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Who Cares?
by
Cadet Sean Attard
Is the mighty rock seen in today’s religiously pluralistic
society as being as secure as it might have been in William
Booth’s day?
pluralism |ˈploŏrəˌlizəm|
noun
1 a condition or system in which two or more states, groups,
principles, sources of authority, etc., coexist.
• a form of society in which the members of minority groups
maintain their independent cultural traditions.
In Booth’s day, I say it is highly likely that they saw that
Rock which represents Calvary as being more secure than we do
today. Not only in Booth’s day, more precisely also in his
place and his culture, which was English culture.
In Booth’s day, good, white, English Christians with names
like Sawyer and Thompson and Fitzgerald had a sort of monopoly
on religion. They were the only serious contenders out there.
You only had two choices really – you were a respectable,
upstanding British Christian citizen or you were a
baby-killing, moonshine swilling, unwashed demoniac that was
part of Charles Darwin’s lot.
In his essay, The Decline of Religion, C.S. Lewis says “… we
must remember that a widespread and lively interest in a
subject is precisely what we call a Fashion. And it is the
nature of Fashions not to last.”
And what really was the Christian Fashion, began to die out
when:
In more recent years, those honest folk have had to contend
with all kinds of coloured people just barging their way in on
those hallowed British shores – people with names like Sachin
Tandulkar or Ravi Shankar or Sharif Abdur Rahim or Kareem
Abdul Jabbar or Wasim Akram or Cherukh Khan or Yoko Ono or Cat
Stephens … … … and they didn’t talk about Jesus. They brought
with them these other strange folk and strange ideas like
Buddha and I-Ching and Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind-Sing and
Krishna and Mohammed.
And then, to make matters worse some devilish Pied Piper
invented dancing and rock ‘n’ roll and things that were more
entertaining than Christian perfection – and suddenly all of
the churches are empty – and Christians have these electric
guitar playing false idols to contend with!
So, yeah, a lot of people are pretty concerned (either happily
or unhappily) because the church appears to be losing ground.
To quote Lewis again, he says that this isn’t “…a new
religious situation, but only revealed the situation which had
long existed.”
Whatever security or “ground” the church might have had in
those days, Booth still saw that there was a drowning
multitude. That hasn’t changed. It is just more obvious to us
and appears to us in a greater variety of ways.
As for the real, actual security of the cross – that is also
the same.
Rom.8: 38,39 “For I am convinced that neither angels nor
demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
neither height nor depth, nor Nanak or Krishna or Michael
Jackson nor anything else in all creation will be able to
separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our
Lord.”
But Booth’s vision wasn’t concerning the security of Calvary,
and he had disdain for the practice of many of those
Christians he saw on that rock – storing up riches (they might
have called them blessings), talking about whether or not they
were secure… WHO CARES about whether or not we are secure – we
are surrounded with people suffering, living in deplorable
conditions… and WHO CARES about them?
… Booth said “you’ve enjoyed yourself in Christianity long
enough!”
and “Go to God and tell Him you are prepared as much as
necessary to turn your back upon it all, and that you are
willing to spend the rest of your days struggling in the midst
of these perishing multitudes, whatever it may cost you!”
So hang the security! Let me tell you that Jesus can look
after Himself, whether it seems the Church is losing ground or
not! But there are people who cannot look after themselves.
They need someone – someone like you, people like us who have
been SAVED TO SAVE - to introduce them to Christ. They are the
ones who need a chance to enjoy the security of Calvary!
We can give them that chance! God has put His Spirit in us,
guaranteeing what is to come – may we be compelled to turn our
back on the pleasant feelings of security, and dive into the
midst of the suffering multitude – getting people saved and
keeping them saved. That is our specialty – that is our
destiny.
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