(December 19, 2020) Dr Jim McClure, straight shooting theologian, reflects on attempts to remove Almighty God from society…

This has been a difficult year and a phrase that we are beginning to hear more frequently in the media is ‘The Great Reset.’ This refers to the goal of a worldwide coalition of big business and big tech working in association with the unelected members of the World Economic Forum whose goal is – to use their own words – ‘improving the state of the world’ and ‘to shape global, regional, and industry agendas.’ In their attempts to ‘improve the state of the world’ we have already experienced the loss of many of the freedoms we once enjoyed and took for granted.

1984 totalitarian society
Today we are seeing so many parallels with George Orwell’s novel 1984 which was written almost 70 years ago. It is an almost prophetic book that gives a vision of a totalitarian society where individuality is stifled, and basic freedoms are forbidden, and dissent is prosecuted.

On top of this we have experienced the promotion of corrupt and distorted morals in which what –

• has been acknowledged for centuries to be wrong, has now become right,
• was once recognised as corrupt, is now considered acceptable,
• was denounced as immoral is now accepted as normal,
• was once regarded a thing of shame, is now a cause for celebration.

Television programmes and movies are now often unwatchable because of their vulgar and violent themes, graphic sexuality and relentless swearing.

Legislation in some states in Australia, and many countries throughout the world, support the abortion of healthy unborn babies up to birth, and suicide is now affirmed as an acceptable choice, is backed by legislation and assisted by the medical profession.  And while all this accelerates in society, Christians are mocked, often attacked, our values are condemned, and politicians try to tell us what standards we must now accept and what Christian practices we must abandon – and this is accompanied by the threat of prosecution.

In a recent comment the Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne rightly said that no government has a right to tell us what to pray for, to whom to pray, with whom to pray, or what conversations may happen between members of a family.

Also, recently we have been advised to avoid using gender specific terms such as Mr and Mrs, Sir and Madam, husband and wife and to immediately apologise if, by accident, we do use them in conversation!

And to avoid causing anyone offence some schools, for their Christmas celebrations, removed the words ‘Christmas’ and ‘Jesus’ and ‘God’ from the songs because they wanted to avoid causing offence to anyone. This is all part of the Great Reset which attempts to remove Almighty God from society and the lives of men and women.

Rebellion against God not new
Isaiah could well have been describing conditions in 2020 when he wrote 2700 years ago, in Isaiah 5:20-21, ‘Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.’

Clearly rebellion against God and his values is not a new thing and dark periods of perverted morality has often happened in the past. From time-to-time various societies and political leaders have tried to eject God from society. Some biblical examples are as follows:

• The story of Noah recounts the developing decadence of society as people turned away from God and lived according to their own desires and inclinations.  And God took action by sending the flood to judge and cleanse.
• The people of Israel who under the blessing of God escaped from slavery in Egypt. However, shortly after they entered the Promised Land, there were many times when they rejected the Lord, ignored his commandments and followed their own schemes and desires. Yet God called them back through the judges whom he appointed.
• In the days of King Ahab Israel rejected the Lord and turned to the evil practices and worship of Canaanite religion with its sexual orgies. Through Elijah God challenged them and called them to repentance.
• The prophet Isaiah lived at a time of great political and spiritual unrest. He prophesied the destruction of the God-rejecting northern kingdom of Israel and rebuked the wickedness of the southern kingdom of Judah. And during the encroaching darkness of those days, he prophesied about a future day when the Light of God would invade the darkness – ‘The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned’ (Isaiah 9:2).

The world in darkness
Before Jesus Christ was born, the world again lay in darkness.

• No prophetic word had been heard by God’s people for 400 years.
• Judah had gone through a period of great oppression under Greek rule when the Jews were forbidden to worship.
• The Temple had been desecrated and a pig had been slaughtered on the altar.
• Under Roman rule Roman soldiers walked the streets.
• Even the census ordered by Caesar Augustus was a reminder that Judah was under the rule of pagan gentiles.
• Politically Judah was pulling apart as different Jewish factions opposed each other.
• And after Jesus was born, Herod the Great ordered the slaughter of all the male children in and around Bethlehem.

But in the overwhelming darkness of those days when evil thrived, God had not been dethroned!  God had a plan. God had a ‘Great Reset’ of his own devising.

But God!
Paul referred to it in Galatians 4:4, ‘But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his Son …’

Paul was affirming that at the right time God initiated his Great Reset for the world – a ‘Reset’ unlike any previous one. Paul started his statement with the word ‘But’; He was saying that despite all appearances, God still had overall control.  At the right time ‘God’s Great Reset’ check-mated all the ‘resets’ that Satan had been making, God sent forth his own Son, Jesus Christ, into the world.

As we enter into a new year, we may do so with some trepidation wondering how much worse things may get, how many more of the freedoms, which we once enjoyed and took for granted, will be removed, how many more Godly values will be inverted, how much further the sickness of sin will entwine and crush all that is good, how much longer Christians will be despised and attacked for holding true to the scriptures, and how much more the darkness of Satanic manipulation will seek to confuse, entrap and enslave society.

We must hold firm to what we have believed knowing that God is still on the throne! And, as we enter 2021, despite the darkness of this hour, we must never lose sight of the fact that, as Paul wrote, ‘For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light’ (Ephesians 5:8).

Notwithstanding the appearances of moral and social breakdown, and the ongoing attempts to reverse ‘God’s Great Reset’ that he accomplished through Jesus Christ, people who ‘are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more’  (Ephesians 4:18) will continue in their attempts to dethrone God.

2021 challenge
Our challenge as Christians in 2021 is to stay strong in our hope and confidence in God, to resist the devil and reject his evil programme and strongly and courageously affirm –

‘In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me?’ (Psalm 56:4).

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Dr Jim McClure has just released his latest book, Faith Works – a commentary on the book of James in PDF format and readable on a mobile phone or computer and, like his other writings below, is offered free. Dr Jim welcomes questions from Christians seeking enlightenment on biblical perspectives.

 Grace Revisited is also highly recommended – as are Looking for Answers in a Confusing World, Overview of the Old and New Testaments, Love, Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage, The Masonic Deception, Word of Life in the Old and New Testaments and Interpreting the Letter of James. All are available in electronic version in EPUB, Kindle and PDF formats with hyperlinks. Link for orders and questions: jbmcclure@gmail.com

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