Many Christians have made the cross a purely personal and spiritual matter. Of course, it’s personal and spiritual, but it’s not only that. We’ve got to recover this sense of repentance and forgiveness on a national level.

One of the things I’ve observed that is almost always missing in the Christian worldview is a sense of time. This starkly contrasts the biblical worldview, which is filled with numerous references to time, history, and generations.

For example, we are reminded of King David’s men, who were skilled in reading the signs of the times (1 Chr. 12:32), or of that extraordinary throwaway verse in the middle of Paul’s sermon in Acts 13, where he refers to David serving God’s purpose in his generation, and then falling asleep (Ac. 13:36). Or you have Paul’s challenge to all of us to redeem the time (Eph. 5:15-16).

Now, many English readers of the Bible translate time as if it were a matter of packing every hour of the day by doing all that we can do. But that’s not the sense of the original Greek. The Greek word is kairos, which understands the meaning of time in qualitative terms (e.g., the right or opportune time), not in a chronological sense. It is time in the qualitative importance of the word that the Christian is to redeem amid this present evil age (Eph. 5:16).

And, of course, the word redeem is even more amazing. It’s the same word used of our Lord redeeming us on the cross (Gal. 3:13)! And even though I’m not quite sure what Paul means, I think the general sense is that as we trust and obey the Lord by living faithfully in our time, we are somehow redeeming back the time for him. So, it’s a challenge because we live in a very solemn moment in many ways.

The World Turned Upside Down

In addressing the question, “What is this cultural moment?,” we begin with the subjects of freedom and public life within the context of the American experiment. This requires that we go back in time to the climax of the revolution at Yorktown. As the British and the Hessian troops marched out to surrender to General George Washington, they were ordered to play the ballad, “The World Turned Upside Down.”

Now that ballad came from the English Revolution, and it was a distinctively Christian idea, which people of the Jewish faith also shared. It’s the idea that God creates order, and we sinners create disorder. So, the Lord works in a disordered world and turns it upside down to turn it right side up.

We can also consider the five great revolutions that have shaped the modern world: The English Revolution (1642), the American (1776), the French (1789), the Russian (1917), and the Chinese (1949).

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