Covenant Presbyterian Church

In Psalm 11:3 the question is posed, "If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?" In considering this question, we must first be persuaded that "foundations" exist. By "foundation" the psalmist refers to the biblical worldview, divinely and authoritatively revealed in Scripture, centered upon the divine person and saving work of the Son of God incarnate, universally relevant for man throughout the entire spectrum of his life, and personally embraced by faith. This foundation is objective; it possesses a reality and authority that surpasses man’s experience, rationality, and science. It is coherent; it is not a set of random spiritual principles for a higher life but a unified worldview that provides wisdom, stability, and intelligibility for man. This foundation is transcendent; it is not ascertainable through human reason, papal decrees, or scientific inquiry. It is God’s mind and will revealed in Scripture for man’s life and salvation, supernaturally imparted to men through the regenerating, enlightening work of the Holy Spirit. It is knowable; man is not alone in an ultimately unknowable universe, left to his own devices to forge a reality that works for him. God has spoken, and man, as his receptive creature, was formed to know and serve God through submission to his word. It is a redemptive foundation; it does not assume that man has the ability to save himself, establish social justice, or create strong families apart from the atoning work of Jesus Christ and personal faith in the triune God. This is the foundation of which the psalmist speaks.

Here we encounter the crisis of Christianity in the west. We no longer affirm this foundation in its richness, comprehensiveness, and glory. In some places, it is thriving, freshly discovered and vigorously defended by a new generation of believers who are experiencing its transforming power and joy. But religious and moral pluralism reigns in the lives and churches of many, perhaps most professing believers. Their faith is "real" only in the sense that it is "real" to them. It is hardly coherent, for they hold contradictory positions on many issues and are surprising openly to embracing contradiction: the Bible is God’s word but extra-marital sexuality is acceptable provided commitment and love are present. They would have a rational faith, one acceptable to scientists, inoffensive to the secularists, and popular with the masses: "Your Best Life Now." Their foundations are more experiential than revealed, which explains their refusal to test their experience by Scripture, distaste for biblical, doctrinal preaching, and hesitation to speak with authority on pressing issues: "Thus says the Lord." The foundation of the present church is only nominally redemptive, for biblical "principles" will work for everyone, even those of other religions, whom we must respect as sincerely seeking God according to their traditions. It is certainly not comprehensive; there is no sense that God’s word is authoritative in everything about which it speaks, and it speaks about everything. Hence, in answering the psalmist’s question, we must recover our conviction that "foundations" exist, are of divine origin, and are exclusive in their claims, authority, and necessity. Unless this happens, western Christianity has no future, except perhaps as a social religion, a feel-good spirituality that has more in common with New Age philosophy than the Bible.

The biblical foundation is being attacked; systematic attempts are being made to undermine and destroy it. We see evidence of this on every hand, from the law suits made by the secularists against public expressions of Christian faith to the growing assaults against the church’s independence from governmental authority. Just this week educational bureaucrats in Scotland began calling for laws to force Christian and private schools to include tolerance training in their curricula and drop their religiously discriminatory hiring and student acceptance policies as encouragements to racism. We will see this in our country in the near future, for secularism lacks national boundaries. It is a dedicated, hostile, worldview war against biblical Christianity, against Christian resistance and dissidence, against Christian education, against Christian families. Failure to see that God’s foundation for life, revealed in Scripture and in his Son, is under attack is evidence of the most willful blindness. Before we will feel the force of the psalmist’s question, we must manfully embrace the reality that we are in a war - more perilous than that fought with guns and planes, requiring far more sacrifice and energy, with far-reaching consequences for the future of Bible-believing Christians in western nations. The issue is whether we will be allowed to continue worshipping God, educating our children, and speaking the truth according to conscience and the Bible, or whether we will be branded as racists, enemies of humanity, and religious terrorists. Secularists will not accept our withdrawal within the four walls of the institutional church. Like pagan Rome, we will be allowed to worship our God and King only if we burn incense to Caesar and accept without demur the religion of pluralism. They may speak of diversity, but they really mean a perverse unity in which all are accepted except those who oppose them.
There are three possible answers to the psalmist’s question; only one is correct. The righteous might simply give up and justify the abdication of their creation and kingdom dominion responsibilities through theological defeatism. "We are supposed to lose in history, and then Jesus will rapture us out of history so that the Jewish nation can take center stage once again." This is the Tim LaHaye answer to the question, and it has raped the church in the west of her courage, silenced her defense of the crown rights of Jesus Christ, and caused her withdrawal from the battlefield into the four walls of the church, in a vain delusion that Jesus will come for us before the eleventh hour. The righteous might seek to build upon the new foundations. The church, they say, must not be stagnant in its theology, practices, and worship. "We must stay with the times to be relevant. We must find a faith that works for us; we must not tie ourselves to the old beliefs and mores that have been disproved by science and are decidedly unacceptable to modern standards." This is the answer given by liberals and mega-churches alike: capitulation, join the other team but keep the religious jargon, steal the buildings of the old warriors and pretend to be keeping the faith, remake Christianity in the image of existential, "find your own meaning" secularism. This group will join the secularists in attacking apostolic Christianity, for it is internally guilt-ridden and thus externally impotent. The biblical and most difficult answer to the psalmist’s question is to engage in spiritual warfare to maintain the old foundations, God’s foundations, the only foundations that will bring spiritual, political, and familial peace and justice to mankind.
When facing crumbling foundations, the psalmist provides the answer to his own question. First, the Lord is in his holy temple (Psalm 11:4). Before him all is a sea of glass; his dominion is undisturbed, his counsels unthreatened, his power undiminished. In such times, the righteous must remember, understand, and live by faith in the sovereignty of God over history. His purposes are being worked out; they do not necessarily include our comfort, prosperity, and convenience. The knowledge that God reigns in his holy temple is the believer’s comfort and confidence at all times but especially in warring times. He is causing all things to work together for good for those that love him. Courage is to be found here. The knowledge that God holds our lives in his hand, directs all things, and is causing all things to fulfill his holy will gives peace, even calmness, in the eye of the storm. The God who rules all things loves us, is our Father. We, therefore, must often look to his throne, by faith, in worship, through prayer, at all times seeking his face, rejoicing in his sovereignty, and resting in his providence.
Second, he sees all and tries all men (Psalm 11:4). God is not indifferent to the affairs of history but is specifically and minutely at work in each detail. Even the wicked are under his control. He causes their wrath against him to fulfill his purposes; the rest he restrains (Psalm 76:10). He knows who is on his side, who love and labor for the manifestation of his glory throughout all the earth through the gospel of his Son. And what a comfort it is to know that at every meeting of the secularists, in their scheming against the righteous, in their publicized legal victories over the faithful, he is present, directing, judging, trying their hearts. They cannot get away with anything; they will reap what they sow, often in this life and definitely in the next. We may not be at the center of human power, but it matters not. God’s power is the only rule that matters, his plans the only ones that are being fulfilled.
There is an important difference, however, between his trying of the wicked and his trying of the righteous. He hates the wicked (Psalm 11:5). God hates the secularists. He tests the righteous to refine their faith, deepen their allegiance to his word, humble them that they might depend upon his power and grace alone. He tests the wicked in order to destroy them, expose their rebellion, frustrate their counsels, and finally cast them into hell. We must believe in hell if we are to endure the battle of our day. Hell means that there is a God to whom all must eventually give account, and that though all wrongs will not be righted in this life, they ultimately will be. And thus the righteous possess their souls in patience, trusting in God, learning through his testing to love and cling to him, even if there is not an immediate reward and victory for faithfulness. This is one reason why the church has capitulated in many circles to secularism; it has forgotten the fires of hell and the everlasting judgment of God upon those that do evil. One cannot love and fight for heaven if he lacks belief in hell (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:11).
Third, God beholds the upright (Psalm 11:6). It is amazing grace alone that would lead God to look at us, to know our soul in adversity, to consider our efforts to remain faithful to him in an age of crumbling foundations. When God looks at a man in grace and love, this is his victory. His peace. His confidence. And we must rest in this alone. All else may be going against us; the foundations may be destroyed. But he loves us, cares for us, and is working to bring us to everlasting glory. There is a glorious irony in this. The life-giving message hated by the secularists causes them to turn away from us in wrath; God looks at us exactly because we are faithful to his foundations. And his gaze is life. This is our motivation to remain faithful, to continue remembering that God is in his holy temple, to labor faithfully for the glory of his name and kingdom. The sovereign God and Creator of the world sees us as our Father through the Lord Jesus Christ, and with that sight comes strength and courage to face his enemies.
Though the psalmist does not carry the thought further, his answers to the question suggest something else that we can do. If we love and revere God’s sovereignty, delight in his judgments, and hold to his foundations, we will engage in the war of our times. And this we do preeminently through kingdom-oriented prayer. We must pray: "Father, you are sovereign, yet men are resisting you. You have set your King and Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, upon your right hand, crowning him with glory and honor. You are the Judge of men and nations. We are sinful, have not faithfully maintained the foundations in our own lives, much less more broadly in our families, churches, and cultures. But this is your battle, and we turn to you in faith. Rise up, Lord, and defend your name and kingdom, Son and Word, church and ministers! Show the nations that they are but men, and that you are the most High God over all the earth!" With every new assault upon the remaining rubble of our Christian foundations, our appeal must be to the Lord of Hosts. The Republicans cannot help us. They are God’s enemies collectively, and often individually. The celebrity-preachers, think-tankers, and self-helpers cannot help us. God is our Shield and Defender, Rock and Captain, Refuge and Help. Let this be your prayer, the prayer of your children, the prayer of the faithful Christian remnant in the west. Let it be your daily prayer, your hourly prayer, your weeping prayer. This battle is not about preserving American Constitutionalism, the Scots-Irish freedom fighting legacy, or wistful longings after the Old South. It is about God, his glory and kingdom. He will come to our aid if we will but prostrate ourselves before him, recognize and repent of our sins, and depend upon his magnificent power.
There is still time for God to work powerfully in defense of his name and kingdom. Secularism is built upon a foundation of nothing, nothing. It is sound and fury signifying nothing. Its defeat requires nothing extravagant, dramatic, or new. It simply needs to be exposed and directly confronted by believers who revere God and do not fear man, whose heart burns with zeal for the glory of God, who are willing to engage in the sort of warfare that such times demand. Be that person, that family, that church. God’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save or his ear deaf that it cannot hear. To save by many or by few is all the same to him. Throughout history, God has routed his foes, established Christian nations, and built his church through the dedication of his struggling band of believers, who depend upon him alone and appeal to him as their King and Savior. May God awaken us in time to give the psalmist’s answers.