Holiness is a foreign topic for most people. Even Christians. We have a vague familiarity with the context in which it is usually found.

First and foremost, we are told that God the Almighty is “holy.” As the Israelites were getting familiar with their Divine Deliverer, these words were given to them: “For I am the LORD your God, so you must consecrate yourselves and be holy because I am holy.” (Leviticus 11:44,  CSB) This is repeated three more times in Leviticus.

New Testament readers are told, “That’s why the Scriptures say, ‘I am the holy God, and you must be holy too.’ (1 Peter 1:16, CEV) Rather intimidating instruction! The Hebrew word for holiness is qōdes. That which is holy is sacred, in contrast to everything common and profane. How did we allow this to slip by?

I encountered the importance of the godly character of holiness in the foreword of Chuck Colson’s excellent book, Loving God. Chuck had come across a resource of profound insight on the subject written by theologian R.C. Sproul. It was titled (appropriately) The Holiness of God. Chuck stated that after reading Sproul’s book, he fell to his knees deep in awe over the holiness of God!

I would later read that same book by Sproul. And others of his. R.C. was a man who clearly took God at His Word.

Holy. It’s one word—among many—that we abuse in our world today by minimizing its significance. How often do we hear holy used in conjunction with terms such as holy cow, holy moley, holy guacamole, holy hell (wow), holy cr*p, and the even more offensive holy sh**? Other variations certainly exist and all of them run quite counter to the instruction to be holy. Ironic.

In our modern thinking, words apparently don’t really matter. This is why I was struck by a recent Christianity Today story titled, “Words are Holy. so Why Don’t We Talk Like They are?” It’s written by Paul J. Pastor, who is a pastor, author, and editor.

As Pastor states, “Today, we live in a crisis of language. Not only is the sacred nature of our words largely forgotten, but language is becoming degraded. In a world of significant social, ecological, and spiritual crisis, this may seem like a low priority. But healthy language, like clean air or water, is something we take for granted until it is gone.”

Pastor uses illustrations from the legendary George Orwell, who found political speech quite disturbing in his day. Imagine what his perspective might be like in 2023! Pastor determines this about our times, “So the great threat to language is not from a shadowy politburo. It is from the sheer disposability of words as part of a general glut of information. Words are everywhere. What is everywhere must not be precious. Language becomes disposable.”

What words can you think of that have lost their meaning? How about amazing. Incredible. Unbelievable. Even great. All attributed to ideas, thoughts, or acts that are nothing more than ordinary. And let me add one of my favorites to the list: perfect. I’ve heard waiters and waitresses use that word when I tell them we need a table for two.

Admittedly, none of those word trivialities rank up there in my book with the abuse of the word holy.

To be clear, our call to holiness is not a call to live a life of perfection. That is an impossible task and attempting to do so can quickly move into legalism. But our call to live righteous lives is the target for which we aim in the faith. Even in our language.

How comfortable have we become with the abuse of the word holy? Enough so that when it is used in any derogative form, few are the souls who would dare correct or challenge it. Even among the church faithful.

I’m often haunted by Jesus’ words about words. “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12:36-37, ESV) I plead guilty to that charge often and have needed the healing words of forgiveness.

How about you? It might be worthy of some holy conversation!

Do we need to engage in “worldview training” with our children and grandchildren? What difference does it make? Isn’t all of that “worldview” stuff just for philosophers who use big words that my kids and I can’t understand anyway? Isn’t it enough to just follow Jesus and leave worldview to others?

It might be tempting to think that way, but let’s pause for a moment to consider what a “worldview” really is. Our worldview, simply put, is our view of the world. It’s the philosophy or viewpoint we use to interpret everything around us. It’s our road-map to how we live our lives.

That means every single one of us has a worldview. It might be an organized, coherent philosophy, or it may be a hodge-podge of ideas we’ve picked up here and there with no organizing principles. But each one of us, whether we realize or not, has some kind of worldview.

Of course, there are many worldviews in our culture today. There’s humanism, pantheism, socialism, postmodernism, etc. And, of course, there’s Biblical Christianity.

But again, what difference does it make what our worldview is as long as we follow Jesus? And why do we need to go to the work of teaching our kids about worldviews?

To begin, let’s dig a little deeper on what a worldview is.

Defining a Worldview

At the foundation of any worldview are certain “big ideas” that undergird everything else. Chuck Colson and Nancy Pearcey, in their book How Now Shall We Live?, contend that every worldview must answer three questions:

1. Creation: Where did we come from, and who are we?
2. Fall: What has gone wrong with the world?
3. Redemption: What can we do to fix it?

The Bible answers all of these questions, of course, and those answers form the starting point of a Biblical worldview. And if we choose to live consistently with those answers, every facet of our lives will be impacted.

But what happens if we change the answers to those three foundational questions? Simply put, we’ll end up with a very different worldview.

Marxism, for instance, gives answers that are radically different compared to Christianity. In her book Total Truth, Nancy Pearcey explains it this way:

1. What is Marxism’s counterpart to Creation, the ultimate origin of everything? Self-creating, self-generating matter.
2. What is Marxism’s version of the Fall, the origin of suffering and oppression? The rise of private property.
3. How does Marxism propose to set the world right again? Revolution! Overthrow the oppressors and recreate the original paradise of primitive communism.

And once again, from that high-level, big-question perspective, Marxists can figure out what it means to live a life consistent with Marxism.

If the Bible is true—and it is—then its answers to these big questions reveal and describe the world as it really is. It gives us an accurate picture of true reality. All other worldviews, to one extent or another, distort reality and lead their adherents to live contrary to the truth.

Where We Are

Our children are going to believe something. They’re going to have some view of the world around them. And if we don’t give them a Biblical worldview, the world will be glad to give them a substitute to take its place.

The truth is, most of the children in our country today are enrolled in secular government schools that don’t share our worldview. They’re also spending vast amounts of time plugged into media that doesn’t share our worldview.

What ideas are they learning? What worldview are they absorbing through all of this educational and entertainment content?

Young people have been walking away from the church in massive numbers, and the number of “nones”—essentially, those who hold to no religion—has been on the rise. According to Pew Research Center in 2015, 35 percent of Millennials were “nones.”

Moving from the religious to the political sphere, consider these headlines from the past couple of years:

• CNBC: “Most young Americans prefer socialism to capitalism, new report finds”

• Axios: “Gen Z prefers ‘socialism’ to ‘capitalism’

• Fox News: “Americans warming to socialism over capitalism, polls show”

• Gallup: “Four in 10 Americans Embrace Some Form of Socialism”

Are these young people hardcore socialists? As Gallup notes, “Whether the appeal of socialism to young adults is a standard function of idealism at that age that dissipates as one grows older, or will turn out to be a more permanent part of the political beliefs held by the cohort of millennials who have come of age over the past decade, remains to be seen.”

Of course, once we find out the answer to that question, it may be too late.

As we look around our culture, we see the decline of Christian thought and ideals. If ever there was a time to teach our children a Biblical worldview, the time is now. And I’ll say it again: if we don’t give our children a Biblical worldview, someone is going to take our place and teach our children a different one. But it probably won’t be the one you would have chosen.

Why it Matters

There are at least three negative outcomes our children may succumb to if we fail to teach our them a Biblical worldview:

• Without a solid understanding of a Biblical worldview, they may fall prey to one of the false worldviews prevalent in our culture—perhaps under the impression that it better explains the “big questions” of life—and walk away from the Christian faith entirely.

• They could remain faithful to Christ at one level, but be led astray by wrong ideas (such as socialism) because they don’t understand the Bible’s teaching on anything other than personal faith and values (in other words, they think Christianity is only about a personal relationship with Jesus, not truth about all of life).

• They may absorb elements of many false worldviews without having any Biblical framework to filter them through, leading to a life lived without any real core.

Worldview training, then, is about equipping our children to understand the world as it really is (because only the Bible has the real answers to the biggest questions), refute the wrong ideas our culture tries to hand them, and live confidently according to what they know to be true.

Of course, having a Biblical worldview isn’t a substitute for saving faith in Christ. It’s possible, after all, to know all the right answers yet remain spiritually lost. Yet if our children trust Christ but don’t understand how the Bible offers the best answers across life’s many questions, they won’t be equipped to stand strong in a culture that has lost its way and point others toward the Truth.

Let’s make sure we’re passing on a Biblical worldview to the next generation.

IFI Worldview Conference

To help equip Christians to think and live out our faith in the public square, the Illinois Family Institute is hosting their annual Worldview Conference on March 7th at the Village Church of Barrington. This year’s conference is titled “Thinking Biblically About Our Corrosive Culture” and features Dr. Michael Brown and Dr. Rob Gagnon.

What:  IFI Worldview Conference

When:  Saturday, March 7th, 10 AM to 3:30 PM

Where:  Village Church of Barrington, 1600 E. Main Street, Barrington, IL 60010 (map)

How much:  $20 per person/$50 per family

Click HERE for a flyer for this event.

You don’t want to miss this!

In the previous article, we looked at the first two myths about neutrality in education:

• Myth #1: Neutrality is possible.
• Myth #2: Neutrality is acceptable.

Let’s move on now to the third of the Neutrality Myths. 

Myth #3: Neutrality Is About Facts; Worldview Is About Spin

This myth may not be as pervasive as the first two, but I wonder if it may affect some Christian parents. It’s the wrong idea that neutrality is all about facts and that anyone who brings a worldview to the discussion is going to skew or spin the truth.

Yes, it’s true that some worldviews distort, ignore, or manufacture their own “facts.” In truth, all worldviews except Christianity are guilty of getting some facts wrong. But we must never forget that the Christian worldview is, in reality, true. It is not neutral, but it is true. This is a key distinction and one we must understand. Presenting our children with a distinctively Christian education is not a disservice to them, as if they won’t understand the real world if they are taught according to the Bible. Indeed, only Christians can properly understand the world, because Christianity—the biblical worldview—is all about reality.

Chuck Colson and Nancy Pearcey point out in their book How Now Shall We Live? that every worldview follows a three-part grid: Creation (how did we get here?), Fall (what is the problem with the world?), and Redemption (what is the solution to mankind’s problems?). Only Christianity offers the correct answers to these questions and thus gives us an accurate view of the world around us.

The greatest truths in the world are that God exists, He has spoken, and He has sent His Son in the person of Jesus Christ to redeem a lost world marred by sin. This is true reality, and God intends that these truths shape everything about our lives. For the Christian, neutrality must retreat in the face of this truth.

God is the Author of all truth. Thus, an education centered on a correct understanding of God and His Word will never be neutral, but it will be factual, truthful, and an accurate representation of the world as it really is.

This brings us full circle to my opening point in Part 1 that we often overlook the significance of education in the lives of our children. Neutrality tells us the ultimate meaning of nothing and tries to keep us from taking sides, even if truth demands it. We would never think of joining a neutral church nor of being a neutral family. So why is it that we believe neutrality in education is no big deal? Why do we take such a large slice of our children’s lives and say it doesn’t really matter what the content is or how it is presented? We have lost sight of what education is meant to be.

A True Education

Biblically speaking, education is not meant to be a purely intellectual transfer of facts from one mind to another. God is certainly not anti-intellectual; He does, after all, command us to love Him with our minds as well as our hearts. But to reduce education to a completely intellectual pursuit is to make it something God never intended it to be.

Let’s go back to the study of history as an example. In Psalm 78:4–8 we read:

We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments: and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.

We see here an overtly spiritual purpose to the typically intellectual (and secular) study of history. In God’s model, the study of history involves the mind and the heart. As knowledge of their past was gained, the goal was for children to learn of God and follow Him. The heart and mind were both engaged.

Israel Wayne points out in his book Full-Time Parenting that, biblically speaking, education is discipleship. In other words, education is meant to be something more than the mere transfer of information. As planned by God, it is meant to be transformational, impacting the complete person, both mind and heart.

If this is true, then we have a clear mandate to center education on God and His truth. Even academic subjects should be taught within a biblical framework. This means that attempted neutrality, rather than being desirable or acceptable, should be banished. God calls us to something far higher.

Moving Boldly Forward

If we are to raise up a generation that is everything God desires it to be, we must reject convictionless education. We must reject the idea that our public schools are neutral and that neutrality would be acceptable even if it were possible. We must embrace the biblical concept of education, which is to shape and mold our children’s hearts as well as their minds. And we must stand boldly on the Word of God, centering our educational efforts on God’s eternal truth. We must teach our children in the fear of the Lord, for it is this—and not a hollow mask of neutrality—that is the foundation of all wisdom and knowledge.

A Night With Rev. Franklin Graham!
At this year’s annual IFI banquet, our keynote speaker will be none other than Rev. Franklin Graham, President & CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Christian evangelist & missionary. This year’s event will be at the Tinley Park Convention Center on Nov. 1st. You don’t want to miss this special evening!

Learn more HERE.

What grounds human dignity? Without the answers that the Christian ideas of inherent dignity and equality provide, the culture turns to sex.

In the first session at the 2019 IFI Worldview Conference, John Stonestreet spoke on what it means to be human. In his second lecture, available here, he speaks on the sexual revolution and how culture has completely sexualized their answer to what it means to be human. After identifying the three major ideas of the sexual revolution, Stonestreet presents the redeemed reality of these ideas in light of the human dignity God has given us.

Please watch and share this video (1 of 5) with your family. This presentation is a great opportunity for group study and discussion.

You can watch this presentation on the IFI YouTube channel, and find the other worldview sessions here.

Background

John Stonestreet serves as president of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. He’s a sought-after author and speaker on areas of faith and culture, theology, worldview, education and apologetics. John is the daily voice of BreakPoint, the nationally syndicated commentary on  the culture founded by the late Chuck Colson.

Before coming to the Colson Center in 2010, John served in various leadership capacities with Summit Ministries and was on the biblical studies faculty at Bryan College (TN). John has co-authored four books: A Practical Guide to Culture, Restoring All Things, Same-Sex Marriage, and Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN). He and his wife, Sarah, have four children and live in Colorado Springs, CO.

You can follow him on Twitter @jbstonestreet.

A bold voice for pro-family values in Illinois!

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Written by John Stonestreet and Roberto Rivera

Forty years ago, a group of evangelical leaders and scholars took a clear and unapologetic stand on a fundamental tenet of the faith.

This month marks the fortieth anniversary of the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, which was signed in October of 1978 by more than 200 evangelical leaders, including R.C. Sproul, J.I. Packer, and Francis Schaeffer.

The Chicago Statement was not only a landmark document in evangelical history, it played an important role in the work of the late Chuck Colson and our ongoing work at the Colson Center.

Here’s a bit of history to set the stage. If there was one phrase that summed up the ethos of the late 1960s and early 1970s, it was “Question Authority.” The phrase emerged out of opposition to the Vietnam War and Watergate, but then it spread well beyond the world of politics into various arenas of culture, even into the church.

We know, for example, the story of how liberal “mainline” churches doubted the Bible and its claims of supernatural miracles. But the culture-wide distrust of authority crept into Evangelicalism, as well, which has—given its diversity and independent congregations—kind of always struggled with ecclesial authority.

Phrases such as “Christianity isn’t a religion; it’s a relationship” entered the lexicon and became an excuse for some to radically privatize the faith, to reject historical teaching, and even embrace new ways of reading and interpreting the Bible.

For instance, a survey of students at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in the mid-70s found that the longer a student attended the seminary, the less likely he was to agree with the statement “Jesus is the Divine Son of God and I have no doubts about it.”

In 1971, messengers at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting passed a resolution that supported abortion, not only in cases of rape and incest, but also in cases where there is “clear evidence of severe fetal deformity, and carefully ascertained evidence of the likelihood of damage to the emotional, mental, and physical health of the mother.”

This was just two years before Roe v. Wade.

I don’t mean to pile on the SBC. First, by no means were they alone… this stuff was in the air. Second, the SBC has since experienced quite a renewal, which is at least partly due to the Chicago Statement.

The Statement was about more than a particular way of reading and interpreting the Bible: It was an unequivocal assertion of biblical authority over the lives of believers and the Church, in an age when all authority was being questioned.

It was an unequivocal assertion that Christianity, while it does involve a relationship with God, is also a “religion,” in the original sense of the Latin word “religio,” which means “bond,” “obligation,” and “reverence.” It’s a faith, in other words, with content, not just a warm fuzzy feeling.

Anyone who followed Chuck Colson can see how he was indebted to this effort. For him, Christianity was objectively true, and that truth could be communicated to others, both inside and outside the Church.

And the primary way God had revealed truth to His Church was the Scriptures. Not personal experience, and certainly not popular intellectual fads.

The need to reassert biblical authority may be more urgent today than it was forty years ago. When we hear things like “the Gospel is about radical inclusivity,” that just means the Gospel is being defined without Scripture. When we hear that “Jesus would’ve baked the cake,” that Jesus is not the Jesus of Scripture.  When we hear, “It’s a relationship, not a religion” still, that often means we are ignoring the significant portions of Scripture that describe the people God is calling out to restore and activate for His Kingdom.

This article originally posted at BreakPoint.org

There are some battles in which all Christians and all who are committed to truth are called to engage: all Christians should have opposed slavery; all Christians should have fought for the civil rights of blacks; all Christians are called to oppose abortion; and we are all called to oppose the rancorous, pernicious demands to affirm the pro-homosexuality/pro-“trans” ideologies.

In his book Kingdoms in Conflict, Chuck Colson writes about the failure of the church to oppose the extermination of Jews and the government usurpation of control of the church in Nazi Germany. Immediately following the naming of Hitler as Chancellor of Germany, the persecution of the church began in earnest. In response, a resistance movement sprang up headed by Martin Niemoller and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Initially, they had the support of the dominant Protestant group, the German Evangelical Church, but as the persecution increased, so did the cowardice and concomitant rationalization of cowardice on the parts of most church leaders. In Germany only a remnant, who came to call themselves the Confessing Church, remained standing courageously in the gap for truth.

The German Evangelical Church acted in ways virtually all Christians now view as ignoble, selfish, and cowardly:

• Pastors resigned from the resistance out of fear that they might lose their positions in the church.

• Frightened by the boldness of the resistance movement, church leaders issued public statements of support for Hitler and the Third Reich.

• Some pastors believed that a “‘more reasonable tone would be more honoring to those with different views.'” One bishop told Martin Niemoller that those pastors who refused to join the resistance were “‘trying to bring peace to the church'” rather than “‘seem like… troublemakers.'” In response, Niemoller asked “‘What does it matter how we look in Germany compared with how we look in Heaven?'” The bishop responded, “‘We cannot pronounce judgment on all the ills of society. Most especially we ought not single out the one issue that the government is so sensitive about.'”

• In a conversation with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one young pastor justified capitulation like this: “‘[T]here are no pastorates for those of us who will not cooperate. What is the good in preaching if you have no congregation? Where will this noncooperation lead us? We are no longer a recognized body; we have no government assistance; we cannot care for the souls in the armed forces or give religion lessons in schools. What will become of the church if that continues? A heap of rubble!'”

What is alarming about the account of the German Evangelical Church’s reprehensible failure is its similarity to the ongoing disheartening story of the contemporary American church’s failure to respond appropriately to the spread of radical, heretical, destructive views of homosexuality and biological sex. Don’t we today see church leaders self-censoring out of fear of losing their positions or their church members? Don’t we hear churches criticizing those who boldly confront the efforts of homosexual and “trans” activists to propagandize children and undermine the church’s teaching on sexuality? Aren’t the calls of the capitulating German Christians for “a more reasonable tone” and a commitment to “honor different views” exactly like the calls of today’s church to be tolerant and honor “diversity”? Don’t pastors justify their silence by claiming they fear losing their tax-exempt status (i.e., government assistance)? Don’t they rationalize inaction by claiming that speaking out will prevent them from saving souls?

What is even more reprehensible in America, however, is that church leaders don’t currently face loss of livelihood, imprisonment, exile, or death, as they did in Germany, and yet they remain silent.

The church’s failure to respond adequately to the relentless and ubiquitous promulgation of profoundly sinful ideas reveals an unbiblical doubt in the sovereignty of God; an unconscionable refusal to protect children; a willful ignorance of history; and a selfish unwillingness to experience the persecution and hatred that God has promised the followers of Christ that we will experience and that we should consider joy.

But who do we look to for inspiration today? Is it the cowardly, apostate, accommodationist, jejune, impotent, emasculated church that feebly attempts to justify its refusal to speak, or is it God’s church, that which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., William Wilberforce, Martin Niemoller, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer loved and sacrificed their comfort and lives to defend?

We reassure ourselves that if we had lived during the age of slavery or in Germany during the rise of Nazism or during the post-Civil War era when virulent racism still poisoned American life, we would never have stood idly by and done nothing, but I’m not so sure. Look at the church’s actions today when homosexuality and gender confusion are affirmed to and in our nation’s children through our public schools using our hard-earned money. Where is the church when confused and deceived men are being castrated? Where is the outrage when teens are being chemically sterilized and children are forced to share locker rooms with opposite-sex persons? Where are the church leaders who rejoice in being persecuted?

I’ve asked this question before and I will ask it again: How depraved do the ideas have to be and how young the victims to whom these ideas are disseminated before the church, starting with those who have freely chosen to assume the mantle of pastor or priest, will both feel and express outrage at the indecent, cruel, and evil practice of using public money to affirm body- and soul-destroying ideas to children?

Will the contemporary American church rise to this occasion to defend children and biblical truth, or will we become like the acquiescent church that failed to help William Wilberforce battle the slave trade, or the atrophied “moderate white church” that failed to help Martin Luther King Jr. battle racism, or the apostate Protestant church in Nazi Germany that failed to help Martin Niemoller and Dietrich Bonhoeffer battle Nazism?

I have learned over the past nine years that many “progressives” are inept at thinking analogically or logically, so I want to make clear what I’m saying and not saying. I am not comparing homosexuals and “trans”-identified persons to Nazis. I’m comparing cowardly, rationalizing religious leaders in Germany during the Nazi reign of terror to cowardly, rationalizing religious leaders in America today who would face little to no persecution for speaking truth to power.

The question as to why so many Christians, including church leaders, refuse to engage in this battle is a vexing question. Leon Podles provided one answer to that vexing question in an article entitled “Unhappy Fault: on the Integration of Anger into the Virtuous Life” that  appeared in Touchstone magazine in 2009. Podles, author of the books The Church Impotent: The Feminization of Christianity and Sacrilege, senior editor of Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity, and founder of the Crossland Foundation, argues that “Christians have a false understanding of the nature and role of anger. It is seen as something negative, something that a Christian should not feel.” This false understanding infects the church and prevents it from being salt and light in a fallen, suffering world and that renders the church complicit in the destruction of countless lives.

He expresses what should be obvious: we should “feel deep anger at evil, at the violation of the innocent, at the oppression of the weak.”

Podles describes the suppression of hatred and anger as “emotional deformation” and exhorts the church to remember that “growth in virtue,” which must include the integration of “all emotions, including anger and hate,” is the “goal of the Christian’s moral life.”

Dr. Podles quotes Catholic psychiatrist Conrad Baars who had been a prisoner under the Nazi regime:

‘[T]here is a difference between a person who knows solely that something is evil and ought to be opposed and the one who in addition also feels hate for the evil, is angry that it is corrupting or harming fellow-men, and feels aroused to combat it courageously and vigorously.’

How often do we hear in our churches anything akin to the idea expressed by early church father John Chrysostom: “‘He who is not angry, whereas he has cause to be, sins. For unreasonable patience is the hotbed of many vices, it fosters negligence, and incites not only the wicked but the good to do wrong.'”

And wouldn’t the church and society look very different if they embodied Dr. Podles’ conviction that “sorrow at evil without anger at evil is a fault.”

Please read his critical article, forward it to friends, and send it to your church leaders.

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Anger-and-the-Church.mp3

PLEASE consider a financial gift to IFI to sustain our work.
We’ve stood firm for 25 years, work diligently to accomplish our mission to
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Millennials and many of their parents in the church today are largely biblically illiterate. What will this ignorance of Scripture produce in our culture? How will this affect the church?

Most of our colleges and universities were started by Christians for the advancement of Christianity and focused on the Bible. Schools used the Bible, and even subject-matter books included many biblical quotations and references. Dr. Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of Independence, penned in 1791 an impassioned defense of the use of the Bible in America’s schools:

“The only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty; and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments….and yet we neglect the only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government, that is, the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity, by means of the Bible; for this divine book, above all others favors that equality among mankind, that respect for just laws.”

But 21st century America is not 17th century America. The 1960’s saw the U.S. Supreme Court take Bible-reading and prayer out of our public schools. Today we can’t post the Ten Commandments in our schools, and they’re being removed from public buildings.

Biblical literacy and a solid Christian worldview are vitally important. Biblical illiteracy will contribute to an increase in corruption of every sort, including sexual immorality and lawlessness.

Christian parents and grandparents must commit to ensuring that their children and grandchildren grow up with a fluent knowledge and understanding of God’s Word. Teach it, memorize it, meditate on it, and live it.

The great Christian leader Chuck Colson affirmed the importance of firmly establishing a Christian worldview:

Why is it so important to have a Christian worldview? Because Christianity gives us a map to reality, an outline of the world the way it really is: God’s moral and physical order. And if we want to make our way effectively through life, to live in accord with reality, we have to follow the map.

A Christian worldview also helps us defend our faith, giving us the language to explain why Christian ethics is good for society, or why a biblical view of human nature is essential to sound public policy.

In the service of helping families in their efforts to firmly establish and maintain a biblical worldview, IFI is hosting worldview conferences. How do we think about the issues of the day? Do we think clearly and biblically about the issues, or is there something clouding or contaminating our understanding?  Are we buying into lies and distortions of the culture, or are we able to discern fact from fiction, truth from deception?

Having a consistent Christian worldview has never been more important than it is now as our culture is rapidly embracing a secular, non-biblical value system.

Join us for a wonderful opportunity to take enhance your biblical worldview and equip you to more effectively engage the culture:

What:  IFI Worldview Conference with Dr. Wayne Grudem

When:  Saturday, February 20^th, 10 AM to 3:30 PM

Where:  Village Church of Barrington, 1600 E. Main St., Barrington, IL 60010 (map)

How much:  $20 per person/$50 per family

Seating is limited, so please register early.  Register online or call the IFI office during normal business hours at (708) 781-9328.

Click HERE for an event flyer.

If you begin singing the tune “Amazing Grace,” in church, on the street, or while sitting in a Starbucks, practically everyone around you would recognize the song. But if you asked those same people who John Newton was, they’d probably have no idea. And yet, the life of the slave ship captain turned Christian abolitionist and hymn writer is one of the most amazing lives ever lived.

That’s why I was so thrilled to attend the opening night performance of “Amazing Grace”—a musical about John Newton’s life—at Chicago’s Bank of America Theater. As someone who has seen many a Broadway production, I would have to say that Amazing Grace is one of the most incredible plays I have ever seen. It is a first-rate example of why Christians MUST become more active in the arts.

The musical tells the story of how young John Newton, a brutal slave ship captain, underwent a spiritual transformation when his ship nearly sank during a storm off the coast of Ireland in 1748. As the ship filled with water, Newton cried out to God to save him. After he’d returned to England, Newton eventually joined William Wilberforce in the long effort to abolish the British slave trade.

As a writer myself, I’m especially impressed with how the creators of Amazing Grace have created a story that’s historically accurate, but which also flows the way a theatrical musical production must flow. The young actor who plays John Newton, Josh Young, is a staggering voice and talent—in fact, he’s probably got the strongest voice I have heard on a stage.

Let me also say that the ending of the first act is one of the most incredible things I have ever seen in the theater. I won’t spoil it for you, but it involves Newton’s rescue from the storm that causes him to turn to God. The moment is visually magnificent, one of those things you’ll never forget and will tell everyone about once you’ve seen it. It’s stagecraft at its finest.

The musical also does a great job describing the love story between John Newton and his childhood sweetheart, Mary Catlett, who longs for Newton’s conversion. But Amazing Grace doesn’t sugarcoat the horrors of the slave trade, nor the role that Africans themselves had in selling their own people to white slave traders.

The play brings in God, but in such a way that playgoers will feel attracted to Him—so it’s absolutely not a play only believers will be interested in seeing. Christians will love it, yes, but it’s also the perfect play to bring a nonbeliever to. And that is incredibly rare.

At the end of the show, the entire cast and audience sing “Amazing Grace” together. And that is an experience I will never forget.

Chuck Colson often said that Christians must be engaged in the arts, because our gifts witness to the truth of God’s love and salvation to people who would never think of setting foot in a church. In effect, their defenses are down, and their hearts more likely to be open to the truth.

Plays like Amazing Grace come along only about once a decade, if we’re lucky. If you live anywhere near Chicago, you’ve got to see it. But you’ve got to act fast because the show is scheduled through this Sunday only. I don’t know where the play is headed next, but when I find out, I’ll be sure to let you know.

So get a ticket. Take your church youth group if you can. Take your non-believing friends and then talk about the play’s meaning over a late dinner. Be ready to answer their questions about the hour YOU first believed, and the meaning behind those immortal words: I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.”

Amazing Grace Amazingly Staged: Why Christians Must Be Involved in the Arts
This is a great opportunity for believers to support artistic efforts that are well-crafted, well-produced, and provide a positive influence within the arts community. If you live in the Chicago area or you’re going to be nearby, go see the musical Amazing Grace. Details below.

Amazing Grace: The Song the World Knows, the Story it Doesn’t
Bank of America Theater, Chicago

John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace
Jonathan Aitken, Philip Yancey | Crossway | May 2013

Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery
Eric Metaxas | HarperOne | February 2007

For years now, anti-Christian activists have been pushing the hate button and accusing those of us who hold to biblical morality and family values of being intolerant, hate-filled bigots (and worse).

But this strategy, seen most recently in the attack on godly twin brothers, Jason and David Benham, will inevitably defeat itself. After all, when the alleged victims are the bullies and the alleged tolerant ones are full of bigotry, their rhetoric cannot be taken seriously.

Back in 2008, as Californians voted to preserve marriage with the Proposition 8 marriage amendment, the amendment was quickly dubbed Prop Hate, as if the only way anyone could believe that marriage was the union of a man and woman was if they were full of hate.

But that was only the beginning. In Sacramento, demonstrators held signs reading: 

• Prop 8=American Taliban
• Ban Bigots
• Majority Vote Doesn’t Matter
• 52%=Nazi [this referred to the 52-48% vote in favor of Prop 8]
• Don’t Silence the Christians, Feed Them 2 the Lions
• Your Rights Are Next

Taliban? Nazis? Feed them to the lions?

This kind of demonization will only defeat itself in the long run exposing who the real bigots are.

In the last week, as soon as my newest book was released, I was accused of being the incarnation of the late Fred Phelps (infamous for his “God hates fags” protests), as well as branded the leader of my own “religious cult” that “requires human sacrifices.” (I’m not making this up.)

So, by writing a book filled with compassion and speaking of God’s great love for those who identify as LGBT, also urging the Church to recognize the unique struggles faced by those with same-sex attractions, I have become a hate-filled bigot and cult leader.

It’s like calling Shaquille O’Neal small or Bill Gates poor.

At some point reality kicks in – in this case, the moment someone reads the first pages of my book (or the middle pages or the last pages) – and instead of advancing their cause, the anti-Christian activists undermine their own.

In a blog post entitled, “The homophobic rantings of Michael L Brown,” Jay H. wrote, “Fred Phelps is dead. Long live Fred Phelps, apparently. Or rather his new incarnation: Michael L. Brown.”

Unfortunately for Jay H., when people actually read my book, rather than “homophobic rantings,” they find the opposite. As one reader noted, “[Brown] . . . freely uses life testimonies of people who were divinely delivered from homosexuality, and others NOT divinely delivered from homosexuality. This isn’t cherry-picked propaganda here…there are sections in this book that are very sobering for [an] evangelical believer to read.”

And so, readers quickly realize that I am no more the new Fred Phelps than I’m the new Michael Jordan, and the anti-Christian rhetoric exposes itself.

That’s what is happening with my good friends David and Jason Benham, Christian businessmen and committed husbands and fathers.

They were about to be the stars of a new reality show on HGTV that featured them helping hurting families get their dream homes, until a single post on RightWingWatch caused HGTV to pull the plug. (For those unfamiliar with RightWingWatch, the website is a project of Norman Lear’s ultra-liberal People for the American Way. The website references Christian family activist Phyllis Schafly 351 times, conservative political leader Gary Bauer 334 times, President Ronald Reagan 111 times, author Chuck Colson 57 times, and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas 37 times, just to give a few examples. You can be sure most all of the references were not flattering.)

Shortly after HGTV announced its decision, a young man on YouTube opined that the Benham brothers were “the textbook definition of a psychopath” and that “they have no feelings, no consideration for other people.”

The problem, of course, is that the moment you get to know David and Jason – or even watch them on a TV interview for a few minutes or see them interacting with their families – you realize that they are not the ones who need help. It’s the young man on YouTube who needs help, and I can guarantee that if they had the opportunity, the Benhams would reach out to him directly to show him the love of God. (When I played part of this YouTube clip for Jason on my radio show, he responded with real compassion and concern.)

But it’s not just some anonymous YouTuber who is spouting such extreme, self-disqualifying anti-Christian rhetoric.

Dan Savage, a leading gay activist (and sex columnist) supported HGTV’s decision, comparing the Benham’s pro-family viewpoints to “white people” who used to “go on TV and say the most racist [expletive] imaginable (argue against legal interracial marriage, argue in favor of segregation) and keep their jobs and be invited back on TV to say that [expletive] a second time.”

Savage facetiously remarked that “hating the [expletive] out of gay people is something all Christians have in common,” titling his blog, “HGTV Cancels Reality Show After Twin Stars Anti-Gay Activism and Rabid Homophobia Exposed.”

What is rabid, however, is not the position of the Benhams. It is Dan Savage’s militant and vicious anti-Christian rhetoric that is rabid, and so, when reasonable, thinking people listen to Savage and to the Benham brothers, it’s easy to see who is filled with hate and who is filled with love.

Eventually, as those who claim to be champions of tolerance and diversity continue their crusade to silence and defame those who differ with them, they will ultimately defeat themselves.

Watch and see.

This article was originally posted at the TownHall.com blog.