Fighting the Culture Within
So how do we confront the culture in which we live? I think first we need to confront the culture in us that lives.
As I see it our times are marked by:
1. Perverse Materialism: Has any culture ever been marked at every level by such a raw love of money and the things money buys, and then had the perverse gall to think of it as an entitlement?
2. Uninhibited Hedonism: Has any culture ever had so much sensual pleasure easily at hand, with so little moral conscience to feel guilty about any of it, so few social stigmas to restrain it, and such a focused greed to make sure that not one of those pleasures goes unexperienced?
3. Unblushing Narcissism: Has any culture ever had so many mirrors, so much make-up, and such radical makeovers; or has any culture ever been so self-absorbed, self-confident, and self-preening, and actually been proud of it, turning all this vanity into a virtue?
4. Mind-numbing Decibalism: Has any culture ever created so much noise and turned it up so loudly to blare away all silence, and with it nearly all capacity to think, to reflect, to feel the deeper things?
5. Unvarnished Secularism: Has any culture ever been so brazenly and boastfully secular as ours, making agnosticism a mark of humility, and banishing the sacred to the realm of the closet and the cathedral?
6. Rampant Relativism: Has any culture ever intoned the "what's true for me may not be true for you" mantra more mindlessly than ours, leaving a whole generation or two almost really believing that anything goes?
7. Pervasive Nihilism: Has any culture ever embraced Hemingway's "life is a short day's journey from nothingness to nothingness" pessimism more enthusiastically than ours, and then lived like they meant it by feeling no sense of the transcendant, and by creating an abortion friendly, euthanasia open, suicide embracing, and violence craving culture of death?
These are the signs of our times; the charactristics by which future generations will remember us, if in fact we survive long enough for there to be any future generations.
The question for us culture-war minded Christians is this: "To what degree are we losing the war in the territory of our own hearts?" How much culture has already invaded my inner self? Where does the "spirit of the age" already rule my life?
We'd do well to review all the above and discern how much each of these soul-diseases has infected us. To win the war out there, I'm convinced we need to recapture the territory within.
Not only do we need this recovery of the soul for our soul's sake; we need it for our witness' sake. For when Christians speak out against a world gone mad when it's clear to the world that the church is both in and of the very same world she condemns, our witness sounds shrill and phony.
And it is.
As I see it our times are marked by:
1. Perverse Materialism: Has any culture ever been marked at every level by such a raw love of money and the things money buys, and then had the perverse gall to think of it as an entitlement?
2. Uninhibited Hedonism: Has any culture ever had so much sensual pleasure easily at hand, with so little moral conscience to feel guilty about any of it, so few social stigmas to restrain it, and such a focused greed to make sure that not one of those pleasures goes unexperienced?
3. Unblushing Narcissism: Has any culture ever had so many mirrors, so much make-up, and such radical makeovers; or has any culture ever been so self-absorbed, self-confident, and self-preening, and actually been proud of it, turning all this vanity into a virtue?
4. Mind-numbing Decibalism: Has any culture ever created so much noise and turned it up so loudly to blare away all silence, and with it nearly all capacity to think, to reflect, to feel the deeper things?
5. Unvarnished Secularism: Has any culture ever been so brazenly and boastfully secular as ours, making agnosticism a mark of humility, and banishing the sacred to the realm of the closet and the cathedral?
6. Rampant Relativism: Has any culture ever intoned the "what's true for me may not be true for you" mantra more mindlessly than ours, leaving a whole generation or two almost really believing that anything goes?
7. Pervasive Nihilism: Has any culture ever embraced Hemingway's "life is a short day's journey from nothingness to nothingness" pessimism more enthusiastically than ours, and then lived like they meant it by feeling no sense of the transcendant, and by creating an abortion friendly, euthanasia open, suicide embracing, and violence craving culture of death?
These are the signs of our times; the charactristics by which future generations will remember us, if in fact we survive long enough for there to be any future generations.
The question for us culture-war minded Christians is this: "To what degree are we losing the war in the territory of our own hearts?" How much culture has already invaded my inner self? Where does the "spirit of the age" already rule my life?
We'd do well to review all the above and discern how much each of these soul-diseases has infected us. To win the war out there, I'm convinced we need to recapture the territory within.
Not only do we need this recovery of the soul for our soul's sake; we need it for our witness' sake. For when Christians speak out against a world gone mad when it's clear to the world that the church is both in and of the very same world she condemns, our witness sounds shrill and phony.
And it is.
Labels: Culture War, Mission, Sanctification
posted by Tim Shorey at
11:04 AM
4 Comments:
Tim, regarding your recent reflections on the times we are living in-----our moment in history in which God has placed us and called us to be faithful----I came across these words today that were spoken a number of years ago by Harold John Ockenga in an address to the National Association of Evangelicals concerning the crisis of Western civilization.
In part, this is what he said: "This nation in its maturity is passing through a crisis which is enmeshing Western civilization. Confusion exists on every hand. We are living in a very difficult and bewildering time, but few people realize what tremendous change we are undergoing......The hour has arrived when people of this nation must think deeply or be damned. We must recognize that we are standing at the cross-roads and that there are only two ways that lie open before us. One is the road of the rescue of Western civilization by a re-emphasis on the revival of evangelical Christianity. The other is a return to the dark ages of heathendom, which powerful force is emerging in every phase of our lives today".
Since those words were spoken the darkness has squeezed in tighter, I am afraid. But I am thankful that "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (Jn. 1:5). And it will not.
Tim, thank you for your leadership of the pastoral team and this church to be light in the midst of the ever growing darkness.
P.S. If this comment appears more than once it is not for emphasis. A couple of previous attempts to post it, as far as I could tell, sent it out into cyberspace.
Powerful words indeed.
Sovereign God awaken your church for this hour, and make us willing to pay any price for faithfulness as we shine in the darkness.
Nothing but historic evangelical faith can answer the need of the moment--vital, godward, impassioned, holy, humble, grace saturated, evangelical orthodoxy.
Will we rise to the challenge in this present darkness?
Tim (from Gayline's computer)
Tim, Thank you for the strong, foundational teaching (preaching) on Sunday. May the Lord make it fruiful in our lives... in my life.
After the service, one of our boys asked: "Was that sweat coming down his face?" Until yesterday, the only thing he associated with sweat is sports. May the Lord reward you for your labors in faithfully proclaiming His Word. And, may this reward come in the form of saved and sanctified souls, both within the flock, and outside.
dad sweats sitting still lol
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