Failing Economy as an Apologetic Tool

Dr Edmond Clowney was one of the great defenders of the use of biblical theology in preaching. In his book "Preaching Christ In All Of Scripture" he said, "To see the text in relation to Christ is to see it in its larger context, the context of God's purpose in revelation." Today I am advocating that we also use biblical theology in our apologetics!

Biblical Theology views and studies the Bible while following the unfolding revelation of God's words and deeds through history. Clowney said about his own personal reading through the Bible, "I started in Genesis chapter 1. When I reached the book of Jonah, I came upon the verse, "Salvation is of the Lord!" I realized then that the Bible did not give a full history of Israel, but a history of God's work of saving His chosen people. It is all about what God did. He who holds the worlds in His hand came down to save us. The Bible is the story of how God came down to be born of the Virgin Mary, to live and die for us, and to rise in triumph from the tomb. It was not my grip on God that was my hope, but his grip on me."

As believers we know that our hope is securely resting on the fact that it is God who is holding on to us. This should enable us to live confidently in spite of the economic troubles the world around us is having, and this should prove to be a powerful witness to those around us. Personally I have found the economic crisis to be a wonderful tool to share the gospel with those who are overwhelmed by the current events.

I have had a couple conversations recently with people that are deeply saddened over the state of world affairs. One shared how he felt that though it seems that we are way past the point of no return, he just couldn't handle the thought of giving up. While he was sharing his thoughts on how daunting the whole global financial situation is he wondered about my thoughts on the matter.

My response was much shorter than what follows, but it went something like this...

We have absolutely created an insatiable monster, and personally I don't see how it is possible to ever stop the growing problems. World oil consumption is constantly growing at alarming rates, but production continues to decline at even more alarming rates. Let's face it the bumper sticker on the back of many trucks is true, "America runs on Trucks!" This was a fact that became all the more apparent to me as I moved across the country last year. What happens when we run out of oil, or when the price of it goes even more through the roof? It seems that we are headed for a meltdown because as the cost of fuel goes up so does everything else.

The most interesting thing is how the present situation is even more support for the truth and relevancy of the Bible. How is that you might ask? Good question!

You see the Bible gives us a record of the repeated failures of man trying to rule over himself. The Old Testament, you might say, is like a case study of a number of different forms of leadership and how each of them failed to fix what's wrong with the world.

In Genesis we see God communicating with Adam and Eve, walking with them in the Garden of Eden. The Garden was the perfect life and while there was only one rule they broke it, and in the Fall we see Adam and Eve revolting against God's rule over their lives. They gave up perfection for the incredible allure of 'governing' themselves. This self governing continued until the days of Noah when man's wickedness grew to such extremes that God started over with the only righteous man on the earth. However, shortly after the great cleansing men united in rebellion against God at the Tower of Babel and once again chose to govern themselves.

Later with Moses we see how God rose up a man to be the mediator between Himself and the people. But if you have ever read Exodus you know just how well that went. They were barely out of Egypt before the people were whining and complaining about this form of government too. We see this most drastically while Moses was on the mountain God told him that the people have corrupted themselves by worshiping a golden calf. Moses comes down and asks Aaron what in the world the people did to him to make him do something so horrible. Aaron's reply is, "...they are prone to evil. For they said to me, 'Make a god for us who will go before us...' I said to them, 'Whoever has any gold, let them tear it off.' So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf."

Weeks before they had witnessed God part the Red Sea and they had walked across on dry ground, they had been led by a pillars of cloud and fire. Then only days before the Golden Calf incident, God had descended upon the mountain in clouds and smoke and lightning and they stood back in awe, but how quickly they have forgotten and decided to make their own god to worship. Witnessing firsthand the presence of God powerfully displayed on the mountain didn't keep them from once again choosing their way instead of God's way.

If we fast forward to the time of the Judges we find that Israel was in utter rebellion against God and so He would cause them to be oppressed by the nations around them. They would cry out for God to save them and and He would raise up a Judge to lead them in victory and back to peace. But after each Judge died the nation immediately went back to doing what was right in their own eyes.

The extent of their depravity is highlighted in the last two stories that are told in the book of Judges. The most shocking of them is the one where a Levite's concubine runs away from him and he goes to retrieve her from her fathers house. After being delayed by her father they head out of town and they come to Gibeah of Benjamin. Shortly after someone finally agrees to take them into his home, some men of the city come and demand that the man give them the Levite so that they 'may have relations with him.' The man pleaded with them to not do this wicked thing, but they seized the Levite's concubine and abused her all night leaving her for dead. As the Levite walked out in the morning he found and took her dead body back to his home. Upon arriving at home he cut her into twelve pieces and sent a piece to each of the tribes of Israel.

Realizing the heinousness of what took place the nations attempt to seek vengeance against the men who did this, but the tribe of Benjamin refused to give the men up. The situation degrades into a civil war and many lives lost from the tribes of Israel and only 600 men of Benjamin remained, but the rest including the women and children were all killed.

Today we ask, "How in the world do people get so depraved that something like this happens? And I am sure that some of you are also asking , "Why is this in the Bible?" The answer is in the repeated phrase found in the final chapters of Judges, "In those days everyone did what was right in their own eyes." Yet again we see that man left to rule himself will always degrade into hideous wickedness.

After the judges, Israel demands that they have a king so that they can be like the other nations around them. However, the kings turned out to be another exercise in futility because even the best king was an adulterer and a murderer! By the time of the 4th king over Israel his foolish reign caused the nation to split up and the Northern kingdom was captured and exiled to Assyria, and the Southern kingdom was exiled to Babylon. You might say, "They came, they chose, and they were conquered."

What does this very brief survey of the Old Testament governing forms show us?

Well again, we see that in one sense the Old Testament records for us the utter failure of man to govern himself no matter what form of government is in place, and if global history has taught us anything about governments and kingdoms it is that they all fall. But most importantly we come to see that man has a far greater need, and no matter what he does to try and fix things on his own he continually rediscovers his brokenness and his depravity. Power truly corrupts, and absolute power truly corrupts absolutely.

As a believer looking at the world financial crisis I am once again reminded of this same fact, that is does not matter if the government is Democratic, Socialistic, a Monarchy or even an Anarchy man and the world cannot be fixed, we must be SAVED!

We also see that our needing to be rescued is the one thing that we could not do on our own which is why God had to provide us with a Redeemer. Jesus came and paid the price for our Salvation and when He comes back we will finally be under the only form of government that will ever work - Jesus reigning as the King of kings. However, unlike the kings of the Old Testament that forced the people into service, Jesus has already demonstrated that he is a Servant King. In the first advent Jesus did not come to oppressively rule and reign over us, He came as a sacrificial Lamb and bore the weight of the cross and paid the debt of sin that we owed. Then rising from the grave He promised to return, but not as a lamb, He is coming again as the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

Yes, it is grieving to see that the world is in such a dreadful state, but may we recognize what an incredible opportunity we have to show those around us that this is just one more evidence that we need something far greater than a better form of government to make things right. We need a 'Divine Rescue Mission' and Jesus has already accomplished that mission for us. May we come to recognize that His gift of Salvation is the only possible fix for man, and may we then continue to look to the only One who can make all things new!