“Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 1 Timothy 2:1-4 NKJV
In “The Wizard of Oz,” Dorothy famously explained their peculiar situation to her dog when she simply said, “Toto, I’ve got a feeling that we’re not in Kansas anymore.” This vintage piece of nostalgia captures the sentiment of multitudes who are baffled by the rapid secularization of American culture. Longing for the “good ‘ole days” with a wistful sigh as one gazes in the distance since “there is no place like home”, like Dorothy herself said, will not muster the courage necessary to meet the challenge of secularism in our day. On the other hand, a family tradition rooted in the comprehensive scope of the Biblical Christian worldview serves as a practical tool of cultural engagement amidst a generation hell bent on rebellion against Almighty God.
Several years ago, I drove solo from Indianapolis to the Pacific Northwest and started reciting 1 Timothy 2:1-7 every time I would cross a state border and subsequently prayed for the governor, the state government, mayors, county sheriffs, police, fire, EMTs, businesses, schools, churches, and families. These prayers were offered up to God for the sake of freedom, human flourishing, and righteousness abounding in the gates of our land through the salvation of rebel sinners and His people standing for truth with resolute biblical conviction in every arena of life. Little did I know that this cultivated habit was not merely a means to chew up some time on that extended ministry adventure trip but it has also served as an incredible means to renew the heart and mind on a regular basis thus combatting the secularization of culture.
For example, my family and I just returned from a 2,400+ mile ministry adventure trip to the mid-Atlantic and New England. We’re grateful for the opportunity to minister in two never-before-visited states (NJ & NH) along with traveling through a total of nine new states throughout this region of our country. Suffice it to say that we were reciting a whole lot of Scripture and doing plenty of research to find out the names of all the governors throughout a very spiritually dark region of our country. This habit of reciting 1 Timothy 2:1-7 is a spiritual discipline that has now become a family tradition especially amidst the darkness of secularism in this present evil age.
By definition, the cultural paradigm of secularization is the process, described by Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., whereby “the binding authority of Christian theism”, which is the foundational understanding of God and the world according to the Creator’s design for human flourishing, “just fades away, replaced with a new worldview.”[1] This is very simply understood by what Mohler calls 3 C’s: Coast – City – Campus.[2] In other words, the closer one approaches a coast, city, or college/university campus in America, the more secularized the culture is as evidenced by the woke paganism and neo-Marxist ideologies writ large in the community that wreak havoc upon every sector of society including the church and family often unbeknownst to themselves. This is very much like the proverbial frog in the kettle being boiled alive little-by-little as the heat gradually increases around him.
Further, Mohler poignantly explains in Erwin Lutzer’s latest book that this is “The Crisis of Our Age: Any Christian living in this present age knows we are facing an epic crisis. That crisis is moral, but not merely moral. It is cultural, but not merely cultural. It is ideological, but not merely ideological. At its heart, our crisis is theological.”[3] If we are to understand why there is such a big divide between “red and blue America”, then we must understand that it is fundamentally a clash and contrast between two different and opposing worldviews. Mohler continues:
“A look across today’s conservative landscape reveals a near-universal sense of cultural crisis. But far too many conservatives place their confidence in some form of cultural rescue from our crisis. Biblically minded Christians know that we bear an important moral, cultural, and political stewardship in this age. And yet, we also know that salvation will not come by means of politics. The base problem is theological, and the only rescue that matters is, first of all, a theological rescue.”
“We do not face a set of isolated & disconnected challenges. The rebellion of this age is both comprehensive and systemic. We have been called to faithfulness in this generation, and that means engaging the battle and not running from it. [We must] start by outthinking the world by the development of a mind and heart truly grounded in God’s Word and fully alert to the critical challenge of our time.”[4]
In light of all that, faithful servants of God must understand that the engines of secularization are such cultural strongholds as the progressively liberal news media including the various social media platforms, K-12 institutionalized government education, Hollywood, Broadway, Disney, and the so-called “wall of separation between church & state” that intimidates Christians from bringing their faith into the public arena. Beyond that, the therapeutic spirit of the age even amongst professing Christians and the rise of the autonomous self of expressive individualism in the social imaginary that identifies as whatever poses a colossal challenge to faithful Christian testimony.[5]
Despite the press of secularization that systematically programs God’s people to relegate the historical narratives of Holy Scripture to “Long ago in a galaxy far far away…” or to the worlds of Middle Earth, Narnia, or Never Never Land, we can be grateful that God’s Word does not begin with “Once upon a time…” and does not end with “…and they lived happily ever after” but “In the beginning God…” and ends with “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.” “For the mouth of the LORD has spoken” (Is.40:5).
The historical narratives of Holy Scripture transpired in real time and space not in a mythical land of fairy tales otherwise dubbed “Bible Stories.” The flesh, the world, and the devil bifurcate reality into the sacred and the secular otherwise known as “the real world” and “the Jesus box” but this is not consistent with Biblical Christianity. There is no direction in which we can travel or any arena of life in which we can operate where God’s Word has not spoken in some way, shape, or form.
By the grace of God, it is possible to intentionally cultivate an intelligent understanding of the times in which we live through the lens of a comprehensive Biblical Christian worldview and therefore engage culture with the salt and light moral backpressure of God’s truth. Long-time pastor, Erwin Lutzer himself heralds that:
“We are in a culture war that cannot be won by superior ideas, rationality, and common sense. There are forces at work tearing our culture apart, reviling all that is good & honoring that which is perverted and evil. What we see is the unraveling and destruction of our culture. We are in a spiritual battle. Behind the destruction we see around us, there are invisible forces bringing darkness to the land—a darkness bent on destroying any light that threatens to expose it.”
“This is not just a clash of worldviews, but a clash of spiritual forces attempting to overthrow the God of heaven. Yet in the midst of this, we as believers cannot lose sight of our calling. When we see our battle as spiritual and not just a battle of ideas, we can engage those who differ with us in a spirit of compassion and courage with a sense of understanding, knowing that many in our culture are held captive to our real enemy, Satan.”
“Our choice is clear. Either we as a nation, and most urgently we as a church, return wholeheartedly to the God of the Bible in repentance, or we will find ourselves worshipping the weak, impersonal, and dark gods of our culture. We will bow either to the gods that seem to satisfy our immediate desires, or to God our Creator, before whom we will give an account. Nothing less is at stake than our understanding of the nature of God and His ways in the world.”
“The culture war has come to us; we didn’t seek it, but win or lose, we must stand against it without losing our testimony for the gospel. All throughout history, Christians have been called to faithfully represent Christ in the midst of a pagan culture. I argue for faithfulness to Christ and His church above all other loyalties, whether we can stop the moral and spiritual freefall of our culture or not. We are given the privilege of standing for Christ with grace and strength, even at great personal cost. If we have faith to believe it, this is a day of great opportunity.”[6]
Even though “we’re not in Kansas anymore”, let us pray that God’s Spirit ignites a greater zeal in the depths of our souls to understand the secularization of our culture and therefore raise the banner of the Lord Jesus Christ in the spirit of 1 Timothy 2:1-7. Perhaps you may be compelled to cultivate a similar family tradition for the sake of the gospel in your neck of the woods. Regardless, may Christian faithfulness be at the forefront of our hearts and minds to the praise of God’s glory in Christ Jesus. Soli Deo Gloria!
Recommended Resources:
- “The Gathering Storm: Secularism, Culture, and the Church” by R. Albert Mohler, Jr.
- “The Briefing: Daily News & Analysis of Events Through a Christian Worldview” at AlbertMohler.com
- “The Eclipse of God: Our Nation’s Disastrous Search for a More Inclusive Deity (and What We Must Do About It)” by Erwin W. Lutzer
- “Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution” by Carl R. Trueman
- “The Babylon Bee Guide to Wokeness: How to Take Your Wokeness to the Next Level by Canceling Friends, Breaking Windows, and Burning It All to the Ground” by The Babylon Bee
- “The Great Evangelical Disaster” by Francis A. Schaeffer
- “The Battle for Truth: Defending the Christian Worldview in the Marketplace of Ideas” by David A. Noebel
- “Live Not By Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents” by Rod Dreher
- “The Ever-Loving Truth: Can Faith in a Post-Christian Culture?” by Voddie T. Baucham, Jr.
- “Divided Nation: Cultures in Chaos & a Conflicted Church” by Ken Ham
[1] Mohler, Jr., R. Albert. (2020) The gathering storm: secularism, culture, and the church. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, xiv.
[2] Mohler, Jr., R. Albert. The briefing: a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview. AlbertMohler.com.
[3] Lutzer, Erwin W. The eclipse of God: our nation’s disastrous search for a more inclusive deity (and what we must do about it). Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 11-12 (emphasis mine).
[4] Lutzer, The eclipse of God, 11-12 (emphasis mine).
[5] Trueman, Carl R. (2022) Strange new world: how thinkers and activists redefined identity and sparked the sexual revolution. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 21.
[6] Lutzer, The eclipse of God, 15-18 (emphasis mine).
