THE COMING TRANSFER OF LEADERSHIP, by Gary North

This messianic prophecy had to do with the authority of Jesus Christ. It was an extension of Jacob’s prophecy: "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be" (Gen. 49:10). There is nothing like a cultural breakdown to create new authority and new leadership.

The overturning of Old Covenant Israel was the greatest overturning after the fall of Adam – far greater than the Flood or the Tower of Babel. Why so great? Because it was the transfer of authority from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. This was the transfer of the kingdom of God to the church. Jesus had told the Jews that this would happen: "Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof" (Matt. 21:43).

For this final transfer of authority to take place, Old Covenant Israel had to die – the ultimate overturning. The visible transfer of authority from Israel took place definitively at the crucifixion and resurrection: the death of Old Covenant Israel (Friday) and the transfer of authority to Christ (Sunday). First, the death of Israel became visible, marked by preliminary resurrections, which must have been terrifying.

Second, the public announcement of the transfer took place days later, when a resurrected Jesus told His disciples, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen" (Matt. 28:18b-20). This transfer of covenantal authority then went progressively during the apostolic period. The transfer took place finally in A.D. 70, when Jerusalem fell to the Romans. Fire was applied to the temple; the altar’s fire would never again burn. When the fire of the temple was extinguished, the transfer of authority was complete and permanent.

Jesus forecasted what would happen after His crucifixion: His resurrection after three days. His disciples did not understand this prophecy, but the Jewish leaders did, which is why they asked Pilate to place a stone on the grave and guards alongside (Matt. 27:62-64). Eventually, the disciples caught on – for a few, late in the walk to Emmaus; for the others, after Jesus appeared to them in person later that evening. In short, church leaders were the last to understand what was going on.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Even with the Holy Spirit’s presence, church leaders rarely see what is going on in advance of the media. For instance, did the anti-abortion movement have its origin in the vision of the ministers or laymen? To ask the question is to answer it. Today, a quarter century after Roe v. Wade, laymen are picketing, and pastors are working on next week’s sermon.

With respect to the Year 2000 Problem, most Christian laymen will follow the lead of the secular media, and most pastors will follow the laymen. Expect this. Plan for this. Like Churchill in 1935, no one is going to believe you when you tell them what is likely to happen, especially if you aren’t taking specific defensive actions. But never forget: 1939 eventually came. Churchill replaced Chamberlain. But after the war was over, the British empire was an empty shell that was visibly defunct by 1950. Churchill was replaced in 1945. But not many people, even in Britain, can tell you who replaced him. Yet people remember the man who replaced Franklin Roosevelt. Harry Truman authorized the use of the atomic bomb. A new era visibly began: the atomic age.

The atomic age has been visibly replaced in the 1990’s by the age of the computer. Our nuclear arsenal is no more, except on nuclear submarines – subs that are not Year 2000-compliant. Presidents Bush and Clinton dismantled our land-based missile defense system. But the computers remain. They are what give our non-nuclear military forces the edge. But not for much longer. In early February, the three senior officials in charge of the U.S. Defense Department’s Year 2000 repair program resigned. The great transformation is in sight: "American Empire, 1945-2000. R.I.P." A New World Disorder is about to begin.

This represents a tremendous opportunity for evangelism. It will transfer enormous influence to those congregations that can feed the poor, care for the sick, and preach an eschatology of victory. While there will be very few congregations that do all this in 2000, their number will grow. Under pressure, the church flourishes. Under pressure, Christians take leadership. It is when soft times come that Christianity becomes chameleon-like, taking on the coloration of its environment. Soft times are about to depart, for a long, long time. If they don’t, today’s soft Western church will remain soft.

There are righteous people in every era. God’s church perseveres in history. There is continuity. There were righteous people living in the shadow of the Tower of Babel. Had they been given a warning of the confusion to come, would they have sold their homes and moved? Probably not. But a few of them would have: a remnant. Those few would have constituted godly leadership in the next generation.

I suggest that there will soon be the most remarkable short-term transfer of authority and power in the history of the West. This transfer of leadership will affect more than just the West. A transfer of leadership on this scale means the visible end of one era and the visible beginning of another. It will affect every aspect of culture. It is the kind of change that mandates a paragraph, or even a chapter, in history textbooks five centuries later.

The year 2000 will surely get that paragraph if the mainframe computers go down. Besides, the year’s number will be too tempting for historians to ignore. Modern historians still write about the end-of-the world fears of people living in 999, even though there is little evidence to indicate that such fears were widespread. The thirteenth century was the century of millennial expectations, not the tenth. But the year 1000 is just to tempting to historians. Think of the year 2000 if the computers go down. A lot of them will go down, taking with them the organizations that are dependent on them. A great overturning is about to occur.

The church is unaware of any of this. It is unprepared for widespread responsibility and therefore widespread influence. But conditions after 1999 will not allow the church to sit on the sidelines of culture, as it sits today. The collapse of the humanist welfare-warfare State will put the church in the center of society in most small towns. In central cities, the churches will compete with the gangs. A new generation of Christian leaders will spring up overnight at the local level. National leadership will disappear. The leaders did not sound the alarm on the Year 2000, so they will lose credibility. More to the point, without the banks and the postal service, their ministries will not be able to survive. The world will move to localism. The more widespread the world’s dependence on noncompliant mainframe computers, the faster this transformation will occur.

Paul wrote: "This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous; One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)" (I Tim. 3:1-5).

With respect to the Year 2000, I have received letter after letter that says, "My wife thinks I’m nuts." I have received a few that say, "My husband thinks all this is crazy," but not as many as I have received from husbands. "How can I persuade my wife?" They mean, "before the crisis destroys our ability to take action." They probably can’t.

In the month that the banks close, or the power goes off, wives will realize that they are trapped in a world without all of the familiar supporting institutions. They will come to their husbands and ask: "What should we do?" That is a code phrase for: "What are you going to do to protect me and my children?" Husbands who had wanted to take action will say, "I told you this was going to happen. You said I was nuts. You refused to sell our home and move to a safer place. You refused to read the evidence. You told me you didn’t want to hear about it. So I stopped talking about it." To which the wives will answer, "I don’t care what I said. You’re responsible for this household. What are you going to do to protect us?" This, theologically, is the correct answer. It is the correct answer today as well as on January 4, 2000.

Any husband who has become convinced of the life-threatening nature of the Millennium Bug should tell his wife today, "I’m the head of this household before God. I’m responsible. We’re going to fix up this house and put it up for sale. I’m going to liquidate my pension fund if I need to in order to buy the food and equipment we need. We are moving to a safer place. Let’s go find that place together."

Look for a small town where there is solid ecclesiastical leadership. This will not be easy to find; there’s isn’t much leadership. As a second-best position, look for a church in a rural area that preaches salvation by grace. If your denomination is represented locally, all the better. By default, that church may be in a position to exercise leadership in a breakdown. If the church owns property with ground suitable for gardening, all the better. It will be able to help people locally and maybe even sister churches in cities.

Your neighbors in your new location will not be urban people. They will possess skills and information that you don’t have. Their ways of getting things done will seem strange. My suggestion: do it their way. Ask about how things get done there. Blend in. If you’re perceived as someone who is willing to learn, you will have an easier time persuading them when you have information that they don’t have, such as biblical law. But wait for a crisis to motivate them to ask. Until then, be more ears than mouth.

Ethical neighbors are very important. Leadership will be rebuilt from the neighborhoods up. The day of empire is just about over in the West. This empire is run by computers. With the revolt of the computers will come a breakdown in large organizations. This will overturn the world as we know it. The people building a new Tower of Babel are about to be scattered. The universal language of the computers is about to be confused.

This is why you had better reduce your dependence on large systems. Any organization that sends you a check by computer is suspect. Any source of income that is payable only by check is suspect. For most of us, this means just about everything that we are dependent on. This is the great threat to us and our lifestyle. But it is also the great threat to the New World Order. If you think that God will spare the New World Order and allow is triumph in history – which is where "more of the same" is headed – because He does not want His people to experience hard times, then your view of God is different from mine. Sadly, I think this is what many Christian wives believe today, because they want to believe they are safe. They aren’t.

Copyright 1998, Institute for Christian Economics

P.O. Box 8000, Tyler, TX 75711

Donations are fully tax deductible; checks should be made out to Institute for Christian Economics.

Released for informational purposes to allow individual file transfer, Usenet, and non-commercial mail-list posting only. All other copyright privileges reserved.