Veroni's Views

In both of the two countries of the world that I am most closely involved there is much turmoil at present.  My website is not a news programme, nor am I a journalist, so I will not try to tell you what’s happening.  You can find that out for yourself on the news.  The countries are the United States of America and (The Republic of) South Africa.  It is quite significant that there is turmoil in many other countries also.  However, I will limit my focus to these two countries because I am more intimately involved with them than with any others.  The principles I am about to emphasize apply to the whole world.

The important question is “What do we as Christians make of and do under the present  circumstances?”

Violent protest is definitely not an option.  Neither is purely partisan political activity.  Nor a head-in-the-sand attitude of “my home is in heaven” and I don’t care what happens here.  Whining also does not really help, except as a futile venting of emotions.

The principles that we adhere to are that God is in control, and that our calling is to remain obedient to Him.

In atypical fashion, Scripture talks about God laughing in the second Psalm.  The reason for his mirth is not joy, but derision.

The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them (Psalm 2.4).

The reason for his derision is stated in verses 1-3:

Why do the nations conspire and the people plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying,  “Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles.”

Who is Donald Trump, and who is Jacob Zuma?  Merely human beings who are functioning in a particular role for a limited time, and then will disappear.  A secular writer with much insight into human affairs said the following about life:

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more.  (Shakespeare, Macbeth)

So what are Obama, Trump, Zuma, Putin…?  Of course they are significant because of the positions afforded them through political processes.  But in the large scheme of things, they are really only human participants that will disappear again, while the unfolding of God’s plans is eternal.

God is the Maker of history.  His purposes are inescapable.  His methods are relentless, in the positive sense.  He wants good for all, and He pursues that objective relentlessly.

What are we supposed to do?

We exercise our civil privileges:  Freedom of religion and speech, with all the other privileges our citizenship brings.  We fulfill our civil responsibilities: Obey the law, pay taxes, with all the other responsibilities our citizenship brings.  We make ourselves heard: Vote, write, protest as long as it is peaceful.  Above all, we obey the laws of the Kingdom of God:  Love our neighbour, even when he/she is most “unlovable”; do unto others as you would want them to do unto you…

We also exercise our “secret weapon.”

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.  On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.  We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ (2 Cor 10.4,5).

Says another “secular” wise man:
More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.  (Alfred Lord Tennyson)