By: Tom Bartlett, FBB Contributor

In my favourite Looney Tunes episode Yosemite Sam once again tries to eradicate Bugs Bunny. But as usual, he fails. First, Bugs draws a line in the sand and dares his nemesis to step over it. Sam steps over the line, reluctantly at first, but as no penalty follows, when Bugs draws another line he becomes increasingly bold, defiantly stepping over line after line until Bugs eventually cajoles his rival into stepping off a cliff. 

This is a good illustration of how Christians have been treated in the real world, except just the opposite. For too long we allowed secularists to draw the lines that defined acceptable expressions of faith in the public square. Instead of taking guidance from the early apostles and defying those lines (Acts 5:29), in a horrible reversal of the Yosemite Sam role, as the line defining acceptable public Christian expression kept being redrawn, Christians stepped back again and again, ceding more and more ground to a worldview developed in direct opposition to God and His Word.

What does this mean practically? Using the explicit governmental acceptance of abortion in the late 1960s as a benchmark,[1] followed by decades of tepid Christian resistance, it is safe to say that for two generations North American Christians failed to be either salt or light (Mat. 5:13-16). Instead, apart from a handful of heroic individuals and churches, we hardly raised a peep as godless governments stomped out the remaining embers of the light intended to illuminate our world’s collective path (Ps. 119:11,105).

In 2016, the Cambridge English dictionary declared “post-truth” to be the word of the year. Not surprisingly, the foundation for this cultural descriptor came about after the determination was made that we live in a post-Christian age. This happened on our watch, ladies and gentlemen—because an impotent church failed to stand against the forces of godlessness. We didn’t even defend the truth inside our own communities. In effect we invited Delilah’s barbers into our tent and went to sleep, trusting they wouldn’t cut away any more spiritual strength than we would have given up had we been awake.

When Christ said, “Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s” (Mat.22:21), he did not mean the state was entitled to take whatever areas of influence it wanted, with a few leavings for God and his people. Rather, the Bible makes clear that God defines what authority is delegated to the state and how it is to be used for the benefit of all. Scripture teaches that the state’s job is to restrain evil (Rom. 13:1-7), but it is equally clear that to the extent governments fail to restrain evil (as defined by God), or become evil, it is the earthly leaders of those governments who become usurpers and outlaws (Isaiah 14:12-21; Ezekiel 28:20-23; Acts 12:20-25). Governments have painted quiescent Christianity as a fringe movement dedicated to trampling on the rights of others, lacking in compassion, deeply ignorant, and holding a deplorable level of prejudice toward everything godly.

Worse, we agreed with those who’ve insisted that Christians keep their values and influence out of the public sphere. We were wilfully blind to the modern version of Satan’s deception in the Garden of Eden. That is, we allowed the secularists to question much that is in Scripture and then validated many of their doubts. We believed the lie that in a post-truth world we could still build a successful society on a “values-neutral” foundation, a world in which everyone would be respected.

We never saw the trap that had been set for us. It never occurred to many Christian thinkers that progressives would intentionally seize upon the Christian virtues and use them as a cudgel to attack believers who failed to live up to biblical standards. On the other hand, blatantly immoral conduct in the secularist camp was always excused on the grounds that their side never claimed the existence of any moral absolutes anyway.

It’s past time for Christians to once again declare God’s eternal, unchanging moral absolutes and call the unbelieving world to repentance. Of course we must also declare that God stands ready to forgive anyone’s failure to obey His absolutes. But it is past time to accept that professing Christians can segregate their morality from their public persona. As Dutch theologian and prime minister Abraham Kuyper famously remarked, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!’” God help us to ponder and understand the real world implications of Kupyer’s words.

“But,” cry some souls, “what will happen to us if we defy the surrounding culture? Scripture makes clear that if we are obedient we will not be fearful. In fact, there are 365 admonitions in Scripture telling us to “fear not.” Again, Scripture makes it clear we are to fear only one being—God. Matthew 10:28 reads: “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in Hell.” Read that again and let it sink in.

Remember, when viewed properly, every aspect of God’s relationship with us is good, including our fear of Him. Proverbs 1:7 tells us that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” From this we know that when properly directed, fear, like anger, is not a sin. Once that is understood we can go on to recognize the value of Peter’s exhortation to honour everyone, including the king, but to never fail to fear God first (I Peter 2:17).

In my opinion, once COVID, along with its associated restrictions, became the primary preoccupation of life, the doctrine of fearing God first should have gained new significance in the Christian community. Instead, the virus was seen as an existential threat, even among Christians, and this was true long before nefarious governmental authoritarianism threatened our Charter rights. Many Christians feared to be in the company of other people altogether, while another large number of Christians feared the threat of being seen as outsiders. Either way, Christians were as quick to follow government edicts as anyone else.

Ironically, in earlier times Christians ran toward rampant plague regions, offering the sick both medical care and the comfort of the gospel. For two millennia Christians gained a reputation for being the only people who would risk everything to serve in plague times. But in 2020, at least based on my observations, Christians in general were as anxious to avoid exposure as anyone else. For the first time in history preserving their physical well being became a priority for the majority of Christians. Instead of bringing care and the gospel to others, we limited or shut down our worship, and hid in our houses.

It’s my conviction that every believer has a duty to do a check on themselves to determine if they are carrying fear or worry that should be handed over to God. These tendencies, along with guilt, need to be relinquished to God as an act of submission to his ultimate authority. Walk through this checklist with me and together let us ask God to strengthen our determination to live for him.

• Resolve. Despite threats and intimidation from society or government, I will steadfastly live out the love of God and proclaim the gospel.

•  Integrity. I will not be intimidated by disparaging remarks aimed against the church or God’s people, nor will I sink to the level of my attackers in response.

• Courage. I will not separate people according to the standards of the world. Both the jabbed and the unjabbed will receive my respect and love wherever God opens doors for ministry or worship.

• Unity. I will live, worship and serve among people of different ethnicities, beliefs and backgrounds, devoted to the principle that we can all be one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28-29).

• Love. Because “there is no fear in love” since “perfect love casts out fear” (I John 4:18), I will allow neither government nor society to prevent needed expressions of God’s love, including open-faced expressions of joy and sadness (Romans 12:14-16), and where needed in order to complete the human connection, handshakes and spontaneous hugs.

• Christ. Never again will I allow unbelievers to prevent me from proclaiming the glories of my Saviour Jesus Christ  to the people who need it most (Acts 4:29-31; 5:29).

But, you say, “if all Christians followed this approach in times of national crisis, the practical result would be to turn over to the public the right to determine their own path.” Exactly! And yet, not exactly. Nothing I’ve said has been designed to encourage disobedience toward governmental mandates as such. But what I am saying is, we owe our first allegiance to God, not man. And we must never give up our responsibility to exercise our freedom in Christ. Moreover, our freedom enables us to rise above the mandates of man (remember our Lord’s exhortation to go the second mile? Matthew 5:38-42). We may be citizens of another kingdom, but we are nevertheless here to “seek the welfare of the city”—as God defines it.  If the church can’t muster this kind of Christlike resolve, we should ask ourselves, why not?

[1] In the 1973 case of Roe v. Wade, the United States Supreme Court stripped away all laws restricting abortion. Something similar happened in Canada in the 1988 case of R. vs. Morgantaler, but in reality, abortion has been allowed in approved Canadian hospitals since 1969.