Approximately a year ago the Bible Society (UK) published a report from a reputable polling firm that strongly suggested that there was ‘A Quiet Revival’ taking place. Highly encouraging. They have now removed that from their site with the out-of-house company (YouGov) acknowledging that the survey was deeply flawed. Disappointing? Yes. And the Bible Society has honourably met it head on.
I am sure that many are disappointed as it would be awesome news to hear of people (particularly younger people who do not have a church background) coming to faith. There is nothing more valuable than being connected to the God of heaven and that relationship growing. And yet…
Here is a video I bumped into from a guy called Steve who is a YouTube blogger and who confesses that he is an atheist. Of course someone from the opposite ‘camp’ is going to be happy when the statistics are shown to be not accurate but his video is not vitriolic at any level… and it goes much deeper in its response. I recommend watching right through (or if not from 10:00 onwards) or if you wish read my comments below first.
For some time I have been advocating that we have to look to unlikely sources for the (prophetic) voice of God. We have been disappointed by the farce that has come out regarding some of the mainstream prophetic voices across the pond, but this does not mean God is silent.
Steve in the video exposes how ‘Christian faith’ has been colonised to serve an agenda that bears no resemblance to the agenda Jesus set out. How the term ‘Christian’ has become something other than what it was intended – so much so that Richard Dawkins (of ‘The God Delusion’ fame) is now a Christian – a ‘cultural Christian’, and still believes that the very idea of ‘God’ is a delusion!
Christendom is over (see the link I gave a few days ago to Jeff Fountain’s newsletter: The Constantine Trap) and yet there is a serious attempt in numerous settings to breathe new life into it. And beware we must be… the beasts among us have this ability to have the head wounded but come to life again – even if the life is only prolonged for a short period of time (so many smart insights in that book). There still needs to be vigilence – and for Gayle and I we plan with others a visit to Istanbul to at least to say ‘we are awake so still are keeping watch’. Hopefully with the others we might be able to say a little more than that.
If we can hold out against Christendom the next on the agenda is mammon – hence it is not surprising that so much is being shaken right now. (Money is not mammon, but mammon has colonised money… the colonisation of Christianity to an agenda as outlined in the video is a parallel example.)
I am both disappointed that the ‘quiet revival’ is not as claimed… and also not disappointed as we have to go deeper. We are not here to be satisfied with a pat on the back that indicates that at last we are proved right. There is so much more.
Tomorrow (mañana – means something like tomorrow, or perhaps some time in the future) I plan to put up a video to go along with my paper on ‘All Israel will be saved’; part of what I have been reading in Rom. 11 is challenging as indeed it was in Paul’s day. A ‘hardening has come on part of Israel’ (not the same hardening as was on Pharaoh and more like an inability to see beyond)… but the part that has provoked me is what he follows it with: ‘so that…’ The so that in Paul’s day was so that the Gentiles could come in and in they came without submitting to the edicts of the Torah. Some (the majority) of Israel could not see it, but those with sight could see that God, as always, was at work way outside of the boxes they had previously drawn.
Disappointed? But I am asking ‘so that’? What is the ‘so that?’ that is taking place.
More to come that will disappoint us for this is not a short season. But atheists speaking truth and truth to power? Bring it on. There is more where that came from.