The Book of Revelation takes a global view of events, after the first three chapters. That is what we take here: a global view, as we talk about what has been called "The West" (mainly North America, Europe with Australasia, and maybe some who aspire to Western lifestyles).
1. Jesus works! It is the Gospel of Christ that has built up what we call "The West", so it became the dominant culture in the world. As Tom Holland argues, compassion for the marginalized comes, not from Greek or Roman cultures, but from Christianity. And Greg Scrivener is even more detailed, arguing that it is the Gospel of Christ that has shaped the metaphorical "Air that We Breathe", the cultural values we take for granted. The Gospel and the values it brings have allowed the society of the West to 'work' reasonably well, with some measure of peace and prosperity based on justice and care. This has happened because the Gospel of Christ was accepted to a significant extent through all levels of society. May I venture to suggest that God has built up the West to bring blessing to the world, as a channel of blessing? But our acceptance of the Gospel of Christ has been only partial and corrupt, and so the power that was given to the West has been misused cruelly to bring suffering on the Earth. Yet, despite this, through the West, great good has also come. [In that statement I show that I try not to take sides in the left-right culture war.]
2. Jewish Torah works! Many of the values we think of as "Christian" are actually more from Jewish culture, especially values to do with justice-righteousness and peace. During the period of the Judges, some people, including Ruth, were attracted to the Hebrew type of culture, which contrasted with the Canaanite culture of elitism, oppression and warfare. (What the coming of Christ added to this was that the Spirit of God can dwell in the hearts of individuals, who then influence their culture from within, whether Jewish or Gentile. Without this "law written on hearts", which had been promised earlier through Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the Torah on its own was relatively ineffective.)
3. God 'abandoned' God's people; God allowed the people of Israel to be scattered and the people of Judah to be exiled. God pulled down what God had built, uprooted what God had planted [Jeremiah 45]. Serious stuff, when God pulls down what God has built! Did God's reputation suffer? Had Yahweh God admitted making a mistake? Of course not! God had a deeper plan for the salvation of the entire world.
4. God's people were meant to represent God to the nations, to be a distinct culture, "a light to the nations." Yet they kept craving to be like the other nations, despite the benefits they received from Yahweh God. For example, they wanted a king to lead them into battle, like the other, Canaanist, nations had, rather than rely of God to defend them. Gradually, over many centuries of cycles of decline, repentance and restoration, God's people got worse and worse, until they were completely misrepresenting God, being actually worse than Sodom, whom God had destroyed, in being "affluent, arrogant, unconcerned ... haughty" [Ezekiel 16:49]. So God removed them (though maintaining a remnant, who were brought back later).
5. Does the same principle apply today? Did The West shine (albeit imperfectly) with something of the Gospel of Christ? Did The West somehow, in the past, represent or "image" God to the rest of the world, at both individual and cultural level? And has The West followed the same course as the people of Israel took, sliding into a 'Canaanist' attitude of affluence, arrogance, unconcern, haughtiness, and of elitism, oppression and warfare? Was it not Ruth Bell Graham, Billy Graham's wife, who remarked "Unless God judges America, He will have to apologise to Sodom and Gomorrah?" Is North America still the beacon of light for the Gospel of Christ that it arguably partially was a few decades ago? Or has it become "affluent, arrogant, unconcerned, haughty" (which of course was the real "sin of Sodom") in its worship of oil-fuelled and technology-driven economic growth? Is it thereby leading humanity in "destroying the Earth" [Revelation 11:18]?
6. So, is God 'abandoning' the West almost like God 'abandoned' the peoples of Israel and Judah? Can we see signs of this? God kept on warning the people of Israel ever more clearly, until God knew their heart was set against representing God. Have there not been crises over the last few decades that might be warnings? Just as God 'set aside' the people of Israel for a time while God "grafted in" the rest of the peoples [Romans 9-11], might God be setting aside the West, to graft in other peoples of the world - such as China, India, Russia? Is the burgeoning of commitment to Christ in China part of God's preparation for a Godly culture in that part of the world, even though through many troubles and persecutions? Might Donald Trump be God's means with which to bring America down, to curtail its malign influence on the world and the Earth?
7. May Yahweh God's Will be done, and the Will of the Lamb of God, in saving the Earth - humans and non-humans alike, as promised in Romans 8 and Isaiah 11 and 65!
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is on-going work, designed to stimulate discussion on various topics, as part of Andrew Basden's pages that open up various things from one of the Christian perspectives.
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Created: 2 September 2025 Last updated: