Homeownership is not something that is antithetical to Christianity.
We read this in Isaiah:
“No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed. 21 They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 22 They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.”
Isa. 65:20-21
This is, of course, in the context of Isaiah speaking about the New heavens and the New earth. So, this is not a promise that God’s people would enjoy this in fullness in this age, but that we will in the age to come, eternal life.
However, there is an application for our day. Because this promise that God’s people would build houses and live in them is a promise throughout the Bible. Nations where God is blessing the people see this increase, nations where God is judging the people see this decrease. This should then make it obvious to us what is happening to our nation, we are under judgement. The ability to own a home is disappearing for many in the upcoming generations, unless of course, husband, wife, and soon children, work, which is far from a nation under blessing. And will still only work for so long.
If our leaders were truly righteous they would be enacting policies that increased the ability for Australians to own land. Instead, they have done the opposite since the Howard era, supercharging economic growth through mass immigration, making the economy look bigger where everyone’s share of the pie is actually smaller, including those who have come into the country more recently.
As John Calvin said, “When God wants to judge a nation, he gives them wicked leaders.”
What fascinates me is that more people are realizing this. More people are recognizing that those in power over us are not for us, not for our good, and serve other masters. Governments that allow international monetary funds to come in and build up housing and land, when their people are suffering are clearly not governments of the people, for the people. They are governments of an evil international elite, for an evil international elite.
There are many things about this that need to change, but as we can say for certain that God is judging our nation, by giving it over to a leadership that does not serve it, therefore the key to that change is in the repentance of the people beginning which the Church of God itself. We are not promised that we will prosper in this life, Christianity is not a means to gain. But no one can deny that where Christianity in truth increases that blessings do come.
If we want to see those blessings come again, I believe it begins with the church confronting the evil in our nation and its own congregations from pornography, men submitting to their wives, greed, apathy all the way through to support of the bombing of civilians across the Middle East from Iraq to Gaza; and everything else in between that we tolerate. If we want to see the return of blessing, it begins with repentance, in all the areas necessary.
We will not have the fullness of Isaiah’s prophecy until the fullness comes. But we can have a larger measure of that blessing if we humble ourselves.
