How do you change the world?

With the Great Reformation in the 16th century, came one of the most powerful social revivals in history. It can be successfully argued that all the great advances in Western civilization we take for granted today arose out of the Biblical presuppositions of the great Reformers; i.e., the rule of Law, representative government, liberty of conscience, and the right of free men to live their own lives without the interference of a tyrannical State.

A Civilization at the Crossroads

But the Church forgot her past, and Western nations began to lose the blessings that came from their Christian Heritage. The Church traded the unchanging truths of God’s Word, for the latest scientific or philosophical fad, and turned culture and civilization over to the Materialists, the Scientists and the Humanists.

We are now experiencing the fruit of a 150-year experiment in godlessness. The twentieth century saw Fascism and Marxism slaughter hundreds of millions of people to achieve their humanist ideals. Western nations have sunk into cesspits of corruption, vice, wickedness and evil. The social order is collapsing as murder, abortion, prostitution, immorality and AIDS are destroying entire generations. Humanistic presuppositions have proven to be inadequate to halt social disintegration. It is no longer a matter of Christians seeking revival, but rather of survival in the difficult years ahead.

Sadly, for the most part, the Church today has become so compromised, so acculturated, so fearful of men, that she will not take the steps necessary to bring about a new reformation. When the world needs a prophetic word from the Lord, too often we give them the compromised words of men. When Christians should be proclaiming the crown rights of King Jesus, instead, we eat, meet, and retreat. We fear men more than God and bend over backwards to make our churches acceptable to the unregenerate. Most Christians today have allowed their light to grow dim, and their salt to lose its savor.

The Church is the bride of Christ, the divine organization given authority to disciple the nations. Yet, when faced with the unrelenting assault of Humanism in its various forms, many Christians are practicing schizophrenics, believing one thing on Sunday, but practicing something completely different in the “real” word on Monday.

The Bible and the Future

Many Christians today do not believe that a truly Christian culture is either possible, or desirable. However, the thoughtful Believer will be thankful that our ancestors did not accept this view. They believed that the reign of Christ was over every area of life. Hence, they fought against tyranny, ended slavery, built strong, representative governments and ushered in the most productive, and prosperous era of human history. They conquered the Roman Empire, evangelized the pagan tribes of Europe, and halted the barbarian hordes. They left home and families to settle new continents for Christ. It is no accident that when Christians abandoned the Cultural Mandate of Genesis 1:28, (reiterated in Matthew 28:19-20) and retreated into a privatized, personal religion, that both the Church and the culture were lost to Humanism.

Regardless of one’s views about when the world will end, all Christians are required to press the Crown Rights of King Jesus. Jesus must be Lord of all, or He is not Lord at all. Thus, Christians must rediscover the mark of true discipleship, that every knee must bow, and every tongue confess, that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

How to Save the Future

The International Institute for Christian Culture is providentially placed to impact whole nations with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Politicians, economists, academics and pastors in many developing nations are hungry for a consistent, coherent and thoroughly Biblical worldview. We have the opportunity to reach and teach them the truth of God’s Word, as Humanist civilization collapses around them. Though our ministry is focused on developing nations, the tools we are developing are essential for preserving what remains of Christian civilization in the West.

As nations in Africa adopt and put into practice the principles we have forgotten, it provides a model, and encouragement to the West to rediscover their own Christian heritage. God’s will, will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven. And His will is that all men bend the knee to King Jesus, acknowledging Him as Lord. If men will not submit to King Jesus, then the societies, in which they live, will be judged (cf. Romans 1:18ff).

Therefore, Christians need to demonstrate that the Humanist system is morally bankrupt and socially suicidal. Rather than retreat from the false gods of this age, modern Christians, like Elijah, need to stand up and challenge them. As the Apostle Paul said, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought, to make it obedient to Christ” (cf. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5). Our task is to declare God’s sovereign rule over every area of life; showing how the Bible relates and applies to every area of life. And if He gives grace, individuals, churches, communities, nations and whole continents can be won to Christ. This was the vision of the ancient Christian Church, and it is the vision of the International Institute for Christian Culture.