Imagination in the UK | The United Kingdom

Imagination in the UK

Engaging the Culture - The United Kingdom

Written by Douglas Wilson

Wednesday, 20 February 2008 01:28

I believe I have mentioned before that someone -- Napoleon I think -- said that imagination rules the world. Discounting what we need to discount here -- Napoleon not being a font of spiritual wisdom, and adjusting for different meanings of the word imagination, this remains quite true, profoundly true.

The imagination that I refer to is not daydreaming. It is not wishful mental meandering. What is it that overcomes the world? Is it not our faith? And faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And one of the things I hope for, one of the great things I see without seeing, is a Christian Great Britain.

Evangelical Christians in the UK need to fix in their minds what they believe the condition of their country will be fifty years from now. And they need to run a little thought experiment. Suppose the Lord asked them what they believed that future would be. (Note that the question is not about ultimate future, the future in which the dead are raised, the future concerning which there is no disagreement among orthodox Christians. We are not talking about that.)

The question concerns the historic future of Great Britain fifty years from this day, in the year 2058. That island will still be there, and people will still be on it. What kind of nation will it be? So, in this thought experiment, the Lord asks you what kind of nation it will be, in your imagination. And so you give Him your understanding, and suppose the Lord then said, Be it to you according to your faith. Would you then rejoice, or despair?

Imagination governs life, practice, and attitudes. If your imagination is historically defeatist, then that is going to help determine the outcome. A sports team that has given up prematurely is defeated primarily for that reason, even if there is enough raw talent on the field to still win the game.

The restoration of the British nation is coming in Christ, but an important preliminary move is for the Holy Spirit to restore the British imagination, to restore the faith of evangelicals. Just as there is no crop without plowing and planting, so there will be no restoration of the faith in Britain without a restoration of faith. One of the things that is enervating the evangelical Church in the UK is that people have been led to believe that a morale issue is a doctrinal issue.

After the resurrection, the Lord Jesus was given this invitation -- ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. Does any Christian seriously want to say that Jesus was given this invitation and that He didn't ask for Great Britain?

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Last Updated on Wednesday, 20 February 2008 01:28

Comments

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Ron Smith

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 5:47 am

I know Occam's razor is not really faith. But if the amil's are right, and the world will remain more or less in the state it is currently in until the final advent of Jesus, so what? What does that mean for postmils? I don't think any of them will be disappointed because Jesus came back too soon. But if the postmils are right, then the lack of faith in the Church (aka amillennialism) forces her to continue wandering about the wilderness.

Rob Steele

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 5:53 am

There's that whole tradition of imagining a grim future for England. P. D. James's The Children of Men is the latest and most spiritual, if you don't count The Napoleon of Notting Hill. The movie treats the text very loosely but is also worth a look.

Jane Dunsworth

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 5:54 am

That's Pascal's Wager, I believe, not Occam's Razor. (Unless I'm misunderstanding how postmillennialism is the simplest plausible solution. ;-))

It's a decent point, too. You're right that it's not an airtight biblical argument, but it's kind of a weight on one side of the balance, maybe.

Jane Dunsworth

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 5:55 am

That Hideous Strength fits in there, too. In that case, good ultimately triumphs, but not without wrecking the entire existing order and leaving only a microscopic remnant to start over with.

Keith LaMothe

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 6:16 am

"but not without wrecking the entire existing order and leaving only a microscopic remnant to start over with"

Surely, things went coo-coo for cocoa puffs at the end of that one. Still, typologically speaking, should we not expect that a "turnaround" in Great Britain would come after a pretty significant set of disasters? I've been reading James Jordan commentaries lately (on Judges and Daniel), and the cyclical theme of "Creation, Fall, Decline, Judgment, Re-creation" is pretty strong. I think GB (not to mention other nations) is pretty deep into "Decline".

The remnant doesn't have to be microscopic, though. But I have to think there will be some serious shaking-up.

Rob Steele

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 6:26 am

I love That Hideous Strength and see what you mean but that seems less about the future, being set just after the war. The trilogy does touch on future technology. One of my favorite scenes in all literature is Ransom realizing that the thing he's looking down at is Earth. It's commonplace for us to imagine that but Lewis did it before Sputnik.

Ron Smith

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 8:45 am

Thanks for the correction, Ms. Dunsworth.

Yes, I meant Pascal's Wager.