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TechnoratiJeremiah’s challenge to the Israelites then is appropriate to our day. “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.”
The degree of biblical ignorance, theological confusion, and spiritual apathy plaguing the American church is appalling and the result is nothing less than the corruption of the Christian faith followed by the lack of real redemptive influence. The witness of Christ come into the world is impoverished and the world is encouraged in its rejection of the risen Christ. In the wake of such weakness within the church, anti-Christian sentiment is on the rise and in some cases outright hostility is evident. Writing in the Telegraph, British columnist, Jeff Randall—who describes himself as “somewhere between an agnostic and a mild believer”—writes, “In an increasingly godless age, there is a rising tide of hatred against those who adhere to biblical values.”
Randall continues, “A ‘tyrannical minority’ of intolerant secularists is openly contemptuous of traditional moral norms. The teachings and guidance of old-fashioned Christianity offend them, so they seek to remove all traces of it from public life.”
Examples abound: In recent best sellers, Sam Harris (The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation) heaps scorn on religious believers, whose faith he derides as “a few products of ancient ignorance and derangement.” Richard Dawkins, the famed evolutionary biologist of Oxford University unleashed a vitriolic assault upon religion in his book, The God Delusion in which he calls for the intolerance of all religion. A cover story in Wired magazine entitled The New Atheism chronicles what it calls “the crusade against religion.” A study in the Journal of Religion and Society, albeit it dubious and facile, claims that belief in God correlates with higher rates of homicide, sexual promiscuity, and other social ills, and that when compared with relatively secular democracies, the churchgoing United States “is almost always the most dysfunctional.”
Interestingly Harris, Dawkins and the growing number of militant atheists who argue that religion is a principal source of evil in the world seem to overlook the more obvious examples where atheistic ideologies rather than religion led to the worst atrocities in all of human history—communism and Nazism being two notable examples.
Increasingly, secular fundamentalists demand that public schools and government venues be purged of their Christian heritage—be it a cross on the Los Angeles County seal, a courthouse display of the Ten Commandments, or the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. This ground has not been taken by secular forces but rather surrendered by a weak and apathetic Church. Thus we stand at the crossroads and we too must ask for the “ancient paths” and by God’s grace recover historic orthodox Christianity and what it means to be a follower of Christ. We must cast off this culturalized civil religion that passes for Christianity and recover a true knowledge of Christ as Redeemer and King whose kingdom has come and then live in bold and faithful obedience.
So let us resolve to return from this time of holiday celebration and fellowship with a renewed vigor that seeks the glory of Christ made manifest in and through His church.
S. Michael Craven is the President of the Center for Christ & Culture, a ministry of discipleship and Church renewal that works to equip Christians with an intelligent, thoroughly Christian and missional approach to culture. For more information on the Center for Christ & Culture, additional resources, and other works by S. Michael Craven visit: www.battlefortruth.org
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