Posted on by Abe Austin

The Offensively Faithful- The Good Minority, the Indulgent Majority

The first point that we must make is that all signs and prophecies seem to suggest that there will be a minority of good and faithful people in the last days. There is not much need for convincing on this point, our cultural depictions of the end times have already set us with that expectation. Still, it is worth noting that that vision is justified by the words of scripture.

Virtually every scriptural description we have of the end times is one of evil and suffering. It is as though each prophet took a glimpse into the future, and the prevailing themes of what they saw was wickedness and tragedy. If the love of Christ was ubiquitous in the last days, you think they would have said something about that. Instead, we hear the following:

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God (2 Timothy 3:1-4).
Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts (2 Peter 3:3).

One of the clearest visions of the end days comes from Jesus, himself. When asked by his disciples “what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” he replied:

Many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.

Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
-Matthew 24:5-14

Language such as “ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake” does not suggest that the believers are in the majority. How are they able to be delivered up to be afflicted and killed, unless they are but a small faction at the mercy of the masses?

The straight up murder of Christians is quite extreme. Anyone that would do such a thing is at the very limit of darkness and violence. But surely there are other degrees of wickedness along the way. There are those that the prophets described as lovers of own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, scoffers, walking after their own lusts, etc. These are people who have given in to immorality, but could arguably still view themselves as basically good, having a generous view of humanity, and trying to make the world what they think is a better place. It seems credible that such a people would be largest of the majorities. They would not be willing to kill the righteous, but to mock and scorn them, which would then justify the radical minority to commit the murders.

Not only does this demographic seem credible it sounds very familiar! It sounds like the state of the world today. Let us take a closer look at this hypothesized majority tomorrow. Those that are morally compromised, but who still have enough conscience to not shock society against them. The popular indulgent who seduce the common citizen, accumulating numbers day by day, until they are able to assume what is “right” for the entire culture.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Taken to the Extreme

Two Ways of Life)

Many of my generation and culture have expressed that we were raised with strict—and sometimes severe—consequences for any time that we slipped from the moral standards we were expected to live by. Quite a few of us developed a strong sense of perfectionism as a result, inflicting upon ourselves an impossible standard that has tied more than a few of us into painful knots. Too many of us have had constant feelings of being guilty and unworthy. Suffice it to say that there were some flaws in the way we were given our belief systems.

But on the other hand, I have also seen several of my same generation that were raised under an anything-goes sort of mentality. Moral misdeeds were only winked at, and consequences obscured, resulting in some incredibly reckless, selfish, and narcissistic tendencies. Either morality was relative, or it didn’t even exist, and many avoidable wounds were suffered by that denial of objective truth. From my observation, this philosophy wasn’t really any better than the extreme legalism.

The Inevitable Extreme)

Either way, one can easily come to feel that they were dealt the harder hand. I have seen many of my peers throw the baby out with the bath water, renouncing all moral law because they were hurt under an inappropriate application of it. They lack the nuance to see that there was good in the theory, if not the execution.

And, frankly, these flaws and nuances are inevitable. Whatever principles people choose to live and raise their society by, there will always be those that take the principles to an inappropriate extreme. If you decide to instill a strong sense of moral obedience, sooner or later you will have individuals that enact cruel punishments for any perceived deviance. If you decide to instill a carefree, life-loving mantra, sooner or later you will have individuals that pursue carnal indulgence without any regard for the people harmed along the way. Humanity is made up of all sorts. It has the best of people within it, but also the worst, and it is the worst who will always find a way to pervert the well-meaning conventional wisdom.

Lessons Learned)

Having explained this, let me point out two essential takeaways related to the matter:

  1. In any philosophy that you choose to live by, it is worth considering what potential evil might sprout from it down the line. Life philosophies are not so much a destination as a direction, and it is important for us to follow the logical conclusion of that direction to its furthest extremes. In the wrong minds, what are the worst interpretations that others might take from your teachings? If you identify what those perverse extremes are, then you can call them out ahead of time, setting in place the bounds that will let you and others know when things have been taken too far.
  2. Any principle, even one that is true and good, becomes corrupt when pursued at the expense of all other true principles. Going back to the idea of life philosophy as a direction, we might also consider it as a vector: a line stretching across a graph. It may run from one inappropriate extreme to another, but in between it might run through some very worthy territory as well.
    Additional principles can be thought of as more vectors, other lines that stretch across the graph, and at certain points intersect with our first. Those intersection points help us greatly in that they represent the natural bounds that each principle sets upon the other. For example, if we are mature enough to hold both the principle of moral obedience and grace for sin at the same time, then each will keep us from running too far with the other. Together they plot for us when to forgive and when to call for repentance. They will even show us how to do both at the same time!