In the UK many bemoan the nation’s persistent abandoning of Biblical standards. I understand that. Our nation has been shaped over centuries by men and women committed to Biblical standards. There has been a huge Christian influence in previous generations. For example, key leaders and innovators during the Industrial Revolution were Christians, as were social revolutionaries in the 19th century.
My observation is that Christians tended to withdraw from public spheres after World War 1. This seems to have accelerated secularisation. That withdrawal is a cause of secularisation, not merely a reaction to it.
In his seminal book ‘Issues facing Christians today,’ John Stott provides some detail concerning this withdrawal from public life. He describes ‘the great reversal,’ whose roots pre-dated the first World War. He suggests five main factors (each of which are worthy of further consideration):
- The fight against theological liberalism which neglected the preaching of the gospel;
- The rejection by evangelicals of ‘the social gospel;’
- The impact of war;
- The influence of premillennialism; and
- The rise of the middle classes. Stott suggests Christians diluted their Christian character with this new class culture.
Tom Wright in Virtue Reborn comments: ‘The Western world has supposed, for two hundred years and more, that splitting off questions of social justice from questions of God and faith would give us a more just society. The revolutions, totalitarianisms, and all-out way of that period have proved us wrong. But to put God and human justice back together again will require a sustained effort, not only by individuals but by the church as a whole, developing the corporate virtues of justice – work that will become habits of the church’s heart and will appeal to the conscience of the wider world.’
Whilst I do not welcome the gradual advance of secularisation, there is no assumption in the NT that Christians will inhabit a God-fearing society. In fact, most of the Bible is written in times or situations where those in authority and influence did not follow the ways of the God of Israel, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The history of the early Church in Acts took place largely within the Roman empire. And those who took the gospel beyond the Roman empire merely met different forms of hostility. Until the conversion of Constantine, who claimed to have met Christ, and ushered in a regime supportive of Christians, there were a series of persecutions against Christians throughout the Roman empire. For centuries since, Christians have lived in similarly hostile environments.
In our day persecution of Christians takes many forms. Open persecution, loss of employment, martyrdom, continue to occur. Yet, in western countries, ‘persecution’ is more subtle, for example through the growth of secularisation. The call to Christians is to remain faithful to Christ in any and all circumstances.
The UK is not a ‘Christian country,’ and perhaps never was. Although Israel was intended to be a theocracy (a pre-Christian equivalent?), it rarely lived up to that standard. Often in the OT accounts, those who were faithful to the God of Israel found themselves in a small minority in Israel and subject to severe persecution.