Before we get to today’s article, I just want to mention that am writing from the perspective of a man that has experienced many of the challenges of which I write…. and those spiritual battles continue daily. The articles are implications of what it means to obey the commandment to raise your children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. They require some reflection and are particularly for Christians who, as Peter would say, are diligently seeking to confirm their calling and are making every effort to supplement their faith. Said more succinctly, serious Christians. If you know other believers who desire to walk more faithfully with the Lord, please forward an article to them and tell them to sign up for future articles. Thanks so much!
The End Of Christian Culture And The Only Biblical Response
I’m sure that you have noticed that there is a growing divide in America between those who know the Lord and want to live in a world with Biblical values and those who don’t know the Lord and have all kinds of unbiblical ideas about how to live life. This divide between Christians and non-Christians has always been there, but it is becoming more manifest with each passing year. In addition, we are witnessing a growing deviation on what it means to be a Christian as professing Christians continue in their decline of Biblical knowledge.
Maybe you have tried to have rational conversations with some of your friends or have entered into a dialogue with a group in a social media setting about certain changes in our culture and have become frustrated with them because they just don’t “get it.” It may even seem like the person or group you are communicating to isn’t even hearing what you are saying. How about those school board meetings? If there was ever a place to witness the angry clash of worldviews, the modern school board meeting is the place to see it all!
Or finally, maybe you have seen some of those interviews posted on the web between a Christian and a non-Christian where what seems to be a plainly obvious common sense truth is completely denied by the non- Christian so you laugh at the video in unbelief or become angry because you can’t stand the idea that maybe our culture is rapidly sinking into a strange kind of perverted thinking. What are Christians to do about this? How can we stop this culture from continuing the slide away from God?
I’d like to walk us through some facts and close with I believe, is the only answer.
First, all people, Christians or not, are prone to reject correction or someone else’s point of view. I’m sure you can see this in yourself when you are corrected by someone (like your spouse), or told your point of view is incorrect, even if you know they are right. This fundamental barrier to moving forward in agreement is rooted in the sin of pride.
Second, our arguments for a culture that is more God honoring are rooted in spiritual foundations. In other words, these are things that are biblical in their genesis and they result in a Christian worldview. Inevitably, submission to God is a requirement but the people that we are trying to convince of our viewpoint are enemies of God. Speaking about our relationship to God prior to our conversion, Paul writes in Romans 5:10, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
Third, as mentioned earlier, it seems like those who have a secular point of view seem to be blind to the truth. It is as if they couldn’t hear our words or have the ability to understand what we are saying. As we continue to press our point, the room inevitably becomes “hotter” and we find ourselves angry and frustrated. The Bible has answers for us here and we need to pause and digest the truth.
Why do these folks seem to be blind to the truth?
Answer: In their case the god of this world (Satan) has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God (2 Corinthians 4:4).
Why don’t they hear what we are trying to say to them and understand?
Answer: Because quite literally, they can’t.
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14).
The verse says that the natural person (the non-Christian) cannot understand spiritual things.
Fifth, the verses that I just cited are incredibly important for our own faithfulness as believers. If we understand the clear truth of those verses and actually apply them to our own thinking, we will realize that our interactions with the lost are never laughable nor are they occasions for anger. Properly understood and embraced by Christians, those verses should cause our hearts to greater levels of compassion and pity. They are dead and they don’t even know it.
Sixth, so why do we keep arguing with people online or mumbling to ourselves when we read or watch the news? Why are we getting so angry each day when we see the utter foolishness of people in today’s culture?
It is a trap that is keeping us from doing the Lord’s work. The real enemy is not these blind people but the devil who convinces us that we can change people’s minds if we just argue longer and louder. And the dupe of the devil is that he gets us Christians to act just like non-believers when we engage non-believers in private conversations or the public square using weapons that Satan knows will never work.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12).
But, you say, “I have to fight online, and I have to go to the public school board meeting in order to fight for my kid’s education.” I am going to do another article on this but in a nutshell, you don’t have to have your children in a non-Christian environment, and you will never make that environment one that God is pleased with. Think about it: What has been accomplished if we prevent CRT or slow the LBGTQ+ agenda in our public schools? Will the public school environment then be honoring the Lord because we are back to only teaching evolution, lower levels of sexual perversion and layer upon layer of humanistic thinking? If you want your kids to hear truth at school, you must educate them in a school that loves and teaches Christ.
But someone else may ask, “What about the non-believers hearing the truth? Aren’t we supposed to share the gospel? Shouldn’t we be engaging the culture for Christ?”
And my response is yes, but is that what we are doing? Are we fighting for the truth of the gospel applied in the sphere of education, or are we fighting for Conservative values? And this is another piece of wool that has been pulled over the eyes of many Christians and many Christian leaders, even on a national level. While I believe that most Christians would align with Conservative politics, it is not true that all Conservatives are necessarily Christians. Why is this a problem for the church? Because many Christians have become accustomed to fighting for Christian values without ever mentioning the name of Jesus or the precious word of God.
Philosophy, logic, or great arguments alone will not change anything. All of that hasn’t stemmed the rolling tide of secular humanism and anti-Christian thinking over the last ten decades. The only thing, and I’ll say it again, the only thing that will change people is hearing and believing the Word of God (Ephesians 6:18)….. and we are the ones that have to speak it.
So, the first big question is, “Do you believe God’s word about the heart and mind condition of the unbeliever to the extent that your own heart will view the secular world with compassion and pity?
The second big question is, are you willing to use the weapon God has commanded us to use to change a person’s mind, or an organization’s worldview, or even a culture?”
So, you may say that you have used scripture, and nothing has happened. Not true. It will accomplish its purpose. God’s ways are higher than our ways and even though we don’t understand the consequences or see them, they exist. Furthermore, God does not promise he will have mercy on all. He says he will have mercy on whom he has mercy (Exodus 26), but we can be sure that no one will be changed without hearing his word because faith comes by hearing (Romans 10:17).
Am I saying that you should go to school board meetings presenting your arguments in the context of particular supporting Bible verses? I wouldn’t advise against it, but a better environment to talk about the Lord might be achieved by taking a school board member to lunch, or meeting with him in his office. You could also send Christocentric emails or letters.
But you say, they will think I’m a fool. They don’t want to hear from the Bible. Well, we do have a precedent for foolish people in the Bible, don’t we?
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
1 Corinthians 1:18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Christians long ago were fools for the gospel and you probably want to be one as well. Listen to Christ in Mark 8:38:
For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.
In closing, I want to point to a modern day fool for Christ- Dr. John MacArthur. You may have heard that Dr. MacArthur sent a letter to the governor of California last week that was simply full of the word of God. Dr. MacArthur knows that the only weapon he has that God may use to change the heart of a man that deeply hates the things of God, is the word of God.
He also knows that there may have been some who may have disagreed that he should write such a letter. Maybe there are some in MacArthur’s church that are presently visiting and may be put off by such a strong message. Maybe they will leave. Maybe there are women in the church that have had abortions in the past and may become upset when the pastor raises the issue to such a level. There may have been many other situations which could cause negative blowback. No matter, MacArthur has been commanded, just like you and me, to present the gospel truth at every opportunity, and to trust God for whatever comes next.
May God give us the courage to do the same.
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Last modified: October 6, 2022
