A young woman chatting with a friend in line behind me at the local caffeine store asked her friend, “Why is it Christians are against everything?”
My ears perked up as I waited anxiously for the friend’s answer. “Because,” she said, “they hate progress.”
Driving home, I wondered, “What progress in our society do they think Christians are opposed to?”
It didn’t take me long to think of a long list of progressive social issues that most Christians are opposed to because they directly oppose Biblical teaching.
Progressive Social Issues
Here are six examples of progressive social issues from my list that oppose Biblical teaching:
Our society today says abortion is acceptable. The Bible says God knew us before we were born and knit us together in our mother’s womb. So, killing a fetus through abortion is abhorrent to God.
Today, our society says if you feel like you’re trapped in the wrong body, it’s OK to get gender reassignment surgery. The Bible says God created man, male and female. Those who elect to change their gender surgically are going against God’s design.
Our society today promotes homosexuality and same-sex marriage. The Bible celebrates the beauty of sexual relations as a holy union, but only between a married man and woman.
Our society today accepts gender fluidity. So, a boy who identifies as a woman can enter showers with the girls at school. A man who identifies as a woman can compete in women’s sports. This again denies God’s design of male and female.
Our society today accepts the objectification of women. During a recent prime-time television show, a half-naked female rapper swung around on a stripper pole, thrusting her hips in the air while “singing” crude, sexual lyrics I will not repeat. Critics praised her performance as groundbreaking.
Our society today accepts the removal of material progressives deemed offensive. Statues of founding fathers have been desecrated and torn down. Iconic cartoon characters have been “canceled” because they are not deemed politically correct. Children’s rhyming books have been pulled from the shelves, canceled for not meeting today’s politically correct standards.
As I considered these and other progressive social issues, I couldn’t help but compare them to the Israelites.
The Israelite Woes
The prophet Isaiah lived when the Israelites had fallen away from worshiping God and keeping His commandments. Isaiah pronounced several warnings to the Israelites in the form of “woes.”
One of Isaiah’s six woes struck me as particularly relevant to us today. Isaiah said,
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter (Isaiah 5:20).
In Isaiah’s time, people were calling things good that were evil in the eyes of God, and the good things of God, they called evil.
Just Like Today
Isaiah’s pronouncement sounds like he could have just said it to us today, doesn’t it?
People who support these progressive social policies like abortion, homosexuality, same-sex marriage, and gender fluidity are calling things good that are evil in the eyes of the Lord.
Those promoting these progressive social issues call good, evil. Not content to merely condemn those who support Biblical positions, they now attempt to “cancel” anyone who doesn’t agree with or regimentally fall in line supporting their progressive agenda (More on the Cancel culture here).
Make no mistake, people who support these progressive social positions are standing in direct opposition to God. They are calling good evil, and evil good.
Godly Leaders are Countercultural Leaders
Throughout the Scripture, there are recurring cycles of God blessing His people. Then, the people fall away from God, endure a period of suffering, and then repent and promise to obey God once again.
God raised up prophets who warned the people what would happen when they followed the world’s evil and chose to disobey God. Occasionally they listened, but most often, they ignored the prophet’s warning.
Today, there are millions of men and women of God whose desire is to follow God. What we need are Godly leaders who dare to be countercultural leaders. Leaders who will stand against the progressive anti-God agenda. Like the prophets of Israel, we need Godly leaders from all walks of life who will issue the clarion call to reject the world’s so-called progress.
As Edmund Burke once said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
Too many good men and women are sitting on the sidelines doing nothing, and the result is the rampant triumph of evil. It is time for Godly leaders to get off the sidelines and fight the evil surrounding us!
More Articles
I have written several articles on leader’s obedience to God. You can find them by typing “Obedience to God” in the search bar. Meanwhile, here are a few of my favorites.
- #423: The Three Most Common Excuses Leading to Failure
- #385: Is the Path You Are on the Right One?
- #365: Do You Lead Like an Owner or A Steward?
- #345: Disobedience to God Always Leads to Lost Opportunities
- #299: 3 Take-Aways From the Life of a Harlot
- #277: A Compass Can Only Point You in the Right Direction…
Join the Conversation
As always, questions and comments are welcome. Are you a Godly countercultural leader? If not, what is keeping you from standing against the evil of this world?
I’d love your help. This blog is read primarily because of people like you who share it with friends. Would you be kind enough to share it by pressing the share button?
Category: Personal Development | Obedience to God
If you want to dig deeper on this topic...
Donald W. Long's book, God's Blueprint for Nations, discusses the urgent need for Christian leaders to get off the sidelines and get involved in the fight against Satan's influence in this world.
I listened to a fascinating conversation between Jordan Petersen and Bishop Barron on Petersen’s podcast. Petersen probed Bishop Barron on why the Catholic church is losing people. Part of the answer is because faith isn’t easy. Most of today’s culture has dismissed faith, and embraced their digital Gods of distraction. Pursuing a life of virtue is hard. Sacrifice to do the right thing is hard. And yet there is an appetite, according to Petersen, for something deeper. Petersen’s lectures on the Bible are hugely attended. People intuitively sense that more stuff, more distractions, are ultimately not fulfilling. Maybe today’s Godly leaders are counter-cultural, since they ask something deeper of people than insipid videos on YouTube and sex-drenched music and television programming. Bishop Barron has cleverly used social media to spread his message. But I wonder if society has descended too far?
So much truth here John! Pursuing a life of virtue is hard. As you point out, there are so many distractions (most of which are not worth our time), that take us away from God’s best. I pray for our kid’s sake the answer to your last question is “no, I hope and pray our society has not descended too far.”