Back in April I posted on preaching Christ crucified in the midst of a culture in moral decline. Since then not much has improved. If anything, recent news developments are cause for even greater angst. Today, I encouraged my heart with 2 Corinthians 10:4 which says, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” We Christians wage war on our knees. However, there is also a time to act. With that, I am re-publishing my April post with a few minor changes:

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to perceive the rapid moral decline in our society. From the redefinition of marriage, a sex-obsessed culture charmed by everything promiscuous and perverted, to government corruption, and corporations governed by recklessness and greed – we are in a free fall. The abortion industry commits unspeakable violence against the defenseless, murdering millions of innocent unborn souls. The threat of Islamic terrorism and jihad has never been so real to this country as it is now. Evil is called good and good is called evil. Truth has stumbled in the streets. All the meanwhile many professed Christians are content to operate in the safe-zone of “good works” and “political correctness.”

The temptation to lose heart and grow discouraged is great. I know I am not alone in my identification with Lot when Peter described him as being tormented in soul “over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard.” (2 Peter 2:8) What is vile is honored among us. What is evil freely flaunts itself and struts about. For many of us, the downward spiral is accelerating at such a rapid rate our heads are spinning.

How can we reverse this? What are we to do in the face of it? There is only one answer: We are to preach Christ crucified. Why? Because the “Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” (Romans 1:16) Nothing in the entire universe has the power to transform but the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This means that the Church will have to drop every crutch and empty herself of everything that reeks of the flesh and the earth. Christians will stand with fear and trembling – and like Paul, we will pray for the boldness to preach a “crucified Christ” to a hostile world.

Truth be told, I don’t have much confidence in my own ability to do this. I know myself too well. But, I take heart in the words of my Savior. “But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)