This is my second essay on this theme, but this one comes from a different perspective than the last. Oz Guinness, the famous and brilliant Christian public intellectual and disciple of Francis Schaffer, wrote an amazing book entitled Our Civilizational Moment. Again, I take my title from his book.
Today there are two major worldviews opposing the biblical worldview. The first is what the Muslim-born writer Hamed Adel-Samad called “Islamic Fascism.” His book is brilliant and worth reading. The second is godless leftist humanism. It is different from the more moderate atheistic humanisms of the past. (For example, the late Sidney Hook of New York University was an atheist and a political conservative.) Remarkably, people committed to these two views make common cause. People wonder how this could be, since the contradictions are enormous. The answer is not found in logical analysis but in the princes of darkness behind these movements and their orientations.
Islamic Fascism
Islamic Fascism (Islamism) is an all-encompassing vision that joins religion and politics together. Its goal is to conquer all nations and eliminate all other religions: Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism, and Confucianism. It seeks to have all submit to the authoritarian, anti-democratic rule of religious authorities under a supreme leader, a Caliphate. Its methods are infiltration of other societies and war, including terrorism. Its adherents lie and misrepresent, using Western language to blind their hosts.
Secular Leftist Wokeism
The other opposing worldview fosters a secular society, usually envisioned as socialist, that also promotes radical redefinitions of human beings, especially their sexuality. When I speak of socialism, I mean socialism heavily influenced by neo-Marxism. I recognize the 19th-century Christian socialists and the Christian communities in America and Germany. My disagreement with that kind of socialism is empirical and practical: it does not adequately expand wealth to lift people up. Neo-Marxist socialism, however, places everyone in categories of oppressed and oppressor and fosters dangerous divisions in society. Monogamous marriage, the traditional family, and historic moral standards are considered oppressive. All sexual orientations are to be affirmed, and anyone who does not approve is labeled phobic and an oppressor. People have called this outlook “wokeism,” since its adherents called themselves woke. As in the existentialism of the French philosopher John Paul Sartre, humans are seen as radically free to define themselves however they envision. Non-rational proclivities become the basis for the chosen self-definition, whatever the original source of the confusion, including childhood abuse.
Wokeism affirms lifestyles that traditional psychology and psychiatry labeled mental illness. Transgenderism, polyamory, abortion, libertine sexuality, and multiple varieties of gender are all affirmed. Gender confusion is celebrated, which is a celebration of dysfunctional behavior. Capitalism is called oppression. All of this is devastating to human flourishing and fulfillment. Study after study shows that greater flourishing comes from the traditional family. We must not think that everyone who is part of these trends affirms all of them; some affirm one part and not another. But together, these orientations make up the spirit of those opposing the values of Western civilization, and many do affirm them all.
Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism
One amazing aspect of these two orientations is their intense anti-Zionism and antisemitism. Again, this makes no sense in the natural. What is the real connection? The Jewish people are the people of the Book, the book that is the foundation of Western civilization. (See Melanie Phillips, The Builder’s Stone, on this.) What’s more, the powers of darkness under Satan know that the triumph of the biblical worldview is connected to the destiny of the Jewish people. Some Jewish people have gone “woke” and promote it, but they do not escape antisemitism by doing so. They have lost their own meaning as a people. The Bible predicts the Jewish return to the Land, and Zionism is simply the view that the Jewish people need self-determination in their ancient Land. Prophetic Zionism sees the return to the Land as prophetic fulfillment, and also as setting the table for the Jewish people to play their role in the return of Yeshua.
The Western Record of Morality
I affirm the foundation of morals and law in Western civilization. I do grieve over the crimes in Western history. They are mostly a failure of the West to live up to the teaching of the Bible, and especially the teaching of Yeshua.
The Quest for Moral Clarity
I do not affirm the realpolitik that will not face the enemy and name the enemy (or enemies). Our Western governments, including Israel’s, have been unwilling to name the enemy and who is on the enemy’s side. Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennet has done the most in this regard.
First, with regard to Islamic Fascism, I ask: which countries and which movements are Islamic Fascist? And second, who supports them? Iran and Afghanistan are Islamic Fascist. Turkey and Qatar are also Islamic Fascist nations but play a double game. Both align with the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is an offshoot. Israel, the United States, and the West compromise with Turkey and Qatar. Iran leads the Shiite Islamic Fascists. Hamas in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria is Sunni Islamic Fascist. Then there are the Islamic Fascist movements: Shiite Hezbollah in Lebanon; Sunni ISIS, Al Quida, and Boko Haram in Africa; the Shiite Houthis who rule part of Yemen; and more.
Who will call a spade a spade instead of thinking that realpolitik can control these nations and movements? They have to be defeated. They must be called out and no longer coddled. Nations like Pakistan play a double game, suppressing religious freedom and allowing Islamist movements to exist within their borders or be supported from there, while publicly distancing themselves. Iraq is partially Islamic Fascist.
Second, there must be clarity and a strong stand against the wokeism that now permeates education. These movements foster moral breakdown and oppose traditional marriage and family. Neo-Marxism is allied with them and labels everyone who opposes their orientations an oppressor. There must be clarity and action. Pulpits in church and synagogue need to become firm bastions of truth and call out this moral rot. Everyone needs to be clear on where they stand.
China and Russia: No Longer Communist
Satanic power also controls the leadership of China and Russia. China is no longer communist; to quote Mao, its leaders have become “capitalist roaders.” They have their own corporations and billionaires, but these are under the control of the state. This is classic fascism. Yet the Chinese leaders will not allow any competing center of power of significance, not even churches or the Falun Gong movement, even when they profess submission to state authority. The goal of these wicked leaders is to exercise all authority and to defeat the West. To that end they support the Islamic Fascists. They also promote wokeism and neo-Marxism in the West through major hidden media efforts. The idea is to weaken the West, especially the United States. Yet if push came to shove, they would obliterate the Islamic Fascists. Look at how the Chinese have oppressed their own Muslims. Still, to weaken the United States, China supports Iran with intelligence and weapons.
Russia is very similar to China. It does partner with a submissive Orthodox Church, but it is the same totalitarianism. Note how Russia crushed its Muslims in Chechnya some years back. Yet to weaken the United States and the West, it supports Iran. It fights a war against Ukraine. Putin wants to take back the countries that were part of the Soviet Union. Demonic power sits at the top of the Russian government.
Telling the Truth and Opposing Evil
The great question of our age is this: can we tell the truth, proclaim the truth, and fight evil? Where are the Churchills of our day? Where is moral clarity? I am not arguing that we should go to kinetic war with these powers, but that we must be clear, do what we can to weaken them, and strengthen those who defend civilization.
The power of prayer to defeat the princes of darkness is essential. Without such prayer, there is no hope that merely human efforts will succeed.