The World Turned Upside Down (2019)

In Acts 217, unbelieving Jews accused the early church of turning the world upside down:

But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. Jason has harboured them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king—Jesus.” (Acts 17:5-7, New King James Version)

Such a phrase was applied to the various expressions of Christianity which proliferated under the English Commonwealth in the 1640s and 50s by folk used to just the one, Anglican denomination.

Many today, like the mob quoted by Luke above, think Christianity is turning the world upside down. By this, they mean it creates disorder, disharmony and distrust, as well as offering an dangerous analysis of life and society. Yet it is this fallen world which misjudges its own existence and its place in the universe. In Paul’s day, those Jews sought another messiah; their pagan neighbours thought that the world was run by a department of deities atop Mount Olympus. Today, clever worldlings think they inhabit a God-less universe to which we are just one evolved species among many other, alien ones. This nonsense is denied by the Christian. Truly, it is we who understand the world aright; it is the God of the Christian who lends a clearer perspective to this world; He shall One day do more than turn it upside down, but destroy it, and then re-make it afresh.

Picture: The World Turned Upside Down, Mark Wallingford, 2019, outside the London School of Economics (2024)