Are we Post-Christian?

How do you view hardship?
It depends on how you view God.

Sizing up today's culture, it would be easy to think that any "Golden Age" of the influence of Christianity is best seen in the rear view mirror, and that the faithful ought to live primarily on the defensive.

One of the things that practically leaps off the page as I read through the Pentateuch, Joshua and (especially) Judges is the Sovereignty of God even in the degree of success we have in what we do.

- The giving of the promised land to Israel was after the Amorites' sin demanded God's judgment.
- Rahab affirmed that she knew "that the Lord has given you the land and that the fear of you has fallen upon us and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you." The people in Jericho recognized the presence of the True God, and that any attempt to fight against him was hopeless. (Josh 2:9-11)
- The defeat at Ai was directly related to sin in Israel's camp.
- God chastened Israel for failing to possess the land, and refused to eject the remaining foreigners. (Judges 2:1-3):

¹ The angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, "I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land that I swore to give to your forefathers. I said, 'I will never break my covenant with you, ² and you shall not make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall break down their altars.' Yet you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this? ³ Now therefore I tell you that I will not drive them out before you; they will be thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you."

- Israel's cycle: Rebellion, the Rule of foreigners over them, Repentance, and Rescue happened over and over and over in Judges and beyond.

God explicitly, and repeatedly directed Israel to honor the covenant, and reject idolatry, lest the hand of God turn against them.

Here are two references:

^{Deut 28: 46-48} They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever. Because you did not serve the LORD your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the LORD sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.

Another one, in the larger context of that famous passage where Joshua pledges his household to the service of God was Joshua 24: 14-24. Israel responded saying they would too. Joshua called them liars. They still insisted they would be faithful to God.

Then what happened? Did they man up and do it?

Nope. The godly leadership died. Joshua who had a vital relationship died. Then those who had been eyewitnesses to the hand of God on and through Joshua died. The very next generation were wicked and served the Baals.

This is where we find ourselves today. The so-called Post-Christian generation. People are panicking because God and his Word seem to have little cultural influence.

Has the gospel lost its power? Is the devil in charge? Is it the Last days? Is it time to hop on the Rapture bus?

Hang on just a minute.

Revisit the pattern. (It's outlined in Judges 2:11-23)
God's established people have a measure of comfort, wealth and stability.
They forget what it means to be a covenant people.
They begin to live in a way that forgets God.
They get smacked around by their enemies.
They cry out to God.
He rescues them.
They repeat the process.

Now: Who is responsible for the strength of the enemies?
It was not the world or the devil. It was God.
Why? Because he cared about Israel enough to chastise them. (Heb 12:6)

I hear the objection now... "How could a loving God do such a thing?"

Let's look at the list. There were raiders, Cuahan-rishathaim, Moabites, Jabin, Abimelech (not even a foreigner), Midians, Philistines, Ammonites, civil war with Ephraim, Philistines again, and the tribe of Benjamin. To say nothing of what happens AFTER the book of Judges: civil wars, wars with neighbors, Assyria, Babylon, Medes and Persians, Greece, Rome... and so on.

Did God do this?

He claims to have done it.
Judges 2:13-14, 3:8; 4:2; 6:1-10-- and so on.

So, how CAN we reconcile the picture of a loving God we see with this text?
-Some might take an OT / NT spin on this and dismiss it as irrelevant for today.
Nope. It doesn't address core questions, like what happens now when we are stymied by the enemies of the gospel. It also falsifies scripurtes like (2 Tim 3:16).
-Some might say God permitted it. No, it uses an active voice. God gave them into the hand of... in direct response to sin.
- If God is portrayed in any sense as a helpless observer to influences (whether human or demonic) that wreck things God would rather not see wrecked, then such a god cannot actively help us. You have effectively embraced deism. It is good that we do not preach such a god.
-So does this endanger God's love for us?
Never! We just need a more correct view of love.
A child being spanked for running into traffic without looking, or playing with matches is loved. The brief moment of painful reminder lovingly applied to jr.'s backside is a small price to pay for the larger goal of NOT being either flat or crispy.

If we fully accept the Biblical representation of eternal judgment of sin by the perfectly Holy Son of God, we put our present sufferings into context.

War, famine, displacement, disrupted families, and all those other things can serve to redirect a wayward people back to God. Some suffering here - however sharp - while being reconciled to God for eternity is infinitely better than a quiet life here and now followed by an eternity of judgment.

What is God's promise?, Christ guarded the little Church in Philadelphia (Rev 3:10), while the other ones suffered.
So he CAN actively protect us. But sometimes, it seems that such protection is not in our best interests, be it for our Christian witness, or for our character.

God is well-able to breathe life into ourselves, our congregations, and our nations.
But how much do we really WANT it?

Will we humble ourselves and pray?
Will you?