The Real Issue

Prop 8, DOMA, gay marriage, abortion. These are hot-button topics on the cultural agenda today. I've become aware of how diverse opinions are even in my own circle of friends. Those of us who call themselves Christians have views that cover a broad spectrum. Even among conservative Christians the wiggle room on these topics is surprising.

That's just where we are today. And we ought not be surprised. We've had plenty of warning. Sadly, we sat back and did nothing when it would have been much easier to keep our biblical values in the forefront.

I'm barely old enough to remember when small town life revolved around the church. Now the outside world swirls around the church so quickly - sometimes violently - that the church is given secondary consideration, at best, and at worst, completely ignored. But we should have seen it coming.

So how long has this train been coming down the tracks? First, let's understand clearly what the train is. The issues of morality are not the issue. We can cry about the number of abortions performed each year, the ease of getting a divorce, the openness of homosexuality, the indecency of entertainment programming, and on and on. These are problems - symptoms of the real issue.

Fewer people live as "people of the Book." The Bible has less influence in our culture than ever. I have no surveys to prove that statement but it seems obvious to me that it's true. All of the moral issues that conservative Christians cry out against are actions that go against God's word. When more people allowed the Bible to direct their lives, we had less of these issues; or at least they were not so much out in the open.

I can hear you already saying, "But there's never really been a time when people really lived by the Book." Yes, we are all sinners and our lives are marked with mistakes and failures daily. What I mean is that there was once a time when more people - maybe a majority - tried to obey the Lord and cared when they failed. By God's grace we can know forgiveness when we confess our sin and repent of it. By God's grace we have his Spirit within us to guide us toward holiness.

Yet we have let other "truths" displace the Truth. Maybe that's not the case specifically for you but I believe it is the case for the American culture. We now live in a day when a minority - probably a very small minority - hold the Bible as the guide for our faith and practice. And that's the issue.

Displacing the absolute truth of the Bible with subjective truth is the issue that has brought us to the point of having the debates on abortion and marriage that we have going on these days. Even among heterosexual marriage, how many are really biblical? I'm not perfect in this area and I've confessed and repented and am trying to do it right this time. That should be the case with every sin we commit no matter if it's a headline-maker or not.

Remember the Pledge to the Bible we said in Vacation Bible School? "I pledge allegiance to the Bible, God's Holy Word, and will make it a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path; and will hide its word in my heart that I may not sin against God." Saying the pledge isn't worth much. We need to commit to it. That may not turn things around dramatically but it is the right thing to do for those who profess to follow Christ.

So that's what the train is. How long has this train been coming down the tracks? Since the last election? Since the 1960s? Since the Enlightenment? Maybe much longer than that. Did you know that in 325 A.D. the Roman Emperor Constantine declared Christianity to be the official religion of the empire? At that point the church became an institution more than the body of the Living Christ. What had been a movement throughout the cities, towns, and rural communities was now in big buildings on the corners of the main arteries of town. People came to the buildings which they called the "church." Church became less about being Christ incarnate in the community. Does that sound familiar?

At a church I once pastored we printed t-shirts that said, "It's not a religion, it's a relationship." Honestly, what many people call Christianity is a religion. We need to get back to Christianity being a relationship with Jesus Christ. The Bible is how we will know him. Neglect the Bible and you will lose the relational aspect of your faith. A byproduct will be that you lose your grip on the absolute truth in the Bible and will begin to accept or tolerate the subjective truth of the culture. Your own actions will follow suit.

Then you will look up and wonder where that train came from. Has it been coming since 325? Maybe. Maybe ever earlier than that. All I know is that we are looking up and seeing a culture out of control. I believe reverence for God and his word can change things.

Bro. Snow is a member of that church I pastored years ago. He said, "We've raised a generation who have raised a generation without God." His point was that this didn't just happen over night. What one generation does not stand up against, the next generation will embrace. Thus begins a downward spiral.

If you are a conservative Christian - conservative as in biblical, I'm not talking politics - then you can make a difference by living a biblical life that centers on Jesus and his word. If you aren't doing that now, then you can start today. Teach your children to do the same and begin an upward spiral. You may not be able to turn around a nation but you can turn around your family. And you might be part of a supernatural work of God to turn around a nation that has drifted away from him and his word.