Bean Soup: Day 5
All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable…
2 Timothy 3:16
That our culture—like Esau—is one of instant gratification, is hardly news. The soaring statistics in both credit card debt and divorce have been proof of this fact for many years. The following chart is a stunning summary of what has happened to American/Western culture in the last century and a half:
Modernism: the late 19th/early 20th century. Personal experience questions truth.
Post-modernism: mid-late 20th century. Personal experience defines/chooses truth.
Pseudo-modernism: 1990’s—today. Personal experience creates truth.
The seeds of our world system were sown in the late-1800’s by men such as Darwin. Before that, most people believed in a God who created the physical world and judged and ruled over it. There were great preachers and writers of magnificent doctrine sung in the form of hymns in our churches. The Bible was read by all classes, and seen as the culmination of wisdom and practice for life. The average person had few possessions, most of them well-made and useful.
Sadly, I remember when the phrase “I’m bored” came into vogue—and, very tellingly—it most often came from the mouths of teen-agers. The culture’s response was to eliminate memory work in school so that the education experience would be enjoyable, listen empathetically to needs and problems without judging and try to supply all material wants to produce a sense of security and acceptance by peers.
Today, we have a culture that is driven by all of the above, because, what else is there?
Remember, the statement from day 1: “The church in America will never experience revival because it is too weak. It is too weak because it does not know the Old Testament.”
Depressing? Yes, absolutely. But this is in the time in which God has appointed us to live. We may not be able to right our sinking cultural ship or even turn it a few degrees in the right direction, but we can stand on the deck and proclaim the truth for those who will listen. And some will listen because of these two unshakeable facts: God is on the throne and He is building His church.
This is what the Lord says: Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.. Jer. 6:16
Nancy Shirah
