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Written by: Rex M. Rogers

Published: 26 September 2022

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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Written by: Rex M. Rogers

Published: 17 May 2022

Remember that old chorus, “This world is not my home I’m just a-passing through”? I sang that many times as a kid in Daily Vacation Bible School and church camp.

The lyrics seem to suggest believers have no real role or duties on earth and the sooner we can get out of here the better, but is that really sound biblical theology?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #24 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. 

When I was a young professor, I developed a college course entitled “Christian Social and Political Responsibility.” We examined what the Scripture said about a Christian’s place in the world, beginning with the Cultural Mandate in Gen. 1:26-28 wherein human beings are charged by God to care for the world and develop it. 

And we considered Jesus’s prayer in John 17, in which Jesus noted we are to be “not of the world” even though we remain “in the world,” and then not to be forgotten, he said, we are to go “into the world.” And in the Great Commission of Matt 28:19-20 we learned that we are to go into the world and make disciples, teaching them to follow Christ.

As a kid I was much blessed to have parents who took me to church where I learned not just Bible stories but theology, values, principles, and propositions in the Word of God. But it was in college that I first confronted the phrase “Christian theistic world and life view,” a mouthful that meant Christian philosophy of life, what later we shortened to Christian worldview.

A fully developed Christian worldview begins of course with salvation in Christ, but we don’t stop there, nor are we immediately raptured away to eternity. No, we live out our lives, for the time God gives us, and we are supposed to proclaim the Lordship of Christ in all of life. 

I have always believed Christians could fulfill these divine commands in a variety of ways, that we are called into all walks of life, some into politics, some not. 

This point of view goes back to what the great reformer Martin Luther said about vocation, that the farmer is as important and valued as the clergy.

So, according to Scripture we’re to witness to the truth of Christ, sharing with others the message of reconciliation. We’re to carry the message even as we care for the world, meaning build culture, make possible human flourishing to the glory of God.

But given humanity’s penchant for sin that began with the Fall from grace in the Garden of Eden, Romans 1 tells us sin affects every part of Creation. So, as we live out our lives we come in contact with spiritually bereft individuals who need saving grace, and we come into contact with a world full of what we now call social problems. 

Our task as Christians is to speak the truth in love, to be ready always to give an answer, and to bring peace, healing, and hope. This is the evangelism and social concerns tension. For which do we have greater responsibility and to which to we give more time?

In the early 1900s, Christians debated the relative importance of evangelism vs what was then called the social gospel. The Fundamentalist church movement emerged from this, rightly asserting the authority of Scripture—the fundamentals of the faith—over and against the social gospel proponents who too often strayed from Scripture. Unfortunately, many Fundamentalists eventually over-reacted by rejecting responsibility for or engagement in social issues.

By mid-century in the 1940s and thereafter, another segment of conservative Christendom emerged that became known as Evangelicals. Billy Graham, theologian Carl F.H. Henry to name two influential leaders helped propel this movement to great growth. Evangelicals attempted to maintain a commitment to the basic doctrines, the fundamentals of the faith, while giving renewed attention to social concerns.

Like most movements, in time, this one divided and it remains so today, along a spectrum, Right to Left. Some on the Right began to align with conservative politics and the Republican party. Some on the Left began to align with moderate to liberal politics and the Democrat party.

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.

Now in the early 21^st Century, Evangelicals seem to be even more divided and may fragment further. We face a new tension in the form of a set of values collectively known as social justice ideology, maybe better known as Woke philosophy.  

As I detailed in an earlier podcast, social justice ideology has infiltrated virtually every part of American culture and much of the Church, especially those who would call themselves Liberal or Progressive or the Left, but now also increasingly among those who, formerly at least, aligned on the Right.

Social justice ideology is a secular worldview. The way social justice advocates define and approach their ostensible public goals—racial justice, helping the marginalized, expanding access and tolerance, justice for those who do not consider themselves sexually binary, and more, is at bottom antithetical to biblical Christianity. 

Social justice ideology must be resisted and rejected. It must not be allowed to influence the Christian church…and yet today it is.

In our present day, it’s much like a century ago. We must resist social justice ideology, which is not biblical and not Christian social concern, while at the same time, not losing site of our responsibility to both carry the message—evangelism—and care for the world—social responsibility.

“All positive cultural change includes gospel proclamation and inward spiritual regeneration by the Holy Spirit. The antisocial justice mindset puts evangelism against social transformation. The biblical worldview, however, brings them together into a seamless whole. In the words of John Stott: ‘Evangelism is the major instrument of social change. For the gospel changes people, and changed people can change society.’”

We must not allow the Devil, as the chief of liars, to divide the Christian Church once again, those committed to evangelism on one side, those committed to social engagement on the other. The biblical approach to living in the world while not of the world while going into the world is built upon a Christian worldview that connects evangelism to social change. 

In fact, since most of the problems we face are spiritual at root, not social, the Good News of the Gospel stands as the most potent transformational message we can share. It changes people within, then they change what is without.

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   

*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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Written by: Rex M. Rogers

Published: 25 January 2021

No greater question can be asked of any human being than what Jesus asked the Pharisees, “What think ye of Christ?” (Matt. 22:42). And once you answer that question, particularly if you trust in Jesus Christ and him alone for your salvation, you become a Christian, so then “How should we then live?”

This latter question was asked by the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel (Ezek. 33:10) and then by Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer as an influential book entitled, How Should We Then Live: The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture (1976).

I was recently privileged to speak on these questions at my church, First Baptist Church of Middleville, MI:

And then was blessed with a publication entitled, “Two Profound Questions: What Think Ye of Christ? How Should We Then Live?”

Americans now live in an irreligious society. How should we then live?

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2021    

*This 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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Written by: Rex M. Rogers

Published: 10 January 2021

In the wake of a challenging political week—

I find interesting the Apostle Peter’s (1 Peter 2:12-13) direction on living in an irreligious society:

1-“Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”

OK, got that, but then he immediately follows noting government:

2-“Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors.”

In other words, if we want to live right and live well, we mind our own character, then honor current government. 

If you think this is difficult in the US today, remember the government Peter referenced was the Roman Empire and the despicable Emperor Nero.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2021    

*This 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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Written by: Rex M. Rogers

Published: 27 February 2012

People sometimes think they can make it alone. But it’s not so. Human beings are first, last, and always social creatures.

In the extreme, people who think they can do it alone end up freaky weird. Think Howard Hughes, Bobby Fischer, or the Unabomber.

People need interaction, certainly for emotional wellbeing but also for achievement. Sure, there are great works of art or literature that are the products of one genius. But even they didn’t spring forth fully formed and fully able to produce. They had to learn, to be nurtured, to grow and to grow up. Someone, more often, some many, invested in them.

God created us for communion with him. Then he created others for our companionship and community. First Adam, then Eve, then the family, and then the human race.

Cultures vary. There’s the individualistic West and the communal or collective East, and there’s strengths and weaknesses to both. But even in the West’s frontier-forged independence we still needed each other then and now. Even our legends, Daniel Boone, Kit Carson, had sidekicks. Even our heroes like Teddy Roosevelt didn’t charge up San Juan Hill alone. Nor did the Greatest Generation, with more than it’s share of heroes, win WWII one at a time.

Scripture says, “For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord” (Romans 14:7-8). We belong to the Lord and are positioned as regents in his creation.

So despite Simon and Garfunkel’s pithy phrase, “I am a rock, I am an island,” we’re really not. Even their final poignant lyric doesn’t fit human beings and human experience: “And a rock feels no pain; And an island never cries.” We’re neither rocks nor islands. We do feel pain and we do cry.

So going it alone in some kind of macho misperception is an enormous mistake. People only go it alone when greed, pride, hurt, or arrogance overcome them.

Even the Lone Ranger didn’t go it alone. He had has faithful Tonto.

One can be lonely in a crowd, I know. This is a by-product of modernity. People live amongst millions in relative angst and alienation. It’s a sad life because it is not a “normal” life.

If one is a Christian he or she need never be alone. Indeed Christians are not and cannot be alone for the Holy Spirit of God indwells us (1 Corinthians 3:16). Yet many believers seem to act as if they are alone. This too is a sad life.

Friendship, relationships, companionship, a good marriage, fellowship, these are powerful enabling concepts. They are gifts of God. Seek such things. Nurture them. They make life livable, enjoyable, and fruitful.

I don’t want to be a rock. I don’t want to be an island. I don’t even want to be the Lone Ranger. I want us, not just me.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2012

*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact Rex or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com or follow him at www.twitter.com/RexMRogers.