Foundations In Times Like These
October 1, 1999
Ministry in the mid-seventeenth century was tough, particularly if you were an Anglican priest. The Cromwellian revolution, having toppled the reign of Charles I, proceeded
to divest the monarchy of its power and influence. Since the king was the head of
the state church, Anglicanism got caught in the fury of the overthrow. In the midst of this turmoil, a tribute was written to the local pastor of
the Harold Church in the village of Staunton, England. It remains today on
the wall of the church and reads, "In the year 1653, when all things sacred
were throughout the nation destroyed or profaned, this church was built to
the glory of God by Sir Robert Shirley whose singular praise it was to have
done the best of things in the worst of times." As bad as our times may seem, they are not the worst of times. No
one is throwing us to lions or burning us on lampposts. But these are challenging
days for those committed to engaging this culture with the claims of Christ.
If we want it said of us that we have done the "best of things" in our times,
we must understand the nature of these times and know what to do. In the larger picture, only one thing has changed: God has been moved from
public prominence to the privacy of an individual's conscience. This
marginalization of the Divine has left our culture void of a moral center
and, as Francis Schaeffer said, with no "true truth" to provide the basis
for consensus and moral authority. With God out of view, relativism and pluralism filled the void and there
are no longer absolutes to guide and define behavior. In his analysis of
this new world without limits, Carl Henry observes, "Our generation is lost
to the truth of God, to the reality of divine revelation, to the content
of ...
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