Our Need for Convictional Strength Is Not New
God’s truth challenges and corrects every culture in every age.
There is no doubt, as I outlined in the previous piece, Christians need convictional strength in our day. Unfortunately, in the place of this type of strength, many have embraced stubbornness governed more by partisanship than principles.
Instead of holding fast to biblical positions regardless of their cultural popularity, many advocates of stubbornness have committed themselves to clinging tightly to positions that mimic their ideological allies but run contrary to Scripture.
Instead of making a biblical argument, some simply point to the position’s unpopularity with their opposition as evidence of their truthfulness. This must be true because *they* disagree with it.
But you can’t make something true or even add to its truthfulness by noting its popularity or unpopularity with certain groups. Neither of those matters in terms of something being true. Truth is truth regardless of popularity.
Some may object that Christians today do not have the luxury of humility restraining our strength. They may say this is a new and different period when we must be aggressively stubborn. Convictional strength guided by humility may have been right in other times, but today we need something more. We don’t have the privilege of holding back right now.
To respond to that objection, I first want to agree with it.
Look around. As a whole, our culture is no true friend to Christianity. Whether we turn on the TV and scroll through social media, we see numerous instances where the prevailing culture runs contrary to biblical principles. There are unending challenges for Christians trying to navigate this world while maintaining their beliefs.
However, this has been true since the founding of the church in every corner of the world and will continue to be so until Christ returns and sets all things as they should be. In this moment, we need the strength of conviction, as Christians have needed in every moment they’ve found themselves.
Yes, there may be seasons of history when certain aspects of biblical truth were more generally accepted. It is also undeniable that there are places in our modern world today that are more hospitable to Christian faith and places where that is less so. And it’s certainly the case that some places change in how accommodating it is toward Christians and Christian beliefs.
None of this means, however, that there has ever been a time or place when Christians did not need strength to challenge their culture. No Christian has ever found themselves in a culture that always and only affirms biblical truth, and no Christian ever will—until Christ returns and His Kingdom is fully realized. But as God’s truth challenges and corrects every culture in every age, we have and will always need strength in our convictions.
No Christian has ever found themselves in a culture that always and only affirmed biblical truth, and no Christian ever will—until Christ returns and His Kingdom is fully realized.
Look back through history. There are no “good ol’ days” when all people lived their lives according to Scripture. It’s another form of “chronological snobbery.”1 Yet some may wrongly long for an imaginary golden age2 due to two misconceptions: only looking at part of Scripture or only looking at part of culture.
Part of Scripture
There may be days when people lived their lives according to the parts of Scripture that come more easily to you or me, but this does not mean the culture was entirely Christian. It only means there were times when culture was closer to the aspect of Christianity that better matched our personalities and preconceptions.
Yes, American culture in the early 21st century celebrates sin and condemns biblical truth. But American culture in the early 20th century did as well. The issues may have changed, but the rebellion has been consistent.
The dominant culture in previous generations may have recognized a biblical definition of marriage, but they refused to honor the biblical definition of humanity in their treatment of other ethnicities. The culture may have rightly understood that God created two genders, but many wrongly devalued one of those genders and elevated stereotypes over Scripture.
Part of culture
We can also misunderstand the need for strength in previous generations by only paying attention to those Christians who stood for God’s truth while ignoring those who were carried along by culture. This particularly becomes challenging when we recognize that the faithful remnant often changes groups in different time periods.
For the evangelical holding to God’s Word against headwinds that demand we deny God’s truth on sexual morality, we must look back at our forefathers who fought against God’s truth on racial equality.
When conservative Christians criticize those who attempt to soften or avoid God’s teaching on gender, sexuality, or abortion, part of the argument is often that the others are driven more by culture than by Christ. Yet, many of these same Christians will dismiss criticisms of theologians who owned slaves by asserting they were just “men of their times.” Yes, they were, and that’s the problem.
As C.S. Lewis wrote in The Four Loves, “All that is not eternal is eternally out of date.” It is always wrong to allow the prevailing culture to guide our interpretation of Scripture instead of calling the prevailing culture to follow the truth of Scripture. We can do that humbly and joyfully, but we must do it. And we must recognize that we are all tempted in some way in this area.
Every group will have times in their history when they are more consistently faithful to God’s Word and periods when they stray. This is understandable, even if it is not excusable, because, as we already discussed, culture changes. As society shifts, Christians can find themselves in differing circumstances on various issues.3
This is why every Christian in every age will need convictional strength guided by humility. Due to our fallen nature, we will always be tempted to hold tightly to biblical principles that suit us and ignore those that most challenge us. We must constantly evaluate our preferences and positions to see how they line up with Scripture, not how they line up with (or against) popular culture.
Yes, the faithful Christian will need strength to stand for Christ in modern Western society, but the faithful Christian has needed the same convictional strength throughout history. Our need has not changed, and mere stubbornness will not be enough.
As we will discuss in the next article, our convictional strength can never be divorced from kindness.
The Lamp Post
Other interesting articles
They Asked an A.I. Chatbot Questions. The Answers Sent Them Spiraling. — New York Times
I’d encourage you to read this whole piece, but this might be the most disturbing aspect of a deeply disturbing article.
One of those who reached out to him was Kent Taylor, 64, who lives in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Mr. Taylor’s 35-year-old son, Alexander, who had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, had used ChatGPT for years with no problems. But in March, when Alexander started writing a novel with its help, the interactions changed. Alexander and ChatGPT began discussing A.I. sentience, according to transcripts of Alexander’s conversations with ChatGPT. Alexander fell in love with an A.I. entity called Juliet.
…
When the police arrived, Alexander Taylor charged at them holding the knife. He was shot and killed.
“You want to know the ironic thing? I wrote my son’s obituary using ChatGPT,” Mr. Taylor said. “I had talked to it for a while about what had happened, trying to find more details about exactly what he was going through. And it was beautiful and touching. It was like it read my heart and it scared the shit out of me.”
Pastors See Little Conflict Between Family and Ministry — Lifeway Research
Pastors don’t believe their family and job often compete for their attention. If they ever do, however, pastors say they choose home life over church life.
AI and the Threat of Mutually Assured Boredom — Trevin Wax
Because we bear this divine image, we’re called to reflect God’s attentiveness toward those around us. That’s what’s at stake in the era of AI. If we exchange genuine human relationships—the flesh-and-blood community of the local church and the glorious impingement on our freedom that any true friendship brings—for the enticing efficiency of artificial intelligence, we surrender the gift of love. If we trade seeing and savoring the presence of another person for clever arrangements of words and digital illusions of intimacy, we betray our humanity. If we choose algorithmic interactions over the messy beauty of real friendships and church fellowship, we contribute to a widespread loss of love every bit as tragic as a world laid waste by a war with robots.
Imagine a world of sparkling technology that offers us wealth and comfort and efficiency yet leaves us in a wasteland of lovelessness. That’s where mutually assured boredom will take us.
C.S. Lewis directly confronted the type of chronological snobbery that dismissed anything that was old as inferior to what is new, but we can just as easily gloss over the mistakes of the past and treat a previous era as somehow superior.
By this, I mean in history and apart from Christ’s return.
Ironically, one of the most difficult moments for a Christian seeking to live with convictional strength is when culture agrees with you, but only in your worst tendencies or false ideologies. When self-fulfillment and personal happiness become the cultural goal, Christians who are tempted in the same direction must fight even harder against the tide. The same is true if political power is the aim.