A Sober Optimism

How to think about turbulent times

Photo from Unsplash

There is cause to be disturbed about the state of the world. Political extremism has resulted in two attempts on Donald Trump’s life. Ukraine and Gaza remain torn by war with thousands of innocents dead. Broken families, economic issues, and drug abuse mean that more children are living in unstable homes than ever before. Many in society see sexuality and gender as changeable and subject to the desires of the individual. Social media spreads radical ideologies and conspiracy theories to the masses.

To many, the present historical moment brings fear and apprehension. It also brings a longing for days past when life seemed less chaotic and when people feared God and honored the king.

While fearing the future and longing for the past is an understandable response, it is the wrong response for Christians. It is wrong because it fails to recognize two truths. First, depravity has been prevalent since the Fall. Second, good will win in the end. When we recognize these two truths, we can rid ourselves of unhealthy fear and our nostalgia for an ideal past that never truly existed, instead focusing on what God has commanded us to do; bring hope and healing to a wounded world.

Depravity has been present since the Fall

With the political unrest, violence, and pandemics in the last few years, it has been easy to believe that the world has gone from being relatively quiet and orderly to evil and chaotic, with the worst of times being now. Especially since COVID-19, the word “unprecedented” has been used extensively. Meaning, of course, that what’s happening now has never happened before.

I question the assumption that we live in the worst of times, and I believe that we use the term “unprecedented” more than we should.

Let me be clear; I’m not trying to say that we need to be naively optimistic about the present moment. It is true that the West has become increasingly decadent in the last few decades, with free sexual expression and hyper-individualism becoming the norm. The tide of culture is turning, and many of the core beliefs on both the political left and right are hostile to the teachings of Jesus. We in the West are living in an increasingly post-Christian world.

Further, modern technology, while it is useful, gives us new ways to exercise our depravity. The same technology that allows us to communicate with friends and families halfway around the world also lets us access pornography at any time. It has given us the ability to cross continents in hours instead of months while also allowing us to develop hydrogen bombs that can wipe out a city in a moment. This large-scale destruction is something that the Assyrians and Romans could never have dreamed of.  

As the West becomes more secular, Christians are left with the uncomfortable feeling that they aren’t as appreciated as they once were. With other religions like Islam and Eastern mysticism growing in the United States, Christianity is becoming sidelined. American politics no longer aligns with many Christian values, with the political left pushing progressive agendas and the political right stripping the conservative Christian elements from their platform to please the electorate. According to a Pew Research poll, the number of adults describing themselves as Christians dropped from 77 percent in 2009 to 65 percent in 2019.¹ That’s down 12 points in just 10 years.

While the trend away from Christianity in the U.S. is unfortunate, it’s not the first time that Christianity has been sidelined and marginalized. The New Testament writers, as well as all the pre-Nicene early church writers, wrote in a time when Christianity was a buffeted minority. The exile mindset was one that came with being a Christian. They didn’t worry about the next president being a progressive or a pagan. Ungodly and ruthless leaders were the default. Tertullian wrote in 213:

We are regarded as persons to be hated by all men for the sake of the Name—just as it was written. And we are delivered up by our nearest of kin also—as it was written. We are brought before magistrates, examined, tortured, make confession [of Christ], and are ruthlessly killed—as it was written.²

In 205, Hippolytus wrote,

For the church is afflicted and pressed, not only by the Jews, but also by the Gentiles. It is also afflicted by those who are called Christians, but are not such in reality.³

While losing our Christian-majority status in the United States is not something we might desire, it doesn’t spell doom for followers of Jesus. In fact, the early church is proof that Christianity can thrive in hostile environments. Despite Christianity being a minority religion in the Roman empire, it became incredibly influential and shaped the people of the empire.

Another area that is often seen as an especially modern problem is moral depravity. However, the apostle Paul got to see moral depravity in ways that few of us today have. In Rome, male citizens could use their sexuality in almost any way they pleased, even if it meant hurting other people. Historian Tom Holland says:

A Roman woman, if she’s of citizen status, can’t be used willy-nilly — but pretty much anyone else can. That means that if you’re a Roman householder, your family is not just your blood relatives: it’s everybody in your household. It’s your dependents; your slaves. You can use your slaves any way you want. And if you’re not doing it, then there’s something wrong with you.⁴

And Roman moral depravity didn’t stop with sexuality. In Roman gladiatorial games, pairs of men clashed and fought to the death. The timid ones were beaten with whips and seared with red-hot irons. Those who survived and became professionals at killing their opponent were lauded as heroes.

Depravity didn’t stop when the Roman Empire collapsed. A look at the 19th and 20th centuries in America and Europe—which, by the way, is the era that many want to go back to—reveals slavery, prostitution, corruption, and violence. Herman Bavinck, a Dutch pastor-theologian who lived from 1854 to 1921 said of his day that “There has never been a time when the family faced so severe a crisis.”⁵ In 1908, Bavinck published The Christian Family, in which he said:

the worship and the denigration of the woman, tyranny as well as slavery, the seduction and the hatred of men, both idolizing and killing children; sexual immorality, human trafficking, concubinage, bigamy, polygamy, polyandry, adultery, divorce, incest; unnatural sins whereby men commit scandalous acts with men, women with women … glorifying nudity.⁶

This was all was happening at a time when there were Christian governments and most people called themselves Christians. And in some areas of life, people were less moral than they are today. A family in the American South in the early 1800s may have gone to church and rejected homosexuality, yet they owned and abused African slaves. Do we want to go back to the “good old days” and trade today’s gender debates with the owning and abuse of human beings?

Most of the evil in our society today isn’t new; it has been practiced for thousands of years. Ever since the Fall, humans have lied, stolen, killed, raped, and persecuted God’s children.

Good will win in the end

As we've seen, people have been fallen ever since, well, the Fall. Depravity today shouldn't surprise us. Yet the bigger and more important reason that we should not fear is that good will win in the end. The Apostle John lived in a time rife with all the things I previously mentioned. Fledgling Christians were being ostracized and persecuted. Moral depravity was rampant. Everyone was sure that the end was near. Yet in his letters to the churches, he has an attitude of certainty and triumph.

You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world…Who is the one who conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?⁷

Notice the past tense in the first line. You have conquered them. It is not a matter of if. It is not even a matter of when. John proclaims that the war has been won, even though he knew there would be many battles fought before the war was over.

The Christian view of history and of the end times, which Christopher Watkin aptly calls a “sober optimism", is realistic about the present evil in the world and the final victory. There’s no need to freak out; we can expect that there will be corruption, greed, immorality. And we can also expect to be victorious. J.R.R. Tolkien, writing about the end of days, says, “I am a Christian…so that I do not expect ‘history’ to be anything but a long defeat—though it contains some samples or glimpse of final victory.⁸

Paul tells us in his letter to the Corinthians,

I am telling you a mystery: We will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. For this corruptible body must be clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body must be clothed with immortality. When this corruptible body is clothed with incorruptibility, and this mortal body is clothed with immortality, then the saying that is written will take place: Death has been swallowed up in victory.⁹

Pain will be no more. Wounds will be healed. Justice will be served. Death will be swallowed up in victory. And because of this, we do not fear. We hope.

1. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace/ [accessed 9/11/24]

2. Ante-Nicene Fathers, Tertullian

3. ANF, Hyppolytus

4. https://unherd.com/2023/07/the-depravity-of-the-roman-peace/ [accessed 9/10/24]

5. https://www.christianitytoday.com/2016/01/unprecedented-all-over-again/ [accessed 9/16/24]

6. https://www.christianitytoday.com/2016/01/unprecedented-all-over-again/ [accessed 9/16/24]

7. Excerpts from 1 John 4,5, CSB

8. Watkin, Christopher. 2022. Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture. Zondervan Academic, 553.

9. 1 Corinthians 15:51-54, CSB