The early Christians were faced with a similar situation. The first century Roman historian, Tacitus, charged them with the first recorded accusation of hate speech in Church history: “haters of humanity.” They breached the pagan pax romana.
We must now ask, “When is a culture finally 'given over'”? According to Paul, this occurs when the leading cultural institutions “exchange” their public confession of God as the Creator for interfaith divinized nature; when their worship of the immortal God is “exchanged” for the worship of mortal man and animals; and when their public legitimation of “natural” sexuality is “exchanged” for the promotion of “unnatural” sexual expressions (Rom 1:23, 25, 26). At that point, says Paul, “they are given over” (Rom. 1:24, 26, 28).
Christians cannot dig wells in Africa without telling thirsty sinners of the wells of salvation. They cannot speak of blessings without speaking also of the curse of human evil. Children must hear the difference between the Lie and the Truth in order to place their trust in Jesus as their only Savior, and we must obey the Savior’s command: “Let the little ones come to me.”
I am still reeling from the implications of the Supreme…
On June 26, 2013, the highest authority in the land…
Christian experience derives from hearing the good news of God’s act for us, embodied not in Oneist experience, but in the living Word, Jesus, whose Spirit, works new life in us.