Will the ‘Quiet Revival’ change our civic life?

Jesus said to a government official of His day: “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above” (John 19v11)

Power does not flow up from below, from the people, but rather, true power flows down from the Divine Empire, from the throne room of heaven. True earthly authority can only be given by King Jesus, not the ballot box nor the barrel of a gun.

Much of western Christianity has grown comfortable with politics of “power from below” – with governments who own many “horses”, many “wives”, and “large amounts of silver and gold” (Deut.17v16-17). They fight for power over us (Matt.20v25-26), grabbing for themselves power and people, money and might, even while the people and businesses are supposed to prop them up and vote for the privilege of doing so.

1 Samuel 8v10-17 is a warning: nowadays we may dream of tyrants who only take one tenth of what we produce, but when you “beg for relief from the king you have chosen, the LORD will not answer you on that day” (1 Sam.8v17).

With the failures of the modern state, is it time to re-examine a Biblical vision for our national and civic life together?

As more and more people are drawn into church, so more and more encounter the Lord Jesus and experience His transforming power. Will the new quiet revival mean change for the civic life of the nation?

Some of us assume that the modern secular state is still filled with enough Christian values that it can be revived without revolution. Others of us worry that the modern secular state is more fundamentally broken, so that deeper change is necessary.

For over two centuries, the governance of public life in the United Kingdom has been dominated by a secular, power-from-below ideology. The standard narrative suggests that this secularism was a necessary evolution – a neutral referee stepping in to save society from the dogmatic wars of religion.

However, this narrative is a distortion of history. The specifically modern vision of a free and tolerant society was not born in the salons of 18th-century atheists, but in the theological struggles of the 17th century. Although the murder of the sacral monarch was a terrible sin (laying the foundation for the horrors of the French Revolution) yet, out of the inevitable anarchic chaos came a new awareness of the kind of civic freedom that only King Jesus can give.

In the mid-17th century, the Dissenting Brethren were not arguing for a secular state in the modern sense. They were Puritans, deeply committed to the Lordship of Christ. Their resistance to a monolithic state church – whether Episcopalian or Presbyterian – stemmed from the conviction that the state had no authority to take the place of the Divine Emperor, the Lord Jesus Himself.

During the 18th century, “liberty of conscience” – designed to protect the integrity of specifically Christian worship – was co-opted by Deists and nascent atheists. The “neutral public square” was sold as a way to keep the peace, but it was based on a philosophical lie.

Our current crisis includes the fact that the state has become an active proponent of multi-religious perspectives, including atheism, Islam and paganism. Human religions and secular philosophies cannot deliver lasting freedom and flourishing.

Perhaps a sacral monarch chosen from above could spiritually lead a nation (Deut. 17v18-20) – but can a mere people-powered government, with no authority from above, ever have any spiritual mandate or divine authority?

When the state ceases to serve King Jesus, the secular vision disintegrates. Why? Because “liberty of conscience” relied on an awareness that King Jesus captured the hearts and minds of many or most of the people. If He is excluded from the public square, or other gods are raised up, then we are left with mere human will and meaningless preference.

We have now entered a phase where the secular state acts as a jealous god, demanding equal respect for all the gods and none, defining the national identity in ways that go against the way of Jesus.

However, amidst this crumbling, a dual yearning is emerging. First, there are those who, looking at the wreckage of modernist/ postmodernist “liberal democracy”, desire a restoration of the “Christian foundation” even if only for its psychological and ethical benefits. They miss the order, the beauty and the cohesion of cultural Christendom.

But there is a second, more profound movement. It is not merely a nostalgia for Christian culture, but a direct, spiritual hunger for the Lord Jesus Christ Himself – a new desire for the Bible, church and sacraments, for the genuinely enchanted real world of the Divine Emperor.

The original Christian vision – of hearts and minds free to pursue the living God through Jesus – is resonating once again, not as a political strategy, but as the only true hope for humanity.

Church is how we learn to be human – and when church is domesticated into a private world of otherworldliness, we cannot be truly human.

Only when church is free to invade and transform this present darkness in the name of the Divine Emperor can authentic humanity be restored – life, love and authority flowing down from above.

Are we ready? Are we out in the public square declaring the name of Jesus in word and power? Or are we wasting our time squabbling over the old, broken politics and culture wars of this passing age?