As I write this article, the death toll in Haiti because of the recent earthquake exceeds 100,000 souls. I have personally worked in Haiti spending extended periods of time in northwest Haiti overseeing a construction project when I worked for a cruise company. Because of this, I have some familiarity with life firsthand in Haiti and my opinion is this: Haiti is a desperate and tragic place. Working in Haiti has given me a deep appreciation for God’s goodness to the United States. Haiti and the United States are separated by approximately 700 nautical miles, yet the socio-economic, political and cultural differences can be measured in light years.

Pat Robertson on his 700 Club show last week referenced the often discussed 1791 slave rebellion where supposedly Haitian slaves made a pact with the devil in return for victory over the French.[1] I have heard about this supposed pact and think it an easy and simplistic explanation for Haiti’s perpetual suffering. I think the truth of the matter concerning Haiti’s condition involves more than a supposed pact with Satan, if indeed that is even possible. To be honest, the notion of a pact with Satan is quite absurd. The question we need to look at is this: Does Scripture have anything to say about the condition of nations and peoples? I think the answer is, yes.

The Sovereignty Of God
In Acts 17:16-33, Paul preached and introduced the gospel to Athenian philosophers. In that sermon Paul made an important statement concerning the rise and fall of nations: “From one man he [God] made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live” (Acts 17:26-27). God’s sovereignty, its reality and the Scripture that addresses it are quite shocking to our minds. I cannot help but wonder about Paul’s statement and ask, “Why did he make this statement to the Athenian philosophers?”

I believe part of the answer lies in the fact that Athens, up until this point in history, was the intellectual and philosophical center of gravity in western civilization. Although on the wane, Classics[2] are still a mainstay at many universities in the west. In God’s providence, the New Testament was written in Greek largely because of Greece’s, and specifically Alexander the Great, Hellenistic expansion during his military campaigns only a few centuries before the birth of Christ. There is little question that ancient Greece and specifically Athens, played an important role in Western history.

With that said, we find Paul in Athens confronting the intellectual giants of his day with a simple yet powerful statement about the sovereignty of God. When I look at the context of this verse, I believe Paul’s point was to tell these supposed great minds that their intellectual legacy was a gift from God and that there was something more important than their philosophy to look toward, namely the resurrected Christ.

Paul reminded the Athenian philosophers that God had given them their legacy. Every single national and cultural history is tied to God’s decrees.[3]

Belief Systems
Like Athens, Haiti’s condition is related directly to God’s decree. That might bother us because as Americans we believe we can fix anything. It has been reported that the United States since the early 1990s has provided approximately $3 billion in aid to Haiti and yet no substantive change in the standard of living has occurred. What can explain this? Perhaps it is the belief system that undergirds Haitian society.

A society’s character, for better or for worse, is tied to its belief system, what it believes governs its existence and how people believe they fit into the world. Nations and cultures have a collective character based in their belief systems. For instance, in Hindu India if the belief system holds that a cow is sacred and cannot be killed to feed people, it would not be surprising to discover that cows live long lives while people die of starvation. That describes the character of the people, namely that living animals are more important than living humans.

This explanation for Haiti’s plight is straightforward and yet profound: their collective belief system keeps them shackled to abject poverty, crime and corruption, for their leaders as well as the civilian populace. What can bring the needed change?

Haiti’s Hope: The Good News of Jesus Christ
The good news is that there is Good News, forgiveness of sin through the resurrected Christ. Although Rome was the pre-eminent power two thousand years ago, the character of the Roman Empire was not dissimilar to modern Haiti. Brutality, abject poverty (throughout the provinces of Rome), licentiousness and rampant idolatry characterized the Empire. What changed the character of Rome and Western civilization was Christianity. But it actually goes further.

The people of Haiti need a system of belief that builds civilized society and its institutions. The only branch of Christianity that can do that is Calvinism[4]. Calvinism is given its name because of John Calvin, who as the gifted systemizer, recognized the system of faith contained in Scripture with its covenantal foundations.

Abraham Kuyper[5] eloquently pointed this out over a hundred years ago when the threat to Christianity was Modernism[6]. Kuyper said “If the battle is to be fought with honor and a hope of victory, then principle must be arrayed against principle; then it must be felt that in Modernism, the vast energy of an all embracing life system assails us, then it also must be understood that we have to take our stand in a life system of equally comprehensive and far reaching power.”[7] Rome had its Augustine, medieval Europe had Luther and Calvin, and Haiti needs Christian leaders to bring these ideas to bear on the Haitian church and then on its society.

Building A Civilization
The early chapters of Genesis discuss what is understood as a “cultural mandate,”[8] namely the call to build a civilization. We know from Scripture that the first Adam failed in establishing that civilization and through the covenant of grace, the second and Last Adam[9] was sent and is now building that civilization through the church of Jesus Christ.[10] Whereas that civilization will not reach consummation until Christ returns, there are common grace benefits that will accrue to cultures and societies that embrace these truths. America and the Church of Jesus Christ should and will undoubtedly respond to the practical needs of this catastrophe in Haiti. However, nothing in Haiti will change until its people and institutions reflect the special and common grace truths reflected in Scripture. We as the American church should pray that the Lord of the harvest[11] raise up Haitian statesmen[12] that understand these truths.
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Bill Mueller is a ruling elder in a PCA church in Miami, Fla.

[1] http://www.patrobertson.com/pressreleases/haiti.asp

[2] Classics refer to that portion of the humanities studying the language, literature, philosophy, history and art of the ancient Mediterranean world, especially Greece and Rome.

[3] Westminster Larger Catechism Question 12 asks, What are the decrees of God? Answer: God’s decrees are the wise, free, and holy acts of the counsel of his will, whereby, from all eternity, he has, for his own glory, unchangeably foreordained: Whatsoever comes to pass in time, especially concerning angels and men.

[4] The simplest and best way to understand Calvinism is to quote James Montgomery Boice in his sermon “Christ The Calvinist”: “To begin with, the doctrines of grace known as Calvinism were most certainly not invented by Calvin, nor were they characteristic of his thought alone during the Reformation period. As we shall see, these are the truths taught by Jesus and confirmed for us in Scripture by the apostle Paul”. Taken from “Christ The Calvinist” by James Montgomery Boice in “Sermons That Shaped America”, Reformed Preaching from 1630 to 2001”, Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 2003, page 385.

[5] See “Lectures On Calvinism” which were given by Abraham Kuyper at Princeton University in 1898.

[6] In summary, the Modernism that Kuyper (like many other good men) fought against was the system of belief that brought the entire notion of authoritative, inerrant and inspired truth into question. What was “true” was replaced by what was “useful”, which included a jettisoning of the super-natural aspects of Scriptural witness. German theologians of the nineteenth century were powerful exponents for Modernism.

[7] Lectures On Calvinism, Abraham Kuyper, Eerdmanns Publishing, page 11.

[8] Genesis 1-2, specifically Gen 1:27-28 “27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

[9] 1 Cor 15:45.

[10] Mt 16:18;1 Peter 2:9.

[11] Lk 10:2.

[12] Ezekiel 19:11-12. Jonathan Edwards had a profound sermon on this subject referencing this text. See http://www.apuritansmind.com/JonathanEdwards/JonathanEdwards-Sermons-GodsAwfulJudgment.htm