Our dying culture & the way back

In 1984, as he was dying of cancer, Dr. Francis Schaeffer wrote his last book: THE GREAT EVANGELICAL DISASTER. He wrote about America's shift away from its Christian roots:

"Do not take this lightly! It is a horrible thing for a man like myself to look back and see my country and my culture go down the drain in my lifetime. It is a horrible thing that sixty years ago you could move across this country and almost everyone, even non-Christians, would have known what the gospel was. A horrible thing that fifty to sixty years ago our culture was built on a Christian consensus, and now that is no longer the case."

"There is only one perspective we can have of the post-Christian world of our generation: an understanding that our culture and our country deserves to be under the wrath of God." (p. 29)

Those words were written 25 years ago. The shift of America (and Canada) away from from their Christian roots has continued. Abortion on demand occurs throughout all nine months of pregnancy, as we saw with the grisly work of the late, late-term abortionist Dr. George Tiller. We see the bitter fruit of that shift in euthanasia acceptance and the redefinition of marriage, and the proliferation of pornography into every form of media.

As people have abandoned Christianity so they have lost sight of the sacredness of life -- their own and others -- leading to moral perversion and chaos rather than God's absolutes.

For instance, Dr. Schaeffer stated this about abortion:

"The unborn child is a human being created in the image of God, and to deny this is to deny the authority of the Bible. It is impossible to read Psalm 139 and truly believe what it says without realizing that life in the womb is human life. It is impossible totruly believe in the Incarnation and not realize that the child conceived in Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit was indeed the son of God from the time of conception. If we truly believe the Bible, there is no question when life begins. And to deny this is to deny the authority of the Bible." (pp.108-109)

It is indicative of a larger problem -- what Schaeffer called the great evangelical disaster. He stated:

"Here is the great evangelical disaster -- the failure of the evangelical world to stand for truth as truth. There is only one word -- namely accommodation: the evangelical church has accommodated to the world spirit of the age."

Now that same sex marriage and homosexuality are being normalized, many churches are afraid to speak out from the pulpit about the Biblical standard on these matters for fear of being dragged before government "human rights" commissions or losing their tax status, or being called names in the media. The Bible is being bent to accommodate the culture rather than judging the culture and shaping it.

With euthanasia, a bill is presently before Canada's parliament (C-384). It threatens the physically and mentally disabled and incurably ill people. It is a direct affront on the sanctity of human life and western society's historic rejection, against euthanasia and assisted suicide dating back more than 700 years in common law and its legal traditions. Common law has Christianity at its foundation.

Biblical Christians must oppose this bill loudly and vigorously. It is presently before the Canadian Parliament. Evangelicals must join arms with their Catholic brothers and sisters in taking their commitment to the sanctity of every human life to the streets and the steps of Parliament itself. Politicians who support the euthanasia bill must be thrown out of office. They are unfit to govern.

As Francis Schaeffer said to powerfully, "But if we are not willing to take a stand for human life, is there anything for which we will stand." It is more important for followers of Christ to stand up for the value of every human life than new building programs, Afterglows, or MusicFests.

Perhaps it is not too late to turn around the horrible direction Western society is taking. We are on the wrong path and it will only lead to a cultural demise. We must return to our original Christian moorings from which we cut ourselves adrift. It is Christianity that made western civilization great.

It is human commitment to Christ and what He did at the cross that released such immence love and creativity that gave western civilization its religion, its art and literature, much of its music, culture and mores.

We must return to the Christianity that made great all we have held dear. I am talking about nothing short of a revival, another religious awakening for Jesus Christ.

MP