Do Christians truly need to "accept" evil and resign themselves to it?

Solutions, alternatives, and the "Good Fight"

I’ve received a few comments from readers regarding my position on what to do about evil. This is a response.

Progression

If you weren’t paying attention, I wouldn’t blame you for thinking we live in a pretty wonderful society. In North America and most of the modern world, generally speaking, our lives are easy, safe, and dignified. My parents both grew up on rural farms with hardly any electric appliances, no education or worldly experience, and outhouses instead of toilets. They slaughtered their own livestock and preserved it for food.

They were pretty much trapped in tiny villages with weird, hard-bitten folks whom they depended on for help, company, and fellowship. Their worlds were tiny and ugly, and they witnessed the explosion of modern progress sweep the land and make every single aspect of their lives better than they could possibly have imagined.

Within their lifetimes, they went from isolated peasants to world-traveling retirees with mobile communication devices, unlimited entertainment, plenty of leisure time, and access to unlimited audiobooks of the classic literature, famous sermons, and the even the ability to produce and sell their own creative expressions to strangers in distant lands. They have never been shot at, their property was never invaded, they were not imprisoned or enslaved, and they didn’t even have to get a higher education to enjoy the upgrades.

I grew up in a perfectly decent farming town with opportunities, comforts, and a taste of culture. I’ve never been persecuted—not in any important way. And here I am, in the comfort of my own home, on the Internet, researching, writing, and expressing myself constantly; writing to you, the reader, on a strange free platform where I can get support from people I’ve never met. My life has been tremendously blessed.

Vantage point

But this ability to see the world has also given me a vantage point to recognize evil and decipher the warning signs. Because of the information available to me, I’ve been able to educate myself on psychological warfare, history, and the plans of social engineers. The evil is not at my doorstep, but it’s trying to make its way here. Some of you, perhaps, have faced it. According to the Bible, the world will only get more evil. Using the Internet, I have made friends, talked to millions, and published several books that have changed peoples lives. Some of the most common feedback I get is that I have renewed the confidence of believers in the Bible and God’s plans. And for me, that is also a great reward.

Look ahead and you’ll see darkness with no way out. Look further and you’ll see light with no ability to avoid it either.

Now’s the time

So the world has been progressing, for better and worse. When I look at Big Pharma, Big Tech, and Big Government, I can see how they’re sabotaging the amazing stuff their predecessors established. So, I can see why now would be the time to do something about it, because there will come a time when it’s truly too late. I can see why, with all the power of the digital age, it makes perfect sense to raise an army of volunteer info-warriors, and create a revolution to get involved and fight back. In politics, law, education, healthcare, industry, art, and security, we can theoretically seize this moment. We could become the generation that turns the tide back to growth, flourishing, and that progress my parents and I experienced. Things could be better than ever.

Giving up?

But here I am telling smart, capable people to stand back and accept evil. That’s tantamount to sabotaging the rescue effort, right? If you look ahead to the next five years, it seems like right now we should be desperately pooling our resources, supporting causes, voting, investing/divesting, building survival skills, forming local patrol parties, developing early warning systems, networking on secure systems, etc. etc.. So why do I instead warn people not to get swept up in that revolutionary spirit?

If you didn’t know already, here are the kinds of things I say all the time:

• We should only fear God, and be totally unafraid of anything else. This is true in any sense or capacity. Even if there were a real alien invasion, or a true portal to Hell opened up, so that the planet was swarming with demons all around us, or some mass biological weapon was released, we should only laugh as if it were a joke, and carry on with our Christian duties without making any special plans, defenses, or provisions for what might happen to us. There is literally not a thing in the entire Universe that poses any important threat to us. To a Christian, fear is always deception.

• We should not get entangled in the systems that govern us at a high level, as if to reform or correct the course of the Beast, but rather watch and warn each other not to be deceived, especially by false hope. We have everything we need in Christ, and there is no solution required beyond him.

• We should be strict realists in our outlook. However, this does not mean despairing because of how bleak things are, or might become in the future. Rather, we should be realistic about how many wonderful freedoms and blessings we still have today, and be joyful about any future losses we might suffer; because God will certainly reward us for any evil we experience while serving Him in this life.

• We should consider ourselves already victors in Christ, vouchsafed by his blood, written in the Book of Life, and that our fate is in God’s hands, so it makes no sense to fixate on the temporary discomforts of this life, if we have an eternity of bliss to look forward to.

• And so on.

Some of us are in a position to do something about the problems we see. I do writing, but others are already in the military, government, or some position of minor influence in the gigantic machinery of modern society. If they really wanted to, they could raise a fuss, build a coalition, plot for reform, or take on the corruption themselves. What should they do? My fatalistic attitude does nothing to instruct people on how to contribute to the fight against evil. I understand why it sounds like I’m saying not to fight at all; or to only fight with awareness, but no action.

Readiness and service

Let’s suppose that somebody adopted my stance and applied it to their daily life. Should they get involved in local politics, join the police force, or go to medical school? Sick and hurt people need medical attention, and it is good to help them; but this could be seen as a form of intervention in the fate of a person’s life, since God controls fate. Criminals defraud the innocent and need to be investigated and put on trial, and it is good to uphold the law; but this could also be seen as fixating on the temporary discomforts of life. Excessive taxes and misspending of public funds is evil, and it is good to ensure that policies help citizens instead of robbing them; but this could be seen as getting entangled in the Beast’s system and trying to overturn the ways of the world, contrary to the fatalistic view. How far should we take the Christian principle of faithful non-intervention?

When I had popular account on TikTok, I received these kinds of questions all the time. Some thought that I was saying that we should all become Amish, detached from the news cycle, or perhaps monks who retreat to remote places and contemplate God, since nothing about this world matters. Or maybe we should do the opposite and head into the city centers, standing on street corners and subway stations, loudly proclaiming the Gospel so that we attract controversy, since God will take care of us and there’s nothing more important than warning people. If these were my solution, I would be a hypocrite because I do none of them. I stay working in my little life, helping people as I find opportunity, giving encouragement, paying taxes, and enjoying the small pleasures in life. Am I solving anything? Am I part of a revolution?

Should people become attorneys to defend the innocent or attack the guilty? Should they become journalists to uncover corruption? Should they join a charity? Should they take up a manager position at a business and force their employees to listen to the Gospel? I haven’t said anything about that.

The highest calling

My answer is that in any circumstance, anywhere in the world, you must be ready to serve the Kingdom, prioritizing the things of God above the things of this world:

(Luke 12: ) “Be dressed for service and keep your lamps burning. Then you will be like servants waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks, they can open the door for him at once. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds on watch when he returns. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve and will have them recline at the table, and he himself will come and wait on them. Even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night and finds them alert, those servants will be blessed.”

And again, Paul writes:

(2 Timothy 4:1-5) I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and encourage with every form of patient instruction. For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires. So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Let me break down this teaching into parts, so that you can understand it clearly.

1. We must be prepared “in season and out of season,” meaning we must become the type of person who is always ready to communicate God’s wisdom to those who are ignorant, whether it’s a convenient time or not. We are not only supposed to encourage others, but also be ready to rebuke and reprove people, which is considered rude and self-important by many. We must have patience with those who want to be instructed.

2. We are now living in that time when men “will not tolerate sound doctrine” and “gather themselves around teachers to suit their own desires,” rather than listening to the plain teaching of the Bible.

3. Millions of believers today are turning aside to myths; and not just any old myths, but ridiculous fairy tales about a better future, a Great Awakening, and a triumph over Satan. They are listening to false teachers about a hope for this world that does not exist in the Bible. They believe in “Rapture” myths and have forgotten the necessity of being exposed to danger.

4. We must endure hardship, not cower from it. Death and terror have no sway over how we should behave—not because we want to put God to the test and beg for miraculous deliverance, but because we are, in reality, in no danger at all if God wants us to continue serving longer, but cannot escape danger if the time has come for us to be free from service in this life.

(2 Timothy 2:21) So if anyone cleanses himself of what is unfit, he will be a vessel for honor: sanctified, useful to the Master, and prepared for every good work.

We must be useful and prepared. Whether you are a young school teacher, a retired grandparent, an electrical engineer, a truck driver, an infirm who can’t leave their house, a governor of a state, or a celebrity. Pay attention to scripture and the Spirit. Speak to God in prayer, and look for answers in the Holy Bible. You will not find a command to shore up for this life, but you may be inspired to move, to act, to write, to speak, or to wait patiently. But be ready.

A small example in a small life

In my position, I have no power whatsoever. I am nobody, and have no authority or qualifications. But somehow, in my small life, I have reached tens of millions of people and answered thousands of questions from people who are in the US Army, or in business leadership, or in church leadership. These people have sought my opinion privately and thanked me for my insight and encouragement. Why?