From the desk of Larry Foldoe
The trusted delegates and scholars were in a struggle. There was so much disagreement, clashes of opinion and heated discussion with little resolution to their task. After more than three weeks of closed-door meetings, these men representing the thirteen colonies had made little progress in creating a government that fit their needs. It was then that the elderly Benjamin Franklin rose to his feet and spoke these words to the chairman and assembly: “I have lived, Sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth – that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?” With those timely words, Franklin urged for a motion to start every morning with, “prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations.”
We need to understand that this same man in his youth was known as a Deist – that is, he believed that while God created the world and men; He, like a clock-maker, wound it up and left it on its own. Obviously, the latter years and certainly the most recent of them – those of the revolutionary war with its many harrowing escapes and incredible victory – adjusted his theology.
Perhaps there are some of us Americans that need to have our theology adjusted, too. For truly an act of God saved Donald Trump from certain death. God does govern in the affairs of men. He does raise up or bring down whom He chooses to paraphrase Daniel 2:21.
Lately I have pondered another verse of scripture that warns us about the deception of a hands-off theology. Peter says, “Know this first of all that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking following after their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue just as they were from the beginning of creation.’” (2 Peter 3:3-4)
It is interesting that Peter saw this attitude of the world as a characteristic of the last days. And dare I say, it is this very philosophy that grips our age right now. It slams its fist onto the desk of academia and will tolerate only evolution as the explanation of our origin. Its cruel mandate – survival of the fittest – has been used to justify racism, oppressions, murders, and genocides. It has even bullied its way into Christian seminaries and we are expected to accept millions of years of death by claw and fang as a creation God could pronounce “good.” This “all things continue as they are” kind of reasoning has stripped our past, removing the miracles from the Bible, and robbed our future, “where is the hope of His coming?” Instead of love, beauty, peace and wisdom being our beginning we have ignorance, violence, and death. And finally, since they have removed from the Bible the supernatural activity of God, how can there be faith that He is going to return?
How can such a twisted teaching of the Bible happen, or worse, why is it popular?
Peter goes on to explain it is because of their “lusts.” That coarse word is the sum of desire; a desire that must be satisfied above all else. In the original Greek it can even mean a strong desire for the good of someone or a noble cause. But here, Peter is speaking of selfish desire: i.e. to have money, fame, power, and most certainly sex.
So, when and how did we modern people take God out of the picture? It came principally from across the ocean, from the land of Martin Luther, Germany. It was in those proud seminaries founded by the great reformer’s predecessors that an intense scholarship of the Hebrew text of the Old Testament developed into what became “higher criticism” – a lofty examination of the ancient writings that casts doubt upon the long-held veracity of the Bible – claiming that the scriptures had been edited over time and that those events recorded as supernatural were “myths.” Thus, began an academic tide of unbelief that swept European universities and seminaries and finally the world. It was said you could walk into those institutions and hear faith breaking. Those that held to the Bible being true in all that it told, were labeled “fundies” because of the fundamental beliefs they held. This theology, without faith in God’s miracles, found itself helpless to withstand the social Darwinism of the Nazi party that said a human was nothing more than soil and blood, and justified unleashing the hell of World War II. The tyranny and the horror of that war and many others is the final outworking of the attitude Peter warns about.
Now we are heirs of this modern thinking. We must be careful to see where the slope begins because the change is so subtle. What can we say but first of all, these mockers were following their own lusts. One of the greatest deterrents to evil in a society is the arm of justice that stretches from God himself as His word, His laws and the judgment that befell those who defied His rule. This is a very important and real part of the divine record. Throw away the flood and violence to your neighbor is excused. Remove the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah and rape with sexual perversions are allowed. (The deniers hide from the public the evidence of archeology; the fossil record of a world-wide flood and brimstone-burnt cities near the Dead Sea of Israel.)
The Bible proves that God is active and involves Himself in human experience. Not only does He use the Bible examples and law to guide nations, but He has given the miracle of conversion in Christ to transform each individual. How desperately we need this change! Though we have a noble beginning, from our creator – a conscience acting as a compass to guide our will – it is often ignored or even rendered inoperable as a matter of choice to do evil. Paul wisely observed, “… their conscience has been seared as if with a hot iron,” (1 Timothy 4:2) making them no longer sensitive to its gentle impulses.
These evil men, having freed themselves from their guide, they will now teach that there is no judgment of God on the wicked, no fear of divine justice, since all things continue in a regular way. This further implies that God is an absent creator-father, or worse, is indifferent to the fate of his children. What mockery of the long-suffering love of God who is withholding judgment until every belligerent heart has had opportunity to respond to him! Is it any wonder that these ‘teachers-become-leaders’ cheer and promote a fatherless society; and a humanity that will chide and silence any talk of a returning savior and restorer of a broken world. It’s hard to believe that it all can begin with the lie that all things continue as they have from the start.
Aw, but God has been present and has blessed our country, answering the prayers of those first state delegates, giving them opportunity and prosperity that has created a free nation of middle-class owners – a free people with a government and constitution that is the envy of all free-thinkers in the world. Sadly, in this century we have had leaders/politicians that have circumvented and reinterpreted much of that important document to suit their own designs, leaving us with an enormous national debt, a poorer middle class and a looming threat of world war. Their governance has increased social woes that amount to more crime, confusion about gender, and rights for artificial intelligence we are rapidly developing. And though the instigators of all this madness seem to have no fear of God entering the arena, He indeed has. The eyes of many have been opened. With the miraculous preservation of the life of one leader espousing common sense in the face of hatred you now hear, “God turned his head, he was spared by the hand of God.” “God sent an angel to protect him.” “It is by the grace of God that he is alive.” If the civilized world was shocked by the gunshots of the assassin, they are even more stunned by the multitude of voices declaring the truth of God’s obvious protection.
God, our loving father, has caused a shift in our conversation, our faith, and our thinking. Assured of His undeniable presence, there is now a growing hope for a brighter tomorrow and the chance to create a better legacy of freedom for our children. You see, it matters if you believe that God governs in the affairs of men.
Larry Foldoe