Age of Encroachment (Part 1)

Iran is in the news again, but what should Christians want to happen there? As citizens of a republic, Americans should be good stewards of the government God has entrusted to us. In this 4-part series, I offer my thoughts on what American Christians should want in Iran. This is the first article in the Age of Encroachment series.

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It has been nearly 24 years since President George W. Bush first used the term Axis of Evil to describe the nefarious relationship existing between Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. I recall agreeing with the sentiment at the time and adding that China and Russia should probably also be included. A lot has changed since then, but we are still dealing with many of the same global problems that existed almost a quarter of a century ago.

That should not be surprising, as global trends seem to work that way. The past millennium of Western history can essentially be divided by these dominant themes or zeitgeists. From the theocratism of the Crusades, through the humanism of the Renaissance, the expansionism of the Age of Exploration and Protestant Reformation, Baroque-era statism, the populism that fueled the American and French revolutions, 19th century nationalism, and 20th century totalitarianism, the world has been governed by predominant ideas that are difficult to attribute to any individual. 

People may interpret the zeitgeist, or spirit of the age, differently based upon their unique cultures, but the themes themselves tend to be universal, or at least extend across multiple countries and languages. The American and French Revolutions looked different, but both were fueled by a similar desire for autonomy. The Communists, Fascists, Maoists, Nazis, and Soviets gained power in response to the same abuses and excesses of industrialization that the Americans and British resisted through labor unions and reforms. Such has been the case in every era, and you can find the shared themes of a zeitgeist in politics and popular culture throughout history.

Our contemporary world is no different, and the problems we have faced since the fall of the Iron Curtain are unlikely to be resolved anytime soon. Such themes are best recognized in retrospect, but I believe we are living in and through the Age of Encroachment. Christianity is under attack to various degrees by rabid secularists advancing DEI and LGBWXYZ on one side and Muslims wielding Sharia law and terrorism on the other. These two groups may seem to be opposed to one another, but I think they align with one another at a deeper level, which I will address in the next two articles in this series. Of course, recognizing the forces aligned against us does not automatically defeat them, but it does help us to consider our response, which I will discuss in the final article in this series.