Christianity in an Antichrist Culture

Physical Spoils in Spiritual Warfare

I've been contemplating how to better think about our ever deteriorating culture.

I’m thinking specifically about people or people groups, cultures and societies—like our own—who once were recognizably Christian, but have or are shifting away from Christianity. To mark this shift we use terms such as pagan/neo-pagan, godless, or post-Christian.

Perhaps a better way for us to think about a society that is shifting away from Christ and participating in ways antithetical to Christianity (be it via paganism or some kind of generic “spirituality”, a political ideology, or even a type of scientific materialism that is increasingly based on faith rather than facts) would be to consider it as Antichrist, or participating with the spirit(s) of Antichrist.

We understand, for the most part, what people mean when describing the shift by the terms “pagan” or “post-Christian”, but I think using the term “antichrist” helps us get a better grasp on what's happening in our “post-Christian” society. It also hinges everything on what is already the center of everything: Christ.

I’ve seen endless articles, helpful as they are, discussing our “post-Christian” society, and doing so—even incidentally—seems to frame things as if a societal re-set button has been pushed. As if there’s an inherent indication that Christianity is ‘over’ or has been left somewhere back there. The worst articles claim that a post-Christian society is the result of Christianity’s failure or that God is disciplining the Church because we haven’t gotten our act together.

Thinking in terms of an Antichrist culture rather than a post-Christian culture not only helps to dispel those notions, but it quickly draws lines.

The term Antichrist immediately forces us to admit two things: 1) There is an enemy and 2) It is a spiritual enemy.

Here I highlight something important. We too often think of spiritual warfare as an intangible thing. Something that happens in a shady somewhere across the veil that might perhaps effect our spiritual fortitude or mood. But all of creation is united as a creation. Seen and unseen are not separate from one another. The spiritual and the physical are interconnected. Spiritual war has physical spoils.

If we are to participate in a spiritual war with geographical spoils, it is important for the Church to understand the context of the situation we are in.

I’m going to lay a bit of that context out. It’s going to start off a little weird, but stick with me.

Remember Naaman? He was a Syrian general who had leprosy and the Hebrew prophet Elisha healed him. Naaman renounced all other gods and committed himself to the worship of the God of Israel from then on out. He said to Elisha,

Please let there be given to your servant two mule loads of earth, for from now on your servant will not offer burnt offering or sacrifice to any god but the Lord.

To our ears, asking for two mule loads of dirt seems like a strange request. But that’s because we fail to see the interconnectedness between the spiritual and physical realms. Remember Naaman lived in Syria. He lived in a land ruled by a god known as Rimmon. Syrian soil was Rimmon’s soil. Israel’s soil was Yahweh’s soil. Thus Naaman requests two mule loads of Yahweh’s soil in order that he can dump it out on Rimmon’s land to create a physical place for him to worship Yahweh. He wanted to create a sacred space in enemy territory.

There is a lot that could be unpacked there, but I want to highlight that spiritual and physical geography are linked. Sacred space is real.

Sacred geography was also at the root of the question the Samaritan woman asked Jesus when she encountered Him at the well. The Samaritans worshipped at Mount Gerizim and the Jews worshipped at the mountain in Jerusalem, who is correct? Jesus replied,

Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. . . .But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.

People will no longer worship on this mountain or that mountain, not because worshipping the Father in spirit and truth has obliterated the link between spiritual and physical in geographical space, but because with the arrival of Christ there is now no place—physical or spiritual—that is not God’s territory.

Christ’s advent fundamentally changed everything. The rulers of this world—the old gods, like Rimmon—held the peoples and nations in thrall. The death and resurrection of Christ broke that chain. The gospel spread like a spring thaw across a world that was bound in the frozen fetters of the Powers of Darkness.

The cross rippled geographically across the cosmos. The Powers of Darkness have been dethroned. The Father can now be worshipped through Christ anywhere in spirit and in truth. There is no need to cross a border to worship, no need to go to a specific mountain or temple, no need to haul in mule loads of soil. We go to Christ. Christ is our soil. Christ is our mountain.

I really want to beat this drum here. Christ’s advent did not sever the spiritual and the physical. We can worship God anywhere in the physical universe because there is no square inch of the cosmos where Christ doesn’t declare “Mine.” At the cross Christ sanctified the cosmos. It was tantamount to dumping Yahweh’s dirt across the universe. The link between physical and spiritual has not been demolished, it’s been expanded. All dirt is Christ’s dirt. Rimmon and the other gods have been evicted.

There’s another element as well. The Church, those who are in Christ, are the Body of Christ. So wherever the Church gathers, there is the Body of Christ. And where Christ is, there is access to the Father. There is a reason the Church is commanded to not forsake physically gathering together to worship. Don’t get me started on Zoom.

The gospel dismantled the Dark Powers’ grip in both the spiritual realm and in the physical. Seen and Unseen, it’s all part of the created order that falls under the Lordship of Christ. Spiritually and historically, at Christ’s death and resurrection, the Kingdom exploded into geographical space.

Whether you like it or not, whether it happened in a way that conforms to your scruples or not, Christianity, like an unstoppable army, marched across the world, especially in the West. There are physical spoils in spiritual warfare. Pagan peoples became Christian peoples. Pagan places became Christian places. Pagan cultures became Christian cultures. Christianity has so seeped into the lifeblood of the world that we cannot avoid it, even if we ignore it or reject it.

This is how things are now. There is no re-set button.

Even if Geographic Christendom has fallen apart, Christ still haunts the ruins. We see the pillars and foundations everywhere, in traditions, in holidays, in calendars, in philosophy, in the sciences, in entertainment, in politics, you name it, the foundation can be found even if something ugly has been built over it.

The devils may inhabit, damage, or even destroy the buildings but they cannot destroy the foundation. They cannot get their dirt back. Do you see why this is important?

We in the West are not used to the idea of a waning Christian influence among peoples and places where Christianity once thrived. And we can often get weird theologically about how we think about it when it happens. We might be tempted to think God is punishing the church, or we might even fear that God is abandoning us, or we might believe that the Kingdom of Christ is actually failing.

We are tempted to think these things because we’ve failed to understand that we are in the middle of a war. If we’re in a war and a missile blew up your house, the reason why is obvious. The enemy shot at you. But if you deny, forget, or just flat out don’t realize you’re in a war and that there is an enemy, you’ll come up with all sorts of ridiculous explanations for why you’re now homeless.

The apostle John told us that the spirit of Antichrist is at work in the world.

1 John 2:18
Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.

1 John 2:22
Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.

1 John 4:3
every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

So if Christ has permeated a people, a place, a culture, then there are only two options: obedience or denial. And if denial, then it is of the spirit of the antichrist. So whether it’s neo-paganism, materialism, scientism, transhumanism, New Ageism, or any other -ism, system, or religion that rejects, rebels, denies, or fights Christ, it is fueled by the spirit of antichrist.

So the waning of Christian influence in a post-Christian society does not necessitate the idea that the Kingdom of Christ itself is waning, or that God has abandoned us or is punishing the Church. This is vitally important to grasp.

It does, however, indicate that the fight is being renewed in the West in ways we haven’t personally experienced in a few hundred, maybe even a thousand years.

The Church is not failing, it is under attack.

Think of it like this. When the grasp the old gods had over the lands were broken they had to scatter. They still rule over their subjects but as banished kings. They may take up abodes in the deserts and corners of the world, like a warlord in the mountains. Pockets of their underground resistance may even be found in lands loyal to the Rightful King. And little by little, through excursions, through propaganda, seduction, footholds, political chicanery, and all of the things the Bible calls the works of the flesh, they’ve chipped out a stronghold. Then from that stronghold, larger sorties can be launched. And before you know it, a culture that was once clean and garnished has been possessed by evil spirits.

Yes. Cultures can be possessed.

In Matthew 12:43-45, Jesus says this:

When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.

Let’s wrap it up.

We’re living in a society that is increasingly being possessed, influenced, and oppressed by the spirits of antichrist.

Christ has so permeated the world that there can no longer be any genuine return to the pre-Christmas old ways (ie. paganism) nor can there be any fundamentally new post-Easter foundations established (ie. post-Christianity). Even in rebellion, like a parasite, evil cannot change the fundamental impact of the gospel upon the world in both the seen and unseen realms. Evil may mar, twist, burn, or tear down the buildings but it cannot destroy the foundation. The Forces of Darkness simply cannot reclaim the dirt, which is why they seek to defile it, pervert it, deny it, and to make many disciples of wickedness to do the same.

We’re in a spiritual war and a spiritual war has physical spoils. Peoples, places, cultures, systems, institutions, churches, households, are under assault from the antichrists.

But the Church is an indestructible cathedral amidst this war zone. Windows might break, pews might get splintered, but the foundation is sure and cannot be shaken. In the midst of the worst of it the saints still gather and worship in spirit and truth, and whatever becomes defiled can, and will, be made sacred in the name of Jesus. The Church can make the physical sacred just by saying so because Christ has made it so.

So do not be surprised at fiery trials. Christ told us if the world hates Him it will also hate us. The devil prowls like a lion seeking people to destroy. Endure in the faith to the end. We must recognize the situation rightly and do battle, not against flesh and blood, as Paul reminds us, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

What we’re experiencing isn’t a post-Christian society, it’s just Christianity in wartime.