A Call to Christians to Stand Up for What’s Good and Against What’s Evil

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How has our culture taken such an abrupt turn toward sin and evil this past year?

Strip clubs and casinos stay open while churches get closed? Protests, looting, and riots are commendable, while patriotic rallies are condemnable?

According to Mainstream Media, it’s “okay” to:

• kill a baby in its mother’s womb (600,000 per year in the U.S.)
• change a child’s gender before he or she is old enough to drive a car
• steal, lie, slander
• celebrate almost every form of sexual behavior other than that between a married man and woman
• commit fraud across a national election as long as it’s in order to get out the President the MSM doesn’t like

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”

Isaiah 5:20 NIV

Where did the Christians go?

Though Christianity has been a significant part of American culture since the nation’s founding, the percentage of Christians in America has declined dramatically over the past decade.

At the same time, the percentage of people who don’t believe in a god at all has risen at almost the same rate as the fall in Christians.

Most of the drop in the percentage of Christians has been made up of people who don’t consider themselves part of any faith.

Check out the following data from the Pew Research group as of October 2019.

I don’t know about you, but I was shocked by the decline in Christians over the past decade. Yet, it explains why so much of what was once considered evil is now regarded as good.

Though two-thirds of the population consider themselves Christians, only a small percentage stand by the Bible as the Word of God and call out sin and evil when they see it.

Quiet Christians open the door for evil to have its way in the world. Seeing evil and remaining silent is like saying you support it.

Evil: profoundly immoral and wicked

Some who believe they attend Christian churches are taught that the Word of God is modifiable by modern-day mankind.

“For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.”

2 Timothy 4:3 NIV

The worst thing we can do is nothing. The second-worst thing we can do is to complain in an echo-chamber of like-minded people but remain afraid to speak up outside of a group of people who agree with us.

If we keep our Christian faith to ourselves, how will we empower others to be bold in their faith? The more confidently we profess our faith, the more we instill confidence in others to do the same.

Is it uncomfortable? Sure. Will some people attack you for your faith? Absolutely.

But if you believe Jesus was
whipped until His flesh was shredded, beaten until He could hardly stand up,
made to wear a crown of thorns that sliced through His scalp,
forced to carry part of the cross He’d be hung on,
nailed through his hands and feet,
and hung and suffocated until He died to save you from your sins,
couldn’t you handle a little name-calling and social ridicule for standing up for Him and His Word? I know I need to be able to.

Read also: Victimhood Fragility: 4 Ways We’re Weakening Our Bodies and Minds.

What One Generation Tolerates, the Next Generation Will Embrace

Our culture is like a frog in a pot of water. If you toss the frog in boiling water, it hops right out. If you put it in cold water and gradually increase the temperature, it might never notice the temperature rising and remain in the water until the heat kills it.

John Wesley wrote these words almost 300 years ago:

What one generation tolerates, the next generation will embrace.

John Wesley

What Baby Boomers and my generation tolerated, millennials embrace, not because the decades have changed us, but because we’ve tolerated the changes over the decades.

The shift away from traditional values will move faster and further if the two-thirds of the population calling themselves Christians doesn’t speak up.

In reality, you don’t need to be a Christian to see that what’s going on today isn’t right. You just need to be a decent human being. 

That said, two-thirds of the country still claims to be Christian. There are more than enough people to help bring back civility. Unfortunately, few are willing to be vocal about their faith.

That’s the case even for pastors themselves. Today, many big-name pastors would prefer to tell people what they want to hear and make sure their followers like and support them, rather than speak the Word and offend someone.

One of the few and most influential pastors today is John MacArthur. Take some time to watch this sermon. Even better if you can watch some of it with your family. Then, try catching up on the rest of his sermons during your morning commute or when you go for a walk.

Is This a Wake-Up For Sleepy Christians?

Most people wait until there’s an emergency to make a change. It takes a cancer diagnosis, a boss threatening to let them go, or a spouse who says, “We need to talk.”

Consider what’s happened this past year. Think about what’s acceptable today, even promoted, and then think about how it compares with God’s Word.

Then contemplate your responsibility as a Christian who’s been blessed with everlasting life through Christ’s sacrifice.

We have much to be joyful about this Christmas as we celebrate the birth of our savior, but being a Christian carries an absolute responsibility as well.

I know I can do better standing up for what’s good and standing against what’s evil. Imagine how much the country could change if the Christian community, which makes up two-thirds of the country, did the same.