Earthly Decisions Matter

'We see either the dust on the window or the view beyond the window, but never the window itself.'

                                                                    ~ Simone Weil

Early Christians in the Roman Empire had it rough; in the beginning they were considered heretical Jews. 
Later, they were thought to be cannibals - partaking of the 'body and blood' of Christ.
Mostly, they were poor, rejected and ridiculed by the majority of society who could not fathom an intelligent human being believing a dead man had risen from the grave.

On the other side were the Romans; who, in their society were outwardly virtuous but behind closed doors and in private - they were decadent to the core.
At that time, Rome was prided as being tolerant and praised for being broad-minded.

For the individual Christian, they walked a very thin line between good and evil; every choice mattered.

Roman Coliseum

One of the great questions addressed by the Apostle Paul of the early Church was whether or not they were allowed to eat meat which had been sacrificed to an idol. The early Christians simply did not want to do anything that would impede their witness or cause another to stumble or deny Christ in any way.

For hundreds of early Christians, though begged by compassionate Romans to take the worshipful loyalty oath to Caesar, they chose execution in the Coliseum, rather than go through the motions.

Every choice mattered.
It still does.

In the modern world and even in many modern churches, there is a great promotion of tolerance. In society, there is the acceptance of a civil religion which is to offend none while glorifying the nation.
In both, there is little mention of the invisible Kingdom which demands of us our loyalty at all costs.
At the heart of every choice we make is the reality that there are two worlds constantly at war with one another existing on our planet.

Did you know that it is possible to adjust a microscope so that it reflects your own eye?
It's true - and this may be what is happening spiritually in our world today.
The world disguises the true nature of the universe; reflecting back to us a corrupted vision of what we think the true nature may be. 
It is as if there is a curtain to true reality. 

A full one-third of Scripture deals with the invisible world; though modern preaching and teaching has strayed from this emphasis.
The truth is every decision or choice we make, in every instant of human time or space, all we do in this life has consequences in both the spiritual and physical world.

And generally speaking, it was not until the 20th Century that societies attempted to live without God and the spiritual.
The Soviet Union sought to set up a government on what was described as 'dialectical materialism.'
As such, religious faith was a major obstacle because an individual could not have divided

Soviet Propaganda

loyalties; the Christians knew this as well for Jesus taught that a person could not serve God and Mammon.

The result was the shuttering of 98% of all Churches, almost entirely Orthodox. 
The Communist government also killed over 42,000 priests and published their own national newspaper called, 'The Godless.'
And in some schools, kindergarten children were instructed to pray to God; but nothing happened. Afterward, they were instructed to pray to Joseph Stalin, then were given a bag of candy.
The resulting theology or "manology" - trust your leader for your needs, not an invisible God. 

As a result, for 75 years, the USSR theoretically committed to justness and equality in the present hour of their government; but ultimately, they achieved the exact opposite.
Some may have had the best intentions when the Bolshevik Revolution began, but the creation of the Soviet Union was the creation of the greatest monster ever known to man.

One of Russia's great authors, Dostoyevsky, once stated, "Without God, everything is permitted."
This proved tragically true.
During the reign of the Soviets, about 60 million citizens were killed at the hands of the government.
And if the Soviets had succeeded, there would be no religious faith in Russia today; but they failed.

Unlike the United States, in Russia today they teach the Ten Commandments in public schools.
And in a wonderful turnaround, 61% of Russians identify themselves as believers. 
If the communists had succeeded, Russia would not have such an influx of of new cathedrals being built today as is taking place.
But again, the Soviets failed as the physical world proved once again to have great limits; especially when it comes to the spiritual nature of man and his world.

While faith tends to swing like a pendulum in the individual heart and in societies as a whole, how do you explain such horrid things like what the Soviets tended to do?
The Communists were an outward slap at all things religious; why didn't God stop them?

Well, I can't answer that question simply and maybe not completely; but I can give you some insight.
William Shakespeare wrote that evil  reigns in the visible world; it is brazen. But God is subtle.
This tends to be true most of the time; yet, it is usually the subtle that rules at the end of the day.
Scripture speaks of spiritual powers - actual realities that cannot be explained in physical or material terms.

If you ask an unbeliever why the Soviets did what they did, they would point to political reformation or possibly the evolution of society or something of a social science nature.
I would disagree.

For if you look at the history of Russia at the time of its revolution or even at Hitler's Germany, these cannot be explained in terms of evolution or politics. 
Insanity simply seized the people.

On another front, there was no logic in the Cold War arms race; if one government attacked the other with nuclear weapons, the policy was literally defined by the acronym M.A.D.
It means - Mutual Atomic Destruction.
This is not sane.

There in no logic in a sniper killing people in a mall; nor is there any in an adult male shooting children and teachers on a school campus, be it Sandy Hook or Virginia Tech.
And what logic is there in corporate greed stealing the pensions of the elderly?
Why is it and what is it that keeps the United States from sheltering the millions of homeless on the streets tonight, especially the combat veterans? There are more empty houses than there are homeless, so this shouldn't really be a problem.
What keeps us from feeding the hungry? I don't know because there is more food on the planet than there is people who can eat it.

These are not the questions that can be answered logically or physically or with materialism; in fact, it may be logic, physical solutions and materialism that keeps us from solving these issues for they are true walls to spiritual answers.

Are these things due to forces beyond our control?
Not really, because the New Testament has no problem identifying those forces and every one of them come back to a spiritual problem in the human heart.

Whatever may be going on in  your life, or in your church - I can promise you that the real struggle that is waged is to be fought against that which we do not see.
It is this same battle in which Christ has already given you the victory; a victory achieved by faith in the decisions and choices we make every day in honoring the Lord through our lives.

In truth, there is much more happening than what is visible to the human eye; but there is little which happens which does not effect the human heart.

Until next time, win one for the good guys.