Dealing with a Changing Society
BY John D. Jess
There is, and always has been, a struggle between the past and the future. We who have survived several decades are especially aware of this. Not in our wildest flights of fancy did we think we would live to see the societal changes that have taken place in the last fifteen or twenty years.But we're here, and somehow we must adjust to these radical changes. We know that what we see today we have never seen before, and that what we once considered the "norm" has become obsolete. The question is, what do we do? How do we adjust?
Years ago, David Rockefeller, who was named the businessman of the year, made the following statement:
In life today the past is being overwhelmed by the futureThere has occurred a transformation so swift in pace and so profoundin social implications that it has outstripped the perception of most historians.
If this is how David Rockefeller saw change a generation ago, imagine how much greater it is today. As someone has said, "Constant change is here to stay."
A changed approach. The question is, how does the Christian deal with these changeschanges which, for the most part, are not for better, but for worse? What do we say? How do we react? And does the world at large care how we reactas long as we don't get in their way?
One thing is certain: if we don't change our messageand heaven forbid that we do!we'll have to change our method. Perhaps a better word would be "approach".
It's all right to revere the past, when wrong was dealt with as wrong and not right! But none of us will live to see the past repeated. We're on a toboggan, and toboggans always go downhill!
I have many old books in my library that were written by men who were spiritual giants and great preachers in their day. They profoundly affected the generation to whom they ministered and of which they were a part. But anyone who were to preach today as they preached thenin the language they used and the manner in which they preachedhe might be fortunate to have more than the janitor in their audience!
We understand, or try hard to understand, the thought patterns of the rising generation. But we cannotwe Unchanged message. Contrary to what some may believe, we Christian conservatives have no desire to go back to the days of Puritanism and evangelistic extremism. We understand, or try hard to understand, the thought patterns of the rising generation. But we cannotwe must notgive in to those who would trash traditional Judeo-Christian mores, or treat the Bible as though it were a collection of ancient myths.
Men change, but God's words and values never change. The wages of sin is still death. And it's still true, as the Bible declares, that "the wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God!" In short, we are all for progress, but not at the expense of truth. We believe in regeneration, not degeneration!
I've preached the Bible for over 50 years, during which time I've seen drastic changes in society, most of which have been alarming and unsettling. But I still believe today exactly as I did 55 years ago when I responded to God's call to preach the gospel, not forgetting the apostle Paul's warning in Galatians 1:8: "If we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!"
That, my friends, is pretty strong stuff! o
John D. Jess is the regular speaker of Family Life Radio, P.O. Box 35300, Tucson, AZ 85740.