World financial crisis
Antidote to a pandemic
My 2007-08 Superannuation Statement
wasn’t a happy read.
My account had gone backwards. Stock and company crashes, shrinking retirement nest eggs, job losses and grim warnings of an ugly 2009. It seems that the Bible was right all along.
‘Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.’ (1 Timothy 6:6-10)
Unbridled greed and the love of money will account for much of the present financial crisis.
I recently heard the Church of England Bishop Graham Cray state that safety, security, comfort and convenience are Western priorities today, making disciples inside as well as outside the church; and that the religion of the 21st century and the chief rival to God is consumerism. Hard to argue with that.
Anti-Christ forces are at work here, offering neo-spiritual fulfillment through consumption, hope of personal and corporate heaven on earth through wealth accumulation and techno-gadgetry, and even turning religion into a smorgasbord of consumer choices based not on truth but on personal tastes, desires and experiences.
What do you imagine is the antidote to this global pandemic of Affluenza?
If it is at base a spiritual malady, a Satanic deception and God-substitute (‘Babylon the great’ in Revelation 18 sounds a lot like our Western world today!), then it follows that the only effective antidote is a spiritual one, a Christian one.
It is the church of Jesus Christ being true to her calling: fearlessly proclaiming the news that Jesus Christ is Lord, and God’s command that all people repent of their idolatries, because he has fixed a Day and a Judge (Acts 17:30-31).
Those who repent and believe in Christ become a new creation, and begin to live for him who died for them and was raised (2 Corinthians 5:15, 17).
Is this our message and our experience?
This church-administered antidote also requires the church to be in the world, loving and serving neighbour and enemy alike (Matthew 5:43-48; 22:39), being light and salt in a dark, rotting place (Matthew 5:13-16), commending the gospel and Christ with demonstrations of his love, mercy, and holiness.
How are your congregations and home groups doing that? What might happen if our home groups devoted a term each year to putting down the books and engaging and serving a segment of the community in some way?
If people won’t hear the gospel, we must show them!
Our congregations should be a compelling alternative to self-absorbed, greedy and lonely individualism: a community of forgiven idolaters driven and shaped by the cross and love of Christ, indwelt and empowered by the Holy Spirit, living together under the reign of Christ, anticipating his return and living in the light of it. Do visitors to your church gatherings and home groups see this love, holiness and hope?
Western Christians are rich by world’s standards.
Our apostle says to us:
‘As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.’ (1 Timothy 6:17-19; cf. Matthew 6:19-34; 1 John 2:15-17; Colossians 3:5)
I’ve put away my Superannuation Statement, but not the Bible. There God reminded me that my inheritance in Christ is untouched by the global financial system and really worth living for.
‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you...’ (1 Peter 1:3-4)
David Rogers-Smith