When believers in our Lord Jesus are told we live in a Post-Christian Era, we fear the future and we adopt a fortress mentality toward a hostile world, not realizing God's people have always had difficulties down here. It has ever been the same. One wonders if there has ever been a 'Christ­ian era'.

In the receding mists of pre-history, we discover God in the Pre-Christian era, controlling human history and raising up Abraham's promised seed. Among the adversaries encountered during this cosmic struggle we find Egypt, the inhabitants of Canaan, and all the world empires which appear, wreak havoc for a period as they may, and then disappear from the scene, as God's purposes are accomplished. Still, the righteous seed endures.

Our Lord's earthly ministry and triumph begin what we may call the Proto-Christian era. Redemption accomplished, God continues calling his people. God's adversaries then are the city of Rome (the world-wide pagan culture) and Jewry (the unbelieving religious community). The latter adver­sary is destined to be crushed by the former enemy, while the former enemy is destined to be converted ere long.

Once a Roman emperor embraces Christianity, circumstances change, and one finds oneself in the Pro-Christian era — in the midst of an increasingly 'Christian' world. But is this a world where membership in the Body of Christ is as universal as membership in the visible church — Christendom? The answer is no: the wheat and the tares continue to grow together. It is not amiss to state that in this era we find God's enemies in the church at Rome (the 'universal' Church), in Islam, in struggles between Barbarism and Chris­tianity, and in the consolidation of world empires. Though Christendom and a cruel world seek the destruction of the Bride of Christ, God is at work, underground and individually (in Augustine, in Wycliffe, in Tyndale, in Kempis, in Hus and others) through the church Militant, the invisible Church, the Body of Christ, bringing his people to himself, though in following their Lord his sheep may have to swim through the waters or walk through the flames.

Our next era is the revolutionary era of the Reformation: the Paleo-­Christian era. Imperfect and unfriendly though this era may seem to have been, at least in the eyes of modern critics in both the religious and secular world, it seems that God was turning his people back to the Scriptures, back to faith, back to his pure grace in human affairs. There is in this exciting era fierce opposition from the church at Rome (the Counter-Reformation) and from the neo-pagan Classicism of the humanistic Renaissance, but it is a glorious time — Christians in many quarters suffering grievously for their faith, but, having been tried, coming forth as gold.

The Copernican and Newtonian revolutions usher in the Enlightenment, and we find ourselves in the Public Christian era. But appearances are deceiving. God's people continue to struggle against those we may label 'Tseudo-Christians' — Culture Christians, Cultists, and Hypocrites, and God's enemies are the Enlightenment itself, Darwinian Evolution, Euro­centrism, and Slave-holding. We see the rise of pride in one's particular sect, an identification of a certain culture with true belief, the rise of cults (defined as 'going beyond Christ'), and outward profession among an elite group of church people over against inward possession by the mind of Christ. Great authors like George Eliot, Charles Dickens, and Jane Austen are thankfully around to remind the privileged few of their responsibilities toward others. Yet even here God is in the shadows and his people soldier on.

The inroads of theological Liberalism, Technology, Over-Optimism, and Pragmatism lead to the rise of an era of the Protest-Christian, wherein the people of God decry Liberalism, especially where geographical expanse, zealous individualism, and a multitude of local fellowships with generally 'evangelical' emphases encourage a separatist mentality, with the result that denominationalism and the splintering of groups into new sects spread like wildfire. Accompanying this reaction appears an eschatological malaise over the world's pitiable condition, as if the believer were convinced God is no longer in control. Such an attitude fosters shallowness and choosiness, deflecting God's people from their principal tasks of worship and warfare, (the right preaching of God's Word, the right administration of the sacra­ments, and the right application of church discipline, as John Knox reminds us).

Today brings fascinating developments, giving us glimpses of the era of the Proletarian Christian. God's kingdom still battles adversaries: Liberationism, Multi-culturalism, and a Smiley-face. God's people enter cyberspace and strive to be user-friendly. Marxism and Christianity become confused, and principle is awash in platitude. The gospel is reduced to its lowest common denominator, as if God's people had never before been clever enough to face opposition. The Church hopes that if God's people are caring and diplomatic enough, and worship cozy and contemporary enough, the Church can quell all opposition from Christendom and the world. Samuel S. Wesley's words forcefully remind us how things really are with Christ's Bride:

Though with a scornful wonder men see her sore oppressed,
By schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed, ...
Yet she on earth hath union with God the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion with those whose rest is won:
O happy ones and holy! Lord give us grace that we,
Like them, the meek and lowly, on high may dwell with Thee.

The Church Militant of this age will one day join the Church Triumphant of all ages in glory. This is our blessed hope and the basis of our perseverance. Until then, our wellbeing is in God's hands.