Ah, The Great Reset, the grandiose plan of global elites to fix all of the world’s problems, using the crisis of the pandemic to achieve the change they envision. If you’re not familiar with it, I’m not making this up.
“The pandemic represents a rare but narrow window of opportunity to reflect, reimagine, and reset our world.”
Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum
There is an urgent need for global stakeholders to cooperate…To improve the state of the world, the World Economic Forum is starting The Great Reset initiative.
World Economic Forum website, accessed January 3, 2022
On the surface, it sounds like a good thing. Clearly, the world is messed up, so the state of the world need to be improved. Isn’t that something that we can all agree on? Or, conversely, wouldn’t we all agree that the world isn’t perfect?
Sure, we could all agree to that. Where most of us differ is on the method or need for improvement. What’s broken and what isn’t? What is the most pressing need? And what should a “reset” world look like? Who gets to decide, and should we trust their opinion?
As we enter a unique window of opportunity to shape the recovery [from Covid-19], this initiative will offer insights to help inform all those determining the future state of global relations, the direction of national economies, the priorities of societies, the nature of business models and the management of a global commons. Drawing from the vision and vast expertise of the leaders engaged across the Forum’s communities, the Great Reset initiative has a set of dimensions to build a new social contract that honors the dignity of every human being.
World Economic Forum website, accessed January 3, 2022
So, apparently, we’re supposed to trust the “vision and vast expertise” of these leaders who are not only so filled with wisdom that they understand what it means to honor “the dignity of every human being” but who also know how to create a “new social contract” to make this new promised land possible.
Forgive my sarcasm, but we’ve seen this before. It’s the same old story played out with yet another twist. Another group of humans think they can bring about paradise. They think heaven on earth can be created through their own wisdom. It seems awfully cocky and full of hubris when it’s put that way. But most importantly, it doesn’t work.
Since humanity was expelled from Eden, which means “delight” (think paradise, or heaven on earth), people have been trying to regain paradise. Cain and Abel offered sacrifices “at the door” (Gen. 4:7 NASB)—perhaps of the Garden of Eden, seemingly trying to obtain God’s favor to be allowed back in. At the Tower of Babel, mankind attempted to build a tower with its top “in the heavens” (Gen. 11:4 ESV), an effort to reconnect heaven and earth.
And so the long, sad, predictable story of humanity trying to get back to heaven on its own terms began. Every fallen kingdom, every grandiose plan to save the world, every effort to reach nirvana, every supposedly intelligent mind claiming to have the solution to all of the world’s problems has failed. Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Persia, Greece, Rome, Nazi Germany. All pursued what they perceived as the ideal, and all are gone.
If an empire’s longevity in history is any indication, all of today’s kingdoms will be gone as we now know them within a few centuries, even the one you might be rooting for (even the one that some call a “Christian nation”). All will have failed. Except one, the kingdom of heaven (e.g. Daniel 2:44, 7:13-14, among others).
The question is, “Why?” Why has every attempt by humankind to fix all that is broken in the world resulted in failure, and why is The Great Reset just one more sad attempt? While there are a lot of reasons we could point to, one underlying strategy flaw stands out when we compare man’s ways with God’s ways.
Men have a strong tendency to think that if they can fix the environment—the set of conditions in which people operate and make decisions—then people will follow. If we can just create a “new social contract,” then the “dignity of every human being” will be honored. If we can just get the right set of conditions in place, people will finally act as a collective whole to sustain this newfound paradise.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ, on the other hand, takes the reverse approach. Fix the people, and then the environment can follow.
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Romans 8:19-23 ESV
Read it closely. Humanity gets fixed first. Only then can all creation—the dominion we were called to rule (Gen. 1:26-28, Ps. 8:6)—achieve freedom. (See “For God So Loved the Cosmos” in the The Epic Gospel We’ve Forgotten.)
Back to The Great Reset. If insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, then these “leaders engaged across the Forum’s communities” are nothing more than mad men replaying the same mistake humanity has tried for thousands of years. Their plans will fail. Just give it time.
Epic Gospel 