Changing Times, Changing Tactics

Facing the Full Court Press of Secularism

The stages of the coming Kingdom of God is a fascinating subject.  The coming of the Kingdom in a nation or continent varies at different states and times.  The seed takes time to grow and manifest its shape.  We must be aware what the the Kingdom is like when the Gospel comes for the first time to a society.  The final stage would be when Christendom in that country is near fully  manifest.  Between the first and the last stages there are several variant stages.  Our Christian duty and our tactics will vary according to the circumstances.

Consider just one example of how Christians mode of operation and interaction with society-at-large may vary.  In the days of the Apostles, as the Gospel went to the Gentiles, virtually everything in society was tainted with idolatry and superstition, whether it was meat at the butcher's shop, or the practice of justice under Pax Romana.  That meant Christians needed to think carefully about how they would buy their meat in a Christ-honouring manner.  It also meant they needed to avoid the law courts, if they possibly could.

Fast forward to times when Christendom have taken the dominant position in a society.

The Contrarian Mind

. . . Achievable with Love, Morphine, and Whisky

There is a lot to be said for a contrarian mind.  In fact, as Douglas Wilson has observed, in a prevailing secular humanist clime, having a contrarian mind is arguably a basic requirement for Christian living.

Urbane contrarians, particularly those with a merry impishness, are national treasures.  He is an example:

Dying of cancer is the "best death" and we should "stop wasting billions trying to cure" it, a leading doctor has said.  Dr Richard Smith, a former editor of the British Medical Journal, said that cancer allowed people to say goodbye and prepare for death and was therefore preferable to sudden death, death from organ failure or "the long, slow death from dementia". . . .

"You can say goodbye, reflect on your life, leave last messages, perhaps visit special places for a last time, listen to favourite pieces of music, read loved poems, and prepare, according to your beliefs, to meet your maker or enjoy eternal oblivion," Dr Smith wrote in a blog published for the BMJ, a journal he edited until 2004.  "This is, I recognise, a romantic view of dying, but it is achievable with love, morphine, and whisky. But stay away from overambitious oncologists, and let's stop wasting billions trying to cure cancer, potentially leaving us to die a much more horrible death," he wrote.

One up for contrarians!

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

Fighting in a "Losing" Cause

Tomorrow a new year of fresh outrage begins, and so I want to take a few moments to encourage those Christian preachers, writers, thinkers, and bloggers who are, out of biblical principle, sailing contrary to all the prevailing winds. It is harder to sail this way, but when you are done, more that is worthwhile is actually done — as in, you have actually gotten closer to where you wanted to be.

“Thought is not, like physical strength, dependent upon the number of its agents; nor can authors be counted like the troops that compose an army. On the contrary, the authority of a principle is often increased by the small number of men by whom it is expressed” (Democracy in America, De Tocoueville, p. 182).

There are two approaches to leadership and cultural influence. Neither is necessarily sinful or automatically virtuous, and both require wisdom to know what is called for at what time.