Part Three – For the Life of the World: Chapter 9 - Resistance – Grappling With the Powers
Confronting the Powers
“The power of filling, subjugating, and dominating “all things”, including these powers is reserved to God and Christ alone. But the function of demonstrating God’s dominion and love is entrusted to the church. She is appointed and equipped to be a public exponent of grace and unity…the beginning of a new heaven and a new earth.” (Karl Barth, Ephesians, I, 365. Page 230 in Stevens.)
Stevens says the first and foremost effective strategy for coming against the false claims of the powers of our age is preaching. That said, preaching alone does not cut it. There is also what Stevens calls public discipleship. He identifies four historical approaches to this and distinguishes them in the following way:
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Ways of Grappling with the Powers |
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Exorcism Intercession |
Suffering Powerlessness |
Creative Participation |
Just Revolution |
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Vocation |
spiritual liberation |
witness to fallenness |
regents |
social change |
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Means |
prayer |
powerlessness |
work/ politics |
civil disobedience |
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Metaphysic |
demonic |
colonized structures |
fallen and colonized structures |
None (Marxian) |
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Denominations |
charismatic |
anabaptist |
mainline |
Liberation theology |
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Authors |
Watson Wimber Schlier? |
Yoder |
Mouw Berkhof Ellul |
Bonino Guiterrez |
Which is right? Stevens believes they all are. All are needed to give a full-orbed witness of the Church. The challenge is living in appreciation of what each of these differing perspectives might contribute to confronting the powers.
Stevens emphasizes the importance of prayer. He notes that when Paul writes about putting on the full armor of God in Ephesians 6, each piece of armor is added through prayer. Intercessory prayer transforms both us and those we intercede for. Stevens also writes of the important power of martyrdom in unmasking the powers.
In the concluding section of this chapter, Stevens reflects on eschatological implications. He reflects on Paul’s declaration in 1 Corinthians 13 that only faith, hope, and love will last. He suggests that the implication is not so much that acts of these three will last but rather works grounded in these three will be what last. Stevens rejects the idea that the world is one day consumed and a new world is put in place. All of our works will impact the world that is to come. That which is done in accordance with the New Creation will survive, and that which is not will be transfigured. How does that happen, and precisely what does it mean? God has not revealed an answer. In some sense, our actions permanently mark the future, yet everything shall be renewed. I like the quote from Leslie Newbigin that Stevens uses to close the chapter:
We can commit ourselves without reserve to all the secular work our shared community requires of us, knowing that nothing we do in itself is good enough to form part of that city’s building, knowing that everything – from our most secret prayers to our most public political acts – is part of that sin-stained human nature that must go down into the valley of death and judgement, and yet knowing that as we offer it up to the Father in the name of Christ and in the power of the Spirit, it is sage with him and – purged in the fire – it will find its place in the holy city at the end. (238-239)
This chapter wraps up the body of the book. We will look at the epilogue tomorrow.
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