The current wholesale plunge of the world into unfettered rebellion against God and His divine laws is on full display for all to see. For many, these events may beg the question of whether God providentially intervenes in the affairs of nations as He once did as recorded in the Bible. From Genesis 12 on, divine activity in the ancient world from the perspective of the Scriptures was centered on the establishment of God’s redemptive plan, beginning with the promises made to Abraham while sojourning in the land of Canaan and the typologies later given to Israel, which God established as the only theocratic kingdom on earth in its day. References to divine activity with the gentile nations in the world in the biblical narratives of the Old Testament were limited to those of the ancient Near East in the vicinity of Palestine and typically involved Israel in various ways. After the first advent of Christ, the scriptures of the New Testament turned the focus to Christ, His disciples, and the Church, where any mention of the nations of the early first century, aside from Israel, was almost entirely limited to the Roman empire that provided the back drop and stage for the narratives and teachings of the emergence of Christianity. Likewise, the major theme of the book of Revelation involves the Roman empire and its impact on God’s kingdom (Israel and the Church) in the first century. Since that time the spread of the gospel has expanded the boundaries of the Church to nearly all nations of the world. The scope of God’s providential workings and government beyond the New Testament period in history up to the present can be analyzed by historians and bible scholars in hindsight, i.e., it would no longer be confined to the ancient Roman world. For instance, the events of the Reformation are manifestations of Providence writ exceedingly large, that spread throughout Christendom in the 15th and 16th centuries, that has been well documented.
But the answer to how divine providential activity may be perceived to be manifested in modern times, humanly speaking, primarily depends on a person’s theology and the doctrinal beliefs he or she holds. Much is left to interpretation to decide if contemporaneous signs and events reveal aspects of divine activity or involvement in any part of the world and any society outside of the the kingdom of God in the Church. Eschatology can address this issue to a large degree for Christians depending on the doctrinal school, i.e., Premillenial, Amillenial, Postmillenial, etc., that provides a framework that aids in this challenge. The school of eschatology can significantly shape the interpretation of how God is acting in current affairs, and the individual’s outlook of the future, that can vary significantly between the different schools. For instance, the Premillenialist sees that events today are winding up to the advent of the rule of the Anti-Christ, the battle of Armegeddon, the onset of the Great Tribulation, and ultimately the Rapture in our time. The Postmillenialist sees none of those occurring, but that current world events are merely part of the ebb and flow of history directed by God to gradually bring all nations into the discipleship of Christ through the gospel, enfolding all governments into the kingdom of Christ, bringing in the Golden Age of the future, in fulfillment of the Great Commission of Matthew 28. An argument can be made that these are further nuanced by different approaches of interpretation of the book of Revelation, such as literalism, orthodox preterism, historicism, literature genre, idealism, etc. These are the tools often employed by students of the Bible to understand what is going on and where things are headed for humanity and the Church.
In the continuationist camp, there is the school of belief that much of this mystery in deciphering current and future events is actively addressed by God through His provision of the speaking gifts of the charismata in the church body, particularly the gift of prophecy. This school generally encompasses the charismatic and Pentecostal groups. Many in this school hold, not only a continuationist position of spiritual gifts, but that God still communicates directly and regularly to His spokespersons about His providential workings in contemporaneous and future events, along with words of encouragement, edification, exhortation, biblical instruction, and hope (Amos 3:7; Acts 11:27; 21:11; 1 Cor 14:3; 2 Tim 3:16). And, although its eschatology to some degree is emergent, it is normally cast within the framework of the Bible and referenced solidly to the Scriptures—they hold the high view of the Scriptures of the Bible as God’s final, supreme authoritative Word that is above any kind of charismata-based message. This biblical school could challenge the entrenched viewpoints within Christian circles that (a) God no longer gives fresh revelation to His people of His activities and plans for His church and the world in the here and now, (b) God does not act in the current affairs of the world’s empires as He did in the past, (c) God no longer rescues His children from the dangers and threats of their enemies or intervenes during times of trouble, (d) God no longer performs supernatural works for His glory or the furtherance of His kingdom, and (e) even under the present New Covenant, God is NO LONGER THE SAME today as He was in the periods of the Old and New Testaments. In other words, it challenges the prevailing mindset of viewing God in a deistic way in our day, that is, the attitude that God has little involvement, if any, with the daily affairs in the world, of nations, or even of Christians. From the standpoint of the aforementioned charismatic school, such views are unbiblical (Heb 13:8; 2 Cor 1:20).
“It is well for us that, amidst all the variableness of life, there is One whom change cannot affect; One whose heart can never alter, and on whose brow mutability can make no furrows. All things else have changed—all things are changing. The sun itself grows dim with age; the world is waxing old; the folding up of the worn-out vesture has commenced; the heavens and earth must soon pass away; they shall perish, they shall wax old as doth a garment; but there is One who only hath immortality, of whose years there is no end, and in whose person there is no change. The delight which the mariner feels, when, after having been tossed about for many a day, he steps again upon the solid shore, is the satisfaction of a Christian when, amidst all the changes of this troublous life, he rests the foot of his faith upon this truth—“I am the Lord, I change not.”
The stability which the anchor gives the ship when it has at last obtained a hold-fast, is like that which the Christian’s hope affords him when it fixes itself upon this glorious truth. With God “is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” Whatever his attributes were of old, they are now; his power, his wisdom, his justice, his truth, are alike unchanged. He has ever been the refuge of his people, their stronghold in the day of trouble, and he is their sure Helper still. He is unchanged in his love. He has loved his people with “an everlasting love”; he loves them now as much as ever he did, and when all earthly things shall have melted in the last conflagration, his love will still wear the dew of its youth. Precious is the assurance that he changes not! The wheel of providence revolves, but its axle is eternal love.
“Death and change are busy ever, Man decays, and ages move; But his mercy waneth never; God is wisdom, God is love.” -Christian Sermon Classics: Morning and Evening (Morning, November 2) by Charles Spurgeon
“God’s people have ‘by faith conquered kingdoms and performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions … became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight’ (Heb. 11:33-34). But you say, ‘That was under the Old Covenant.’ Yes, that’s true. But don’t we have a better covenant, with a better High Priest, and better promises? (Heb. 7:22, 8:6). We should at least expect God to do for His people under the New Covenant what He did for His elect under the Old Covenant. If God poured out blessings for His elect under the Old Covenant, why should we expect anything less under the New and Better Covenant? But we know that God is doing far more for His New Covenant people. God is ‘able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us…’” –Something Greater is Here by Gary DeMar (pg. 4)
On the one hand, there seems to be unbelief, blindness or lack of awareness of the active providence of God in the world today, including in the affairs of nations. This has penetrated the thinking of many in the Church as a virtual or practical deism or even anti-supernaturalism. On the other hand there is a dismal outlook on world events and the Church where Providence is seen to be actively fomenting a catastrophe over the whole earth and bringing certain peril and destruction upon the Church at large with little hope other than a so-called rapture to escape from the world and its dangers. Together these views, having infiltrated evangelical Christianity, have paralyzed the Church from achieving its Great Commission mandate in our time. It has resulted in the Church stalling in its efforts to regain the dominion mandate over the earth and from being used as an instrument of Christ, its Head, to crush Satan under His feet.
In contrast, within the aforementioned school, the present-day message of God is now warning His people to quit compromising with the world, wallowing in unbelief, and watering down or neutering His Word in the Bible, but to turn back whole-heartedly to Christ, because a great shaking is underway and reaching a climax to destroy the current evil world empires and bring in the days of the restoration (Acts 3:19) and establishment of the kingdom of Christ on earth in its fulness. This will manifest in great progress toward the fulfillment of the Messianic eschatological prophecies in the Psalms, Daniel, Isaiah, Joel, etc., including the Gospels’ parables, of the establishment of the kingdom of God through Christ over the entire world that crushes and removes the present kingdoms (Dan. 2:34f). The overspreading of Christ’s worldwide kingdom will be accompanied by a tremendous outpouring of the Spirit in revivals that sweep across nations worldwide as multitudes convert to Christ and stream into the churches, overfilling them as never before. But many of those who are not for Christ will be swept away with the wicked in judgement in these days.
As stated previously, this is from the standpoint of the continuationist school that addresses the problem of the interpretation of Providence at work on the world scene through the ministry of the charismata of the Holy Spirit in combination with eschatological doctrine. Note that it must be understood by the reader there is no connection implied with the New Apostolic Reformation movement.
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