The United States fought one Civil War to end slavery, North vs South, brother against brother, a war that defined our character for decades to come. Is it possible that we’ve entered upon another civil war, this one a “cold” war that will also define our character?
Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #21 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.
America is at war with itself. The combatants are not Republican vs Democrat, not Liberal vs Conservative, not Black vs White, or men vs women, or rich vs poor.
The warfare in which we’re now fully engaged pits those, on the one hand, who believe the Bible is the authoritative, trustworthy Word of God, versus those, on the other hand, who reject the Word and absolute truth. Or if you want to think of it more broadly, those who affirm Judeo-Christian values vs those who reject Judeo-Christian values.
When the battle became Truth vs No truth, we entered upon a worldview civil war.
It’s literally a war for the soul of American culture, for the continuing prospects of democracy and free government, for the future of the United States of America as it is presently known, and, of course, for the hearts of individuals who choose sides.
When I reread those lines, frankly, it sounds like over-the-top exaggeration, sort of sensationalistic, shock value hyperbole.
But sadly, I really don’t think so, and a lot of notable Christian and/or conservative thinkers today are worrying aloud about exactly, the same thing.
As Dennis Prager put it, the dividing line in the US between the Left and Right, is not belief in God per se, but in one’s view of Scripture, man-made or divinely inspired.
We spend a lot of emotional and intellectual capital worrying about which political party is in power and what their leaders are going to do next. But truth be told, while politics matters, politics does not matter as much as we think, for it is downstream from our public moral consensus, if there is a consensus anymore.
And neither political party completely or effectively offers a solution. They can’t, because politics cannot resolve spiritual conflict.
A few years ago before he went to heaven, Chuck Colson said it another way: “The death of moral truth has fractured America into two warring camps, with each side’s preferences hardening into an ideology.”
Christian philosopher and social commentator, Os Guinness, later agreed, observing, “the most important battle is the ideological one in America.”
Colson noted that since there is now no such thing as truth, all principles are merely personal preferences. Everything is “socially constructed” and rational arguments no longer work.
We’re in the shape we’re in because of what G. K. Chesterton observed years back: when people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing, they believe anything.
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Those who reject the authority of Scripture, embrace a set of ideas and ideals antithetical to Judeo-Christian values and, therefore, to much that America has stood for from its inception. To make matters worse, this anti-Christian, progressive, Leftist worldview, promotes views and actions that are themselves morally unsustainable. These progressive Leftist views don’t work. They do harm.
As Judeo-Christian values have been rapidly jettisoned during the pandemic years, these values have taken their place in the public’s moral universe.
But consider what progressives think, they:
- Reject God and the idea of truth, with a consequence there is no real individual accountability, can be no science, and no standard for criminal justice.
- Denigrate religion in general and specifically reject Judeo-Christian values, meaning there is no basis for human rights, individual freedom, freedom of speech.
- Behavior, including sinful choices, is medicalized, or spiritual matters are transmuted into mental health issues.
- Normalize sexual immorality – consider what’s happening recently with Disney.
- Reject E Pluribus Unum and patriotism for in an idealization and idolization of race, and so-called multiculturalism. What matters is not oneness but division, for this is the progressive path to power.
- Mock the traditional family, promote abortion,
- Promote rights without responsibility.
- Favor equality – or rather now “equity,” (a vague sense of fairness that defines fair as no differences, especially income disparity, among human beings is allowed).
- Embrace politics via big government, not individual effort, and not religious faith, as the way to transform the world.
Progressives have created their own “Ten Commandments,” a secular Top Five:
- There is no God, no evil, no afterlife, reward or punishment.
- Human beings are self-determined by their own feelings.
- Unfettered sex is whatever you want it to be with whatever consenting person you wish whenever you wish. (By the way, the idea of “consent” is going to be the next thing to go out the window. It has to be jettisoned, because it stands in the way of the Left’s demand to do whatever is right in their own eyes.)
- Race is ultimate, defining everyone, and White Supremacy is the root of all injustice.
- Economic equity is the end all, be all of life.
Is America really at war with itself? I think it is. We battle every day on a worldview level, but most people probably don’t even recognize it, for they get caught up the practical if secondary matters of the moment.
But none of this should cause Christians undue anxiety and certainly no loss of faith. Now that we know more about what the opposition believes and stands for, we need to be sure we know what we as Christians believe and stand for:
I--We know that the Savior, Jesus, existed before the foundation of the world. And we know that “in him all things were created; Things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,” (Col 1:16). That “He is before all things and in him all things hold together” (Col 1.17).
II--We know the Scripture is true and trustworthy, that it is what it claims that it is, the inspired Word of God, written for all times, countries, and cultures.
III--We know that God is sovereign, that he is not surprised by anything taking place around us, that he will give us wisdom in knowing how to respond, and that he wants us to remain faithful, “in the world, but not of the world,” even as he commands us to go “into the world.”
IV--We know God will one day bring all things to account.
My 90-year-old Mother believes we are living in the last days, the end times. More and more I think she is correct, though we cannot be sure.
But in this Second American Civil War our task is clear, 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” (2 Pet. 3:15).
Well, we’ll see you again soon. For more Christian commentary, be sure to subscribe to this podcast, Discerning What Is Best, or 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
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