The Church in a
Post-Christian Culture
Where We Are - How We Got Here –
How Shall We Now Live?
“We, whose names are underwritten…
having undertaken, for the glory of
God, and the advancement of the
Christian faith… a voyage to plant the
first colony…”
- The Mayflower Compact, 1620
“The propitious smiles of Heaven can
never be expected on a nation that
disregards the eternal rules of order
and right which Heaven itself has
ordained.”
- George Washington, 1st President,
Inaugural Address, 1789
“Our constitution was made only for a
moral and religious people. It is wholly
inadequate to the government of any
other.”
- John Adams, 2nd President
“It cannot be emphasized too strongly
or too often that this great nation was
founded, not by religionists, but by
Christians; not on religions, but on the
gospel of Jesus Christ.”
- Patrick Henry, Statesmen, Patriot of
the American Revolution
“Unto Him who is the author and giver
of all good, I render sincere and
humble thanks for His manifold and
unmerited blessings, and especially
for our redemption and salvation by
His beloved Son.”
- John Jay, 1st Chief Justice of the U.S.
Supreme Court
“In this age there can be no substitute
for Christianity. That was the religion
of the founders of the republic, and
they expected it to remain the religion
of their descendents.”
- House & Senate Judiciary Committee
Report, 1854
“In my view, the Christian religion is
the most important and one of the first
things in which all children, under a
free government, ought to be
instructed…”
- Noah Webster, Founding Father of
American Education, 1828
“Let every student be plainly
instructed, and earnestly pressed to
consider well, the main end of his life
and studies is, to know God and Jesus
Christ which is eternal life (John
17:3).”
- 1642 Rules and Precepts of
Harvard University
The Foundations Upon Which Our
Nation Was Built Have Eroded Under
Our Feet!
How Did This Happen?
“There arose another generation after them
who did not know the Lord.”
– Judges 2:10
“But if we are looking across the history of the world to see
those times when men knew the truth and turned away, let
us say emphatically that there is no exhibition of this
anywhere in history so clearly- in such a short time- as in
our own generation… Men of our time knew the truth and
yet turned away- turned away not only from the biblical
truth, the religious truth of the Reformation, but turned
away from the total culture built upon that truth, which
included the balance of freedom and form which the
Reformation brought forth in northern Europe in the state
and society, a balance which has never been known
anywhere in the world before. Having turned away from the
knowledge given by God, man has now lost the whole
In Europe, including England, it took many years- in the
United States only a few decades… Ours is a post-Christian
world in which Christianity, not only in the number of
Christians but in cultural emphasis and cultural result, is
now in the minority. To ask young people to maintain the
status quo is folly. The status quo is no longer ours… Do
not take this lightly! It is a horrible thing for a man like
myself to look back and see my country and my culture go
down the drain in my own lifetime. It is a horrible thing that
sixty years ago you could move across this country and
everyone, even non-Christians, would have known what the
gospel was. A horrible thing that forty to fifty years ago our
culture was built on the Christian consensus, and now we
As Christians in this period of history we are faced with
some crucial questions, the first one being this: what
should our perspective be as we acknowledge the postChristian character of our culture?”
Francis Schaeffer - Death In The
City
Written in 1969
(44 years ago)
“Ours is a post-Christian
world.”
How Much Further Has Our Culture Fallen
In 44 Years?
•
55 million babies aborted since Roe vs. Wade.
•
9 states fully recognize same-sex marriagenumerous others quickly moving that direction.
•
33% of non-Christian & ‘born again’ Christian
marriages end in divorce (Barna ’13).
•
Over 50% of marriages do not last 20 years
(CDC ‘12).
How Much Further Has Our Culture Fallen
In 44 Years?
•
53% of children born to women under age 30 are
born out of wedlock (New York Times ‘11).
•
Over 50% of sexually active adults will acquire
an STD in their lifetime. 19 million new cases
reported each year (CDC ‘11).
•
1/5 of the population has no religious affiliation
(Pew ‘12).
How Much Further Has Our Culture Fallen
In 44 Years?
•
1/3 of the population under age 30 have no
religious affiliation (Pew ‘12).
•
95% of U.S. cities are not ‘Bible-minded’- having
a majority of citizens who read the Bible at least
once a week and assert it is accurate in the
principles it teaches (Barna ‘13).
•
Only 9% of Americans hold to a Biblical
worldview (Barna ‘09).
How Much Further Has Our Culture Fallen
In 44 Years?
•
Only 19% of Evangelicals hold to a Biblical
worldview (Barna ‘09).
Biblical worldview defined as believing: “absolute moral
truth exists; the Bible is totally accurate in all of the
principles it teaches; Satan is considered to be a real being
or force, not merely symbolic; a person cannot earn their
way into Heaven by trying to be good or do good works;
Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; and God is the
all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the world who still
How Much Further Has Our Culture Fallen
In 44 Years?
•
Secular, anti-biblical agenda pressuring
traditional Judeo-Christian values on all frontsfamily, media, education, business, laws, the
Church, etc.
Examples: Gay marriage, Chick-fil-A, Hobby Lobby,
Boy Scouts of America, Health Care Mandates,
Anti-bullying Legislation, Hate Crime Laws, the
War on Christmas and other Public Expressions of
Christianity, Louie Giglio & Inaugural Prayer, etc.
How Did This Happen?
Culture is simply worldview
externalized. The culture around us
reflects who and what we value.
“The history of mankind will positively
demonstrate that no society or people has
ever risen above it’s religion… and man’s
history will show that no religion is ever
greater than it’s concept of God.”
- A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy
“A people cannot be better than their
gods.”
- Vishal Mangalwadi
How Did This Happen?
Romans 1: 18-32
• Suppressed the truth (v. 18)
• Exchanged the worship of God for idols (v. 23)
• Exchanged the truth of God for a lie (v. 25)
• Abandoned natural relations for unnatural ones (vs. 26-27)
• Did not retain the knowledge of God (v. 28)
• Ignored God’s laws and encouraged rebellion against them
(v. 32)
The Church in a
Post-Christian Culture
- How We Got Here -
Worldview =
The lenses through which you view the world
&
How you answer the “3 Great Questions of
life”.
1. Where did I come from?
2. What is the meaning and purpose of life?
3. What happens when I die?
How you answer these 3 questions
will affect every aspect of your life.
The Foundational Question of
Every Person’s Worldview:
Are Men & Women Accidents
Evolved from “Pond Scum”
Or…
Are We the Unique Creation
of God?
How You Answer the Question of
Origins Will Determine:
• Value for Human Beings
• Basis of Morality
• Meaning & Purpose of Life
• Ultimate Destiny
How Did We Arrive at Today’s
Post-Christian Culture?
Naturalism > Humanism > Relativism
>
Pluralism > P.C. Tolerance >
Oppression
of Dissenting
Voices
The Question
of Origins is
the
Front Line in Today’s Culture War!
Two Key Figures of 19th - 20th Century
Naturalism & Humanism:
Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
Friedrich Nietzsche (18441900)
Two Key Figures of 19th - 20th Century
Naturalism & Humanism:
Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
• On The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or
the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
(1859).
• All living organisms on earth descended from a single
primordial form over millions of years of gradual change.
• Nature is purely mechanistic; no purpose; no plan; no
design in mind.
• Evolution = survival of the fittest.
Two Key Figures of 19th - 20th Century
Naturalism & Humanism:
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
• Vastly influential proponent of the anti-theistic worldview
(Hitler, Freud, Humanists, Existentialist & Postmodern
philosophers, etc).
• “God is dead”. Society must be rebuilt on a God-less
foundation.
• Christianity was repressive and stunted the ongoing
evolution of humanity. It was a religion of the weak.
“God
Is Dead”
Naturalism: “There is no supernatural;
Science is adequate to explain all Reality.”
Humanism: “There is no God; man is a
product of
evolution; man is inherently
good and can create a Utopia on earth.”
God
* All that exists is the finite,
three dimensional, natural
Man
“It is not true, as is sometimes said, that man
cannot organize the world without God. What
is true is that, without God, he can only
organize it against man.”
- Henri De Lubac,
French theologian, 1944
If “God is dead” and man is just an
animal, what then is our basis for
morality?
God
Man
Opinion?… Social Consensus?… Strength?
How Did We Arrive at Today’s
Post-Christian Culture?
Following the horrors of the 20th century,
instead of turning back to God, Western
culture embraced an even more absurd
philosophy…
Postmodernism
How Did We Arrive at Today’s
Post-Christian Culture?
Postmodernism:
• A cultural movement or ethos stemming from a loss of
optimism from the failures of Modernity.
• No God, No absolutes, No ultimate meaning and purpose.
• Societies and people define truth and reality for themselves.
• Relativism
• Tolerance becomes society’s highest virtue.
• Deconstruction of traditional worldviews (Christianity
chiefly).
20th & 21st Century Postmodernism:
1. Postmodern Existentialism
2. Postmodern Spiritualism
3. Postmodern Secularism
Postmodernism Existentialism:
• “Existentialism” = meaning of existence
• Man is alone in the universe.
• Man has no value or meaning apart from
what he gives himself.
• Life is ultimately absurd.
“Man is merely an accident, whose number
came up on the universal roulette wheel.
There is no meaning to anything. Everything
is ultimately absurd and meaningless.”
- Jacques Monod, French ExistentialistBiologist
“No finite point has meaning without an infinite
reference point”
“That God does not exist, I cannot deny, that my
whole being cries out for God I cannot forget.”
- Jean-Paul Sarte, French Existentialist
Postmodernism Spiritualism:
• Elevation of non-Western, non-traditional
religions
• “God” = an impersonal, universal force
• Monism (all is one) & Pantheism (all is god)
• Worship of Mother Earth (ecology movement)
• Universalism (no judgment)
Notice: Theological Liberalism & Liberal
Postmodernism Secularism:
•
A renewed Humanism (roots in Darwin &
Nietzsche)
•
Humanity basically good
- People are not guilty of violating a moral law.
They’re only guilty of guilt.
•
Institutions create evil by limiting freedom
(religion)
•
Christianity is the primary cause of evil in the
20th & 21st Century Postmodernism:
1. Postmodern Existentialism
2. Postmodern Spiritualism
3. Postmodern Secularism
What do these 3 manifestations
of Postmodernism have in
common?
Postmodernism:
•
•
•
•
•
Denial of a personal God
No absolute truth
No objective basis for morality
No meaning and purpose to life
No ultimate destiny
What is the inevitable outcome for a culture
that embraces Postmodern thought?
How Did We Arrive at Today’s
Post-Christian Culture?
Naturalism > Humanism > Relativism
>
Pluralism > P.C. Tolerance >
Oppression
of Dissenting
Voices
The Question
of Origins is
the
Front Line in Today’s Culture War!
Politically Correct “Tolerance”
& the Oppression of
Dissenting Voices is Already
Here!
Examples: Gay marriage, Chick-fil-A, Hobby
Lobby,
Boy Scouts of America, Health Care Mandates,
Anti-bullying Legislation, Hate Crime Laws, the
War on Christmas and other Public Expressions
of Christianity, Louie Giglio & Inaugural Prayer,
If “God is dead” and man is just an
animal, what then is our basis for
morality?
God
Man
Opinion?… Social Consensus?… Strength?
History Repeats Itself!
“We can and must write in a language which
sows among the masses hate, revulsion, and
scorn toward those who disagree with us.”
- Vladimir Lenin
History Repeats Itself!
“Once a government is committed to the
principle of silencing the voice of opposition,
it has only one way to go, and that is down
the path of increasingly repressive
measures…”
- President Harry Truman
Politically Correct “Tolerance”
& the Oppression of
Dissenting Voices is Already
Here!
Examples: Gay marriage, Chick-fil-A, Hobby
Lobby,
Boy Scouts of America, Health Care Mandates,
Anti-bullying Legislation, Hate Crime Laws, the
War on Christmas and other Public Expressions
of Christianity, Louie Giglio & Inaugural Prayer,
History Repeats Itself!
“If God does not exist, all things are
permissible.”
- Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian novelist
The Church in a
Post-Christian Culture
(part II)
How Shall We Now Live?