Hope for Eeyore

A Bad Trajectory
If you are a Christian, you are undoubtedly disappointed by some of the developments of the past years. We are a generation that now calls good evil and evil good. It wasn't all that long ago that you could turn on the TV during prime time and watch with relative peace of mind. Andy Griffith has been replaced with mostly garbage. In recent days, our society rejoices in our progress. What progress have we made? We can now openly embrace and rejoice in sexual sins like homosexuality and promiscuity. So that's progress, huh? Our trajectory is not good.

I'm a firm believer in the Bible. Romans 1 helps give some explanation to what's going on. God is revealing his wrath (1.18) and he's doing so by giving sinners what they want, their sin (1.24, 26, 28). The sin is the judgment and the judgment is the sin. Welcome to 2013.

Moral Decay (Sin) Isn't New
I do want to point something else out though. As Christians we can get eeyorish in our outlook. We have to remember that we aren't the first society to watch our morals decay before our eyes. Read through Kings. Adultery, fornication, murder, lying, stealing, even mass murder and infanticide are part of Israel's story. The government that Paul instructed the Romans to submit to would the very government that would kill him. I do not like the fact that it is getting harder for preachers to preach the Word without fear of consequence, but our government isn't hanging people for preaching Christ, at least not yet that I know about. Peter would also die for his faith and he also instructs believers to submit to the government - a corrupt government (1 Pet 2). Many in the Middle Ages were convinced that they had the anti-Christ in their generation. It is widely taught that the Roman Empire crumbled fundamentally because of a loss of morality. Are we on a good course? No. Do I like it? No. But are we hopeless? Far from it.

Hope is Always in View for a Christian
I believe places like Romans 1 and 2 Peter 3 teach that generally the world is going to get continue to rebel. Jesus is going to come back and judge, in a similar way to how God has acted before, like in the flood. Our ultimate hope is that Jesus will restore all things.

Until then, we are stewards and responsible to do what we can to provide light to a dark world. I believe Christians can be a preserving influence and we can even see positive course corrections. In recent history, there are times when the general movement has been positive. A few examples of culture moving the right direction: slavery, civil rights, women's rights, and in large part in Eurpoe, anti-Semitism. We aren't perfect on any of these, but we have seen positive progress.

These among other reasons gives me lots of hope in this life. I'm excited that despite the horrors and deep evil of the Kermit Gosnell case, the public has largely reacted with appropriate horror when presented with the facts. This is an opportunity to perhaps regain some ground.

At the end of the day, "fixing society" isn't our job anyways. Our job is to adorn the gospel with holy lives and to point to THE Answer, Jesus Christ. The dark backdrop that seems to be getting darker all the time only provides a greater contrast for the diamond of the gospel.

Hold your head up Christian. Jesus came to give life. You have been born again to a living hope. You are his ambassadors and guess what: the good guys win!