Christians in America must remember that our greatest goal is not to preserve a Christian America, but to advance the gospel throughout the country. The preaching of the gospel, fueled by prayer and service to our neighbor is our greatest weapon–not getting into debates about homosexuality, abortion, etc. There is a time for debate, but our emphasis must be on preaching the word of God persuasively in our current cultural context.

With the recent decision by Tim Tebow to withdraw from speaking at the controversial First Baptist Church of Dallas because of its “hateful” views, Christians in the west are once again reminded of the current challenge to proclaim a robust Biblical sexual ethic unapologetically.

Pending an unforeseen (yet very possible) revival of Christianity in the west, it is very obvious that the culture will grow increasingly intolerant of historic Christian beliefs–especially Biblical sexual ethics. How are faithful Christians to respond? A few points to consider:

1) Expect modern culture to redefine Christianity.

Christianity will never be totally rejected in the west. Those who oppose Biblical faith recognize that to completely erase Christianity from the consciousness of American society will be next to impossible to do. Rather, those who wish to fight against Biblical Christianity will seek to edit and redefine it, so as to discredit anyone who wishes to still hold to Biblical Christianity. Those “Christians” who hold to a liberal view of the Bible will be touted by American society as the “real Christians.” While Biblically orthodox Christians will be made to look evil, stupid, and out-of-date for holding on to a faith that should have long since been discarded.

The advantage that the culture has in doing this is that it gets to assuage it’s conscience by convincing itself that it doesn’t hate Christianity. No, in fact, the culture will convince itself that it supports Christianity–albeit, a newer, better Christianity that is inclusive and stripped of any definitive truth claims.

Because we can expect the culture to do this, we must be engaged in dialog such that the true Christian faith is not lost amongst the coming confusion. Faithful and bold preachers, teachers, and apologists will need to understand the times, and now, more than ever, be able to clearly articulate the Christian faith to an increasingly Biblically illiterate culture.

2) Don’t get tied down to certain controversial issues

It will be all too easy to forget the gospel in an attempt to struggle to preserve morality in the culture. I suspect it will be a great temptation for us to speak the loudest on the issues that the culture is currently seeking to use to discredit Biblical Christianity. Christians in America must remember that our greatest goal is not to preserve a Christian America, but to advance the gospel throughout the country. The preaching of the gospel, fueled by prayer and service to our neighbor is our greatest weapon–not getting into debates about homosexuality, abortion, etc. There is a time for debate, but our emphasis must be on preaching the word of God persuasively in our current cultural context.

3) Don’t expect to win the cultural war (Nor do we need to).

Look, we need to face facts. There is a good chance that America could end up like Europe, and Europe could get worse than it is already. There is no guarantee that revival will break out. We ought to preach the Bible faithfully and pray for a great harvest in America, but it could just as well be the case that, on a whole, America continues to forsake it’s Christian roots.

What should we say if this happens? Has Christianity lost and the church failed in its mission? No. God will continue to call his elect to himself, whether the culture is receptive to Christianity or not. No amount of hostility will keep God from building his church and saving those whom he foreknew. The problem with having a Christian culture like the west had a few decades ago is that it gives the false impression that everyone in that culture knows the true and living God, when in fact they do not.

However, when the culture is hostile to Christianity, the true believers are more readily identifiable. So, whether the culture embraces Christianity, or is hostile to it, God always has his remnant of true believers in the culture. This perspective reminds us that God is not powerless during the so-called “culture wars.” He may just have a different agenda than we think he should have.

I implore every faithful Christian to take heed lest he fall. Saturate yourself in the word and pray to God to guard your belief, so that you will not compromise in the coming years as the culture continues to apply pressure on orthodox Christians.

Bryant Parsons resides in Philadelphia P.A. and is currently an M.Div student at Westminster Theological Seminary. Topics of interest are issues involving systematic theology, apologetics, and Christian engagement with culture. His desire is to see the Church in the American context be well-informed, winsome advocates of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is the author of “Why Richard Schoenig Should Quit His Day Job: A critique of the God is Not Fair Argument.” This article first appeared on the RAAN website and is used with permission. 

[Editor’s note: the original URL (link) referenced in this article is no longer valid, so the link has been removed.]