Ascendant

 No one expects a new believer to reach full maturity of faith within a few days after repenting and humbling themselves at the foot of the cross. There is an expectation, however, that today, their faith is stronger and more mature than yesterday, and tomorrow, it will be more substantive and nuanced than today. There is a natural ascendancy to faith, the pinnacle of which will bring you to the place of Abraham’s position, wherein nothing God asked of him was too much, but without question or delay, he obeyed fully.

I could bluster and bloviate and say I’m right there with him, but there’s no point in pretending or projecting a level of faith that I have not as yet attained. I love God with all my heart. I have devoted my life to whatever work He calls me to do, but I do have to admit my reluctance in saying I am certain I would act as Abraham did if the same was asked of me.

In any case, it would be easier for me than it was for him because at least I have the Word to fall back on and the understanding attained in hindsight that God will intervene and make a way, even if it’s at the last possible moment. Abraham had no one to look back on and cling to the hope that an angel would step in and spare his son Isaac.

It’s easy to beat our chest and say we are monoliths of the faith when no great sacrifice has been required of us. That the day has not come does not mean it won’t come, and only once we’ve followed through and done as God commanded when it costs us something dear can we rightly claim to be the men we thought we were before the sifting.

Abraham didn’t brag about being a man of faith; he didn’t make shirts, hats, ball caps, and socks proclaiming his staggering faithfulness; he proved it without saying a word. He proved it by obeying God and being willing to go all the way in his obedience.

We hear about the heroes of old who remained faithful to the end, who bled and hurt and lost and died for the cause of Christ without denying Him. We rarely hear about those who didn’t remain faithful, but I guarantee you there were many more who weren’t than those who were.

Although I have no way of verifying what took place two thousand years ago, I know what happened during the communist reign in my country and how few remained faithful to Christ without trying to carve out some comfort for their flesh in the process. There’s a reason the church went underground and betrayal of confidence was so commonplace. In order to betray someone’s trust, you must first possess it, and supposed brothers and sisters sold out fellow believers for as little as a few extra food rations. Part of me would understand. You had to do what you had to do but for an extra kilo of flour? Is that all brotherhood is worth: two pounds of bleached flour in a plastic bag?

If you’re expecting anything different to happen once persecution starts in the West, you’re fooling yourself. Perhaps not for flour, as most people wouldn’t know what to do with it anyway, but maybe internet access, or a bank account, or being able to remain a person and not be wholly erased with the stroke of a few keys, perhaps?

Total control means just that, and when darkness has it, it will not use it to oppress its own followers but those who oppose it. Evil uses the power it amasses to beat down the children of God. The children of God use the tenuous power they get once in a blue moon to make more allowances for evil. Many would betray Jesus Himself if it meant the world would applaud them as tolerant and non-judgmental. If we haven’t learned that little tidbit from all the lessons recent history has taught us, we’re further behind than I had hoped.

Not to belabor the point since I’ve already iterated my position, but how do you think the average Christian will react to having to contend with taking a mark to be able to go to the local Piggly Wiggly when their expectations were to be caught up before any sign of these things manifested?

It’s an honest question. It’s not meant to be sardonic or sarcastic; it’s something we must contend with if we believe the Word of God over the words of men and realize that all the Bible, including the parts we don’t like so much, was written for the children of God as a warning of what is to come.

If the Bible told us to watch for these things, prepare for these things, and anticipate these things, but we chose to disregard the Bible because some guy in his mom’s basement with a magic marker and a whiteboard figured out that the Bible was lying, and all the warnings were just wasted ink, who’s to blame for the fallout? It certainly isn’t God.

The Bible was there for all God’s children to read, believe, and adhere to. What the Bible says these last days will look like isn’t vague or confusing. It’s not lacking in either detail or nuance. It’s all there in black and white, but it doesn’t say the things we’d like it to say. It doesn’t present a path to our destination that is carefree and absent of obstacles or hardships. We become so obsessed with the journey that we lose sight of the destination and that the journey will have been worthwhile once we get to where we’re going.

In order to get through the dark days, the dry days, those days where you’re not just shattered, but the shattered pieces are broken anew, your faith must grow and mature to the point that you are unshaken in your confidence that no matter how small the broken pieces become, He will put you back together, make you whole, and use you as He wills.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.