Notes to Spiritually Inclined Readers
Notes to Spiritually Inclined Readers
Secular relativists may worship other gods, accumulating the great thoughts, ideas and knowledge of men. They may be students of the Bible, but they may not know the Lord. They may be students of warfare theory and history; but they are not practitioners of war. Were they able to discern a cause for which they’d give up their lives, then truth would have convinced them long ago of the efficacy of the Gospels.
Military forces on their way to war respond in great numbers to the scriptures. Prisoners of war know well that Jesus promised paradise to the repentant condemned man next to Him, but didn’t exactly help him down off of his cross. Those who worship other gods and engage in the contemporary culture war imperil all of us because they have little exposure to warfare—battlefield wisdom gained through reasoned experience and practice. Simply, they are a clear and present danger to all we hold dear and ultimately all they hold dear.
But, they too, are made in the image of God and are in great need of Him. We have fallen short of God’s grace and stand condemned by our own failings and sinful living. God does not wish that any of us should perish. Since the scriptures were written for all of us, why should this website speak to only “our” side of the cultural divide? This is a blueprint made available to benefit all sides in the cultural conflict that rages before us.
Herein is a methodology that offers needed perspective to all combatants who are unaware of the danger each side holds to the fabric of our culture and social future. These ideas are promoted to both sides of the truth “divide” because I believe, like our forefathers, that the truth will ultimately carry the day. If people will take time to search for the truth in their positions and pronouncements, more will find it more often.
We remain confronted today by a culture at war with itself at a time in our history when fewer people than ever understand what it takes to fight a war, how to define it, and when to conclude it. Just as the flash points of the abortion clinic and school shootings remind us that the culture war is heating up, few of our leaders have any professional military experience or understand how to “employ forces” in “wartime.”
This is a war fought in each of our hearts, souls, and minds, just as the enemy would want. He would want us disarmed from the collective strengths we draw by banding together into a synergistic force. Our enemy has given us cable television and HBO right into our living rooms; the internet mainlined straight to our brains, affluence in our wallets, success in our businesses, apathy in our politics, and isolation in our churches. When the Columbines and the clinic bombings and the impeachment trials stir us to try to do something, the enemy fills our hearts with guilt at our own failings, our souls with hopelessness at our lack of belief, and our minds with helplessness at our relative inability to change any of these huge problems that have been years in the making.
Those of us who are spiritually inclined seem disarmed in the marketplace of ideas at a time when those ideas are our first line of defense against the enemy. Sociologists fail to get a grip on the shape of the culture, much less the war. Since the great mid-19th century American revivals, theologians have labored to impress truths upon our hearts but not necessarily on our minds.
I do not presume to be a leading sociologist on the culture war, such as James Davison Hunter, or a leading commentator on truth in today’s culture like Os Guinness or Ravi Zacharias, or a leading theologian on the subject of intellectual battle, like J. P. Moreland. These four men have fashioned wonderful works regarding the culture war and truth. They planted the seeds for the ideas I present here, and their works are worthy of your valuable time and careful consideration. Their heart for the culture’s survival may be couched in more challenging language, but it is worth your time to sort through it.
This current culture war has been generations in the making, and neither this nor any other missive—save for the Bible—will be the prescription our culture needs to make the pain go away. Not until we each begin to elevate truth to preeminence over freedom, and then do so collectively, will anything impact the war’s outcome. Since that may take a little while, be patient with me as we seek to study the common threads of truth between us. Look for them as you read. Embrace them when you find them. Hold on to them when the enemy begins to come against you for having discovered them, and use them to beat him back.
The ancient Prussian war historian Carl von Clausewitz would caution us to never reduce warfare to a mathematical construct or formula. But, for those of us who are called to prosecute this culture war, our strategy is simply summed by this construct: Truth is preeminent. Truth leads to freedom, or “implies” freedom; however, freedom does not necessarily lead to or imply truth.
Keep truth preeminent whether you are knee deep in a debate with your college daughter, or you are faced with a neighbor who doesn’t like your questions regarding his faith, or you are a businessman who has been asked to join with others to challenge your state’s new religious freedom legislation. If you keep truth preeminent to freedom, you’ll know what to do.