For decades now, society in America which once upheld Judeo-Christian beliefs, has marginalized those of us who hold to the Christian faith, declaring we are driven by emotions, not intellect or wisdom. People claim we are unenlightened people to be pitied and not taken seriously because we live in a type of delusion—woefully out of touch with reality. It’s said, Christians and the faith we represent, are irrelevant. As a result, Christians have increasingly refrained from bringing their influence to bear upon society. This is a cowardly position, clearly revealing a lack of understanding of our new identity in Christ and our mission as co-laborers with Christ to promote good and eradicate evil.
As one who has been prophetically called to be an asset to the Church, my clarion message is for the Church to take hold of the assured victory—to advance the Kingdom of God in fulfillment of the mandate for Christians to help God’s will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. As Christians, it is our privilege, honor, and duty to partner with—to co-labor with Jesus in His mission. God does not need our help. Rather, He has permitted us a place in His plan to eradicate evil from human existence, according to His plan.
This is the second of several posts identifying the specific areas of loss of the Christian influence in our culture, and the demise of society as a result. With these posts, I hope to impart deep truths about the Christian faith to embolden Christians to demonstrate Christ’s love and power, consistent with God’s plan to eradicate evil. Please see the first article in this series: Good and Evil – Truth and Deception.
Jonathan Merritt, a student of American Christianity, the son of a prominent megachurch pastor, and author, addresses the decline in our spiritual vocabulary and the many real-world consequences in his book Learning to Speak God from Scratch: Why Sacred Words Are Vanishing—And How We Can Revive Them. As he aptly wrote, “For those who practice Christianity, such trends are confounding. It is a religion that has always produced progeny through the combination of spiritual speech and good deeds.” Nearly every New Testament author speaks about the power of spiritual speech, and Jesus’ final command to His disciples was to go into the world and spread His teachings. (Matthew 28:29-20). Merritt writes, “You cannot be a Christian in a vacuum.”
The power of words is often overlooked, even though the Bible makes clear, the power of life and death is in the tongue, (Proverbs 18:21). Simply consider the propaganda used by Nazi Germany to shape the beliefs and attitudes of the German public. Through posters, film, radio, museum exhibits, and other media, they bombarded the German public with messages designed to build support for and gain acceptance of their vision for the future of Germany.1
By confusing speech or reassigning meaning to words and phrases, truth is ultimately altered and the populace is redirected. This is how Nazi Germany was able to influence otherwise good men and women to support what they later learned were horrendous atrocities.
The enemy of God used the same tactic in the Garden of Eden when he sought to cause Adam and Eve to reassign meaning to God’s words. The result is hundreds of thousands of years of humanity suffering evil. While it’s true God has provided a way of victory over evil through faith in Jesus Christ, the victory is only evident when Christians intentionally advance. Conversely, victory over evil is unrealized (albeit not abated) when Christians retreat. Clearly, Christians have retreated in our modern-day culture.
The real and overarching issue is good vs. evil. So, what better way for the enemy of God to seek victory, than to cause humans to distort a proper embrace of what is good and true and what is evil and deceptive? If the enemy can cause humans to denounce what God calls good as evil, and instead embrace what God calls evil as good, he has won a victory. And this is precisely what we’ve been experiencing in our culture of recent decades.
The success of the enemy today has resulted in people increasingly rejecting God and His ways, deceived with the belief that God’s ways are restrictive, unfulfilling, and bigoted. Today, for Christians to speak out about the harm people suffer who choose to live inconsistent with God’s revealed instructions for life, is met with Christians being labeled restrictive, unloving, and bigoted.
Who better than God, the Creator of all that exists—who by His very nature is love—to reveal the best way for humanity to enjoy life and be free from the ravages of evil?
I welcome your thoughtful comments from a heart desiring to discover what is genuinely best for all people.
In my next post, I plan to explore the various ways our culture has embraced the deceptions of the enemy of God, thereby embracing errant beliefs and lifestyles, which rejects God and all that is good, and embraces the enemy and his evil ways.
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