Geneva Then and Now: Post Tenebras Lux

The beautifully sculptured wall, 18 feet high and 300 feet long, in a majestic park in the center of Geneva, Switzerland, constitutes an impressive monument to the Swiss Reformation of the 16th century. Last week, on an afternoon off from my lectures at the Geneva Bible Institute, I went with a few of the French and Swiss pastors who were attending the conference, to visit Le Mur des Réformateurs. At the centre of the wall are four impressive statues of Farel, Calvin, Beza and Knox. Behind them in letters six feet tall is the motto of the Franco-Swiss Reformation: "Post Tenebras Lux" (After Darkness, Light), referring to the coming of the Gospel and the revival of true faith after centuries of medieval obscurity. Certainly, that old Geneva was not heaven on earth, but it still stands as a moving example of the revival of biblical faith and piety in both private and public life.
There is a new darkness over Geneva, though long in preparation.
Two hundred years after Calvin, the Swiss Romantic anti-Christian philosopher, Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778), said correctly of the Genevan pastors of his day: "We neither know what they believe or what they do not believe. We do not even know what they pretend to believe." He was referring to the disarray of sound doctrine already in the 18th century. In the twenty-first century a new, twofold expression of spiritual obscurity hovers over the church and the culture. On the one hand, the historic church, with its commitment to liberal theology, has lost its evangelical light and has adopted the message of religious syncretism. Two years ago the Dalai Lama gave an address at the Saint Peter's Cathedral where Calvin had preached for most of his ministry. On the other hand, the forces of paganism have taken over the culture. Having rejected its Christian past, the country is engaged in a radical overhaul of its basic beliefs, typified by the head of state, an openly-practicing homosexual, who appears at state functions with his lover.
One of the pastors attending my lectures witnessed a symbolic event that took place in front of the wall of the Reformers. Thousands of gays and lesbians danced in front of the wall in provocative states of dress and undress, giving an obvious finger of "deformation" to Geneva's spiritual past.
Two things remain with me:
1. Neo-paganism is a common problem wherever I go. Pagan spirituality is on the rise, remaking modern culture, in the name, of freedom and democracy, but really, in the power and inspiration of anti-Christian paganism, of which the gay parade is a fascinating symbol.
2. We are told that we are going forward to a new, global utopia of sexual and spiritual liberation. Of gay parades, Christian de la Huerta of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, states: "the wild mix of 'go-go boys,' topless lesbians and endless other sexual variations, all throbbing to tribal drumbeats" actually constitutes not a sin but "a gift, a blessing... a privilege...and a sacred service....Queer people often function as catalysts, acting as agents of change,...supporting the advancement of society."
Oddly enough, such thinking about social "progress" is taking us backwards! We are "Coming Home," as the title of a recent pagan book-affirms, home to the ancient pagan world of anything-goes-sexuality and monistic spirituality. Rewind the tape.
St. Augustine, in the fifth century AD, in the last gasps of the decadent Roman Empire, mentions parades "in the presence of an immense throng of spectators and listeners of both sexes" of obscene actors who role-played disgusting acts, joined by the public display of homosexual priests, galloi, priests of the Goddess, known for their cross-dressing, outrageous make-up, flamboyant hairstyles, ritual ecstatic dancing, and the gift of prophecy.
For radical feminists the future belongs to the worship of this same deity, as they await the "Second Coming of the Goddess." "It may be," they say, "that Sophia is about to be discerned in much the same way as she was in first century Alexandria: as a beacon to Christians, Jews, Gnostics and Pagans alike."
If there is nothing really new, and things will occur "in much the same way," then great is the likelihood that the future world system will not differ much from the polytheistic, animistic empires of old. The conflict is still between biblical theism and pagan monism. As we approach Reformation Day, October 31, 2006, it is good to remember that a courageous announcing of the original lux of the Gospel, that light that dissipated the tenebras of ancient Rome and 16th century Geneva, is surely the only answer to the growing pagan darkness of our time.
CHRISTOS KURIOS: CHRIST IS LORD.

Peter JonesChristian Witness to a Pagan Planet