Friends, Brothers, Sisters, let’s me frank—trying to cover theologically significant news-stories every week can get a bit depressing. It’s very easy when scouring the news to feel that everything is going off the rails. Change and decay in all around I see. Look around and nomatter where you look you’ll see corruption and crookery. The world, this nation, it’s full of horrendous and monstrous and ghoulish evil. The rich oppress the poor, the poor are corrupt and self-destruct, and the rich devour their own souls. Those who rule over us are fools and cowards and corrupticos and those who speak up and speak out are silenced. The Devil runs riot. Black is white; up is down; good is evil; wrong is right—everything’s the way it oughtn’t to be.
It's easy to view things that way. It’s easy to get depressed by the news. It’s easy to see what’s happening in the world and grow despondent and discouraged and to fall into despair. It is. I won’t sugar-coat it, friends, if you pay attention to what’s going on in the world you won’t find a very pretty picture.
And so, because of this there are many well meaning folk who will tell you “stop watching the news; stop listening to the news. Why, when I quit paying attention to politics I became much happier.”
No doubt, brother!
I’m utterly certain that if you stop paying attention to the evil in the world and only focus on happy things that you’ll be happier.
But that’s foolish. That’s playing the ostrich. And like it or not, no citizen of a republic has the moral right to just ignore their civic duty, and part of that civic duty is to be reasonably informed as to the state of the republic. When you have the right to vote and elect representatives then you have a moral duty to do so, and to choose those who will be most pleasing—or at least least displeasing—to God. One may protest, that they don’t like politics because it’s just so depressing, it’s all a bit of a downer. Yeah. It is. Because politics is where men are asked to govern their own nature. Will people actually subdue and restrain their base and wicked appetites or will they surrender to them? Will humanity love righteousness and hate wickedness and will God’s deacons bear the sword to please Him or will they abuse their power for their own perverse ends?
Read a bit of history, it shouldn’t take much, and you’ll not find a lot to celebrate. People are an unpleasant lot, and politicians are just people with the power of many people at their disposal. And everyone who has studied history has realized this. They’ve come to the conclusion that humans have largely done a pretty poor job of not oppressing and exploiting and violating eachother.
Yes, I get it; I get the temptation to ignore politics. And I want to qualify what I’m saying with a big caveat. Not all news and commentary is edifying for the soul. And, it is possible to overdo it. I believe we have a moral obligation as citizens of a republic to be reasonably informed on the issues. But this doesn’t mean you need to watch Fox News 24/7. I would strongly discourage that. And it certainly doesn’t mean that ANY news source is equally good as any other news source. There are indeed fear and outrage mongers, and they should be avoided. I’m not saying our lives should revolve around the news and politics—far from it. There are a lot of important things in life. And that includes silence and prayer and meditation.
What I’m NOT saying is that to be a good Christian you need to be a news junkie. I would actually caution against that. In fact, I would strongly caution against that. But I would equally caution against sticking your head in the sand. I get it, ignorance is bliss. There’s a reason that at the end of his poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Coleridge speaks of a man who became “sadder and wiser” from hearing the harrowing tale. Wisdom is known to bring sadness and sorrow.
12 I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind! 14 I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
15 What is crooked cannot be straightened;
what is lacking cannot be counted.
16 I said to myself, “Look, I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.” 17 Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.
18 For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;
the more knowledge, the more grief.
Ecclesiastes 1:12–18
In fact, Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived was so certain that wisdom brought sorrow that his advice for the godless was for them to ignore wisdom and higher things and to just eat-drink-and be merry.
And yet Solomon tells us that wisdom is better than folly. And the proverbs tells us to get wisdom, even though it costs us everything. And, my goodness, look at Solomon’s own words in the proverbs, as he describes wisdom!
13 Blessed are those who find wisdom,
those who gain understanding,
14 for she is more profitable than silver
and yields better returns than gold.
15 She is more precious than rubies;
nothing you desire can compare with her.
16 Long life is in her right hand;
in her left hand are riches and honor.
17 Her ways are pleasant ways,
and all her paths are peace.
18 She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her;
those who hold her fast will be blessed.
19 By wisdom the Lord laid the earth’s foundations,
by understanding he set the heavens in place;
20 by his knowledge the watery depths were divided,
and the clouds let drop the dew.
21 My son, do not let wisdom and understanding out of your sight,
preserve sound judgment and discretion;
22 they will be life for you,
an ornament to grace your neck.
23 Then you will go on your way in safety,
and your foot will not stumble.
24 When you lie down, you will not be afraid;
when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.
25 Have no fear of sudden disaster
or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked,
26 for the Lord will be at your side
and will keep your foot from being snared.
Proverbs 3:13–26
So, consider this dilemma. On one hand wisdom brings sadness and grief. But at the same time wisdom is the key to all good things. On one hand ignorance is bliss, but folly leads to death and destruction and not only that, but Wisdom will laugh in your face in the day of calamity because you despised her.
This is a tricky one.
And to put it in more contemporary terms it would seem, that if we apply the text to our lives, it’s saying that seeking to know and understand the politics and news of the day so we can be informed citizens who can do our civic duty will make us sadder and bring us to grief, and yet somehow, it will also provide us with blessings that make us happy!
This seems like a contradiction does it not? This seems like it can’t work. It would appear that the Biblical teaching on the affective power of wisdom and knowledge undermines its own arguments.
Yes.
It would appear that way.
At first glance.
But the first glance is rarely the clearest picture and wisdom and folly are mysteries that we must pray to God to reveal to us. Because the truth is that these ideas are not actually contradictory. It is true that ignorance is bliss—but that bliss is ruinous bliss. A fool is a happy fool…until he isn’t.
You see what Solomon in Ecclesiastes and the Proverbs is telling us is something that’s actually extremely helpful. And, obviously, he’s talking about wisdom and folly in a more universal sense than just the news and current events and politics, but he’s not talking about less than that. Remember friends, politics is just theology with a gun. God cares deeply about the politics of this world because politics is how theology is enforced upon a society. Also, Solomon was a king and huge portions of the Bible deal with political wranglings and intrigue. The story of Saul, David, and Solomon, the kings of the United Kingdom is one of the best political thrillers ever written—all the more so since it’s a true story!
The point is that you have to endure a bit of sorrow and sadness to gain enough wisdom to achieve the peace and prosperity required to bring enduring happiness.
In other words, the only way to be happy most of the time is to accept that you’ll always be a little bit sad. Why? Because the only way to bring about peace and prosperity is to understand human nature and how the world actually works. You need anthropology and theology and philosophy. You need wisdom and that wisdom, the kind of wisdom that comes from understanding human nature, is wisdom that brings sadness. Why? Because human nature is wretched and corrupt and totally depraved! When you actually understand the world and our place in it you understand that all of us are born Hell-doomed sinners who need to repent and be saved; you understand that people are corrupt and that humans, even the very best of us, are corrupt and depraved; you understand that all your heroes have feet of clay and that you will be disappointed sooner or later by their frailty; you come to know that you will die and you will almost certainly be forgotten soon after your death having left no real impact in the world that you’ll be remembered for; you come to know that you will be betrayed and hurt and that you’ll betray and hurt; you have to deal with the fact that there is no such thing as security in this world—this is a place where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, where Alexanders conquer the world and are felled by mosquitoes, where nothing is ever safe; you understand that the very best we can do is to fight a losing retreat; you realize that eventually humanity will fall to the Antichrist; you come to grips with the fact that people will let you down; most importantly, you are forced to recognize that you too are a wretch, who at your best are saved by grace, but that you too are a disappointment and a failure and frail and that it’s only by the grace of God that you are what you are.
And that’s enough to make anyone sad.
As Roy Trenneman says on The IT Crowd: People, what a bunch of bastards!
And if that knowledge doesn’t make you sad, then, well, I don’t know what to say. Because Jesus didn’t have enough theology to make the pain of this world not affect Him—he cried when Lazarus died. Jesus didn’t become callous and hard-hearted. This world will break your heart.
But people who know that are the only kinds of people who can make it better! Because if you don’t know that all men are liars and that all are born sinners and that those in power will always be corrupt and corrupted and corrupting, if you don’t know those things then you will be a terrible leader. And the reason you’ll be a terrible leader is because you’re a fool. Fools make bad leaders, if for no other reason than because solving problems requires living in the world of reality and not fantasy.
Now look, I like fantasy as much as or more than the next person. I am quite a dork. But I like my fantasy to remain in the world of fiction not the world of politics.
So, again, only the people with the sadness that comes with wisdom are capable of leading. But that means that the people who then are sad but wise are able to lead well because they can actually solve problems and restrain wickedness and foster righteousness. Those things naturally bring peace and prosperity and happiness. So the only way to achieve happiness through governance is to accept sadness in our anthropology. Those who have a sad view of people are the kinds of leaders who can bring great joy to people.
That of course is the irony of Progressivism. Progressives think that they can overcome human nature and that Utopia is always just over the next hill, and so they justify all kinds of horrors and abuses and murders and violations and rapes and robberies and wars to get to Utopia, but they never get to Utopia, they just get to a poorer, miserabler, rapier, murderier, version of the Dystopia they so fervently hated. Because they refuse to see the problems of human society as endemic to human nature they can never deliver on the progress and prosperity and peace they promise.
Brothers and sisters, friends, my point is that if we’re going to make this world a better place we have to be involved and engaged. You might say, “but Luke, you’re a premillennialist, you’re a dispensationalist, you think the whole world is gonna go rotten and worship the Antichrist, how can you talk about making the world better?” Good question. Here’s what I think is a good answer.
I don’t know when Jesus is coming back. He might come back tomorrow or in a thousand years. But until He returns I want Christ’s gospel and the peace, prosperity, joy, and happiness that comes from His gospel to rule in ever part of human life and human society. I want to stop babies from being murdered today. And if I know that Jesus is going to rapture me out this afternoon, but that I can work to save babies lives in a few hours that I have…I want to use the time I have for good. Improving the world by making it conform to the way God would have it to be is not liberal or secular or even post-Millennial; it’s just Christian. Godly people have a sadness about them—it’s true. We’re sad because we know what human nature truly is. But Godly people bring happiness with them because that sad knowledge of human nature allows us to govern and to build and to preach and to teach and the raise children and run businesses and have friendships and marriages in light of that knowledge and that brings peace and prosperity.
Don’t be discouraged; run the race, fight the fight, and keep the faith.