s eggs in an attempt to fertilize them through artificial reproductive technology. He can do this, mind you, to the ever-so-gentle golf applause of mainstream thought and culture. The people who remember what life was like say, three weeks ago, are rightly getting suspicious that something more than science is going on here.

We are at that point in Lewis’ That Hiddeous Strength when Frost breaks it to Mark Studdock that something otherworldly is communicating through Alcasan’s disembodied head. As Christiana Hale put it, “The materialistic and reductionistic philosophy that began by exalting reason and objective science as the only path to ultimate answers has degenerated into necromancy and dark magic. The philosophy that led Weston to reject the claims of human feeling and emotion in favor of unmoving, objective science and hard facts is now driving men to reanimate decapitated heads, level small villages, and take orders from dark spirits whose natures are far beyond what their hard ‘science’ can explain” (Deeper Heaven).

So I say that we are just on the cusp of such a revelation. There are many Mark’s in our world today who are starting to grasp that there is a relationship between all of those LGBTQ signs and the underworld and all of those steeples around town and the third heaven. That development means that the time is ripe for a solution to our secular age. And this solution, on the one hand, is nothing other than the faith once for all delivered to the saints. But there is a certain dimension of that faith that needs to be emphasized in our times. It comes out in Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

When Christians live by faith they evidence unseen things. They make secular man terribly uncomfortable, or they make him the happiest of men. When Christians live by faith, it is not only that the show unrighteous men how to live uprightly. That is a very good thing, of course. But more is going on. By faith, Christians manifest the unseen kingdom on earth. And that kind of enchantment is just what secular man with his “immanent frame,” as Charles Taylor would put it, so desperately needs.

It is a potent thing when the unseen things are evidenced by faith. Some occurs when the saints live by faith that is not altogether different than what happened to the downstairs residents at St. Anne’s when Jove descended to visit Ransom and Merlin upstairs: “In the kitchen his coming was felt. No one afterwards knew how it happened but somehow the kettle was put on, the hot toddy was brewed. Arthur—the only musician among them—was bidden to get out his fiddle. The chairs were pushed back, the floor cleared. They danced. What they danced no once could remember. It was some round dance, no modern shuffling: it involved beating the floor, clapping of hands, leaping high. And no one while it lasted thought himself or his fellows ridiculous” (C. S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength).

The post A Solution for Our Secular Age appeared first on REFORMATION & REVIVAL.