Much has already been written about the so-called philosophies that underlie much of the recent upsurge in gender confusion and victim culture and the problems which they have spawned. So much of what we see becoming standard thinking is not only irrational, anti-social and profoundly undemocratic, but at heart it is simply about replacing God by myself and my own desires and ambitions. Of course, the consequences are going to be catastrophic. One of the ancients observed, “Whom the Gods wish to destroy they first make mad.”
As we look around the world today, we see this already happening. Genders are being confused in the face of obvious physical and psychological differences between male and female and in the same breath we hear of complaints about girls being raped in unisex school toilets. However much money is poured into it, the National Health Service hasn’t a hope of catching up with the avalanche of mentally ill patients created by such manifestly stupid and damaging thinking. It will surely not be long before it becomes accepted wisdom that the earth is indeed flat rather than spherical. Is there no end to this constant outpouring of illogicality?
So how do we handle this as Christians?
We need to acknowledge that most of us haven’t a clue about the philosophical offerings of Marx, Gramschi, Marcuse and Foucault, but we must not shy away from exposing the dire societal consequences of their thinking. God’s holy Word provides us with one clear answer. The prophet Elijah confronted something similar at Mount Carmel. In the face of a very unbelieving and cynical audience, he invited the prophets of Baal to build an altar and ask their god to set fire to their offering. Precisely nothing happened, but Elijah was not exactly kind to them as they shouted and cut themselves to bits in their vain attempts to get Baal to do his stuff. He indulged himself in a bit of hilarious ridicule. “What, no answer? Your God must be having an afternoon nap or maybe he’s out of town today!”
However, the scene at Carmel teaches us that when we call on the Lord God Almighty as we seek to publicly honour His Name and trust His power, amazing things will happen. Even after Elijah had poured water all over the offering and surrounded it by a wet ditch to boot, God combusted the lot and the water evaporated. Immediately the people of Israel realised that they had been following a false religion. They fell down on their faces and acknowledged that there was actually only one true God.
The total silence from our bishops and church leaders in the face of this onslaught has been predictably deafening. And yet it would be quite wrong to criticise them for their timidity. Nobody wants to be cancelled and certainly we don’t. We have to realise that the Lord will need to raise up a very special man or woman of His choice to take on this supremely difficult and risky task. For as St. Paul so aptly reminds us in Ephesians 6, “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
We must by now realise that our great God will have to raise up a new Elijah to speak with His Divine authority to today’s deaf and self-centred society. It will need to be someone who commands public respect because of his previous life, someone with genuine competence in handling both traditional and electronic media and someone who can communicate both the judgment and the Gospel of God in a clear, concise and hard-hitting way – maybe even knowing how to throw in a little humour along the way. It’s way beyond the run of us mere mortals, but it has happened before – think of St. Athanasius, St. Francis of Assisi, John Wesley, George Whitfield or even Billy Graham.
We must now get down to serious prayer, regularly, sincerely, and objectively for the Lord to raise up such a person to speak to our nation. After all, the glory of God is at stake and we are here on earth primarily to bring glory to the Lord who saves us, keeps us and finally brings us to heaven, where we will glorify God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit for ever and ever.
