The darkness is so intense that it seems to suck the
light out of the sun. Within that vast evilness, wickedness rules. So intense
is that corruption that words cannot describe horror within.
Jeremiah 17:9 has a similar passage ŇThe heart is
deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?
There have been times in the history of man when things
have gotten so corrupt, so horrible that God acts, showing His glory. Sometimes
He brings about judgment and destruction. Sometimes, God brings about a
spiritual revival or awakening, in which, areas of the world or certain
generations are brought into the kingdom of God by signs and wonders,
brokenness and repentance. Many times countries and provinces are changed. But
only once during the history of the church did the entire course of western
civilization change direction. This was when GodŐs power manifest through the
Protestant Reformation of the 16th century.
Today we look at those descendant churches tracing their
roots to the great reformers and snicker. ŇThe frozen chosen!Ó ŇI wonder if any
of them are really saved?Ó ŇNow all they have to offer is dead liturgical
orthodoxy, I canŐt relate!Ó But if you think about it, what other enterprises
and organizations from the 16th century are still around, with offices in every
major city and small villages. From that perspective, there must be a reason, a
Godly reason, for them not to have gone the way of entropy. Any rational man
(or woman) should assume, that they should have run out of gas and perished
long ago. To be read about only in history books.
Calvin, Luther and others, while quite uniquely gifted in
methodology and skills, were united in basically two components of their
theology. Those two were the complete reliance on the Word of God, as could be
understood by common mankind and the total depravity of the human condition,
except for the grace of God. Through the preaching of the Word to the totally
deprived individual, GodŐs word created faith in the hearts and minds of so
many people that for the next few centuries, the roots of modern western
enterprise were established not only in business, but in the arts, sciences and
charitable institutions.
Could such a simple concept change our modern world?
The construct of American and western society today is
that man is basically good and all good people go to heaven. I suppose it
should logically follow that all people go to heaven, or at least civilization is
evolving to a higher and therefore better level. If this be true, my Uncle
JerryŐs saying, ŇIt donŐt get any gooder than this!Ó should be an evolutionary
truth. Move over DarwinŐs fish with legs, my Uncle done did you better.
In that evolutionary bent, physicists can provide for you
an elegant description, for a light and matter sucking black hole, that no one
has ever seen. Or really could it be that they are just describing the horror
of their own heart, and are really searching for converts to their form of
religious observance.
So instead of looking for places of darkness, in which to
bring the light of GodŐs redeeming word, modern Evangelism seeks the comfort of
the suburbs, and for the most part proclaims a message of social change through
religious piety and financial prosperity.
The great commission, has become the great omission. But that is really
not all that important anyway, for no one any more understands the concept of
the true gospel message, because the part of the Bible, that speaks as did
Jeremiah during the actual conquering of the remaining vestiges of Israel and
Judea, is just a myth of the Old Testament law. For after all we are under
antinomian grace. Well at least grace, you shouldnŐt use that big word, it
might turn off the seekers.
But if there is a remnant within the imperial church of
this Babylonian captivity, that by GodŐs true grace, begins to glimpse their
own total depravity, then the true gospel message has the soil fertility to
again allow the power of the last reformation to be planted. I realize the
concept of instead of searching for light, to search for darkness is really
strange. But a small candle can provide enough light to make your way in pitch
blackness. In a well lighted arena, that power is insignificant.
We think we need to bring people into the light, to
evangelize them. But that is part of the misappropriation of the gospel that
naturally followed, evolutionarily as entropy, out of the first power of the
Reformation. In that context, it
really has the effect of dimming the true light of the gospel. In those
shadows, the total depravity of man can again find a foot hold of
security. In the beginning God
created everything in darkness, then he created light out of nothing. Light of
the gospel must be contrasted with the darkness of humanity. But naturally, we
create twilight where nothing is seen for what it truly is. Again in the total
darkness of fallen man, the light has come in the form of faith. This time,
faith not created out of nothing, as some would teach, but out of the natural
growth of the word of God. For if saving faith were created out of nothing,
then the rational informational basis of GodŐs word would be replaced with a
form of mysticism and we would again find a man centered spiritual basis for
faith, that can not bear the scrutiny of Biblical analysis. That may be our
precise doctrines, or our warm and fuzzy ŇJesus in my heartÓ emotionalism. But
none the less, we have changed GodŐs justifying work into one of our own
programs.
Now last week I was called back to the Little Dalles to
meet with the current owner and his agent. Since I arrived a bit early, I had
the opportunity to drive the streets of Northport. I did find the Baptist
church (making four in town) plus the Mormons and the other fellowship just
down the road. Except for the
churches, Northport is probably the most depressing place I can ever recall
seeing. At least in some of the deprived villages in Mexico, there was a
wealthy baron, who somewhat took care of the needs of his subjects. In Russia
there is hope, that things will eventually get better. Northport is the first stop from, and
the last stop to, Canada period. Therefore you can get booze, cigarettes and
gas. Pretty much, it is the end of the road for the American dream. You can
live in an old house build when the smelter was operating, before the war
(WWII), walk by some old brick buildings, dating from the same years, mostly
unoccupied, and vacant lots and wonder at the God forsaken landscape. You can
post your mail at the new post office and state, ŇthatŐs all there is.Ó
But that picture is what stirred within my soul, just how
God takes, and in some times creates impossible black, hopeless conditions, in
which to show is Glory. In the night streets of New York, Los Vegas, Tokyo,
Moscow or other great cities of the world, the light of the gospel goes
unnoticed and its message unheeded in the din. But in Northport at night you
can see the stars and notice that their dim light provokes faith to give hope
that there is a God, and you are not Him. In that solitude, GodŐs word can be
heard. Such words, are they, just lines of a weekly short story, or are they
the keys to the reformations power?
Of the four parties involved in the Little Dalles
transaction all four are Christians. At least two of us believe that it is
something that God is doing. But speaking for myself and perhaps for the
others, we are so trained to do things in the worldly way, we really have no
basis to understand how God can make this work. The Bible says in many ways and many times, when you donŐt
know what to do wait. That is what we all do so poorly and therefore miss GodŐs
true blessings, His reformation power. So wait I will endeavor to do until a
path seems ahead, or a door opens. One thing I do believe is that this Little
Dalles work is to be focused toward the darkness allowing God to create the
light as He so chooses. Put another way, to minister toward Northport, and
villages in Mexico, Russia and elsewhere, and not the sparkle of our modern
Evangelical establishment. I would
gladly write a check for the whole place and improvements drawn on my heavenly
account, but the conversion factor of Isaiah 55:8 is what makes it so
difficult. Please intercede for that pressing need for financial direction as
well as other resources to make this ministry opportunity a reality.