Once there was a small rural school. It was in an idyllic setting, and all those involved with it loved it. The hundred or so students and half dozen teachers all greatly enjoyed life at this school. But lately one of the students was acting peculiar. He kept sounding the alarm about menacing things he had seen, but no one took him seriously.
He would claim to have seen scary looking men lurking in the shadows of the school’s perimeter. He claimed there were packs of wolves coming ever closer to the school. And he warned about a nearby river continuing to rise and become increasingly agitated.
Yet his fellow students and his teachers did not believe him, and often just made fun of him for his warnings. Needless to say this disbelief and apathy bothered him greatly, yet he persevered. And eventually a few more students began to share in his concerns.
They too started to see men in the shadows, wolves on the prowl, and the river getting more restless. So they also shared their concerns, but they too were met with scepticism and outright hostility. They certainly did not like all the hate and rejection they received, but they had seen with their own eyes these looming dangers.
A few did stop speaking out, for fear of losing all their friends, and becoming outcasts at the school. Yet several others, including the original boy, kept on sounding the alarm. Day in and day out they reported what they saw, and pleaded with everyone else to wake up and prepare for these dangers.
And sure enough, the day came where these evil men entered the school grounds and did horrible evil to students and teachers alike. The wolves also bounded into the school, killing many and causing great terror. And the raging river did indeed break its banks and swept away much of the school and many of those therein.
This horrific carnage absolutely devastated the entire community. And the tragedy was, they had been warned time and time again. Yet those sounding the alarm were simply ignored, dismissed as nutters, or condemned as trouble-makers.
Had people taken seriously their passionate warnings, perhaps all of these disasters could have been averted. But that was not the case, and the tremendous damage was done. The school never recovered, and it was never reopened. It was a day of infamy, remembered for years to come.
The Watchmen’s necessary but thankless task
The above story was my first ever attempt at fiction on this site, and given how poorly done it was, you will all be relieved to know that it will of course be my last (hey, I never claimed to be a fiction writer). So I will stick with my usual means of communication, yet I must admit to my frustrations here.
You see, I have written hundreds of pieces offering warnings about the disasters already upon us, or heading our way real soon. Yet they forever seem to fall on deaf ears. They are seldom taken seriously, and most folks (including most Christians) look upon them with disdain.
Of course I don’t really care what people think about me and my warnings. I can be, and often am, wrong. But often I am passing on the warnings of those far better placed and qualified than myself to sound such alarms. Yet even these experts and those who know what they are talking about are rejected and told to just shut up.
The warnings keep falling on deaf ears. Certainly much of the world dismisses such warnings, but so too does so much of the church. Things are just business as usual in churchland. Everyone just wants to keep doing their thing, ruffle no feathers, rattle no cages, and put no one off.
Speaking in a prophetic or watchman-like fashion is just not very popular today. But then again, it never was. God’s watchmen and prophets of long ago were also rejected, hated, vilified and ignored. The only popular prophets of course were the false prophets. They told the folks just what they wanted to hear, so of course they were quite popular.
But the true prophets told the people what God wanted them to hear, and most of God’s people were just not interested. They wanted to keep at their fun and games, and not be told of sin, the need for repentance, and judgment to come. They were not interested in the hard words of warning and rebuke back then, and they still aren’t today.
The church today, like Israel of old, has its ears closed and its eyes shut. It is not interested in hearing anything about all the horrific stuff going on all around us. They are not in the least interested in even discussing the things that are breaking God’s heart, things like the slaughter of the unborn, the war on marriage and family, the carnality, compromise and cowardice in our churches, and so on.
Far too many churchians and church leaders are like what the child said to his teacher when asked if we are too ignorant and indifferent today. He replied: “I don’t know and I don’t care.” That about sums up so much of churchianity today. We don’t want to know and we could not be bothered caring. We just want to be comfortable, secure, happy, awash with material goodies, and free of any contentious or vexatious issues and concerns.
The church of Jesus Christ today is largely asleep. Hell is breaking loose all around it, yet it simply retreats further into its cocoon. Heads are in the sand, and ears are closed to anyone sounding the alarm. Yet God in his grace will keep on sounding the alarm.
He will keep sending his watchmen. As we read in Isaiah 62:6-7: “I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the LORD, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth.”
I am asked all the time: How can we get the church to wake up? I always reply, that is the million dollar question. I wish I knew how we could wake people up and snap them out of their world of illusion. That is why films like The Matrix at least provide a starting point in all this.
Even pagan film makers know that people can be living a lie, living in illusion. Although not Christians, the Wachowski brothers offered a lot of Christian themes in this film. Consider just one very small portion of dialogue here:
Morpheus: Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life, that there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I’m talking about?
Neo: The Matrix.
Morpheus: Do you want to know what it is?
Neo: Yes.
Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work… when you go to church… when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind.
Plenty of churchians as well as their worldling cousins are living in this prison. Their minds and hearts are behind bars, and their spiritual awareness is largely absent. So many Christians are absolutely fully at home in the world, and live and act as if the world is their home.
They are oblivious to the dangers all around us, the traps laying everywhere, and the hostile enemies everywhere seeking to destroy them. And most people prefer it that way. They prefer living in this dark and enclosed world. It is just so much easier.
Why am I so often reminded of Jeremiah 5:31: “The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way. But what will you do in the end?”
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