“From all accounts, it seems the
faithful opposition is reduced to Gideon’s 300.
The day has arrived for Christians to engage the battle, or there will
be no Christians left – an eschatological impossibility. From now on, true Christians will engage the battle
of ideas in the academy. The time for
giving up ground is over. Now we must
fight. The greatest wars ever fought in
the history of the world are not those fought by sword or by artillery. The greatest battles are engaged in the realm
of ideas.” (Swanson, p. 191)
Throughout the last several
posts, I have talked about “engaging the culture,” and “fighting the war of the
worldviews.” Swanson encourages us to
“engage the battle of ideas.” But what
does that really mean? We have
established that we must engage; this
post is all about how to do so.
First, though, allow me to
take a brief tangent. Many assume that
homeschoolers are sheltered – that we don’t listen to popular music or play
video games or go to the movies, and we read only Christian books. Oh, and
“What about socialization?” (We’ve all heard that one.) There may be an occasional homeschooler who
fits that stereotype, but in general, it’s… wrong
– I would know! I have just
graduated from homeschooling. Most of my
friends are homeschooled, and all five of my siblings are being homeschooled as
well. The purpose of homeschooling is
not to create sheltered—ignorant—young
people, and the purpose of Kevin Swanson’s book is not to discourage us from
reading the literature he examines or to shield us from the views contained
therein. Of course, we shouldn’t give
Mark Twain’s Huck Finn to a middle
school student without direction or coaching; my brother recently read it and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and when I
opened a discussion about Twain’s worldview, he stated, “Well, he sure wrote
some good books!” I tried to correct
him, but he maintained that the books were harmless and innocent – purely fun
and entertaining. I was terrified. That is exactly
what Swanson was talking about! So,
perhaps “sheltered” is a good thing to be, at least for a time, but we aren’t
to remain sheltered as we grow more
mature. I think Mr. Swanson himself
explains it best:
“On the one hand, well-crafted
literature requires close communion in order to understand the content and
fully appreciate its emotional tones and its several layers of thought. As it turns out, the devil is a good writer,
and ungodly men often produce excellent literature in form. On the other hand, the Christian reader must
consciously hold the ideas at arm’s length, so as not to commune with the
unfruitful works of darkness, or meditate long and hard on things that are not true, not
lovely, and not pure (Philippians 4:8).” (Swanson, p. 250)
When discussing our nation’s
current moral fiber—or apparent lack thereof—I believe Swanson’s diagnosis is
correct, but his solution is faulty. He
is correct in his analysis of what has happened,
but he gives at best a vague recommendation for what we ought to do moving
forward. I have recently been listening
to Kevin Swanson’s radio broadcast, Generations Radio (available at
generationsradio.com). I generally agree
with Mr. Swanson’s positions, and I would highly recommend his program. However, Mr. Swanson regularly states that
Christianity is taking root in Middle Eastern and African nations—Islamic nations. I personally have not done the research
necessary to validate this claim, but that is irrelevant. It may be true, and if so it is worthy of
rejoicing, but I must point out Mr. Swanson’s underlying argument. His purpose in pointing this out seems to be
that, though America is falling from Christianity, it doesn’t matter, because
the Kingdom will live on elsewhere. There
is an element of truth there, of course: Christ’s kingdom will always triumph;
it is not dependent upon any man or nation, because it is eternal. However, if you have read my blog for any
amount of time, you know that talk of the end of America leaves me infuriated
and heartbroken. We must not give up on
this mighty, beautiful nation! We were
founded upon the Rock, and on the Rock we must stand. (Stay tuned for my July 4 post, America the Beautiful).
I have identified four steps
we must take in order to engage the
culture and begin to restore a moral society without compromising our faith.
First, know what you believe. How
does one learn to identify counterfeit money?
It would be futile to study it, because it has so many variations and looks
very real; no, to recognize counterfeit money, one ought to study the real money! That way, he will know when what he is
holding in his hands is not true currency.
Likewise with worldviews: rather than studying all the beliefs of every
culture and religion, we should become very familiar with God’s Word. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t become
familiar with other beliefs to better equip ourselves to converse intelligently
with those who hold them, but our primary focus must be on the truth so that
when a view is presented that is not true,
we can identify it.
Next, understand the history presented in Apostate, and then some.
Research the life and death of the authors – as we saw, their personal
lives often manifest their philosophies very plainly. Then read,
watch, and listen to the literature and media that is presented. I have read many of our great American
“classics” and explored them according to Mr. Swanson’s method; he’s right –
many of our nation’s most revered authors were dangerous, and our founders
would have abhorred their material. I
also believe in watching the movies that are popular and reading books that are
being written for our generation. There
are, of course, some that should be avoided; discretion should always be
exercised, but do not eliminate a new movie simply because it’s “non-Christian,”
or because of a rumor that it promotes a liberal agenda. Bill Jack of Worldview Academy urges his
students to “THINK your way through it.”
Watch that movie that you’ve heard contains a gay or feminist agenda,
and think about the problem spots and the good points.
Finally, engage the culture. This is
probably the hardest part, but in many ways it’s the most important. This is the call to action – this is the
Great Commission. The point is to save souls, but how does that relate to
media? A friend of mine who has a lot of
experience in the media/communications realm helped me begin to wrap my mind
around it. It was a rather wildly spun,
fascinating conversation that began with Disney’s Frozen, and turned towards Apostate. Ultimately, he pointed out, we have to know
the culture if we are going to save it.
We can’t explode out of our sheltered little bubble and suddenly expect
people to follow us to Jesus. I think of
the “men of Issachar” mentioned in 1 Chronicles 12:32 – they “understood the
times and knew what they should do.” Books,
music, and movies are a big talking point these days. A great conversation starter is always, “So,
have you seen any good movies lately?”
We can use that! The purpose
isn’t to judge media and either add it to our “Favorites” list or eliminate it;
the point is to understand it so that we can use it to deliver the Good News.
Besides Apostate, there are a couple of other books that will get you thinking
and help equip you as a valiant warrior of the Kingdom. The
Hour That Changes the World, by Dick Eastman, outlines a practical method
for prayer. If any great changes are to
be wrought in our nation and our world, it will only be through the power of
prayer. For “church kids” like myself, Growing Up Christian by Karl Graustein
is an excellent read. It awakened me to
the unique dangers that we “church kids” face – growing up in a Christian home,
constantly hearing and reading God’s Word, it’s easy to learn and believe only
in our mind, or piggyback on our parents’ faith. That’s a dangerous road to take, because as
soon as we become exposed to the world through literature, movies, music,
secular college classes, or the magazine rack at the grocery store, we will
falter if our faith is not our own.
Finally, read Assumptions That
Affect Our Lives by Dr. Christian Overman.
Through a step-by-step comparison between Ancient Greece and modern
America, this book emphasizes the importance of consciously filtering the
assumptions that we make, because those assumptions are the foundation of our
beliefs, our actions, and the course our world takes.
That concludes my study of Apostate: The Men Who Destroyed the
Christian West. Thank you for
reading; I hope you have been informed, awakened, inspired, frightened,
emboldened, empowered, or all of the above.
“For our struggle is not against flesh
and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against
the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of
wickedness in the heavenly places.”
(Ephesians 6:12, NASB)
No comments:
Post a Comment