Standing on the right side of history

Right now, if you’re someone who is faithful to the teaching of Scripture, and you’re living in the enlightened West (UK, US, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada), I hope you feel like you’re standing on the wrong side of history.

The illusion is over, you can’t be faithful to the historic Christian faith and your culture any more.

But why are we surprised? This is what Jesus promised would happen. When it comes to the world expect trouble rather than transformation.

Here’s some wisdom from a Catholic Cardinal:

I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the church has done so often in human history . . . .

God sustains the world, in good times and in bad. [We] believe that only one person has overcome and rescued history: Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of the Virgin Mary, saviour of the world and head of his body, the church.

Those who gather at his cross and by his empty tomb, no matter their nationality, are on the right side of history. Those who lie about him and persecute or harass his followers in any age might imagine they are bringing something new to history, but they inevitably end up ringing the changes on the old human story of sin and oppression. There is nothing “progressive” about sin, even when it is promoted as “enlightened.”

The world divorced from the God who created and redeemed it inevitably comes to a bad end. It’s on the wrong side of the only history that finally matters.