America’s Crisis of Fidelity

 David Alan Black 

America has entered the greatest crisis in her history. Something has gone desperately wrong. Something is broken. Something has to be fixed. Where can we turn for a spark of optimism and a ray of sunshine?

We cannot turn to science. Science can instruct us on how to walk on the moon, but it cannot tell us how to walk on earth. The major concern of modern science is how to stay alive rather than on how to live.

Nor can we turn to politics. Heads of state make inspirational speeches and produce solemn documents and confer at world summits, but their agreements are worthless scraps of paper and their peace proposals are useless museum pieces. Politics can never be the answer because it foolishly tries to carve a lasting brotherhood out of the rotten wood of unregenerate humanity.

Religion likewise holds no hope for us. America is full of baptized pagans. Not even Christianity is the answer if by Christianity we mean “Churchianity,” a kind of politically correct American “denomination—“Christianity Lite,” if you will. The rich young ruler of Luke 18:22 was probably a good old boy with a fine record but he lacked one thing: eternal life. He needed to forsake his worldly moorings and burn his bridges behind him completely. In short, he needed to be completely sold out to Jesus (“sell all that thou hast,” said Jesus).

Many Americans are like that rich young ruler. They regularly attend church, sit politely in their pews, and go through the motions of singing hymns and choruses, but their fingers are crossed. They have no intention of selling out to the Lord who bought them. To them religion is a good thing, but they will not be known for their radicalism. “No Sir, by golly—a calm moderation is what we need today.”

Such people make absolutely no impact in today’s world. The reason, says Paul in Romans 12:1-2, is that they allow themselves to be conformed to the thought patterns of the present age. The world system has squeezed them into its mold. The question Paul wishes to ask is this: Are you willing to be sanctified?—a term that simply means being changed from the inside out. Sanctification is a revolutionary process. It affects the very center of our consciousness. It is not a second blessing but a constant renewal. It is nothing other than the restoration of the divine image (imago dei) that was marred but not lost at the fall of Adam.

Today we confuse sanctification—the total transformation of our thoughts and behavior—with modern-day fads or practical mysticism. We plod along with an occasional prayer for guidance, but having the mind of Christ means practically nothing in our daily experience. Stagnation, complacency, status quo thinking—all these characterize our lives. Islam is sweeping the world because at its center is a core of men and women completely sold out to the cause. A genuine Christian is sold out, not merely to a cause, or to a church, or to a religion, but to a Person—to Christ Himself.

Meanwhile, we rest at ease in Zion. The Scripture calls for repentance from worldliness but we are in no mood for that. Nothing will avail until the saints become as desperate as the situation and voluntarily seek the Lord. All other options are vain though they may speak the language of the church.

Jesus did not pay so great a price merely to inaugurate a polite religious society that can effortlessly compromise with a godless age. On the contrary, He declared, “Do you think that I have come to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you; but division” (Luke 12:51). What a far cry from the cheap brand of politically correct Christianity so prevalent today. And I wonder how much longer Evangelifishes will grovel in their attempts to accommodate the world?

The church needs some agitators, men who will cooperate with God in arousing His people. Paul and his missionary helpers greatly troubled Philippi. They created no little stir in Ephesus. The early believers were accused of turning the world upside down. Christians are not called to sing lullabies but to sound the trumpet. Our Lord said, “He that is not with Me is against Me, and he that gathers not with Me scatters abroad” (Matthew 12:30). The greatest menace today is not extremism but moderation, that middle-of-the-road tolerance that boasts of its broad-mindedness. We work both sides of the street. We meekly accept peaceful co-existence. But it is worse to be on the fence than to be on the wrong side of the fence. The Lord would have us cold or hot but not lukewarm.

At the bottom of the bottom line, the crisis in America is a crisis of fidelity. And the answer to a crisis of fidelity is fidelity: a deeper trust in God, a more thorough conviction of our position in Christ (“stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath set us free”), and a return to the clear teachings of the Word of God.

The answer to the present crisis will not be found in Christianity Lite. It will only be found in classic Christianity—a Christianity with the courage to be countercultural, a Christianity that has reclaimed the wisdom of the past in order to face the corruptions of the present and create a renewed future, a Christianity that risks the high adventure of fidelity.

Scripture teaches us that the Christian life is not a vacation but a vocation. We are participants, not spectators. It is a scandal for a man to be entertained when he should be enlisted. When God moves, we must rise to meet Him.

October 7, 2004

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.

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