Is It Okay For Christians To Be On The Wrong Side of History?

An oft repeated phrase in these our times is "on the wrong side of history". The Golden Globes, according to The Atlantic, are on the right side of history, and other sources tell us that Christian pastors and cakemakers who will not participate in homosexual marriages are on the wrong side of history.

Some people secretly believe and talk like Nature is a sentient self-regulating force. Other people believe the same of something called The Market. Still others credit History itself (himself) with will and wants.

Illustrated: the casual use of a dangerous phrase.

History, it seems, is a person, or at least, a personal force. Contemporary man believes that History is something you can piss off. You can make History mad. You can get on the wrong side of History.

Anthropologists and psychologists and your run-of-the-mill know-it-alls say that mankind, pathetically, cannot live without a god. I'd like to suggest the living without a god is actually quite easy. What mankind can't live without is a story. Individually and collectively we require a narrative to explain our lives to ourselves. We cannot do without it. And so, in a godless world, we in a very pagan way make statues out of Progress and History and Society and Science and bow down before them. We say that Society requires, or that Science demands. And yes, humans anthropomorphize everything from sparrows to stones, but these force-energy gods show the will to rule our lives and give us direction. They become persons.

Therefore it is said, you are on the wrong side of history. History has grown angry with you.

Human lives must have meaning, or we die. There is no justification for the secularists' myth of progress, except that any alternative  to it is unthinkable. We must be going somewhere. History must be going somewhere. This all must mean something. So things are getting better, and we have a messianic mandate to make things better, and anyone not on board is against all the gods. Christians, you may be interested to learn, are the original atheists.

The civil rights movement, then, became a victory of the god Progress. Human rights do not become a question of human dignity, because human dignity has no meaning outside of a story with God in it. We cannot explore human dignity too deeply, lest we discover our dark hearts at the bottom. So we say that History and Progress demanded this of us. They are what make us better than our fathers. They are what move us toward the eschaton. We are walking with the god of this age toward a fair and happy land.

Like all gods, History and Progress are molded in the image of their makers. Therefore the god of this age requires at different times in different places different sacrifices and acts of obedience. This is why it is said among the people that the Christians are on the wrong side of History's new dispensation, for they hate the gays. Yay, verily, even unto denying their gods-given right to marry.

History is cross at us because we are not making the nice at the gays. Therefore the people do not make the nice at us, but seek to cast us out of decent society.

Jews demand a sign and Greeks look for wisdom. People who worship Progress worship the more secret and darker god whose name is Power. Which is why this people must see the power of God.

We cannot argue with those who say that we are on the wrong side of history, because it is not a philosophical debate. It is a religious war, between peoples whose gods are enemies.

Of course, our God is love. Our God is merciful and compassionate and slow to anger. Our God saves to a thousand generations. It is this God who goes to war for us, and it is this God whom we must ask to show his power. It is this God whom we must obey by loving our neighbors. This love is our fire from heaven, by which the offerings to Baal will be consumed.

When people say that we are on the wrong side of history, it is holy war. Do not try to convince them. Show them. From the very beginning, our God has won people over with displays of might. The fact that our mighty God is also a God of love and kindness and mercy is repugnant today, but it is that power which will win our enemies over. Through deeds of love and mercy of the heavenly kingdom comes.

It is time to stop believing that we are dueling in the arena of ideas. We are warring in heaven, caught in a battle of the gods, and we must cast History itself down to the ground. History is a person, because everyone says he is a person. And this person, who is in the likeness of this age, will brook no compromise, will hear no argument. So stop arguing and debating and winning or losing meaningless battles. The living world, not philosophy, is our battleground. Stand firm in your Christian identity and do not expect your enemy to back down. Beat them down with the weapons you have been given. You are spiritual beings making war on powers and principalities, through Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit, so let's act like it. Love 'em all and let God sort 'em out.