The ultimate model for the rule of nations is found in the Ten Commandments, especially as it is revealed in its application in both the Old and New Testaments.  The ceremonial laws of the Old Testament were fulfilled in Christ, but the general equity of the Law of God, with its abiding principles, is still a benchmark for all peoples.

The Protestant Reformation of the 1500s changed Europe.  It challenged the status quo of not only the Roman Catholic Church, but it transformed every institution from civil government to both education and medicine.

The second Great Reformation was an extension of the first but was different in that it brought the Reformation to the shores of America.  The United States has been a beneficiary of the blessings of Christendom.  One only need look at the origins of such Ivy League Schools as Harvard and Yale.  Hospitals appeared everywhere bearing the names of Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians.  The Bible was taught in the schools, not because it was good literature, but because it was the sacred book of the people of this nation.

However, with the rise of Darwinism and the modern pluralistic State, the influence of the Reformation was lost. Mainline churches followed the latest heresies like a dog in heat.  Dispensationalism denied the possibility of Christendom and replaced Reformation Theology with pietistic escapism.  Presbyterians, being proud of their heritage, soon restricted theology to the ethereal matters in its doctrinal standards and became irrelevant to the culture.  Not being Dispensationalists, they substituted another defeatist eschatology with little hope for the future of their children and grandchildren. No secret rapture, but escapism still the same!

Today, the influence of the Reformation has in essence disappeared.  Pure Calvinism as taught in the Westminster Confession of Faith is propagated in a few seminaries and proclaimed in a small number of pulpits, but in general it is a Calvinism that has lost its robust character and vibrancy.  It is a Calvinism that denies the possibility of Christendom.

As both Europe and American drift toward Sodom and Gomorrah, a new Reformation is badly needed.  I call it a Reformation 3.0.  Of course, it must begin with the preaching of the doctrines of grace, but that is not all that is needed. Let me mention three other factors that must be recovered.

1. The New Testament Church was a church under persecution, but it must not be viewed as the biblical template for the church in perpetuity. The persecution of the early church was real, but not every Christian generation is ruled by a Roman tyrant and hated by unbelieving Jews.  Some generations of Christians enjoy much stability and peace. In some ages Christians are called to lead.

The ultimate model for the rule of nations is found in the Ten Commandments, especially as it is revealed in its application in both the Old and New Testaments.  The ceremonial laws of the Old Testament were fulfilled in Christ, but the general equity of the Law of God, with its abiding principles, is still a benchmark for all peoples.

Most end-time teachings tell us that the present age of the Church will end in tragedy.  Then Christ will come, and all will be well.  The physical world belongs to the Devil, and we must spend our time in the spiritual realm and busy ourselves for heaven.

We are taught from most pulpits in America that it is a waste of time to think about the gospel resulting in the capturing of a culture. Our calling is to endure persecution until Christ returns.  It’s God’s ordained will.  In our theological minds and hearts, we still move and have our being in the difficult time-period of the Apostles.

We are told that it is our calling to share in the cross of Christ.  Anything else is the road to glory and therefore sinful (as if we were really interested in our own glory, and not in the glory of Christ).  I’m not sure why young people maintain an interest in the Church after hearing this every week, but a few do. It’s a major formula for losing the next generation.  The promises of Social Marxism are much more appealing.

We must move beyond this way of thinking.  Let us not forget about the cultural impact of the first and second Reformations.  Let us not forget about the impact over time of Christendom in all areas of knowledge.

2. We must recover the eschatology of hope and abandon the eschatology of escapism. Somehow, the puritan hope of the power of the gospel to change culture was lost over time. Modern Presbyterians love the Calvinism of Jonathan Edwards and B.B. Warfield, but they despise the hope for the age of the Church that was theologically owned by these men.  We are told that the kingdom of this world must be ruled by “natural law” (whatever that is), and the Law of God is only relevant for the Church. We have lost the hope that King Jesus will be worshipped in every nation before his second coming, and that the nations will enjoy the blessings of being ruled by God’s law. We have lost the joy that Jesus will return to receive a glorious bride for himself, and not one dressed in ragged and shabby clothing.
3. The God of the Bible was never pleased with the United States Constitution. Before I was consciously a Christian, I always wondered why American Christians, who claimed to believe in the supremacy of Christ as King of all the world, could adopt a religious pluralism where competing law-systems would vie for the power to rule.  The writers of the United States Constitution (maybe unconsciously) denied the Kingship of Christ by failing to adopt a written Trinitarian basis for our nation in her founding document.  In so doing, they created the free market of ideas where the Law of God (and Christ himself) became a commodity for sale or a political candidate for election rather than the ruler of all nations.

Politics today is nothing but competition for the power to legislate a law-system that reflects the most dominate religion of that nation.  We Christians are slowly losing the right to enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  We lost the battle for life when the right to abortion became the law of the land.  We lost the battle for liberty after Obergefell.  It’s now unofficially immoral to speak against homosexual marriage, and especially against transgenderism (even on Fox News).  We lost the hope to pursue happiness because we constantly grieve over the sins of our nation, and we must listen to a message of defeat every Sunday from most of our pulpits.

Lastly, remember the ten spies who had no faith in a God who would enable them to conquer the promised land.  They were worthless, and God let them and their generation die in the wilderness. I fear that we may be repeating their folly.  Even though we have the all-sufficient word of God, a Christ who sits on his throne, and the power of the Holy Spirit in our age, yet we still sound like the ten spies cowardly talking about how big the enemy is.

God may let us die in the wasteland also just like the generation of ten spies.  And yes, this death may be through persecution, but not a persecution that is part of the essence of our calling as Christians, but a persecution due to our failure to believe in the promises of God.  May God raise up a new generation that will see before his second coming the “glory of the knowledge of the Lord cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.”

Larry E. Ball is a retired minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and is now a CPA. He lives in Kingsport, Tennessee.