No Apocalypse Now: Be Calm, Be Joyful

Last updated on: February 20, 2017 at 10:51 pm by John Mark N. Reynolds

No Apocalypse Now: Be Calm, Be Joyful 2017-02-20T22:51:04-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

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We are in difficult times, as we always are. The church needs revival, but the revival we need will not come with panic or demonizing our foes. We will not “win” by adopting a “by any means strategy” so becoming the people we fear, but by love, prayer, and work. A great failure of modern apologetics has been (God help me!) to adopt an “us versus them” strategy.

Instead, we should have said that it is all of us versus the Almighty and in that judgment nobody is righteous, no not one. We might get the ideas right, but our implementation is often foolish. The battle for our times is the battle for the souls of individuals. If the Holy Spirit comes to enough of us, then the culture will change.

The message of angels is always: Fear not! It is never: Let’s kill the Romans! Constantine the Great had it right. We did not conquer by the sign of the Eagles of Rome, but in the Cross. If he implemented this imperfectly, this great man got the big thing right. He was not afraid. He fought, and he happened to win, but he was never apocalyptic.

Leave the apocalypse to Saint John and his revelations. We have work to do.

The people I know who have lived, or do live, in nightmarish situations are the ones writing the least about the “battles of civilization” or the “clash of world views.” They ask for prayer, are often joyful, and keep things in perspective. Often they are thankful to be able to witness for the Gospel and describe their own unworthiness.

Of such is the Kingdom and by God’s grace such we all will be. There is a clash between light and darkness. My dad told me when he has walking me home, I could not have been ten, that we would live to see the dark grow ever darker. He was sad that this was so, but he did not end there. He told me that in such a time the light would grow brighter.

My job was to witness to the light I have seen.

One thing they do not do is talk about being doomed or the ruin of the times. Instead, they ask that we help particular people, love justice, and show mercy. The answer to evil is to double down on love. My church has lived under Islam for centuries. There is no illusion about the falsity of this demonic faith. Yet the people are souls created in the Image of God. Many a Saracen is a better person than more than a few of us Christians.

Islam is false. We are not afraid to say this, but we are also not afraid to say that love includes those with false beliefs. In the clash of ideas, there are no people we would not redeem. Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Milo, the Pope, Putin are all God’s children. We must (God help us!) condemn the evil done by any of them, but not as if we have a particular handle on righteousness.

If the apocalypse is coming, judgment will begin with us. What is new? No people is righteous, no people is utterly wicked. There are no orcs and no elves in our time; no people beyond mercy (orcs) or beyond evil (elves). Putin can find grace, Trump can find grace, Clinton can find grace.

So we oppose vice: homosexuality is sin (for example), but so is my overeating. We do not live in the clash of civilizations, but in the long running battle between good and evil that takes place in our hearts, in my heart. If you hear a voice that sounds as if he knows he is on the side of the angels, then he is on the side of devils. Nobody is all right. Nobody is all wrong.

None of that prevents us from saying: Islam is a false religion, the sexual decadence of the West is sickening, and the culture of televangelism is polluting higher education. These are truths, but no person is just their errors as no person is just their virtues.

The college program where I work has adopted three words as our guide: Wisdom, Virtue, Joy. We must seek wisdom, live virtuous lives, and find joy. If doom comes, then may we be found doing our duty joyfully, eyes wide open, and singing the songs of Zion.

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