Christianity Without the King

‘Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men

couldn’t put Humpty together again ‘

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In February 2025 an organization called the ‘Alliance for Responsible Citizenship’ (ARC) held its second meeting in London, with over 4,000 people present from more than 90 countries. The organization is the result of a hard-to-argue-with belief that western civilization is in serious decline. (See the Amputated Soul)

One can add to this the fact that neither today’s political nor educational systems are capable of arresting that decline. For most members of parliament and educators now come from the same God-rejecting neo-pagan culture and its values that society has become. This leads to the broader reality that no currently existing institution can deal with what is a civilizational malaise.

According to their website the ARC is –

‘An international movement with a vision for a better world where empowered citizens take responsibility and work together to bring flourishing and prosperity to their families, communities, and nations’.

The recent conference highlighted a number of aims that many would see as most desirable. Some of these include-

•         The return of such virtues as self-sacrifice and volunteerism.

•         Replacing narcissistic individualism with an emphasis on family and community.

•         The return of school and universities to education instead of being vehicles of indoctrination.

•         The re-establishment of Judeo-Christian values as the foundations of society.

It is intriguing that, while the ARC does not claim to be a religious movement, much of their argument is for the restoration of what are primarily Christian values. So why are these seen to be in need of reinstatement?

The ARC seems to recognize that we find ourselves in what George Orwell described a ‘cesspool full of barbed wire’. In fact, what has happened to western society is because of its deliberate rejection of its Judeo-Christian ‘Built-in operating system’ (BIOS), the Bible.

It is the loss of Christianity and the spiritual Vacuum created by that loss, the loss of the very Soul of western civilization, which sees the West plunging into a spiritual abyss: Orwell’s ‘cesspool full of barbed wire’. That is a Satan-controlled Kaleidoscope of neo-pagan tribes which is destroying the very foundations of all that the Bible-shaped society, for all its acknowledged faults, had built up over centuries.

Once again it is important to be aware that this is a situation not faced by the Church in the West for 1500 years. As I reflected on this it has occurred to me that the children’s song ‘Humpty Dumpty’ can perhaps serve as an analogy for the situation in which the West now finds itself, which is in a sense, that of being a fractured ‘Socio-Cultural Humpty’ which is need of being put back together again. The question is, how?

This raises the issue of the Fatal Flaw in the thinking of the ARC, and many other people.

The Fatal Flaw

The problem for the ARC, while many might applaud its aims, was highlighted in the 19^th century by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who said-

“When one gives up the Christian faith, one pulls the right to Christian morality out from under one’s feet. This morality is by no means self-evident… Christianity is a system, a whole view of things thought out together. By breaking one main concept out of it, the faith in God, one breaks the whole.”

Amazingly, given that he was a strong Atheist, Nietzsche understood what many people of good will do not, and that is the indivisible connection between the Christian moral value system and the Christ whose nature it reflects, that is the very nature of God himself.

The ARC movement would appear to be an attempt to construct a ‘Form of religion (Christianity) but without its power’ (2 Timothy 3:5), that is the power that comes from the Spirit of Christ. This is its Fatal Flaw.

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Turning the Tide

So what could turn the tide. It is sheer naivety expect any moral reformation from our parliaments, for most members of parliament now come from the same God-rejecting neo-pagan culture and its values that western society now is.

Further, it is surely wishful thinking to expect any turning of the tide to be initiated by our education system. For all levels, from kindergarten to tertiary education institutions including those responsible for teacher training as well as education departments, are now led by those who themselves have been brought up in, educated by, and shaped by our neo-pagan tribalized society.

The answer to the ‘what can turn the tide’ question can only be – Many more Christians, and a corresponding increase in Gospel influence in society. That means more disciples of Christ, and the only agency for that is the Church. Not the current chronically missionally, impotent institutional form, but a completely new entity that energetically and sacrificially pursues Jesus’ commission to go and make disciples. This requires-

• The creation and development of completely new missional entities specifically designed for energetic, and passionate pagan-mission (something in which the western Church has not engaged in its own culture for 1500 years) the type of which there is currently precious little evidence.
• Christians to relinquish their, for the most part comfortable, ‘Christianity-lite’ lifestyles and devote far more of their discretionary time, energy and resources to missional activity.
• An urgent acceptance of the need to switch resources (both human and financial) away from the Sunday-centric gatherings to such missional activity.
• The recruitment of, and bespoke training of, missionary leaders who will lead very uncomfortable and costly change.

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The ARC movement, laudable though we might think many of its aims are, is based on a Fatal Flaw. That is, it would seem to be seeking to rebuild Western civilization by constructing a society with Christian values but without Christ.         

As Karl Faase has said,

‘to rebuild western civilization we need to go back to what made western civilization such a powerful force for good and prosperity and that is the Judeo-Christian world view. This is complex as many want the values without the Saviour.’

Many today bemoan what they admit is a degrading society and want a return to the values of yesteryear, especially for the benefit of their children and grandchildren. However, few make the connection between the absence of those values and the societal rejection of the Christianity that fostered them.

The Humpty Dumpty of the famous nursery rhyme is alleged to have been a large gun knocked of its mounting on a church wall in Colchester, England during the English civil war, subsequently fracturing into many pieces. The story provides an analogy for the position the West finds itself in: being knocked off its moral foundations and broken into many tribalized pieces, with the ensuing question as to how, and to what degree, can it be ‘put together again’?

Neither the King (Charles the 1^st) nor his men could put the original Humpty together again. Neither will the ARC be able to put the ‘Humpty’ of the bible-based Christian value system back together again, without the King, the Christ, who is the origin of it.

Contra the King’s men not being able to put Humpty together again in the 17^th century, Our King, Jesus, and His Men (namely Christians) can! But that requires a completely different approach, the primary aim of which is the re-evangelisation of the West, without which it is lost.