Weekly Blog - 1 May 2025 - Hope in Dark Times

How can Christians and all those who want to see a better world find hope in a time of growing war, economic turmoil and the retreat of basic human rights?

 

Challenging times

The world seems to be reeling from one bad news story to the next in recent months.  The conflict in Ukraine appears to be going from bad to worse, with Russia dominating.  The US has clearly signalled that it is no longer prepared to support Europe militarily in the face of Russian aggression.  Global cuts to international aid budgets are resulting in millions of deaths, children unvaccinated, without healthcare, without schooling and many other devastating impact on millions of people’s lives.  Widespread tariffs being imposed by the US have plunged the global economy into turmoil, with huge consequences for ordinary people around the world.  In Gaza too, after a temporary truce there seems no end to the bloodshed.  And even before these last few weeks, democracy and human rights trends have been in decline for almost two decades, economic pressure is seeing nations scale back their ambition to tackle climate change, far right parties are on the rise in democracies around the world, and toxic lies and disinformation are spreading unchecked through social media.

 

Hope in Jesus

The tide seems to be flowing against all those who believe in peace, human rights, democracy, an end to poverty, reducing inequality and caring for creation.  In the face of such challenges how can we find hope and the determination to continue?  As Christians we must start from our faith in God.  We know God loves everyone hugely and profoundly, and will never give up on us.  We know that through Jesus’ death and resurrection God has already won the victory, for as John testifies, “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4: 9 – 10).  And ultimately we know that Jesus is coming again.  He will restore all things, end all wars and suffering, all poverty and injustice and renew his amazing creation.  For as we hear in Revelation, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them.  They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.  ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev 21: 3 – 4), and in Isaiah, “The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox … They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain” (Isa 65: 25). 

 

Hope in the church

And as well as this ultimate hope in God, we also have more immediate hope we can draw from our history as God’s people.  The world and the church have faced dark times before.  Plague, persecution, massive global conflict and disasters, God’s people and our world have passed through them all many times over many centuries and ultimately come through victorious.  Even in recent times we have experienced the Cold War and the threat of nuclear destruction, global financial crisis, a global pandemic and much more.  And in the face of dark times and huge injustice, when all might otherwise seem hopeless, God’s people have not been silent, but have spoken out, holding out the vision for a better world.  They have refused to accept the way things are or the way they are going, but campaigned and demanded change for the better, and made it happen.  From the very beginning to the very end of the Bible, God has always raised up his people; ordinary people to challenge the powerful and change the world.  We see Joseph and Moses influencing and challenging the pharaohs of Egypt.  Later, the prophets did the same to the kings of Israel and Judah; and Daniel, Esther, Ezra and Nehemiah influenced Babylonian and Persian kings.  In the New Testament, John the Baptist and Jesus himself spoke out against injustice from Herod, tax collectors, soldiers and Jewish religious authorities. 

This has also been true in more recent decades too.  Whilst of course many Christians have failed to act or even been on the side of injustice, many more of God’s people have been at the heart of so many peaceful movements of ordinary people that have changed the world over the past 200 years or more.  Christians successfully campaigned for the abolition of slavery in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; for political and prison reform and improved worker rights in nineteenth century Britain; for the first social spending welfare states in nineteenth and early twentieth century Europe.  They protected indigenous communities from colonial exploitation across Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC); Christian thinking hugely influenced Gandhi’s people movements in South Africa and India; Christians protected Jewish communities in Nazi occupied Europe in the mid twentieth century.  Later, Christians were at the heart of the US civil rights movement and spoke out for democracy, peace, reconciliation and development, and against oppressive regimes and corruption in many countries across post-colonial Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).  Christians have successfully advocated against the regimes of Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines, and against Augusto Pinochet in Chile.  In the late 1980s and 1990s they were integral in the people movements in Poland, Russia and Eastern Europe which brought down Communism.  They were also central to the movement that ended apartheid in South Africa.  In more recent decades, Christians were at the heart of the Jubilee 2000 movement which cancelled billions of dollars of unpayable debt in developing countries, and in campaigning for action on the environment, including the achievement of the major 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change (Arise Manifesto, pg 283 – 303).

 

Hope in or times

We are the inheritors of that amazing tradition in our times.  Though things may seem challenging and dark, God is calling us to continue to stand and speak out for the things that matter: equality for all; peace, truth and integrity; an end to poverty and injustice in our own countries and around the world; restoration of the environment, and so much more.  God’s people have always spoken out in dark times against seemingly impossible odds.  It may take time, it may require patience and perseverance through many trials and setbacks, but we know in the end God has already won the victory, all we are doing is outworking it.  We have done it before, let’s do it again.  So let us continue to have hope in dark times.  Let us continue to stand up and speak out for a better world.  Let us arise!

 

Find out more

Arise Manifesto – Find out more about the hope we have in Jesus, and how God’s people have stood up in dark times over many generations in the Arise Manifesto, Arise’s big picture, researched, Biblical, holistic and practical vision for a better world. 

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