For two-hundred and forty-nine years, America has been recognized as the moral and spiritual leader in the world. Even today, with all of its wickedness, our great country is still considered to be the moral bellwether of the world. It hardly seems possible, but the people of other countries all over the world actually look up to us for moral leadership. I think that this says something very disturbing about the moral and spiritual condition of the world at large because we know that our own moral quality is declining rapidly. In fact, we have fallen to new lows in our personal morality and if we don’t change, we will wind up looking and being like most of the countries in Europe where morality is at a very low point.
If left to itself a society will degenerate very rapidly into a people mired in the filthiest moral quagmire. Things are happening today which were unheard of or unthought of until most recently. Our founding fathers would be astounded if they knew how people have used their founding documents to pervert the morality and spirituality of the American public. The church I pastored for thirth-two years, Abilene Baptist Church, is 250 years old, and I wonder what those dear people would have thought if they had known what their future church would have to deal with in society. They had no way of knowing just how evil the society around them would become. In the records of Abilene, we find that they disciplined people by excommunication for such terrible things as smoking in public, cursing in public or public dancing. Thise things are not even considered out of character for Christians any longer. I wonder what they would have done with some of the more serious offenses of today.
The church (including all denominations) must stand against the spirit of their age if we are to be a moral and spiritual lighthouse at all. Ships crash upon the rocks when the light in the lighthouse goes out. I’m concerned that instead of challenging the spirit of our age, the church is absorbing that spirit, and s she does, the light in the lighthouse grows dimmer and dimmer.
The only entity which has a true message of hope in the Church. Trillions have been spent pursuing the promises and hopes of the government and politicians but society is in an ever-worsening condition. Where moral and spiritual guidance is lacking or watered down with secularism, the lowest common denominator of human conduct will prevail. Each generation can only teach its children thelevel of moral conduct it has experienced itself. But, it is easy for each generation to slip just a little more into the moral abyss. So, therefore, the continual trend of society is downward. Somehow this must be confronted and reversed, and the church is the only institution which has the moral and spiritual power to do so. We must meet the challenge. We have no option but to continue to try to survive in an ever-decaying environment. And, while I know what the scripture says about how man is going to get worse and worse until the end comes, I do not think that we can sit on our laurels; enjoy our spiritual security as redeemed people and watch the world go by. That is not why God has kept us here. There are those to be saved, and each one who is saved will have a different morality and spirituality. When a person becomes a Christian, the Spirit of God comes to live inside them. And, when the Spirit of God comes so does the ability to live a life guided by God’s morality. In fact, His morality and spirituality should become ours also because He now lives inside of a person by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.
Actually, we Christians are suppose to be God’s Change Agents in a fallen world. We cannot do that task unless we are different from that which needs changing.
We cannot look, sound, act and think like a secular world and expect to effect a change in them. Change them to what? If we are like them, then we can’t change them to anything. Our task is to live a Christian life; preach the Gospel and witness to a lost and dying world. Many will be saved but many will not. Only God knows the outcome. We are commanded to go witness, not to win people. WE cannot save people but God uses our witness to do that Himself.
So, we Christians must understand that we are God’s Agents of Change but He makes the change. Each person who is saved can be a crucial element in moral and spiritual element of society. The more of us who are willing to live a Christian life in a world becoming more immoral each day, the more we will be able to affect the world around us or at least keep it from completely degenerating into moral and spiritual decadence.
Our leaders have changed. We need our Tomas Jeffersons, John Adams, George Washingtons, Abraham Lincolns and Thomas Edisons. Where are they? Our Morals have eroded with people caring more about money than morals. Our View of life had degenerated when abortion is approved by such a large section of our nation. Just for the record….abortion is premeditated murder of an innocent person who cannot defend themselves. And, last but not lease, our respect for God has declined. It’s easy to see the downward spiral and Christians must resolve to be God’s Agents of Change in the midst of a wicked and immoral society. I praise the Lord for good, sincere, committed Churches and Christians who should step up and be God’s Agents of Change.
WFH…7-4-2025
