Martin Luther famously remarked,
And while I slept or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends …, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything.
Luther had merely rediscovered Paul’s experience 1,500 years earlier:
For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ 2 Cor 10:4-5
Rather than the Pope, Paul’s battle, though, was against the Greco-Roman colossus. And so, we today must, likewise, stand on the frontline where the battle is fiercest.
Otherwise, our lives will be lost, consumed by distractions and lesser things. And this may even be in “the Lord’s service”. If we have not discerned where the battle is most ferocious and stood on the line elsewhere, we have lost.
So, where is the spiritual battle in our day?
Like Paul, it is against arguments and prideful reasonings raised up against the knowledge of God.
The 21st century is merely the 1st century redivivus—reborn. Rejecting our cultural roots in the Gospel, the West has pursued neo-paganism headlong.
Lusting after foreign gods, we have embraced false spiritualties, postmodern philosophy, and cultural-marxism; all embedded in the mindless politically-correct mantra of the press and social-media. Even so-called evangelical Christians, having rejected the reliability and authority of the Bible, have become “progressives”, embracing gender ideology, same-sex marriage, doomsday environmentalism, and the utopian promises of statism.
The Christian foundations of Western freedoms and prosperity have been so undermined that we are facing imminent collapse.
It is, therefore, imperative to recover those foundations. God is raising up strategic thinkers and reformers around the world for this purpose. We are committed to doing our small share by declaring God’s word and publishing week-by-week our Lifemessage.
We have felt strongly to return to the 1st century apostolic message. Hence, our focus on Paul’s Epistle to the Romans.
Paul’s revelation of the Gospel has been arguably the most formative influence upon the development of Western culture. Even unbelieving scholars have been willing to recognise its “civilising effect” on Europe.
Nonetheless, there is “more light to be shed” from this great epistle.
This in turn will release a further advance of the Gospel, even as it did in triggering the Reformation. If the Gospel can transform an individual, it can transform a family. If it can transform a family, it can transform a church. And if it can transform a church, it can transform a whole community. And if a community, why not a whole culture? And if a culture, why not a whole civilisation?
Indeed, Paul’s Epistle to the Romans is not merely about my personal salvation. It is, in fact, God’s Manifesto for Paradise Restored.
It was a declaration of God’s government on earth in the face of Rome’s messianic statism, of Christ as Lord over against Caesar as Lord and Saviour of the world. This messianic claim of state as god is again being made by the secular-humanism of our generation.
This is where the battle is fiercest and where we must therefore stand, if we are to stand for the Lord.
To the Romans in Rome, in the very hub and vortex of the humanist empire, Paul declared two things:
1) the sovereignty and victory of God’s government in history, and
2) that it comes through Covenant.
This is the stuff of cultural reformation and civilisational renewal.
Stand with us as we seek to recover this message and broadcast it as far and as to many as possible.
Your partnership with us in prayer and in your faithful giving releases the Word of God to do the work!
Sincerely,
David Orton
Lifemessenger Inc.
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