The Baptist Digest

Responding To A Sick Culture

By Tim Boyd

January 2006

My wife and I were driving up I-65 to Nashville during my Christmas vacation. I was reading the various billboards. Two billboards caught my attention. They were stacked one on top of the other. The top billboard contained a scripture passage and a message exhorting the reader to turn to Christ for salvation. The bottom billboard invited people to a local adult entertainment facility that apparently specialized in co-ed hot tubs.

What a picture of the world in which we live: Biblical Christianity on the one hand and Sodom and Gomorrah on the other. People in our nation, whether in the church or outside it, face ethical choices that no generation before has faced in American history.

Now, I don’t mean to say that we, as Americans, have not had to face difficult decisions in the past. However, the distance between sacred and secular in America has widened to the greatest extent in our history. We face more temptation to evil than ever.

How should we respond to our sick culture? Well, remember that the top billboard contained a scriptural challenge to respond to Christ. The depravity of our times gives us an unprecedented opportunity to faithfully bring the message of the gospel to our world.

I remember years ago taking a high school class in Latin. Our teacher was an older woman who had lived through the depression, WWII, and the 1950s, and was witnessing the revolutionary spirit of the 1960s. She often told us that our nation was coming to resemble ancient Rome in its morality. I believe that she was accurate and prophetic. Our culture is very reminiscent of Roman life.

I also remember studying in seminary how a small band of believers, empowered by the Holy Spirit, penetrated that ancient Roman culture with the message of the gospel.

Do we live in a depraved nation? Certainly! Have we lost respect for life and morality? Absolutely! Should we lose hope? Absolutely not! In the same way that Christianity prevailed in the Roman empire, it can prevail today if we remain committed to the truth and power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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I thought you might like this column I read at baptistdigest.com. "Responding To A Sick Culture" My wife and I were driving up I-65 to Nashville during my Christmas vacation. I was reading the various billboards. Two billboards caught my attention. They were stacked one on top of the other. The top billboard contained a scripture passage and a message exhorting the reader to turn to Christ for salvation. The bottom billboard invited people to a local adult entertainment facility that apparently specialized in co-ed hot tubs. What a picture of the world in which we live: Biblical Christianity on the one hand and Sodom and Gomorrah on the other. People in our nation, whether in the church or outside it, face ethical choices that no generation before has faced in American history. You can read the rest here: http://www.baptistdigest.com/archive/column/along_the_journey/