In the beginning are the words. Behind and underneath every civilization are the foundational words. Those words can be false and idolatrous, but when they are believed, they still serve in a foundational way. When they are not believed, that culture has entered a sacrificial crisis. Smoke still ascends from their temples, but no one really believes in the gods anymore. The sacrifices don’t work, and the populace continues to unravel. “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Ps. 11:3).
Then others come, preaching strange gods, and there is pressure to make a switch — because human cultures have a deep and undeniable need for efficacious sacrifice. Abandoning ineffectual gods, proven to be such, for ineffectual gods, not yet shown up as failures, can seem like an improvement.
The Ground Zero mosque is an opening gambit, an appeal to secularist America. If Allah is God, then follow Him. And of course, the materialist laughs this idea to scorn — look at the relative size of the armies and navies, look at the GDPs, look at our cultural achievements. And so the importance of faith is neglected. What is greater — momentous achievements with no faith following, or tiny achievements supported by blind, unyielding faith? Which one will give way to the other. As Chesterton put it, a man who stands for nothing will fall for anything. The same thing goes for cultures.
There are counter appeals, pulling in an opposite direction, of course. And we can see this kind of thing with the Glenn Beck rally at the Washington Mall this last week end. Those who are contemptuously dismissively of such things are only showing that they don’t know what makes human beings tick. People don’t just want a full belly — they want answers. They want to be oriented. They want to be centered. And we don’t need to see them getting the right answers to be able to see the hunger for answers.
But we are Reformed. We can’t be bothered with providing gospel answers to a starving nation. Let the Mormons do that. The sheep are scattered, and the task of gathering them looks perilously like work. It is too much work to even look like a false shepherd. “My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them”(Ez. 34:6). When Jesus saw the multitudes in this condition, His heart went out to them (Matt. 9:36). Our theologians take it upon themselves a radical two flock theology, postulating an earthly flock that we don’t have to pay any attention to, and a heavenly flock that doesn’t need any attention from us. It works out just fine, and here we are with a book of thick theology, and a fine cigar.
“Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD; As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock; Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them” (Ez. 34:7-10).
“Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD. Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD” (Jer. 23:1-3).
And so there you have it. Woe declared upon the pastors.