Faith in times of upheaval.
It might look like the end of the world as we know it but we’re still fine, according to God and G. Campbell Morgan.

Currently, I am approaching the end of a series of sermons through the book of Hebrews. It has been a challenge, albeit a joyful one, to study this New Testament letter in order to announce its message, which pulsates with Christ. Hebrews revolves around a simple premise, really: Jesus is better. What Jesus inaugurated, accomplished, and finished through his life, death, and resurrection is infinitely superior to anything before or since. It is, indeed, his work — and his alone — that serves as the foundation of the church’s faith. The writer calls his readers to “live by faith” in accordance with this announcement despite the circumstances.
Needless to say, the original readers of Hebrews were familiar with the idea of upheaval. That very well could be the one word to summarize their time, which was fraught with all kinds of social, political, and religious turbulence. Everywhere you looked, there would seemingly exist more and more evidence that things were going to hell-in-a-hand-basket quicker than a hair follicle on fire. And yet, despite the circumstances being more than a little grim, the writer of Hebrews persists with his message to “hold fast” (Heb. 3:6, 14; 4:14; 10:23). Indeed, we could well say that faith in Jesus Christ eschews “the facts of convulsion and upheaval,” as G. Campbell Morgan puts it, and ventures upon God’s bare word of promise. Morgan continues:
The facts of convulsion and upheaval are perpetually patent to all men, and they are variously described. We speak of change, we speak of revolution, we speak of calamity, we speak of catastrophe, or we sometimes use that so expressive expression, the deluge. I say these facts of upheaval, of convulsion, of shaking, are patent to all men. Faith sees all this, and faith feels all this, but faith sees far more. Faith is a volitional activity of the soul of man in response to a Divine revelation. It goes without saying that knowledge must precede faith. There must be some truth upon which faith can fasten. Knowledge makes its appeal to the intellect, and faith, not able to prove, ventures. The beginning is always with God. Whether the first approach of God to the soul of man is of value, depends entirely upon the soul’s response to that approach. When response is made to the first gleam of light, the soul finds itself admitted to the shining way which broadens to the perfect day, and so it comes to clear vision. This is the history of all prophetic interpretation of the ways of God with men. The words of our text reveal the distinction between the outlook of the man of faith upon the circumstances in the midst of which we are living and the outlook of the man who is merely the man of sight. Faith watches change and revolution, and calamity and catastrophe, yea, observes the sweeping deluge, and then says: God is shaking. The Lord sitteth King upon the water floods. (247–48)
This, to be sure, isn’t a call for nonchalance or avoidance when it comes to the deluge of the End of Days, in the vein of R.E.M. No, the church has a better hope. It might look like “the end of the world as we know it,” but even still, we who’ve been adopted into the family of God and who’ve had our names “enrolled in heaven” by the Christ of God (Heb. 12:23) are those who are truly “fine” when the shaking of the earth begins (Heb. 12:25–29), precisely because we know the One who is doing the shaking. The outlook of faith, then, especially in times of upheaval, is best understood in terms of far-sighted trust in what God has said and revealed through his Son. Evidence may say one thing, but faith believes another.
Grace and peace.
Works cited:
G. Campbell Morgan, The Westminster Pulpit: The Preaching of G. Campbell Morgan, Vols. 1–10 (Fincastle, VA: Scripture Truth Book Co., 1954).