I’ve remained mostly silent throughout most of the election process, which still appears to not be over. I’m not so arrogant as to believe that I could sway somebody’e deeply held opinion. Few are open to opposing opinions to begin with, so why bother? Studies show that very, very few have their opinions change at all in an election season.
One thing has been clear from the beginning, however, was that no matter who won (or wins, as it is right now) the world is about to get darker. COVID, riots, lockdowns, anger at the other side of the political divide, everything is ratcheting up. Yes, Biden called for unity and healing, but that’s what you do when you win only 50.4% of the vote. If he is actually sincere about that, there’s every indication that his followers and political allies are not. AOC recently called for making Trump Supporters be put on a list and have real world consequences for their votes. Ten years, twenty years ago, that would be unthinkable language. But now it’s all too common. Whichever party it is that speaks this rhetoric doesn’t matter to me. It is the language of tyranny and we are in for a dose of darkness, again, no matter who won. And social media is the meth-amphetamine of the masses.
I have no doubt that eventually this darkness is going to reach its shadowy tendrils toward the Church, and we are looking at our freedoms being curbed. They could do it during a lockdown. So why not without one? Evangelical circles were fairly solidly pre-Trump. “Wrongthink” is a pandemic too, no?
I’m not a prophet. Even if I was I wouldn’t want to be, and I’d speak very carefully and rarely. But, it seems clear that the Church is about to go through some struggles.
The virus has made us question and stretch in directions we hadn’t been able to when we were in comfort. Some are questioning the very goodness of God. Others are wondering why we are bowing the knee to the government at all and wrestling with what it means to be “submissive to all authority”. Others still are beginning to wonder if we aren’t actually better off with home groups for church rather than a massive campus.
All of this is happening at a time of great social instability. Lies are propagated as truth and in a normal society when the truth was discovered there would be a correction. Many these days are doubling down on the lie when the truth is revealed. Our speech is actively being controlled and our minds are being influenced and changed without an argument to by had. This can only lead to deeper cracks, and deeper division.
This is not the comfy, posture-pedic, powder blue cross of the 80’s FEC that promised nothing but health, wealth, and God’s favor of prosperity if we just vote the right way. We could very well be standing at the edge of becoming the persecuted church, no matter who sits in the oval office. And we have to come to grips with it. We are about to enter a squall that threatens to cause our ship of faith to list severely. Some will hang on. Others will let go or abandon ship. I want to encourage you to dig deeper into your faith as things seem to fall apart around you.
There’s a scene in “Master and Commander” where the ship is tilting in the storm and one old salt is clinging to the rail for all he is worth. Across his knuckles is tattooed the words “Hold Fast”. Check in with your brothers and sisters, you who can smell the storm. Because many of them if they are ok now, might not be soon because the “Where is God in this?” question can be an eternal question on loop that can scuttle the strongest looking soul.
I was thinking about all of this this morning when suddenly the story of Shaddrach, Meshach, and Abednego came to mind. Doing the dishes, minding my own business and there it was in full technicolor like I was watching a movie. There they stood while others knelt. There was the king, red faced, foaming at the mouth having their hands bound as they were led to the Fiery Furnace for the crime of not bowing.
Shaddrach looked up and spoke the words that have wrung in my head all day. “Our God can save us. But even if He doesn’t…we won’t bow.”
Consider this: These three young men were rock solid in their faith in God. But, why? By all accounts they should have given up their faith long ago. Their families died. Their city burned. God’s temple was desecrated and destroyed. What was left of their nation was forced into exile and slavery. One of the prophets even accuses God of having abandoned the Davidic covenant and questions God’s faithfulness. These three men are in service to the king who caused all of these tragedies. But still they believe. Contrary to all the evidence to the contrary, they believe in the goodness and rightness of God.
This king destroyed their nation and their temple. Why in the world would they not bow before his image? He was clearly more powerful than the God they had grown up serving. They had never seen God move. They had never seen God at all.
When did they see Him? When did they finally see a move of God that was undeniable?
In the middle of the furnace.
Finding Narnia 
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