Key ideas: (1) We should
never be surprised if wicked people do wicked things. (2) Darkness continues
because the light is not shining bright enough. (3) Only the Gospel has the
answers to evil in this world. (4) The church has a holy calling to shine
brighter and spread salt and light more boldly despite persecution and attack. (5)
We need to pray for and work toward revival like never before.
As an
attorney who is educated, trained and experienced in constitutional law issues,
it is easy to lapse into a historical and legal critique of the recent 5-4 US
Supreme Court decision. As a Christian, it is easy to be angry about decisions
that are an affront to biblical values. None of those responses, however, are
helpful, because they will not further the kingdom of God and His righteousness
(Matt. 6:33). So, what is the right response for people who love Jesus and His
Word?
1. Our culture has
been sliding this direction for years, as it accelerates away from biblical values.
In
1996, the late Justice Robert Bork published the book, Slouching Towards
Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline. It is ironic that Bork was
denied confirmation on the US Supreme Court by the liberals who controlled the
US Senate at the time. His ultimate replacement was Anthony Kennedy, the
Justice who fulfilled Justice Bork's predictions. Bork's book's title,
Slouching Towards Gomorrah, was a twist of a poem by WB Yeats, which described,
"slouching towards Bethlehem." Bork contended that our nation has
rejected Bethlehem and chosen Gomorrah as its destination. So, given the accelerating
slide toward Gomorrah, how should we then live? (See Francis Schaeffer’s book,
How Should We Then Live: The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture,
taken from Ezek. 33:1-11, 19.) Blaise Pascal (in the 1600s), CS Lewis, Francis
Schaeffer, Charles Colson, Robert Bork and many others have been warning us
that we were on this path, but the church has not heeded the warnings.
The
US Supreme Court is not so much making law that influences culture as allowing
a long trend in culture to influence the law. In other words, the US Supreme
Court is not the driving force, but a reflection of forces in culture. The
universities in our nation, media, large business enterprises, have been on
this present path for decades, influencing culture by attacking Judeo-Christian
(i.e., biblical) values at every turn, and undermining faith by promoting
values anathema to faith. Television, movies, popular media, etc. are obviously
increasing their influence in culture at the expense of the church. All of this
reflects the biblical idea that we are in a spiritual conflict between demonic
control and influence of culture and a church that is here to call people to a
kingdom that is not of this world.
We
cannot expect godless
people to do good things or things that are in submission to God’s Word. To the
contrary, wicked people naturally do wicked things, no matter how well educated
or well dressed or influential they are. (See Eph. 2:1-3, 4:17-19.) That is
their nature and character apart from the metamorphosis found in Christ. (See
Eph. 2:4-10.) In fact, the better
educated and more influential a person in their natural sinful state, the more
potential that person has for wicked things. The British Baron, Lord Acton famously
observed of the great men of history: "Power tends to corrupt, and
absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."
The
Bible says that there are demonic powers that influence and control cultural.
(1 John 5:19; 2 Cor. 4:4; Matt. 4:8-9; John 7:7, 12:31, 14:30, 15:18-19, 16:11,
17:14; Eph. 2:1-3; Col. 1:13-14, 2:8.)
Under the influence of lustful sin and satanic power, people “exchanged the
truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the
Creator.” (Rom. 1:24-25.) That led to further “dishonorable passions” that are
“contrary to nature.” (Rom. 1:26-27.) Romans 1 goes on to describe a downward
and hopeless cycle or wickedness that is inevitable in godless cultures and
that even affects those who claim to know God (Rom. 2). The whole world is
subject to that slavery to sin and the depravity that ensues. (Rom. 3.) 2 Cor.
4:4 tells us that, “the god of this world 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.” Col. 2:8 tells that we can be taken “captive
by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the
elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” The elemental
spirits that take people captive are the “teaching of demons.” (1 Tim. 4:1.)
2. In a world and culture with competing truth claims,
how do we know what is true and what we should believe?
Isaiah
66:2 tells us that God looks on and responds to “he who is humble and trembles
at my word.” The authority of the Word of God runs throughout Scripture. The
Word brought the universe into existence. The Word became flesh. The Word is to
be believed (faith), meditated on and followed wholeheartedly. The failure of
belief is the failure to believe the Word of God. Jesus told those who
“believed him,” that, “if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and
you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32.)
Thus, for the Christian, we understand what is true by the Word of God and we
seek to abide in that truth, knowing that the Word gives us everything that we
need for life and godliness in Christ Jesus. (See 2 Pet. 1:3-8.) The Word is
God-breathed and gives us instruction for godliness in all of life. (2 Tim.
3:16-17.) We understand God’s truth by understanding the Word.
The
alternative is to accept the vacillating and expedient truth claims of culture.
If you live in ISIS controlled territory, that means a brutal form of Islam. If
you lived in Nazi Germany, that meant complicity in ethnic holocaust. If you
live in Sudan, that means that you have a right to brutalize and drive out the
people of Nuba and Darfur. If you live in eastern Ukraine, that means that you
can kill western leaning citizens with impunity. If you live in Oregon or New
Mexico, that means that the state can punitively punish citizens who choose not
to compromise their biblical faith. All truth claims that are not anchored in
self-evident universal truths turn into forms of tyranny. That has always been
true in history and it is true today. Without universal, self-evident truths,
there is no basis for condemning the evil of ISIS, Nazis, or the Khmer Rouge. Whatever
those in power want becomes what is right and the results are always disaster.
3. Act on the knowledge that only the light from the Good
News of Jesus Christ can deliver godless people from their bondage to evil.
There
is only one solution to godlessness and wickedness for any of us, and that is
through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. (John 1:12-13; Rom. 1:16-17.) Jesus came to
deliver godless people from their captivity/slavery to wickedness – to destroy
the pagan power of Satan over people’s lives. (Rom. 6:6-16, 22-23, 8:2, 9; 2
Cor. 10:3-5; 1 John 3:8-10, 5:4-5, 18.) For those who come to faith in Jesus
and His Word, they are set free from the power of wickedness and its eternal
consequences. There is no longer condemnation for those who have entrusted
themselves to Jesus in faith (Rom. 8:1), nothing physical or spiritual can
separate them from God’s love for them (Rom. 8:38-39). Such people have been
saved to represent Jesus through the church in this dark world. (Eph. 2:10,
3:10, 20-21, 5:27.) The New Testament is primarily instructions to the church
on how to live out faith that brings transformation to the world.
The
Bible describes the church as salt and light in a dark world. (Dan. 12:3, 10; Rom.
Chs. 4-5, 8; Matt. 5:13-16; John 1:9, 3:19-20, 8:12; 2 Cor. 4:6; Phil. 2:15.) Daniel
and Paul both portray the light that we shine to stars that shine well against
a dark background. If there is darkness, it is because there is not enough
light shining!
4. Christ’s church has the power and authority to
prevail against the spiritual darkness.
However
dark this world has been or that this world becomes, the history of the church
encourages us to stay optimistic. The early church had far fewer resources, far
more obstacles, faced a far darker world, and had nothing but God Himself to
sustain and encourage it. Yet, today, there are over 1 billion people in this
world who self-identify as “Christians,” followers of Jesus Christ. Jesus said,
“On this rock I will build my church and the Gates of Hades will not prevail
against it.” (Matt. 16:18.)
Jesus’
words were spoken against the backdrop of Pan worship (pandemonium – consider
the “demon” in the word). Greek mythological ideas that influenced Greek and
Roman culture held that Pan emerged from the “Gates of Hades.” The caverns at
the mouth of the waters emerging from the base of Mount Hermon at Caesarea
Philippi were called, “the Gates of Hades.” Pan (half-man, half-goat) would emerge
to engage in sexual intercourse with river nymphs, resulting in fertility on
the earth. In order to encourage that fertility, the people would engage in all
manner of sexual orgies and sexual expression – all abominations in the sight
of God. It was those “Gates of Hades” to which Jesus referred when He said, “I
will build my church and the Gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” (See
Matt. 16:18.)
5. Realize that there is nothing new under the sun – the
essence of cultural pressures to conform to things that enslave is the same as
the cultural pressures that have always competed for the loyalty that belongs
to God alone.
Idolatry
in Scripture almost always includes a sexual component and is always a demonic endeavor.
(E.g., Deut. 32:17; 1 Cor. 6:9-20, 10:7-8, 20-22; Jude 7 – note that idolatry
is referred to in 1 Cor. 10:20-21 as the worship of demons.) This is part of
the reason that the spiritual nature of our battle is emphasized in 2 Cor.
10:3-5 and Ephesians 6:10-20. Colossians 2:8 tells us that we can be taken
“captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition,
according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” Those
elemental spirits appeal to what enslaves our souls. Two of the most enslaving
addictions are (1) sexual immorality in all its forms and (2) “sorcery” – which
is addiction to mind-altering drugs. The word translated, “sorcery,” in the New
Testament is pharmakeia, from which
we get words like pharmacy, pharmaceutical, etc.
In
other words, idolatry consists of the things in this world that grab our hearts
and create loyalty that belongs to Christ alone. Paul links “sexual immorality,
impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness” to idolatry in Colossians
3:5.
The demonic forces that influence and control culture use those things in our
lives to define our identity apart of Jesus Christ. They become filters through
which we see the world and they dominate our thinking, emotions and lives – in
essence, we become enslaved to that identity until it destroys us physically
and spiritually. The culture does not believe that anything can break that
identity. The Bible makes it clear that we earn and deserve God’s wrathful
judgment/justice.
6. God enables all people to break from slavery to
cultural identities through faith in His Word and His promises.
Against
cultural darkness, those who pursue God’s standard of righteousness shine brightly.
One of the reasons that “reparative therapy” is condemned by government and
culture is that Satan hates testimonies of transformation into a new life that
is free of such immorality. Satan and his demons want to trap people into
believing that their identity cannot be changed. God’s Word assures us that all
of us can become new creations and leave the old life in the past, becoming
children of God through Jesus. (1 Cor. 6:9-11; 2 Cor. 5:17; Romans 8; Gal.
5:16-26; Eph. 4:17-5:21; Col. 3.) After telling us that people with idolatrous identities
will not have any part in the kingdom of God, 1 Cor. 6:11 says, “such were
some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” In other
words, people enslaved to idolatrous identities became “new creations,” and the
old ways were buried and the new creation became alive to the things of God,
with an identity rooted in Jesus Christ. (2 Cor. 5:17.) There are many such
stories in today’s church, of people who no longer live in an old identity, but
who are completely transformed. While our culture hates such stories, the
church should celebrate those stories as confirming the Word of God made real
in people through faith.
God’s
purpose is to make all things new (Rev. 21:5) and that begins in the lives of
those who trust Him. As God’s ambassadors – representatives of His kingdom – we
have the privilege of helping captives escape the slavery of culture and turn to
the freedom found in Jesus. May more of us pray more and more collectively, asking
for mercy and grace for our families, neighbors, communities, states and nation
to turn before wrath comes.
7. Don’t allow culture to weaken your resolve
to share and live out the Good News.
We
should all grieve that the church of the living God has lost so much influence
in this nation and that multitudes of young people will become slaves to an
identity that God calls an abomination. We must confess our role in that loss
of influence.
We
should be grieved that the church has failed to influence governing authorities
through prayer – we just don’t pray with faith, fervency and frequency, and
certainly not collectively, as we should. 1 Tim. 2:2-4. We must confess our
role in failing to pray as we should.
We
should be grieved that pastors (and I am thinking of the recent example of City
Church in S.F., as well as others) are not leading their congregations
according to the faithful precepts of Scripture, but are capitulating to
cultural (and even family and financial) pressure. We must confess our failures
to pray for our church leaders, who are the front of the demonic and cultural
attacks.
We
should be grieved that the rest of the world to whom we have taken this
precious Gospel and Word is looking on and wondering how we could have fallen
so far so fast. We should be grieved for immigrants who have come here seeking
religious freedom only to find this. We should grieve for the kids in our
nation who are influenced by the slavery of lifestyle. Again, we must confess
our failures – sins of omission and commission – and lack of faithful,
expectant prayer, and repent, turning with renewed urgency to the elementary
things to which we are called by God’s Word as people who confess that Word.
We
should try to avoid the wrong kind of grief. Knowing that judgment is coming, I
caught myself grieving over the stuff that I am likely to lose. Rather, I
should be laying all of that down in recognition that this is not my home and I
am called to invest in eternity at great cost.
8. Seek to do what you can do to bring about revival and
do not let hand-wringing lead to inaction and despair.
In
contemplating how to respond to the natural patriotism of July 4, I was reminded of
Jeremiah 29:7 – “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into
exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find
your welfare.” We are here as exiles and we seek the welfare of our
communities, states and nation, but always as aliens, never as permanent
residents. We have a higher form of patriotism that supersedes national
loyalties.
We
can appreciate Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who had the choice to flee his nation, but
chose to stay and work to strengthen the church against an evil form of
patriotism. The churches in Nazi German primarily succumbed to the cultural
pressures of the day. Only a remnant broke away to be the church in defiance of
the will of the state. As Paul reminded Timothy, “Indeed, all who desire to
live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and
impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as
for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing
from whom you learned it….” (2 Timothy 3:12-14, ESV.)
These
are the words of Scripture for pastors and the church:
Fight the Good Fight
of Faith
"But
as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness,
faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take
hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the
good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence
of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony
before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment
unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,
which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only
Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who
dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be
honor and eternal dominion. Amen." (1 Timothy 6:11-16 ESV)
Preach the Word
"I
charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the
living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be
ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete
patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound
teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers
to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and
wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do
the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." (2 Timothy 4:1-5 ESV)
We
are reaping what we as a nation and as the church have sown in our elected
leaders. We must come together and confess our sins and our nation’s sins and
collectively repent and turn to and surrender and express complete faith in the
living God before whom we must give account. See Daniel’s tremendous prayer
along these lines in Daniel 9:1-20. Gabriel’s message to Daniel from God was
that “you are greatly loved.” Daniel 9:23. We, too, are greatly loved. Gabriel
went on to tell Daniel, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set
your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have
been heard, and I have come because of your words [despite the demonic
opposition of the Prince of Persia].” Daniel 10:12-14 As Daniel fought the
demonic Prince of Persia through his prayers, we are called to fight through
our prayers the spirits and principalities influencing our nation and its
leaders.
Fear the Lord, and Pursue Wisdom
Gabriel’s
concluding words to Daniel are also instructive to us: “And those who are
wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many
to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.” …. “Many shall purify
themselves and make themselves white and be refined, but the wicked shall act
wickedly. And none of the wicked shall understand, but those who are wise shall
understand.” Daniel 12:3, 10 We can’t expect the wicked to understand until
they come to a knowledge of the truth through our faithful, gracious,
persistent, sacrificial witness.
To
paraphrase Edmund Burke, “evil continues to triumph when the church does not do
enough to shine with the light of truth.” Our culture is dark and getting
darker because the church is weak and getting weaker. There is a word that
describes what happens when that reverses: revival. We need revival like never
before, before there is nothing left to revive. The darkness always seems overwhelming until the light comes on. When the light is shining, the darkness cannot overcome it.
Please
join with me in daily praying for government leaders, for judges, for media,
for our schools and universities, that these people and entities would be
transformed by the Gospel, that people would grieve over their sin and turn to
the only hope that they have in eternity – the atonement offered to them by
Jesus Christ.
We
don’t know how much time is left for our nation. We have gone through dark days
before and through periodic revivals. Perhaps God will respond to our wholehearted
pleas and persistence in following Him and bring revival again, so that our
leaders seek God’s righteousness with their lives and appoint godly judges who
will seek to correct the drift away from God’s grace and mercy before we reach
the fate of Gomorrah.
