Wednesday 9 June 2010

Can Human Civilization Survive a Decline of Western Society?

It certainly is a concern that homosexuality is becoming tolerated in Western society. It all starts with the Church.

I understand why concerned Christians might imagine that this sort of thing could escalate into a great falling away and the emergence of a one-world church and government.

Maybe things will escalate that way - and we may see the return of the Lord within a few years.

Or instead we may see another Great Awakening - and see years of fruitful harvest instead of the end.

Or Jesus might surprise us all and come back even before either of those two things happen.

I simply don't know which of the above three scenarios is going to happen. So that means I can't be one of those preachers who go around claiming that current events as a sure sign that the end must come within our generation.

I simply don't know. Plus I don't think there's enough basis in Scripture for anyone else to be so sure either.

I've spent some time living in non-Western countries, and I can say that millions of Christians in many overseas countries have always had to live with the kinds of scenarios that Americans and Australians only have nightmares about.

For example, homosexuality is a lot more open in the Philippines; and freedom of speech has never been the same in Malaysia as it is here in Australia.

Christians in those countries have always had to live with the kinds of things that are only now beginning to threaten Western society - and yet they don't tend to go around saying it has to be the end of the world. They just live with it, and got on with the job of building the Church.

But now that the same thing is starting to threaten American and Australian society, straightaway preachers here start claiming it's a sure sign of the end of the world!

Christians in non-western countries don't get anywhere near as alarmed as we do in the West - because quite frankly they've never expected any better from their society or government - they just get on with the job of building the Church.

But we in the West get all flustered and think that a downturn in America equals the end of human civilization.

I'm grateful for America. And I'm grateful for the freedoms which were forged in and through British society through centuries of the blood of martyrs.

But don't forget, human civilization survived before America was founded, and human civilization survived before British society became free. It wasn't a free world back then - but it wasn't the end of the world either.

So if America and Britain and most free societies go down, yes it could plunge the world back into another Dark Ages - but the first Dark Ages didn't mean the end of the world, so another Dark Ages might not mean the end of the world either.

It could degenerate into the end of the world; or the world might experience another reformation, revival or great awakening - or we could see the return of the Lord. But no-one knows for sure which way it's going to go.

In the Book of Judges, Israeli society went through many repeat cycles of decline and renewal. Maybe the Church in Western society will experience similar cycles.

The Church in Europe experienced its first decline after the Apostles died. The decline lasted hundreds of years. Then a restoration began with Luther and Wesley and others which which took hundreds of years to complete. Once complete, it lasted hundreds of years.

Maybe the Church in Western society today is experiencing another decline. Maybe the process of decline will take hundreds of years like the first decline. Then maybe there will be another period of restoration which could also take hundreds more years to complete.

There could be several repeat cycles of decline and restoration before Jesus comes. Who can say the current decline in Western society will be the last? Or Jesus could come beforehand. No-one knows.

A good friend of mine had a dream about 18-months ago. In his dream he was shown back in time, back to the late 1800s. He saw the heart that the Churches had in the UK at that time - the depth of their impact on British society; and their longterm vision for English society.

In the dream he saw a man running towards him, with a message written on a board for him to read. He knew straightaway the person was an angel. The message simply read: The Year of Our Lord 2203.

He felt that the Church in the UK back in the late 1800s had something - it had achieved a depth of infiltration into society. But somehow the Church began to lose that role in British society after that period.

And he felt that maybe God will still honour the heart that those people had back at that time for their nation, and he felt that maybe this will be seen and experienced in England around the year 2203.

My friend is sensible enough not to claim that the dream was prophetic even though he does prophesy and some people have come to trust his prophecies.

I don't know if it's prophetic. Maybe things won't get better again. Or maybe Jesus will come back before then. No-one knows.

I only share it to illustrate that it might not be the end of the world just because Western society hits a bad patch.

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