For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes…Romans 1:16
At this moment, a youth is leaving his house with a contract in his pocket, a gun in his waist and murder in his heart, on the way to find a victim. And meanwhile, in another place, a woman is battered again, masked men invade a property, a drunk driver kills an old man. Adulteries, dance-hall licentiousness, bobols, character assassinations, various crimes and compromises continue across the land, even as politicians fall into ever deepening paralysis because of the same old political shenanigans. The tsunami of escalating food and energy prices, global economic alarms, sudden terrorist attacks, mortgage foreclosures and other contemporary disasters approaches our shores rapidly, but, across town, the popular radio station invites its listeners to join the bakanal even as the latest superstar arrives for yet another jam and w(h)ine, ‘skin to skin’, concert.
Ok, so it’s not the full picture, since schools are open, buses are running, supermarkets are full, police are on the beat, babies are born, weddings are scheduled, new buildings are going up and distinguished citizens are passing to their eternal rest. And many people are responsible citizens and family members. At best government and its offices are making real, measurable efforts to improve the quality of life. In fact, we have not fallen into utter chaos because more right-thinking people outnumber the criminals.
So why start off on a negative note?
Well, the microcosm we start off with delineates a nagging problem everywhere in the world and threatens the collapse of our societies. Nothing in that first paragraph is unfamiliar to readers. Everything there, and more that you can add, is growing, not lessening. It is becoming the norm, not the aberration. The likelihood of dying violently and unexpectedly during any day hangs increasingly as a real possibility over each of us.
Thoughtful people in our Caribbean and Saint Lucia who can remember a safer time retreat more and more into their barred communities. Terror is the word of the day, every day. Most expect government to provide solutions and protection. Governments are faced with overwhelming challenges. Including the daily nagging and opportunism of political rivals. The world looks to new leaders, but the great expectations cannot be met and inevitable disappointment is palpable.
Must we not do whatever we can to make our town and village corner a better and more secure place? To help a child in need? To offer comfort to a lonely elder citizen? To protect the brutalized mother? To obey the laws? To turn our music down? To respect others? To work hard at our jobs? To behave ourselves appropriately? And so on? Of course, we must. In our striving to do good, we counter the lawlessness of the day.
But anxieties remain. Can we ever see the back of crime and badness? Is there a final solution to the world’s problems?
The Christian Church, across its denominations, gives a resounding affirmation that this world, with its overwhelming corruption and violence — as in the days of Noah — is coming to an end. The Scriptures teach that God “has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” [Acts 17:31]. The Christian Gospel, against all the doubting of our minds, senses and sensational headlines, offers hope and good news.
As the years accumulate, and as the world earlier generations grew up in has disintegrated into criminality, noise, obscenity, aggression, illiteracy, irreverence, disrespect — the more believers become convinced of the truth of Biblical perspectives on man and his world. Every day we know more and more that God exists, He has not been silent, He has spoken to mankind and He Himself has come to earth in the Person of Jesus Christ. I know and am certain with my intellect and emotion, that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour of this sin-bound world; that He is the Lord of all creation; that He is the Ruler of Earth and the universe; that He will return to this galaxy as the promised Judge of all mankind. And I know and am certain that, beyond this ecologically ravaged planet, waits a “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” [2 Peter 3: 13.]
The uncomfortable Bible truth proclaims that this globe and its defiant wickedness are doomed: “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.” [2 Peter 3:10]. Looking at the world today, and our island, is there not a common-sense logic to that Bible revelation? How can Saint Lucia and the world continue as they are going? There must come an end to the present state of affairs across our islands and continents.
Because Christians hold this eschatological (end-time) view of human history, do we sit twiddling our thumbs in our church ghettos, waiting for apocalypse? Our Master Jesus Christ commands His disciples to go into all the world with the good news of salvation, to be “salt and light”, to be a force for good, and to prepare our fellow human beings for the coming of the Kingdom of God. Wherever we find ourselves, we strive, by faith, to counter the perverse climate of the day.
The reality is that the mass of people mock these Bible truths and reject them. The majority, as in Noah’s time, are giving themselves up to increasing depravity and wickedness. Men will keep looking for solutions in their failed states, and deny the existence of the Creator God. Christ is blasphemed, especially during this season when drunkenness and immorality are exalted and popular songs are filled with raunchy lyrics. The only way out of our moral confusions, out of all the misery and unhappiness, out of the addictions and imprisonments of sin- is despised and refused.
You can already hear the scornful mockings – but many of us do believe that the ultimate solutions to our great, intractable problems at home and abroad, are found only in the Biblical teachings of the Christian gospel. And we believe that only the return of King Jesus Christ to establish the Kingdom of God will deliver us from the present distress. For those who possess spiritual discernment, there is no doubt that we are passing through the final days of human history. For those who sense the truth of these words, the Scriptures exhort, “Since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness…? [2 Peter 3:11]. Not only the wider world, but we, in our own weaknesses, vulnerabilities and besetting sins, need strength every day to live as God calls us to. “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” The meaning of Christmas rests not only in a Bethlehem manger, but in the accompanying promise of a mighty God and risen King (Easter) who will appear in majesty and terrifying glory to judge this world and the people of Saint Lucia, “in such an hour as you think not.” “See then that you are also ready.”.