Fear and disorientation as the world changes

There is a palpable sense that the world order is changing from the “rules-based” order established after the end of the Second World War and the American hegemony that followed the end of the Cold War, to be replaced by a multi-polar world of competing empires and spheres of influence.

Whilst Donald Trump may speak of “making America great again”, the reality is that American isolationism is seeing a diminution of US power and influence as other nations increase their military and economic power. The military parade held in Beijing on 3 September to celebrate victory over Japan was a very visual demonstration of this new reality, as Presidents Xi Jinping and Putin stood shoulder to shoulder alongside Prime Minister Modi of India and Kim Jong Un of North Korea.

All these leaders are authoritarian nationalists, and it seems as though the liberal democracy of the West is in retreat on the world stage, and in trouble at home with the rise of populism. Surveys suggest that an increasing number of Americans and Europeans would prefer an authoritarian regime, that can effect change, to the current morass.

Many Christians have welcomed this change, seeing it as a victory over liberal progressivism and woke culture, but it ought to be remembered that these regimes are amongst the worst persecutors of Christians in the world. Evangelicalism is increasingly restricted in China, Russia and India, and North Korea tops the Open Doors world watch list. For all its flaws, we may yet come to regret the decline of Western liberal democracy. You often don’t know what you have got until it is gone.

It is easy to feel disconcerted, fearful and disorientated in such a time of change, and not to know how to respond. The old verities no longer apply, but the shape of the new order has not yet become clear. However, as Christians we ought not to be surprised or unduly agitated by such moments of transition. Human history is the story of the rising and falling of empires. Despite hubristic claims, no human empire is a “Thousand-Year Reich” or an empire “on which the sun never sets”.

The end of the First World War saw the collapse of the German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires. The end of the Second World War saw the decline of the British and French colonial empires, and the ascendancy of the American and Soviet empires. At “The Big Three” conferences in Casablanca and Tehran, Churchill was the equal of Roosevelt and Stalin, but by Yalta in 1944 he was very much the junior party and the Americans and Russians decided the shape of the post-war world. Just two years later, India – the “jewel in the crown” – gained independence. The end of the Cold War saw the collapse of the Soviet empire. Today the battles are mercifully largely economic and technological, but the results are the same.

The Bible reassures us that, whatever is happening in the world, our God remains sovereign and in control. If the human balance of power shifts, it is because He has ordained and permitted it. The nations are His instruments to serve His purpose. Over the summer I was re-reading the Book of Daniel, and this is the major point of the prophecy. It reassures God’s people in exile in Babylon that, despite appearances and their experience of loss, the LORD is in control and will accomplish His covenant purposes. Daniel 2, with its vision of the statue with a gold head and feet of clay, reveals that the empires of this world will come and go, but the kingdom of God, pictured as the rock not cut by human hands, will triumph and destroy them all. Daniel 4 sees God teaching Nebuchadnezzar that He is the “Most High God”, who gives the kingdoms of men to whom He wishes. Daniel calls him to recognise that “heaven rules.” Daniel 5 shows the LORD bringing Belshazzar to judgement and the empire passing from the Babylonians to the Medes. Daniel 7-12 speaks of the coming empires of the Greeks and Seleucids, and the horrific persecution under Antiochus Epiphanes, but also reassures of the ultimate victory of the Son of Man, the divine king who will destroy the beasts.

This is the perspective of faith and hope that we need to have in our fallen and changing world. God is in control. Human empires will not endure, nor triumph over the kingdom of God. Jesus is the victor who has defeated death and now has all authority over heaven and earth. His empire is extending as the gospel is proclaimed and people of every tribe and nation come to confess Him as Lord.

Whilst the world order constantly changes, Jesus remains the same yesterday, today and forever. He is the rock that is becoming a huge mountain that will fill the whole earth. Whilst President Xi displays his new weapons in a military parade that looks so powerful, impressive and threatening, we need to hold to the truth that our God is the “LORD Almighty,” the “God of armies”. We were reminded at our church prayer meeting yesterday that this title is used over 280 times in the Bible. We need to remember that our God outguns all human leaders and empires, and that the spiritual weapons He has entrusted to us demolish strongholds.

The most important empire in the world is not China, Russia, America or India, but the church. Our task is not to “save the West”, but to preach the gospel and take it to all nations. We do not need to be afraid because ultimate victory is assured. We do not need to understand exactly what God is doing, because it is enough to know that He is sovereign and nothing that is happening is outside of His plan. We pray “Your kingdom come” not because we wonder whether it really will, but because we know that the future is certain and His promise true and trustworthy. This foundation enables us to live with faith and confidence, and to be obedient to His commands as we serve His priorities.