TRAGIC CONSEQUENCES: The Price America is Paying for Rejecting God and How to Reclaim Our Culture for Christ
Our new book, Tragic Consequences: The Price America is Paying for Rejecting God and How to Reclaim Our Culture for Christ, was written for people who are concerned about the cultural decline they see all around them, people who watch the nightly news and ask themselves, “What is happening to our country?” It seems we have become a nation of people who are offended by everything but sin. One sin in particular—abortion—has Americans on both sides of the issue energized. The leak from the Supreme Court has abortion advocates riled up and marching in the streets. Abortion is the first issue we confront in our new book.
What is happening to our country is simple to explain but sad observe: We are seeing what a culture of sin—a culture without Christ at its center—looks like. It is a culture of darkness and depravity, a culture lacking in moral restraint, and a culture where life has little or no value. It is a culture where people not only condone abortion, but celebrate it. It is a culture where murdering innocent unborn children is casually passed off as a woman right. “My body, my choice” has become mantra among abortion advocates. In our new book we make the point, it’s not your body. You didn’t create it, nor did you earn it. Your body is a gift from God to be treated with the respect and dignity such a gift deserves. We make the further point that there are two bodies involved in an abortion: the mother’s and the child’s and it is our responsibility to speak for and protect innocent children who cannot speak for or protect themselves.
Because of sin, America’s culture has declined to the point where human life has selective value, abortion is celebrated, politics reside in the gutter, children are sold into sexual slavery, corruption is rife, mob violence is condoned, road rage is common, pornography is widespread, there’s an epidemic of drug abuse and overdoses, the traditional family is dissolving, the teen suicide is rate horrific and rising, and some Americans actually celebrate evil.
Do you feel helpless in the face of the darkening culture surrounding you? Many people do, believers and unbelievers alike. That is the bad news. The good news is you are not helpless—far from it. There is much individual Christians and churches can do to reclaim the culture for Christ by faithfully, consistently, and persistently carrying out the Great Commission and the Greatest Commandment. Tragic Consequences offers specific strategies individual Christians and churches can employ to turn America from the path of destruction to the path of salvation.
Every day anti-God ideologues and organizations scheme to remove all vestiges of Christianity from a nation founded on biblical principles and Christian values. Worse yet, they have made enormous progress. The more progress they make, the more America’s culture—a culture once centered on Christ—is blighted by sin. It is time for Christians to heed the admonishment in Matthew 28:19 to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” This is the most important thing we can do to encourage a nationwide tidal wave of repentance, the first step in reclaiming the culture for Christ. Our first step is prayer, the most powerful weapon in the Christian arsenal, followed without gap by action.
We have reached a point in our nation’s history when Christians must stand up and be counted before it is too late. The coarsening of our culture is happening because Americans who reject God and accept sin are using the courts and other avenues of attack to drive God further from our culture. Christians cannot justify sitting back and letting this happen. Believers who remain silent about sin and the resultant cultural decline are part of the problem. They are complicit in the decline.
Silence in the face of evil is not just ill-advised, it’s sin. This is the message in James 4:17, “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” If those of us who have given our hearts to Christ won’t stand up for Him, who will? If those of us who profess Christianity won’t show our neighbors a better way, who will?
The prevailing culture in our country has declined over time because anti-God ideologues who endorse sinful lifestyles are succeeding in driving Christ out of the lives of Americans. Further, the Christian community has not always done as much as we should to defend against attacks on God and religious freedom.
A lot of individual Americans reject God and accept sin, but they do not stop there. At the same time, they work through the courts, public education, the media, the entertainment industry, anti-God organizations, and institutions of higher education to systematically drive God out. Tragic Consequences explains how this is being done, what you can do about it as an individual Christian, and what your church can do to help reclaim the culture for Christ.
Our new book will equip you and your church to speak the truth in love to people whose actions or lack of action are contributing to the cultural darkness we see all around us. A message repeated over and over in this book is: Don’t condemn, but don’t condone. Rather, share the truth about the inevitable and predicable consequences of sin with those who reject God and point them to Christ as the only way to dispel the cultural darkness engulfing America. When it comes to abortion, rather than march in protest, provide alternatives for pregnant women.
Oliver North’s and David Goetsch’s new book Tragic Consequences is available for pre-order now at most online retailers, and discounted at www.faithfultext.com.