The End of Christendom and Evil Unleashed

Overall I am greatly appreciative of Martyn Lloyd-Jones when it comes to the Kingdom and issues regarding Christendom. He was repeatedly sceptical regarding attempts to forge a Christian society and deemed all such endeavours as doomed to failure.

And yet he was not always consistent. Often he would assume that Christendom produced a general morality and that society in some ways had reflected Christian values and was (in the 20^th century) departing from them.

It's complicated of course because there was a certain type of morality in place during previous generations that has most certainly been abandoned. And yet as I have argued elsewhere it may be that it was rooted less in Christian values but rather in the values of a conservative economic and social order. Such arrangements are not necessarily Christian. The Roman Republic (as opposed to the Empire) is but one example.

With regard to the more recent status of the West, there was indeed a veneer of morality and virtue, a sheen of Christianity put forth by the largely false manifestations of Constantinian Christianity and yet these also served as a smokescreen and cover for the gross immorality and anti-Christian values promoted by and engaged in by these same political and cultural entities.

Now stripped of the Christian veneer, some of these immoral stances appear in a different light and Christians find themselves wrestling with not only the present realities but how to understand the past. The tendency is romanticise, something Lloyd-Jones consistently avoided. He clearly loved history and yet he wasn't afraid to address it head on and challenge the hagiography of the partisan... even within his own theological circles.

Listening to an old sermon I was struck by a comment he made in which he suggested that as Christian influence declines, the demonic realm is waxing bold.

Once again, Lloyd-Jones is to be commended. All too often the demonic is something downplayed or ignored by the Reformed community. Its realities and dangers are often all but swallowed up and disappear under the aegis of Divine Sovereignty and predestination. Leaving Pentecostalism aside, the reality is that much of Evangelicalism is in reality something akin to Deistic in its day-to-day approach to life and its interaction with the universe.

While the concepts of Divine Sovereignty and predestination are most certainly Biblical and true, the Scriptural presentation is different and largely unconcerned regarding parallels, tensions and multifaceted concepts which seem prima facie to contradict one another.

Lloyd-Jones while not wholly exempt from the influences of Scholasticism was nevertheless enough of a Biblicist to set aside concerns for coherence and instead demand obedience to the text. At least that is so when it comes to questions of supernatural evil. Lloyd-Jones saw evil and suffering in his life and was unwilling to dispense with them (or the reality of their influence) in the name of the theological consistency.

One certainly understands what Lloyd-Jones meant with regard to our culture. One would have to be blind to not believe the demonic realm is waxing bold in our present day. And yet I would tweak his statement. I don't believe the decline of Christian influence has opened the door.

Rather I would suggest that as the veneer of Christendom collapses, as the curtain comes down, we're now able to see with greater clarity what has been going on all the time... if we (and those before us) only had the eyes to see.

Additionally, there is much to suggest that demonic activity has transitioned in our modern age. The old forms and folklores have been transformed. The same evils and activities are afoot but have been adjusted in order (it would seem) to accommodate the techno-industrial age. Much more could be said along those lines but that's for another time.

The future will in many aspects be unlike any recent historical past that we can seriously reflect on and interact with. Looking at everything from nanotechnology, quantum physics, attitudes regarding space exploration, AI and genetics, Scientism is the new religion of the day... and yet this age of seeming secularism is quickly becoming overtly 'spiritual' and metaphysical in what the theorists are exploring. Idealism (which I believe is inevitable but also inevitably wrong) is once again taking hold. Michio Kaku, Stephen Hawking and others may speak of theoretical physics but in reality they are metaphysicians, theologians of the new order.

The future is looking more and more magical, metaphysical and reminiscent of the antediluvian era and the age of legend.... are they legends come true or are they days to be revisited? It's certainly something to ponder.