3 Key Steps for Christians to Face Current Crises with Faith

There seems little doubt that we are living in historic times. Long ago, the world shifted from a Medieval view of life to the Renaissance. Thereafter it shifted to Modernity with the Industrial Revolution. Nowadays – historians give it different names – we are living in a time of Post-Modernity (or Hyper-Modernity as some would say). But the technological changes of which we are all aware, the ability to be able to text in real-time someone on the other side of the globe, and ideological shifts, concur to generate a different view of life, the universe, and everything. We are living in a time of major cultural change. And that generates uneasiness. Alexander Solzhenitsyn said as much in a major address to Harvard at the end of the twentieth century. That pace of change is only exponentially accelerating today.

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1. In one sense, nothing has changed. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The gospel is still the gospel. God’s word shall stand. What was true is still true, what was right is still right, and what was wrong is still wrong. Our task, therefore, is to preserve the truth. To guard the faith once and for all delivered to the saints. 
2. In another sense, much has changed. Our conversations in the public sphere are no longer dominated by the mass media consensus of major cable news programs but by the social media disseminated landscape of a massive variety of different views. While once Christians were viewed in friendly terms, nowadays, they are in some contexts viewed as the enemy. 
3. Biblical common sense, therefore, emphasizes both God’s sovereignty and his mission. When there is change around us, Christians are comforted by the truth of God being in control of everything. All things work together for the good of those who love God. He knows the end from the beginning. His plan will be accomplished. In the end, God wins. Yes! Rely on God’s sovereignty. Trust in God’s sovereignty. Be comforted by Him, your Mighty Fortress! But then also lean into God’s mission. Given that we are in a situation where there are many around us who do not know Jesus, we, as Christians, orientate ourselves to the surrounding society in missiological terms. We wish to win them to Christ. We must be as innocent as doves, yet canny too. To be in the world, yes, but not of the world. 

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So, to quote Shaeffer, how should we live then? Some are saying that the way forward is to batten down the hatches and hide until the storm passes. But this seems antithetical to the advice that Jesus himself gives! He tells his followers that we are the light of the world and the salt of the earth. We are God’s global spiritual illuminators and God’s universal moral preservatives. Our task is to shine and to be salt. At work. At home. At school. In government. In business. To put it in bald terms, Jesus’ strategy is us.

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