Our Great War

Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who’ve ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God d*** it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy s*** we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… our Great Depression is our lives.

Tyler Durden, Fight Club (1999)

Fight Club was released in 1999. Today, many people see the quote from the film above as perfectly summarizing the day we are in. Are they right?

The fact is that a growing portion of my generation find themselves purposeless, without any great cause, and feel cheated out of what should be rightfully theirs. In large part, if I am being charitable, they don’t feel cheated because of greed for self-gain, but out of a greed for the duty of self-sacrifice. And, in some ways, I feel this too.

At root of all this discontent is that, as a society, we have moved away from the idea that all of history is a tragedy. The belief that history, and therefore life, is in essence a tale of deaths dominion over the human race, and the power of sin in the hearts of men, is extinct in large portions of Western civilization. Life is cheapened as people lose a sense of life’s fleeting value – something the Bible never lets us forget.

And what of our Great War? We look to heroes of the past, to great explorers and adventurers. For us, what is there left to explore? What beaches are there for us to storm in the name of life and liberty? How can we face down death and “play the man” when our enemy is so shapeless?

The truth is, we are in a Great War. And it is a spiritual one, though not in the way that the character Tyler Durden meant.

Life is a tragedy, but a tragedy that has been overcome. The dark void of death has been swallowed up by the God of life! He has stepped into our decay, conquered the grave, stepped out of the tomb and ascended to the throne over all reality. He has conquered sin and wrath, and has appeared to destroy the works of the devil – which He has done on the cross and is doing in His church.

What is our Great War?

First, it is as it has always been. We stand between heaven and hell. To some a fragrance of life to life, and to others a fragrance of death to death. We preach Christ and Him crucified, urging people to be reconciled to God the Father in Christ. In doing this, we war against the devil.

Second, the devil’s primary and most successful work is in the realm of thought. He has been about the work of perfecting his craft of lying since the Fall. Today, we face an enemy skilled beyond any tyrant emperor or mad warlord who ever terrorized the face of the earth. In this struggle, we face him with truth. We present Christ, we preach reconciliation, we advocate for truth on all fronts, and retaliate against all lies acknowledging their common source of falsehood, and praising our Source of all truth.

Third, today, our beach head isn’t Normandy. It’s the college campus. We are fighting against the same ideologies our grandparents strove against, just on a different battle field. And it is my hope and prayer that, just as God prevented Stalin and Hitler from successfully plunging the world into darkness, He will prevent us entering into global tyranny as well.

Fourth, if we are going to view this conflict in a geographical, nations vs nation sense: China isn’t going to conquer the globe through bombs. It is conquering it through ideological struggle and economic strategy. The Belt and Road initiative is well under way. Moving the locus of economic prosperity from West to East is happening fast. And the ideological and political information war on America has been very effective. We are in a Great War – even a third World War. Stalin’s goal of a global Communist revolution is nearing maturity, and we are not ready.

We need to step up to this moment. We need to lay down our need, our anxiety, our lack of understanding at the feet of the Lamb on the throne. Our great need today isn’t zealous idiots. The great need of our day is Christian men. If you can stand and face a crowd, fearing God more than you fear them; if you can be the hero in front of the whole world and stay humble before your God; if you can stay grounded in truth of God’s Word so that you can navigate the ideological war we are in, you are the Christian man or woman we need.

We are in a Great War. Be the humble hero who courageously trusts the God of heaven and earth when the whole world stands against you.