I’ve always aspired to not be an alarmist in my writing. There are plenty of places around the web where you can get that sort of thing. Now I’m wondering if that’s been misguided. Isn’t a large part of the reason our world is in the mess it is because Christians haven’t been alarmist enough? If we had been more diligent in holding fast to the Word of God and adhering to His commands and standards, I doubt we would find ourselves where we do today.
History is an excellent teacher, and looking back over the past 250 years, we see the state in which we find ourselves is not so much because of any sudden or recent developments, but rather the result of a long slow slide.
So, maybe it’s time we all became alarmists. Our entire world is on the brink of a great precipice. God’s standard is no longer respected. Instead, we have everyone running around preaching their own flawed morality and norms. Because we don’t want to sound like alarmists, followers of Jesus have been sitting back quietly, trusting God to take care of everything. There is no doubt God could indeed set everything right in less than a second, but that isn’t the world He created. Our sovereign God created a world where He invites humans to play a role in how the world operates. That gives us the responsibility to not just watch things happen around us, but to jump in and impact what is happening.
For too long, we’ve sat on the sidelines watching. We don’t want to get too involved. Doing something–anything!–infringes on our selfish lives. It’s easier to leave the heavy lifting to other people. We know how the story ends, so why trouble ourselves with standing up, standing out, and standing in the way of the evil permeating the earth? This isn’t about politics or activism, although it may be long overdue for followers of Jesus to engage in both. What it’s about is standing firm on the Word of God and not allowing the spirit of this age to overtake the Church of this age. We know Satan cannot defeat the Church (Matthew 16:18), but that won’t stop him from doing everything he can to destroy parts of it.
The long slow slide happened because we were asleep at the wheel. When the world began creeping into our lives, classrooms, and churches, we were too busy to notice. While keeping an eye on the front door, we left the windows and back door unguarded. Every once in a while, someone would stand up and issue a warning, but we quickly dismissed them as alarmists. Now we see we all should have paid more attention to their warnings. We see we all should have been alarmists. The long slow slide is almost complete. It’s going to take a massive amount of work and resolve to turn it around. I’m not confident today’s Christians have the stomach for the fight. Don’t just pray for a remnant, be part of it. Sound the alarm. Be bold and take action. We’re almost out of time.