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In a culture increasingly less Christian than the one in which we grew up, what is our challenge and what is our task?
Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #48 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.
"We live in a world that is de-Christianizing, often self-consciously and intentionally.”
You’ve heard of the Greatest Generation or the Boomers—my generation—and Millennials—so-called “digital natives,” the first to grow up with the internet and computers, and then Generation Z or “Zoomers”—the first cohort to grow up with social media and near unlimited access to screens.
“Generation Z are young people born between 1997 and 2015, and they are the least religious generation ever. Roughly one third of Gen Zers also claim that they have no religion whatsoever, but Gen Z’s percentage of atheists is 21 percent while the percentage of Millennials who are self-proclaimed atheists is 15 percent…Barna Research calls them ‘the first truly post-Christian generation.’”
And by the way, “alongside this (declining faith among young people) in America today, we have seen dramatic increases in the rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide. Both the decrease in overall faith and the increase in depression have been amplified by the pandemic.”
Our emerging generations hold a different view of truth. The general sense among those in Gen Z is that what is true for someone else might not necessarily be “true for me.” …52 percent of these young people have no trust in organized religion.
They have a connection to a religion, but it is completely different from what that meant in the past. Almost one third of the same group of affiliated individuals note that they do not believe that being a part of a religion means that you have a faith community. Barna Research also notes that (incredibly,) “more than one-third of Gen Z (37%) believes it is not possible to know for sure if God is real.”
If you think truth is a merely preference, and if you don’t know for sure if God is real, what does this say about your religious views? Certainly, you would not call these view “Christian.”
Some call this emerging culture “Post-Christian.”
“Postchristianity is the situation in which Christianity is no longer the dominant civil religion of a society but has gradually assumed values, culture, and worldviews that are not necessarily Christian. Post-Christian tends to refer to the loss of Christianity's monopoly in historically Christian societies.”
“A post-Christian society is not merely a society in which agnosticism or atheism is the prevailing fundamental belief. It is a society rooted in the history, culture, and practices of Christianity but in which the religious beliefs of Christianity have been either rejected or, worse, forgotten.”
In 2020, Dr. George Barna’s research found, “Evangelicals are rapidly embracing secularism, with a majority (52%) rejecting absolute moral truth, 75% believing that people are basically good rather than the biblical view of humans having a sin nature, and 61% admitting they no longer read the Bible on a daily basis. One-third to one-half of evangelicals (those that supposedly really tune in to the Word of God) embrace a variety of beliefs and behaviors in direct conflict with longstanding evangelical teaching.
Meanwhile, 60% of mainline Protestants’ beliefs directly conflict with biblical teaching. Their customized belief system revolves around three key values: truth and morality are decided by the individual, not God or the Bible; life has no inherent value or purpose, so individuals should pursue personal happiness or satisfaction; and traditional religious practices are no longer seen as central or essential to their Christian faith.
How can you call this Christian?
‘It’s one thing for Americans to be confused on the finer points or even hotly debated elements of theology,’ Barna explained. ‘But for Americans to misunderstand or to flat out reject the Bible as a foundational source of truth and moral guidance, to reject salvation by grace alone, and to reject core doctrines of the Christian faith points to a major crisis in our society.’”
This crisis starts, by the way, in the family. “Family breakdown is in fact the largest single social disaster plaguing the post-Christian society…When the family breaks down, we get crime, drug-taking, impoverishment, psychological problems, and much else at the personal level; and we get a cycle of deprivation, the growth of an underclass, spiraling social-welfare costs, over-government, and severe budgetary problems at a national level.”
“Only 6% of Americans possess a biblical worldview. biblical worldview – which refers to consistently interpreting and responding to life situations based on biblical principles and teachings.”
Some have called the emerging, ambiguous religious outlook a mouthful of a term, “Moral Therapeutic Deism.” This jargon probably does not help much, but it may be helpful to recognize what it stands for:
- God wants people to be good, nice, and fair.
- The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
- God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.
- Good people go to heaven when they die.
Christians, those who actually believe the Bible for what it claims that it is, the inerrant, infallible Word of God, cannot embrace these watered down, fake Christianity viewpoints of so-called Moral Therapeutic Deism.
We do not just believe God exists but believe he is actively engaged in our lives.
Yes, we believe we should be nice, but the real challenge is we know we must follow the Lord and not sin. We know that in contemporary terms “fair” means everyone gets what he or she wants and everyone must get the same, which is not realistic, not always right, and ironically, in the end not “fair.” We know that being happy is not the end-goal of life; working to glorify God is our ultimate goal.
And Christians know that we are not righteous and not worthy of heaven no matter what life we lead, and that everyone needs to respond to the Good News of the Gospel, that Jesus died to pay for our sin so that we might be forgiven, liberated from sin, and one day indeed go to heaven.
Today’s post-Christian world, with its self-centeredness, its quest for happiness and rejection of sacred order and transcendent values, is a rival religion to authentic Christianity.
The term “post-Christian” has some value as a descriptor of an age, but frankly I don’t like it much, because I don’t believe the world will ever be without Christians or Christian witness and influence.
Our calling in this, our moment, is to discern truth from error, speak the truth in love, and to “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,” (1 Pet. 3:15).
We are to be real.
Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com.
And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2022
*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
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Do social trends leave you astounded? How is it possible that this country that we love seems so divided and lost, without hope? And how should we live in the midst of this cultural chaos?
Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #47 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.
Recently on the television program, “The View,” Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams said, abortion is "a decision that should be made between a woman and her doctor, that viability is the metric, and that if a woman’s health or life is in danger, then viability extends until the time of birth,” and again, "there should not be a limit," because "the limit should not be made by politicians who don’t understand basic biology or, apparently, basic morality."
Later, in another assault on reality, Abrams said, “There is no such thing as a heartbeat at 6 weeks. It is a manufactured sound designed to convince people that men have the right to take control of a woman’s body away from her.”
Abrams comments deny science and morality, yet she is touted as an important political leader worth hearing. She illustrates the voyage into irrationality that is now standard operating procedure for the secular progressive left, which is not simply a political ideology but a pseudo religion.
Abrams also illustrates what I have said in earlier podcasts, that what we are up against today in American culture is not simply partisan or even political battles per se but a spiritual worldview civil war. The egregious values the secular progressive left supports do not suggest threats to the American culture that might happen, or are going to happen, but that are already happening.
Public education at every level, major corporations, politics, criminal justice, medicine, and now even the military are actively embracing values fundamentally at odds with the Judeo-Christian consensus upon which this country was founded and has flourished for over two hundred years.
Our “society’s descent into madness” is evident every day. “A society that doesn’t value life—whether through coddling rampaging criminal thugs or by pretending that murdering unborn babies is simply “a choice”—cannot stand. We are on the brink.”
Gov. Gavin Newson, California, is promoting his state as an “abortion sanctuary state” and buying billboards in so-called red states to get out his evil message: “Texas doesn't own your body. You do. Visit abortion. CA.gov to learn more.” Apparently, in his view, any state that signals a prolife position is an “anti-freedom” state.
What’s worse perhaps, is that Gov. Newsome’s latest pro-abortion billboards cite a Bible verse in an apparent attempt to suggest God’s Word endorses the prochoice view. The billboard partially quotes Mark 12:31, "Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater commandment than these." So, Gov. Newsom not only attacks those who disagree with his abortion views, he seeks to pit one state against another and misuses Scripture to do so.
“Gaslighting”—Have you heard that term? Gaslighting is insisting something provably false is actually true. It has become a central feature of American political discourse, especially on the left…That should come as no surprise. Leftist’s policies are so bad, their worldview so detached from reality, their only play is to constantly manipulate the truth in the hope that enough people either come to believe them or at least get tired of arguing.” Would-be Gov Stacey Abrams and Gov Gavin Newsome are gaslighting.
This is the culture we now live in. Gaslighting is a way of life. Yet Christians must stand for truth, or we stand for nothing.
Since my first podcast, I have signed off with a quote from Gal. 5:1, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.” The rest of this verse says, “then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”
We are to recognize that we are blessed with freedom in Christ and then stand firm, not slip back into slavery to sin. In a culture that is now celebrating all manner of sin, like the Days of Noah, our challenge becomes more difficult.
Scripture is replete with admonishments to “Stand firm,” but what does this mean and how do we do it? First, a few verses:
“If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all,’” Is 7:9b.
“Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong,” 1 Cor 16:13.
“Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel,” Phil 1:27.
“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen,” 1 Peter 5:6-11.
The Greek word for stand firm in 1 Cor 16:13 is stékó, which means to persist, persevere, and stand fast. The Greek word for faith is pistis, which means belief, trust, and confidence. As believers in Christ, we are to stand firm in our belief, trust, and confidence in Christ and in the Word of God.
In life, there will be trials, disappointments, persecution, temptations, crises, and maybe cultural chaos, but through all this we must stand firm in Christ. Not only must we stand firm in the face of these things, but we must stand firm on and by biblical truths. We must fix our eyes not on the chaos but on Jesus (Heb. 12:2).
So, no matter what we come to experience in “our day,” the issue is not the issue, it’s our faith in the bedrock solid promises of the Word, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and our faith in the sovereignty of God. We stand firm not in our own strength but in the Lord’s.
We acknowledge with the Psalmist David that “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Ps. 73:26).
Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com.
And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2022
*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
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How did American culture get to a point where a distinguished nominee to the Supreme Court of the United States could be asked the question, “Can you define ‘woman’?” and respond with a straight face, “I’m not a biologist. I’m a judge”?
Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #46 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.
In the Garden of Eden, the Serpent lied when he said, “You will not certainly die. For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil,” (Gen. 3:5).
Later in Scripture, Jesus described the Serpent or Satan or the Devil as “a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44).
Having rejected the idea of truth and moral absolutes, American culture is now awash in lies, exactly what the father of lies wants—not lies that snuck up on us but ones our elites are promoting as the alternative facts by which we should order our lives. In a culture like this, wherein our youth are being taught outright falsehoods in the name of science, safety, diversity, inclusion, and equity, what do we expect of the future?
Thomas Sowell said, “Ours may become the first civilization destroyed, not by the power of our enemies, but by the ignorance of our teachers and the dangerous nonsense they are teaching our children.”
Consider this short list of lies:
It is a lie to say God does not exist, or if he does, he’s not involved in human history.
It is a lie that human beings can live by their own truth.
It is a lie to argue human beings are essentially good, that no evil resides within them, and that evil only comes from one’s environment.
It is a lie to believe sin is illusory or imaginary, inconsequential, or irrelevant.
It is a lie that human beings can just “follow their heart” or “trust themselves” and all will be well.
It is a lie that we can do whatever is right in our own eyes, that this is freedom, and that this life bears no consequences.
It is a lie that good works get people into heaven.
It is a lie to say that men or boys can become women or girls, and women or girls can become men or boys.
It is a lie to suggest two same-sex persons can form a moral marriage.
It is a lie to believe that human beings are sexually non-binary and represent—last count over 100—hybrid varieties of sex that are personally or socially determined.
It is a lie to live as if promiscuous, premarital, or extramarital sex can be pursued without negative consequences to soul and body.
It is a lie to argue that all that matters in sexual relationships is “consent,” and that any consenting sexual engagement is permissible and good.
It is a lie to argue that non-affirmation of LGBTQ+ lifestyle choices is intolerance, bigotry, or hate.
It is a lie to substitute the state, negating the essential character of the nuclear family.
It is a lie to say men can have babies.
It is a lie to argue pornography and prostitution are victimless crimes.
It is a lie to say patriotism is ipso facto imperialistic oppression
It is a lie to promote the idea socialism results in anything other than loss of freedom.
It is a lie to argue America began in 1619, the product of slavery and white supremacy.
It is a lie to contend that society is at bottom the history of class conflict and that only the state can bring about a utopian classless society.
It is a lie to argue that economics determines all things.
It is a lie to contend that unalienable human rights can originate in the nation-state or the United Nations, a ruler, or regime, or any source other than as described in the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”
It is a lie to argue race, one’s skin color, determines truth.
It is a lie to believe silencing ideas that are offensive is more important than freedom of religion and freedom of speech.
It is a lie to contend that religion, specifically Christianity, is historically the primary source of wars, violence, and oppression of women and minorities.
It is a lie to believe disagreement with ideas is an attack on the person or the person’s identity who is promulgating the ideas.
It is a lie to substitute children’s rights for parental rights in the name of sexual liberation.
It is a lie to say promotion and presentation of nudity is an affirmation of “body positivity.”
It is a lie to contend that if you believe in merit, individualism, capitalism, or democracy, you are a racist.
It is a lie to promote woke philosophies of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the name of racial equity when what they produce is division, new racism, anti-freedom of religion or anti-freedom of speech, and destruction of academic standards of excellence.
It is a lie to claim that if you are a member of a perceived oppressed group, you cannot be racist.
It is a lie to deny sin in the human heart while relocating all sin or evil in systems or the environment or politics or oppressor classes.
It is a lie to say that all cultural practices are relative, that no judgment can be made about good or bad, right or wrong, even what constitutes beauty, and should judgment be offered, it is evidence of bigotry and intolerance.
It is a lie to claim that if you oppose Islam you are Islamophobic, if you oppose transgenderism you are transphobic, if you oppose same-sex marriage you are homophobic.
It is a lie to say that those who oppose abortion are extremists or that those who are prochoice are promoting women’s reproductive health or “reproductive justice.”
It is a lie to claim that calling sinners to repentance is bullying.
It is a lie to affirm lies in the name of love.
It is a lie to believe that digital activity is a substitute for parenting, that hours online are harmless, and that what kids learn online won’t hurt them.
It is a lie to believe that a borderless, globalist world without nations and citizenship is anything other than a path to loss of freedom.
It is a lie to believe that discussions simply synthesizing ideas without evaluation or judgment, leads to truth. For as Francis A. Schaeffer said, “Truth carries with it confrontation. Truth demands confrontation; loving confrontation, but confrontation nevertheless.” Truth is not bought by synthesis but by antithesis wherein truth confronts falsehood.
Cultural critic Rod Dreher asks, “Why are people so willing to believe demonstrable lies?” Then he answers his own question: “The desperation alienated people have for a story that helps them make sense of their lives and tells them what to do explains it.”
The American people no longer have a sound moral understanding, so they are adrift, increasingly anxious, willing to embrace falsehood if it gives them a feeling of security. This is enormously dangerous because it provides an opening for authoritarianism, or if you please, socialism, statism, loss of freedom.
Many American elites earn their living promoting lies. So, lies are everywhere perpetrated in American culture as the “prevailing acceptable narrative,” a viewpoint one stands against at one’s risk like never before in American history.
Yet Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the great Russian intellectual, exhorted the Russian people to “live not by lies.”
Americans it must be said are increasingly living by lies. So, it is not untimely to ask, how long can a culture last built upon lies?
Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com.
And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2022
*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
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© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2022
*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
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We live today in what might be called a time of “layered crises,” one on top of the other our lives are stressed by trials and threats, big and small, national and personal, so the question becomes, how should we then live/
Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #45 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.
Life happens, and since we live in a fallen world tainted by the curse of sin and the sin of our own hearts, this means crises happen – trials, emergencies, tragedies, suffering – both national and personal.
It could be called a time of “layered crises,” one on top of the other. While the 20th Century saw world wars and the Great Depression, the 21St Century has brought us: 9-11, Katrina, a global pandemic, an increase in refugees and immigration that’s produced humanitarian challenges in countries throughout the Middle East and the West.
In large part due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we now have something called “food insecurity,” an inability to get sufficient quantities of grain that in turn yields hunger and possibly starvation, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa. Human trafficking and slavery. Wars in Yemen and Syria, raging inflation, “Acts of God” as the insurance industry calls them, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, more, violence, ad infinitum.
On a personal level, we face sudden illness or difficult prognoses re diseases like cancer, accidents and tragedies including loss of loved ones, job loss, financial duress, divorce and broken families, loss of hope, fear, paralyzing depression, and what’s now being called a “public mental health crisis,” especially among youth.
Meanwhile, the Scripture is replete with verses providing us with the promise of protection, stability, and hope:
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” Phil. 4:4-7
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Rom. 8:28
“In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Rom 8: 37-39
“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way.” Psalm 45:8
A crisis is an emergency that is “unexpected, disruptive, a single event or multiple occurrences, and could lead to either positive or negative results.” It can be attributed to humans or nature, and it is an external uncontrolled force, unpredictable.
So, during our lives we will live through national/international crises that may or may not affect us directly, and we most certainly will live through our own personal trials or crises. If you haven’t yet experienced a crisis in your life, you just haven’t yet lived long enough.
God is aware of our trials and sufferings. God is there to help us, even to walking through the valley of the shadow of death (Ps. 23).
I remember a time when I faced the most serious crisis that had yet come my way.
For some reason, my wife was gone over a weekend during which I wrestled with this, and I remember being so stressed that my stomach hurt, and I literally bent double under the strain.
At that point, I began reading the book of Psalms. I confess that up to that point in my life I had wondered about the shepherd king David, author of the Psalms, like “What’s wrong with this guy? He always seems to be whining, sort of crying out to the Lord, not able to deal with his problems.”
Well, now that I had hit the wall, I understood. For the first time in my life, I felt like David. I could not handle my own problems, and I knew it.
So back to the Psalms. I read, and I read, and I read some more. Ultimately, I read the entire book through three times in about a month. I found phrases repeated over and over, like God’s “unfailing love.” I later learned that in the NIV, the phrase God’s “unfailing love” is cited 32 times in Psalms.This phrase said to me that God knew exactly what I was experiencing, and guess what, I was still amid his “unfailing love.”
Another repetitive phrase in the Psalms was various versions of “God’s strong right arm” or “God’s right hand.” This conveyed to me God’s ability to deal with my problems and, frankly, to deal with me.
Finally, I found various expressions of the phrase, “Let your face shine upon me.”
David wanted God’s favor, and he asked God to give this to him in the wonderfully poetic words of “make your face to shine upon me.”
What I learned facing that crisis is this,
- God was entirely aware of my concerns,
- The Lord was still there and capable of administering the crisis according to his will and my good,
- And that I could not work through the problem in my own strength.
I learned to pray, “Lord I can’t handle this. I give it all to you and trust you to work through me as you wish.” I learned this is a wonderful prayer of release. It is personally liberating and professionally energizing. I was still responsible to work as unto the Lord, but the results, the outcome belonged to him.
I have prayed this prayer a few times since, and I recommend it to you. It is not weakness, no more than David was “weak.” It is realistic, wise, and healing.
Today, as America experiences daily crises, brought to us 24/7 on media and social media, older adults are saying they don’t recognize their own country, and many are turning to alcohol and opioids. Meanwhile, young people are suffering from rash anxiety and a skyrocketing mental health crisis.
Sadly, most of the adults and nearly all the youth do not know the Word of God, do not understand theology, do not comprehend God’s promises or his sovereignty, so they have nothing to fall back on. They have no failsafe, no backstop, no lifeline. Thus, their circumstances, life itself, overwhelms them and we get addictions, suicides, emotional PTSD.
How should Christians, then, speak into this cultural moment? How can we be a witness to peace and hope?
Several things we can do:
- We can demonstrate that how we respond to crises is a choice.
- By how we live our lives, trusting God, we can demonstrate that circumstances do notdetermine our character or our faith, even if they often reveal them.
- We can illustrate that one’s response to any crisis is an opportunity.
- Via the capital C Church, the Body of Christ, we can show a caring God.
Crises are challenging, perhaps threatening, but God can use them to bring people together.
What then should we do amid crises?
- Pray, seek God’s face.
- Read the Psalms.
- Choose Resilience, Optimism.
- Remember, every crisis ends – “This too shall pass.”
- Trust the Sovereign God.
Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com.
And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2022
*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
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Have you heard that men can now have babies? I know. It surprised me too, but it’s a new truth in this Orwellian age.
Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #44 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.
Truth is now under attack. Satan, the father of lies, has America in his crosshairs (Jn 8:44), and he is using contemporary philosophies, “isms” if you will, to lead people to suppress the truth in wickedness (Rom. 1:18).
As was said in the days of Isaiah, “truth is nowhere to be found” (Is. 59:15), or in the days of Jeremiah, “truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips” (Jer. 7:28), or the days of Daniel, “truth was thrown to the ground” (Dan. 8:12).
The attack shows up in references to “your truth” and “my truth” or “she has to live by her truth,” or “no one should force their truth on someone else.”
But you say, “It’s common sense.” Not anymore. You say, “It’s obvious.” Not anymore. Or you say, “Wait, it’s part of nature and natural law.” Not anymore. No, truth is no longer alignment with divine revelation and the evidence of creation. Truth is whatever we want it to be.
Truth under attack is apparent in a host of irrational statements our culture is now expected to accept as fact. Have you heard these amazing new “truths”?
- What’s in a womb is not a baby, just a fetus, not human unless it is wanted, or at least until it is born, and then it may still be at risk in the minds of those who believe a woman and a doctor should be able to decide whether the newborn should live.
- Biological sex at birth is not immutablebut is socially determined, thus boys can identify as, then transition to become girls, while girls can identify as, then transition to become boys.
- Men can become pregnant and have babies, hence we no longer have mothers but “birthing persons.”
- Abortion does not involve a baby human being but rather is about a woman’s control over her own body, is essential to reproductive health, and is a human right.
- Crime and violence are not lawlessness, just the poor and other victims of white privilege doing what’s only fair.
- “Gender is no more regarded as a binary concept where one can either be a male or a female. It has emerged as a continuum or spectrum where one can identify themselves as any of the gender identities. The term gender identity means how a person identifies themselves concerning their gender. It may be regardless of their anatomy or genetics…The idea is to make everyone feel comfortable in their skin irrespective of what gender they wereassigned at birth.” That was a quote. Notice the last phrase, “assigned at birth,” which reinforces the idea that someone arbitrarily labeled the baby a boy or girl, rather than sex being a biological given.
- Same-sex marriage is normal.
- Each person is determined by skin color, sexual orientation, or gender.
Those of us who disagree with these new “prevailing acceptable narratives” can now be ostracized on social media, lose employment, have reputations destroyed, or otherwise be “cancelled.”
People who oppose abortion are now labeled “abortion extremists,” “anti-woman,” and a threat to freedom.
People who believe biology matters, and who disagree that a person can decide to change sex in order to participate in sports or frequent bathrooms designed for the opposite sex, are accused of bigotry and hatred.
Nor is religion any longer accorded an honored space. Revisionists reinterpret history claiming religion is a greater source of human violence than secularism.
No matter that this is upside down. The murderous record of 20th Century secular Nazi and Communist regimes alone puts the lie to this supposedly new “truth.”
In America today, Judeo-Christian values drawn from the Bible are being described as a means of preserving white patriarchy and white supremacy. This, too, is a lie.
Pedophiles, who once were called perverted, are now being described as simply “minor attracted persons.” Drag queens reading to grade school children is said to be about diversity and inclusion, not about normalizing twisted and degraded sexuality.
The attack on truth took on new urgency in the 1960s with the emergence of something called “moral relativism,” the idea that there are no absolute, objectively definable, and knowable truths. Everything is relative. Thus, nothing can be said to be better, right vs wrong, more beautiful, correct. Truth is unknowable.
In his writings in the 1970s and to his death in 1984, Christian philosopher Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer recognized this cultural threat when he coined the phrase “true truth.” From a Christian perspective, this phrase is redundant, but Schaeffer found it necessary to convey what he meant by truth, real objective truth, in an age given to relativizing all statements.
In the early 21st Century, human feelings now matter more than objective reality, and if you say you disagree with a person, thus hurting their feelings, you are guilty of stomping upon their human rights.
In a culture that no longer believes in truth, a culture that has repeatedly rejected moral absolutes, to say you believe something is true is grating to the ear, judgmental, bigoted, offensive, and even irrational or crazy.
But Schaeffer reminded us, “Truth carries with it confrontation. Truth demands confrontation; loving confrontation, but confrontation nevertheless.” Truth, true truth, challenges error, falsehood, lies.
To “buy the truth and do not sell it,” as it says in Proverbs (23:23), can come with a price. To those who do not want to hear, those who are in the language of the Old King James “willingly ignorant” (2 Pet. 3:5), truth is the enemy. You who hold and express the truth are the enemy. If we state truth, as we should, we will face opposition, ridicule, maybe rejection and hurt from our own family and friends.
But the price of not holding fast to the truth and of not speaking the truth in love is enormously high.
If there is no truth, there are no inalienable human rights, no real freedom. If there is no truth, there is no trust because one can never be sure or certain. We’re left with deceit, pain, disillusionment.
People wonder, “What’s happening to America? It seems like we’ve gone nuts, that nothing is valued, not patriotism, not law and order, not decency. It’s like we’re a different country.”
Well, we are a different country, at least in the sense that great swaths of the population now embrace ideas and values, an entire worldview, that would be foreign even to the criminal element a generation ago.
The idea there is no truth, nothing trustworthy, not even God for many people, undermines everything else we experience. And this attack on truth is being propagated from the White House and the U.S. Congress, state capitals, courtrooms, the ivy halls of academia from kindergarten to graduate school, corporate messaging, sports, entertainment, and the arts.
Scripture says, “When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Ps. 11:3). What do we do? We speak truth. In an age of untruth, of attack on truth, our greatest testimony is to be people of truth, to live truthfully, to speak truthfully.
In Jesus’s prayer of John 17, he said, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world” (Jn 17:17-18).
We are to be in the world but not of the world even as we go into the world.
And we are to speak truth. We will face opposition. We may be harassed or in some way hampered. But God is God. He cannot be canceled. His truth remains forever.
Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com.
And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2022
*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.