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Before I begin, I would like to file this requisite caveat from A. W. Tozer's preface to Born After Midnight.
“To sit even for a moment in the chair of the teacher and write that which may affect the life and character of numerous persons is not only a lofty privilege but a grave responsibility as well. The only qualifications I bring to the writing of these pages are love for the Triune Godhead and a sorrowful concern for the spiritual welfare of the Church, which our Lord purchased with His own blood. If there is anything here good or helpful to the children of God it must be attributed to the operation of the Holy Spirit who often condescends to work through unworthy instruments. Whatever else may be found here is due to human weakness and is better forgotten.” A. W. Tozer, Chicago, Illinois July 22, 1959
I am not Aiden Wilson Tozer. I am not a star in the great spiritual galaxy of our day. Nevertheless, I can reflect starlight; and this is my heartfelt reflection and gravest concern as to the clear and present danger others in our society have placed us in.
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| We're living in the sunset of a great civilization, that didn't just forget about God, but rather grabbed Him by the scruff of the neck and threw Him out the front door onto the street. Although all of us did not participate at the same level, we are all responsible. Where some may argue culpability, there is no argument as to the judgment that is due this nation.
Deviancy has replaced decency as the traditional cultural standard in America. Our society is now rushing to accept, promote and aggressively defend any and all variants of what was once considered normal cultural behavior, as long as it supports the citizens of Gomorra over those of Gethsemane.
We have witnessed the killing of 48,589,993 of our own children. We have witnessed the suppression of the Truth in every quarter of American life. We have witnessed not only the removal of prayer from our public schools, but virtue and morality as well.
We have witnessed the death of purity, innocence, virtue, beauty, chasteness, manners, etiquette, dignity, honor, courtesy, respect, wholesomeness, modesty, propriety, politeness, decorum, decency, righteousness, nobility, civility, courtesy, graciousness, and sound moral principles; along with chivalry, gallantry, and valor.
We have witnessed God write Browning's Ichabod, Ichabod, The glory is departed across our churches leaving us with little more than empty sepulchers, repositories of religious artifacts and activities populated by well-meaning "Christians" many of whom do not possess the life in Jesus Christ they profess.
We have witnessed Heisenberg's uncertainty principle morph into the uncertainty of everything in the university, and ambiguity in theology. We have witnessed not only the denial of God's rightful position in our affairs, but His very existence.
We have witnessed nothing short of the ignominious collapse of the traditional moral and ethical values of our culture. We have witnessed the coarsening of American life to the point where only the prurient and sensate are effectual in advertising.
We have witnessed the rise of vaunted technologies now being used to deliver predators and pornography into our homes and our hands unannounced, unsolicited.
Today, the entire field of human sexual behavior is marked by fierce moral relativity and rampant perversion, with the most flagrant purveyors acclaimed as cultural icons by the media.
The judgment of America as she stands naked and undone with all of her whoredom and cosmic rebellion on display before a supremely Just, Righteous, and Holy God, El Elyon, is too terrible to contemplate.
We will all suffer. Our children will suffer, and our grandchildren will suffer if Christ tarries. Though relatively few there be whose hands actually dared touch The Prince of Peace, we all participated in His expulsion; if in no other way but through our silence.
As Christians are experiencing increasing hostility from secularists and the new atheists, the United States continues to move forward on weeding out permanently any idea of God from our society. While the concept of transcendent justice finds no place in today's neo-pagan mind; moral absolutes are being handled like toxic waste by our court system and legislatures. As law enforcement is absolutely reeling from the breakdown of authority, politicians are marketing themselves like breakfast cereal; flavoring their platforms with whatever brand of tolerance suits the taste of a democracy on the move to anarchy.
The savages (new atheists) are escalating the tempo of inversion from the original intent of our Constitution, and the societal peace and order that naturally flows from a firm social consensus with fixed moral and ethical absolutes, to the obvious reality of God's existence as clearly seen in His creation. And this is being accomplished through the democratic process of civil government and judicial activism by hedonistic nihilists; by humanistic deconstructionists in our universities; and well entrenched evolutionary dogmatists preaching a purely fictionalized form of neo-darwinian synthesis in science.
If the radical depravity of mankind was ever in doubt, this generation has disabused our minds of that thought.
At the velocity our society is traveling toward oblivion, I would say it's high time for all of us who call ourselves "Christians" to make a decision as to whose side we're really on.
The free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ for the first time in this country cannot be offered free-of-charge. The age-old paradox of the Christian life is now being understood by those in the pew, as well as those in the pulpit. And the cost of identification with Christ will continue to dramatically increase over the next generation. I for one, am glad. Now we'll finally know who are true followers of Jesus Christ and who are not. We will either live obedient lives given over to the sovereign control of God's Holy Spirit and His Word; we will absolutely adore the Lord Jesus Christ and honor Him by serving Him faithfully; or we won't. The cost is becoming too high for counterfeits to continue much longer.
We will either be soldiers of the Cross of Christ on the front lines of Christian thought calling America to repentance, or not. As for me and my house, that decision has been made. We will serve the Lord with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Sound trite? You're already wounded.
The moral wreckage of the 21st century is already strewn all around us. The next ten to twenty years will decide the final fate of America. We will either stop this destructive course we're on, turn around in brokenness and genuine repentance, and turn back to God, or march off the map; as all the other great civilizations before us have done. Unfortunately, the "many" are at work, while the "few" watch. Matt 7:13-14
Alexander Hamilton noted: "Without religion morality falters. When morality falters the Pandora's Box of corruption, crime, and decay set in to be followed by the demise of the nation."
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is our nation's only hope. We must be prepared to live it out every day at work and at home. We must show them a transformed life in Jesus Christ. Then, we can proclaim the Good News from our rooftops with credibility and defend it in a winsome and compelling manner through the evidence of a truly regenerate life in Christ.
God's love, God's grace, God's mercy, God's forgiveness poured out by God's Holy Spirit through His revelation, regeneration, redemption, and sanctification would put us in the position where God actually could bless America. Our evangelistic engagement of our culture not God Bless America bumper stickers is the fastest and surest way to secure God's blessing upon America.
But there's something else, something that makes some church going folk uncomfortable. A life fully surrendered to God. A life abandoned to the lordship of Jesus Christ our rightful Owner, our true Master and Commander. A sincere love for Christ which transcends all other considerations in life to the point that we are not ashamed of the Gospel, because we know, and are sure, that it is the power of God unto salvation. It is this love and passion for Christ, this reorientation of the priorities of our life in putting His will above ours, recognizing that we are His servants that makes the proclamation and defense of the Gospel so comfortable and so natural.
The term "defense" is to give a formal answer (apologetic) as in a court of law. Peter used the term to refer to our ability to give an answer in a gentle and respectful way to anyone who asked us about our faith in Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 3:15
Not many of us will ever find ourselves in court in an official setting like Paul, but we all need to be ready and able to give an answer to anyone about the hope that is in us. That is, we should be able to give a comfortable testimony as to what Jesus Christ has done in our life. We should also be able to give a clear presentation of the Gospel within the defense of our faith, in a gentle and respectful way. 1 Peter 3:15
Gentleness is a tender and gracious spirit. It manifests itself in the way we perceive, speak, and relate to others, especially when sharing our love for Christ. The kind of respect we should have comes from a pure and reverent fear of The Holy God who can destroy both body and soul in hell forever, along with a passionate dedication to handling His revealed truth accurately and in love with a full understanding of the grave responsibility we take upon ourselves for doing so, for the benefit of those created in His image.
Since our adversary has many willing servants trained in evil throughout our culture there may be times for the sake of younger or weaker Christians that you're compelled to use some of the material from this website "to shut the mouths of the obstreperous" as John Calvin once put it. Please be sure to check your attitude and motive before doing so, that Christ is honored in all.
Remember, no matter what comes, no matter what the reaction may be from the unregenerate, they are not our adversaries but our mission field. How should we expect them to act but like unregenerate with all the intellectual skepticism and ethical permissiveness we once displayed? 1 Cor 6:9-11
Don't create unnecessary conflict over nonessentials no matter how enticing the topic. Those poor people without Christ have no hope, but Christ. And we can relate, because we were just like them. The only difference is that Christ has not done for them what He has done for us. Through God's grace, and grace alone, we've been saved. So we should pray for them, and contend for them, not with them, that they might be saved. 2 Cor 5:17-21
So, be strong in the Lord and put on the whole armor of God every morning. Praying always that you may be able to stand and give a clear and gracious witness, and a compelling, articulate answer to all those who are without Christ. To those who need Christ and are called according to His purposes. Eph 6:10-18 And may God richly bless you as you love and honor, and serve His Son, our precious Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to the very end.
Standing in grace alone, for His glory alone,
D.P. Mosteller
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