How to Uphold God’s Truth in These Angry, Troubled Times
PETER W. TEAGUE
In recent months, the political divide on the national scene appears to be widening. Instead of listening to one another and seeking to understand differing viewpoints, we often talk over each other and raise our voices with massive assistance from social media. As followers of Christ, I wonder what could happen if we let his light shine brighter in our daily lives, especially amid a society filled with mixed messages, deceitful schemes, and blatant disrespect for authority and established norms.
We need a more gracious discourse, a less extreme and polarized posture, and a more gracious and generous concern for one another.
Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University and author of the new book “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” recently wrote, “We are living through an age of rage. It is not our first, but it may be the most dangerous such period in our history.”
The good news is that the cause of Christ will ultimately triumph, irrespective of our political agendas or worldviews. Because God is sovereign, his will and purposes are accomplished independent of our plans, programs or methods. Rather than evaluating our lives quantitatively, our duty is to faithfully proclaim, live and teach the Gospel, imparting a biblical worldview to the next generation. God does not call us to escape the world or conquer it — he calls us to engage it and transform it.
Poet and essayist T.S. Eliot, who underwent a deep faith experience in his late 30s, wrote that we must think “in Christian categories.” Reflecting on this, I believe it calls us to develop a reflex that interprets life through biblical principles, echoing Paul’s directive to “take every thought captive” and measure it against God’s standards (2 Corinthians 10:5). Thinking in Christian categories means viewing the world through the mind of Christ, understanding it from a biblical perspective that encompasses creation, the fall, redemption and restoration.
In this era of crumbling foundations, when daily challenges — financial strains, political polarization, societal division and assaults on our beliefs — threaten us externally and internally, it’s easy to lose sight of the Creator who spoke the world into existence. I am reminded of the story in Matthew 14:22-23, which told of Jesus walking on water, and Peter, distracted by his circumstances, beginning to sink.
The disciples had been sent ahead across the Sea of Galilee while Jesus spent some time alone in prayer. During their voyage, they experienced headwinds and rough seas. Then Jesus came to them walking on the water. Peter responded to Christ’s invitation to walk to Jesus across the waves. He did just fine until the moment he took his eyes off his Savior and diverted his focus to his own physical circumstances. As Peter began to sink, Jesus gently rebuked him by saying, “You of little faith. Why did you doubt?” Like Peter, we must maintain our focus on Christ amid challenges to avoid faltering.
It is crucial for every Christian in times of political rhetoric and rage to remain steadfast. We serve a God who brings order out of chaos and remains unshaken. Thus, our path forward is clear: Rather than despair, we fix our eyes on Jesus, maintaining unwavering faith and living through the challenge of the day. Our outlook must remain centered on Christ, rooted in Scripture, and dedicated to fulfilling God’s purpose, steadfast in making disciples who reflect Christ’s love to a broken world. We do so by heeding the words found in Titus 3:2: “to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy to all people.”
In an era reminiscent of post-Christian declines in North America and Europe, we should recall the words of the apostle Paul, in 2 Timothy 4:1-8, which described the type of life God honors. He warned of a time when people would reject sound teaching and pursue self-serving doctrines.
In response, Paul charged Timothy — and by extension, us today — to do the following:
— Preach God’s word faithfully amid confusion and contradictory messages.
— Stand firm in the truth, willing to defend it even at personal cost.
— Live out God’s word, maintaining fidelity to God’s truth as our defense.
Twentieth-century Scottish theologian William Barclay’s prayer beautifully encapsulates our ongoing need to remain rooted in truth and discerning against falsehood: “Grant, o God, that no false teaching may ever have any power to deceive us or to seduce us from the truth. ... God, our Father, establish us immovably in the truth. Give us minds which can see at once the difference between the true and the false; make us able to test everything, and to hold fast to that which is good; give us such a love of truth, that no false thing may ever be able to lure us from it. So grant that all our lives we may know, and love, and live the truth, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.”
These words remind us of our call to uphold God’s truth in a world desperate for his light and clarity. May God find us regularly praying together in our families and with one another for our country, and for his protection and wisdom, now and in the coming months.
Peter Teague served for two decades as president of Lancaster Bible College. He currently serves as a member of the IACE Board of Directors.