Some time ago (eight months), as we entered into chapter seventeen, it was said that we were dealing with events that were only two or three months away from the trial and crucifixion of Jesus. At that point in time, Jesus and His disciples left Galilee (Capernaum) and traveled Northeast into the upper regions of Phillip’s tetrarchy, which had been shaped sometime during the seventy or seventy-five years of Rome’s rule over the area.
And in that tetrarchy was a Syrian town named Paneus (built by the Greeks over a hundred years before) – a place so-named because of its beauty and because of its reason for existence. It was representative of the mythical “pantheon” of idolatrous, satanically inspired religion of the Gentile world.
It was near here, on a very high mountain (probably Herman), that our Lord was transformed - indicating that the mountain of God was about to be moved from < s t 1 : c o u n t r y-region>Israel to the nations, and that salvation was near to the peoples of the world.
Then, in His last prophetic act among the heathen, He drove a devil out of a Gentile boy who, himself, was indicative of the demonism infesting the entire world order, Salvation was “nigh” unto the Gentiles!
Just as a quick “aside” here, history has proved, in its first two thousand years since the Resurrection of Christ, that everywhere in the world that the King saves His people and exercises His rule, civilization and life is greatly enhanced! As demonic authorities are forced out (as with the boy at Paneus), and salvation and Godly rule are imposed, civilization is healed, revived and invigorated!
As “coveys” and “legions” of freewheeling devilish angels are flushed out of the wildernesses of the world by the Gospel, men are set free to life and obedience and dominion! Wildness and chaos and tyranny and malevolence are sent into the “deep,” and men are “loosed” from imprisonment and blindness and disease.
One of the best examples possible of this great Christian phenomenon arises out of the recent civil turbulence that we’ve had in this country. Americans of third-world heritage have cried out against white, Western civilization! They decry the fact that their own heritage and culture have been destroyed, because everywhere “white” people go, they preempt the society and culture of non-whites! Whatever is wrong, according to them, is attributable to western whites who enslave and subjugate people and destroy all that’s good in their former heritage. To them, white culture is the fundamental evil in their lives! It is the “source” of all that is wrong.
But nothing could be further from the reality! The whole analysis is wrong. To begin with, none of that is attributable to the fact that our skin is white; neither is it attributable to our culture; nor is it the fact that were western European! (At least these are not the “root” reasons.) It is all attributable to Christianity! White, western civilization was blessed with the King’s salvation and His rule! By Grace! And that’s what third-world immigrants are fighting against!
And they don’t realize that their heritage, which they want so badly to recapture and retain, has its roots in demonism, death, squalor, cannibalism, deception, infidelity, slavery and inhumane tribalism. Outside the Kingdom of Christ there is no thought of one woman/one man fidelity (as in our text today). African sexual practices are among the most perverted and deviant in the world, which, in turn, leads to the worst disease problem in the world. Illness and starvation and oppression and tyranny are commonplace. There is as much (or more) slavery in Africa and other third world countries as there ever was. Human life is ever near to having no value in many places in the world.
Yet, that is the heritage and culture to which they wish to return as they struggle against the rule of Christ! White, European culture and society is the object of their disdain, and the “whipping boy,” and the proverbial straw house!” But it is not now, and never has been, the real problem. Underneath all lies the antagonism to, and the conflict with, the rule of Christ!