Go West Young Man
Written Aug 21st, 2006 by Josh Rives | Email This
In the 1990s, Michael W Smith released a compact disc that not only helped us find our place in this world, our place in the world…but he also told us to “Go west young man”. Even though his music makes every post-modern, sarcastic Christian blush with embarrassment now, Smitty may have stumbled onto an interesting trend found not only in the Bible, but in Christian history.
For some reason, the Bible always tends to associate going west as going towards God’s will, and of course that generally leaves going east as the opposite. For example, after Cain killed Abel he fled to the east. And when the men decided to get to heaven via the Tower of Babel, they built it in the east. When Abraham left Ur of the Chaldeans for Canaan per God’s request, he was heading west. Years later he and Lot went their separate ways and Lot chose to go east towards Sodom and Gomorrah (a bad choice), while the ever faithful Abraham went west. Isaiah 24:14-15 says those in the west are singing the joy of the Lord and they should be in the east too. Israel rebelled against God so he sent them into exile in Babylon, which is to the east.
The Church (i.e. followers of Christ post-death/resurrection) starts out in Acts in Jerusalem and eventually spread. Now there were many of the apostles and faithful who ventured in other cardinal directions, yet the majority of the church revival and growth occurred in the direction of Rome which is to the west. This revival and stronghold of Christianity continued spreading west to all of Europe and eventually skipped across to a little place called America in the west. America became the new area of revival and the defender of orthodoxy with a pair of Great Awakenings. Today the large church spread and revivals are transpiring in places west of California, like South Korea. Even China is slowly becoming infected.
I am not saying that the Lord has chosen to ignore the rest of the world in these times, but it does seem that the largest movements have moved from east to west throughout history. I don’t want to seem like a crazy Nostradamus, but it could be very interesting* when these revivals come full circle back to Jerusalem…
*Not an end of the world prediction. I learned my lesson with Y2K.
References:
- Genesis 4:16, Genesis 11:2, Genesis 11:31, Genesis 13:10-11
- Isaiah 24:14-15
- 2 Kings 25:10-11
- Go West Young Man, Compact Disc [CD]
Interesting commentary. There’s some tough real estate between South Korea and Jerusalem, though. Some would say the fire died in Europe a long time ago, and things don’t look so great for the good ol’ USA either. What are your thoughts?
The revivals tend to hold orthodoxy for a little while (in the US it was with the Great Awakenings, etc) but when it moves on westward there seems to be a gradual decline into sin as the unfortunate nature of man takes over. We really haven’t seen a true nationwide revival in the US since the 19th century (in my opinion), which explains our decline.
As for the areas like China, India, Middle East, etc….
I totally agree that it looks like it could be pretty difficult for this trend to continue. However, I’m sure that the early church never expected Christianity to become the official religion of Rome after years of it being illegal. But something similar and radical like that will probably have to happen in between South Korea and Jerusalem, otherwise it is going to be a very very long process.
[...] decision here when he separates from Lot. You should take note that Lot chooses to go east, since going east in the Bible generally is going against God’s will. Although some people like to shame Lot for taking the seemingly better land, it would seem the [...]
Though Moses led the Isrealites out of Egypt from west to east, they entered the Promised Land by crossing Jordan from the east to the west. They had circled around and under, then looped up and back, so to speak. Further, in this same thread, the tabernacle in the wilderness was set up so that the high priest approached the holy of holies from the east to the west. I would be interesting to find out which end of the field Macphelah’s cave is located. hmmm