CHRISTIAN ACTIVISM WILL NOT CHANGE AMERICA
Christian activism is not the answer to the ills of American culture. We can form groups and ministries to confront Americans’ sins but it will do no good. I appreciate organizations that seek to protect my rights but even they cannot make our nation better.
Christianity is on a steep decline. The rise of the mega church has not helped. In fact, the fall of celebrity pastors has done more harm than good. Polls show that Americans trust of pastors is at an all-time low. The fastest growing religious preference in polls is none. These attitudes have already made an impact on culture, so much so that our very security is at stake. People now are willing to sacrifice freedom for security.
What is the solution? Would you believe that the Bible has a simple plan that, if followed, would make a major difference? The plan is simple, “Go, as you go, make disciples.” One-on-one evangelism is the only means to change society. You have to change human nature in order to change human culture. Unredeemed human nature always hates God. Many think they love God but actually they love a god of their own making. The god that they invent, makes either no demands on them or make demands that hey can easily meet.
Our holy God demands that we be holy and it is impossible for us to be holy. Lets be clear about this. We cannot make ourselves holy. Notice what the Apostle Paul said, “neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” (1Co 6:9-10 ESV) This is just a sample list. Note another list written by Paul: “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
(Gal 5:19-21 ESV)
If we are honest, we can find ourselves in these lists of sins that prevent us from being saved. I need to explain that what the lists of sins represents, are people who live persistently in these sins. It is not a temptation that they may yield to. It is about a lifestyle thing, it is part of what defines us as a person. But we need to understand that these lifestyles are something that we may choose, but they are very much a part of our nature. With the kind of nature that we all have, we hate anything holy, especially a Holy God.
Our message to the world is that God himself had remedied our situation. In fact we celebrate Christmas because God himself became flesh. He became flesh so that he might heal our sinful flesh as the Bible calls it, our human nature. He died on the cross as our substitute, as our sacrifice for our sins. His death paid the price that the unholy should pay. He rose from the grave so that we too might have eternal life.
Our message is God had made a cosmic effort to save us, to make us right. His salvation makes us whole and allows us to enter into a relationship to God himself. Salvation comes to us one person at a time. And our joyful responsibility is to share the love of God with others.
It is time that we remember that our God is not tolerant of sin, or sinful lifestyles. You cannot fool yourself into thinking that God’s love means that he tolerates your sin. No, it means that God has done something about your sin. But you have only one choice, either accept God’s plan or be in a hostile relationship with God. There are no other choices. There are no other relationships.
Christians are the poor, destitute, naked, hungry sinners who have found relief for his condition telling others how they too can be made right with God. There is nothing for Christians to be arrogant about because we are the recipients of Grace. All we are doing is trying to tell others how to find God.
We have to stop wringing our hands about the decline of our culture and acting as if nothing can be done. We have a divine calling that is the solution to the ills of our culture. One by one we change people; rather, God changes them through our witness. People who have been redeemed change culture. We cannot let a handful of cultural manipulators prevents us from being witnesses of Christ. We cannot allow the use of political correctness to silence our voice. We must speak truth. We must speak truth to power. We must speak truth to wickedness. We must speak truth to drugs and pornography. We must speak truth to poverty and we must speak truth to wealth.
However, if you don’t care about your culture, then remain silent. Don’t tell your neighbor, your relative, your friend about Jesus. But, then if you don’t care, maybe you need to hear the Gospel message yourself because a person who has been redeem, whose sins are forgiven and whose soul is filled with the Holy Spirit, cannot really be silent about the good news of Christ.
