Things have changed. The “Four Spiritual Laws” or “Evangelism Explosion” no longer work for many. People are losing their identity. They long for human rights and personal dignity, but these things only come from God the Creator, whom they reject. The Gospel is still the answer, which they unknowingly long to hear. The God who created us in His image restores our fallen identity by the death of His Son, who stood in our place to bear our sin and has become, by grace, our new identity.
A few weeks ago Rush Limbaugh announced that the fastest growing crime in the West is identity theft. It is true that we hear a lot about illegal hacking in the news cycle, as individuals, businesses and even nations have their deepest secrets exposed. But the real crime is the theft of the source of human dignity, namely, the Creator. The removal of God from cultural consciousness, eliminates the true source of human identity. According to a recent study, 91% of adults agree that “the best way to find yourself is by looking within yourself” and 86% say that “to be fulfilled in life, you should pursue the things you desire the most.””[1] The radicals smell imminent victory. Progressive professor Mark Tushnet, of Harvard Law School declares: “The culture wars are over; they lost, we won….taking a hard line (“You lost, live with it”) is better than trying to accommodate the losers.”[2] There will be no accommodations or exceptions.
In once “Christian” Scotland an evangelical youth group from Texas offered a free concert in a shopping center. National newspapers compared this to Nazi or ISIS indoctrination.[3] In these conditions, we are losing the Christian identity of our Western culture but we are also losing our individual identity.
In these new conditions, liberated from God, people believe they can create their own identity–males who think they are female and females who believe they are males, or a 58-year old husband and father who now is sure he is a six-year-old girl.True human identity now depends on how we individually define ourselves sexually.[4] And just recently Hugh Hefner, creator of Playboy, confirms this, declaring the victory of the sexual revolution that he helped begin in the 1960s.[5]
At truthxchange we have often focused on the rise of homosexuality and the presumed right of same-sex attracted people, some within the church, to self-identify as “gay” and to practice homosexual sex legally, thereby denying the image of God as male and female. (See our conference, October 7-9, 2016). However, this is not the only problem. One of the major causes of identity loss is the massive fixation on pornography-even in the Church!
The statistics for Christian men between 18 and 30 years old are particularly striking: 77 percent look at pornography at least monthly; 36 percent view pornography on a daily basis; 32 percent admit being addicted to pornography (and another 12 percent think they may be).[6] In 2016, the Barna Research Group discovered that nearly 40% of “practicing Christians who actively seek out porn” feel comfortable with how much porn they use. Only “1/3 of practicing Christian porn users” say they “feel a sense of guilt when they use porn.” In the culture at large the results on teenage sexting are equally disconcerting for the rising generation. “Teens and young adults [are] coming of age in a culture…that encourages and rewards the pornographic impulse.” The rising new identity is pornographic.
A sensitive article evaluating the Barna report makes some valid points:
- Pornography isn’t going away anytime soon;
- Our moral trajectory is convoluted.”Teens and young adults surveyed said it was worse to not recycle (56%) than to look at pornography (32%)”;
- Porn destroys sex and marriage. “[P]eople’s perspective on the purpose of sex is moving away from “an expression of intimacy between two people who love each other” and toward “self-expression and personal fulfillment…”;
4. Deception is deadly.Barna found that “if you use porn often, you’re more likely to feel okay about it.”
If porn destroys marriages, what will happen to the general moral tenor of our society? The young people of today will become the public officials of tomorrow, brainwashed into serving their desires and fantasies and unable to make sound judgments.
The Bride of Christ must be above reproach. She must offer wise and serious marital counseling for those caught up in this perversion, and intentionally teach her children from their earliest age to avoid this satanic trap.
Things have changed. The “Four Spiritual Laws” or “Evangelism Explosion” no longer work for many. People are losing their identity. They long for human rights and personal dignity, but these things only come from God the Creator, whom they reject. The Gospel is still the answer, which they unknowingly long to hear. The God who created us in His image restores our fallen identity by the death of His Son, who stood in our place to bear our sin and has become, by grace, our new identity.
[1] The Barna Research Group’s 2016 survey, The Porn Phenomenon.
[2] Laurie Higgins, “Harvard Law Professor to Conservatives: You’re Losers, Live With It,” BarbWire, (June 30, 2016).
[3] http://www.wnd.com/2016/07/christian-youth-choir-likened-to-nazis-isis/#!
[4] See a very useful article on this report by Gareth Kell: http://theaquilareport.com/12-observations-after-reading-the-porn-phenomenon/.
[5] http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2016/07/10/hugh-hefner-declares-victory-sexual-war-republicans/.
[6] A 2014 survey, Proven Men Ministries. http://www.charismanews.com/us/45671-shocker-study-shows-most-christian-men-are-into-porn
Dr. Peter Jones is scholar in residence at Westminster Seminary California and associate pastor at New Life Presbyterian Church in Escondido, Calif. He is director of truthXchange, a communications center aimed at equipping the Christian community to recognize and effectively respond to the rise of paganism.This articleis used with permission.
