When a nation forsakes the true God, its people sacrifice to demons that are not gods; they serve unknown gods, new gods on the scene, not feared by previous generations (Deuteronomy 32:17). The idea of a totally secular society is a myth — gods adored by New Agers and other mystics are proof of that.
When Moses was so long on the mountain, the Israelites thought him dead and so made themselves an ox god. “We threw gold into the fire and this came out” said Aaron, in what has to be one of the silliest excuses on record. Was their memory so poor that they forgot the miracles God had done through Moses, including the parting of the Red Sea?
Believers in the West are now living in post Christian societies. The values understood and practiced to a great degree by previous generations are unknown to the present generation, along with expressions used such as “holier than thou”, “blind leaders of the blind”, and “suffering fools gladly”. Not to mention the proverbs once taught children by godly mothers. Proverbs, which are packages of wisdom, are completely unknown to millennials and younger people.
The answer to secularism and mysticism is the miraculous power of God, as demonstrated in healings, exorcisms and prophecies. In Jesus working with us just as he did with his first disciples, who were said by a nonbeliever to have “turned the world upside down”! Not stage managed stunts that cynics view as illusory but the real thing. The greater the opposition to Jesus Christ in his Church the more necessary undeniable miracles become.
One such miracle was the man healed by our Lord at the pool of Bethesda (John 5). Another was the miracle healing of the crippled man by Peter, in the authority of Jesus’ name, at an entrance to the temple (Acts 3). The ripples of these two undeniable miracles go out into the chapters that follow. Megachurches are influential, as are community oriented projects staffed by volunteer church workers. But when all is said and done, the big changes come when revivals break out in churches and flow through them to their neighbourhoods and communities.
When you think about it, the post-Christian world is becoming more and more like the pre-Christian one that was familiar to the first Christians. They faced hostility from their own people, and later from the world empire that occupied their small country. They did a good job in converting pagan societies, and so can we — if we get back to living life as they did and start doing the same things. So let’s get spiritual and grow organically…and see what the Lord does in response!