Living in Prophetic Times

There is a time for pastors, and there is a time for prophets. This is a time for prophets. The present religious and national climate is different from any in my lifetime. If you believe the figures concerning how Christians voted in the last election, then it is clear that Christians are responsible for electing the incoming president.  

George Barna, director of the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, wrote: “Among self-identified Christians, President Trump won a 56% share of their vote. And because Christians represented 72% of the voters who turned out, their support for the re-elected Republican made the difference in the race.”  

If that is true, then most Christians are patting themselves on the back for their role in the election. But many other Christians are mourning the fact that the Church is responsible for electing the most unchristian and immoral man ever to hold the highest office of the land.  

The contrast was abundantly evident as we buried one president and prepared to inaugurate another. One was the most faithful, spiritually minded and moral man ever to occupy the White House. The other ... well even his defenders know what he is. Let us remember the words of Jesus: “For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.” 

This is a time for prophets. It is the time to live authentic spiritual lives. We live in an age when popular Christianity has abandoned God for Caesar and forsaken the Kingdom of God for Babylon. When the Church blasphemes the Holy Spirit, then faithful followers of the Crucified One must stand up and speak out. 

Yet pastors who preach like prophets in this spiritual climate will soon find themselves out of a job. Churches do not want a prophet in the pulpit, generally speaking. It does not pay the bills or fill the pews. Churches want shepherds to minister to the flock and grow the congregation. Whoever speaks like a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, just like Dietrich Bonhoeffer received his reward.   

I would not call myself a prophet, but I foresee the church going through dramatic changes in the coming years. While popular Christianity will continue to embody the political culture, I see a movement of countercultural spirituality. I see this happening on two fronts. 

One front is spiritual. There is a return to the gospel OF Jesus. We have had enough of the secondhand gospel ABOUT Jesus, which idolizes the Bible and pledges allegiance to church tradition. We need the gospel that Jesus preached, which had nothing to do with believing the right doctrines, much less the right politics. 

Jesus’ message was the Kingdom of God, better translated the Spiritual Realm. It was the experiential core of his spiritual life, a mystical awareness of the Divine. In Jesus’ words, we are to be one with the Father as he is one with the Father. Long ago this message was abandoned by the institutional church in favor of transactional religion.  

The other front is ethical – both personal and social ethics. The majority of Christians apparently consider the gross immorality and criminal behavior of the incoming president as of secondary importance compared to achieving their political goals. That is the problem.  

There was a time when Christians made personal decisions and advocated for social policies by asking “What would Jesus do?” No longer. Now they consult their preferred news commentors and internet influencers. Look who Jesus advocated for. Not the billionaires and oligarchs! He sided with the poor, immigrants, prisoners, the social outcasts and misfits. Look who he spoke against: Bible teachers and religious authorities!  

That is the gospel John the Baptist preached. It is what Jesus preached. It is what got both of these prophets killed. It gets pastors fired and preachers blacklisted today. That is the way it has always been. True Christianity thrives when it is out of power. True Christianity is out of power now. That is a good thing. We see the world more clearly from the catacombs. It is where we remember who we are. 

Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder

I was reading a short story about climate change recently. It used the term Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder. I have heard of Post-Traumatic Stress, but I had never heard of Pre-Traumatic Stress. Pre-TSD afflicts people who are traumatized by what is yet to happen. As if we don’t have enough to worry about! 

Pre-Traumatic Stress is an appropriate description of how many Americans are responding to the new year, even before the new president takes office. I admit I am concerned, but I am not stressing out. One never knows what might happen. Something wonderful might come out of all this! One cannot predict the fluctuations in the arc of the moral universe. 

It is best to respond in faith. Jesus said, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life.... Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? ... But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” 

That does not mean we do not prepare for what may come. To help me prepare I have subscribed to Sojourners magazine. I used to receive to this activist Christian magazine during the Reagan years. Now things are getting dangerous again in our nation, so I have resubscribed. It was their issue on Christian Nationalism that brought me back. 

The most recent issue (Jan/Feb) has an article entitled “Now that Trump Has Won: 10 Ways to Ground Ourselves for What Comes Next.” Nonviolence trainer Daniel Hunter lists ten things we can do right now. They are worth listing:  

1.) Trust Yourself; 2.) Find Others Who You Trust; 3.) Grieve; 4.) Release That Which You Cannot Change; 5.) Find Your Path; 6.) Not Do Obey in Advance; Do not Self-Censure; 7.) Reorient Your Political Map; 8.) Get Real About Power; 9.) Handle Fear, Make Violence Rebound; and 10.) Envision a Positive Future. The article is worth reading in its entirety.  

Faith sees the big picture. Antichrists come and go, as the apostle John told us. Evil self-destructs. Autocrats are weaker than they appear. Ego always oversteps and plants the seeds of its own demise. That is what the twentieth century taught me. I trust that the Divine Script is playing out as it must. That is what the Hebrew prophets proclaimed during the darkest times in Israel’s history, and our time does not compare to that darkness. 

Faith vaccinates us against Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder. So does hope. So does Love. “Faith, hope, love abide, these three,” says the apostle. It is most important to remember to listen to Jesus. We cannot serve two masters. We must not surrender our hearts to any Caesar. We are citizens of Heaven. Jesus trusted that even his death would work out for good, and he turned out to be correct. I trust that he is right this time as well.