OUR TIMES July 27, 2020

I once read a book written by former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich about one of the battles during the American Civil War, in which he also quoted the first lines of one of the essays under the series, ‘The Crisis’, which was written by Thomas Paine (the one quoted of which was dated) on December 23, 1776, exactly 199 years and 7 months before the day I was born.  Now I know that with today’s run of current events in America, this sentence in itself—which through the course of time has become ridden with contradictory elements, would cause a riot: we have one controversial and scandalized Republican congressman, writing about the Civil War to abolish slavery (while chronicling the heroism of Confederate General Robert E. Lee), and yet quoting something from one of the fathers of the American nation, that upholds the ideals espoused when America rebelled and gained independence from Great Britain.

And those lines were, “THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value.”

Throughout the whole course of human history, such Crises which indeed try men’s souls repeatedly happen, and we are experiencing one now, with the CoViD-19 pandemic.  The true tyrant is not a person, but something that cannot be seen with the naked eye.  But the fear is all the more real, so that in the way governments handle the effects of the pandemic, we see many bordering on or using the hands of tyranny to control the movements of people, and the expressions of their sentiments.  Although I agree that it is true that rioting, picketing and protesting have indeed become commercial business (otherwise, where does one get the funds to gather people en masse, produce propaganda materials, feed these people while on strike, without a lucrative source of funds?  I am an accountant, but I think anyone can do the math, in a matter of seconds); still, to stifle and corral an exasperated, miserable and desperate populace without giving them adequate support and humane leadership and care is tantamount to torture.  To put it simply, without good stewardship, there is only abuse.

But, as believers, none of these things that have happened before and are happening now should catch us unaware.  We read today in the second epistle of the Apostle Paul to Timothy, chapter 3, about “the last days (or the latter days), in which perilous (or dangerous) times shall (have) come”.  We learn that people are “…lovers of themselves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of GOD; having a form of godliness, but denying its power…”  If we must relate that to what is happening now, we may add the words “…rampant graft and corruption, white-washing, blatant denial of strongly evidenced plunders, abuses of authority, extremely abusive capitalistic businesses, long dead ideologies made alive only by undercover commercialism, power-hungry dynasties, and deeply greedy oligarchies…”, to name a few.

But then there is still hope, because in the last four verses, the great apostle exhorted Timothy and all Believers to continue in the things that we have learned and been assured of, and that is the Word of GOD; because, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:  That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” 

This perfection is not the perfection of our natural humanity, but the perfection of our faith, that no matter the severity of the trials we face daily, we have assurance and deliverance in GOD’s promises, that we have proved and tested to be also truer than the sufferings and the pain we face.  As one praise song has it, we may be, “…pressed but not crushed; persecuted, not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed…”  We can have daily confidence to believe in and live by His Word, because we know it still holds tremendous power even against seen and unseen tyrants, even during the turmoil and the crisis of our times.