Every year around the anniversary of 9/11, this post goes around social media:
It’s a nice sentiment, to be sure. I was 12 at the time, but I can remember the “we’re all in this together” spirit that was shared in the aftermath of the tragedy. It was a positive moment in a dark time, and it’s understandable why people want to revisit it.
But you have to understand: the world of September 12 is gone, and without drastic, radical changes, it’s not coming back.
We learned without a shadow of a doubt this week that a significant chunk of our country wants to see conservative Christians killed, and another significant chunk—including many Christians—will refuse to call them on it or will even give semi-justifications for it.
These centrists call people like me divisive, but we’re not the ones shooting at people we don’t like. THAT is where the divide comes from. Pointing it out isn’t divisive. It’s honest. Get it through your head: if you believe in Biblical morality, THEY THINK YOU SHOULD DIE.
That’s why calls for unity are so useless right now. You can’t unite with people who want you silenced at best and dead at worst.
Too many preachers spent this week saying nice words like “unity” without having a clue what they mean or how they work. The church was called to unity with one another. We were never called to unite with a world that hates us. “What fellowship has light with darkness?” “Do not be surprised when the world hates you.”
Whether it’s naïveté or cowardice, I don’t know, but neither one inspires confidence.
This is what you absolutely must understand:
The only way this ends is with one side winning. Christ, or chaos.
I can hear the pearl clutching and handwringing now. “Gasp! He said the ‘W’ word!” Yeah, we’re here to tear down strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:3-6). And yeah, our fight is not against flesh and blood—but the demons and ideas we’re fighting come out of human mouths and pens, and so that’s where we engage.
And one or the other is going to win, because warring ideologies can’t coexist. Our experiment with pluralism and “tolerance” is over. Read up on the Russian Revolution or the Spanish Civil War… I guarantee you, you want our side to win. Charlie Kirk is a mere drop in the bucket of what will happen if we don’t.
In those conflicts, the Marxists burned churches, killed children, and raped nuns. That was not 500 years ago. Some of it was in living memory. If you didn’t know before, this week made it clear that the people we’re dealing with are their ideological successors.
So, to all the pacifists, Lipscombites, third-wayists, above-it-allists, I want you to stop reading right now, look your wife in the eye, and tell her that you truly believe God wants you to let that happen to her and your kids rather than you getting your hands dirty, taking a side, and jumping into the culture war. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
You have no idea how bad it can get, and how bad it will get, if a line is not drawn in the sand. I pray we never find out. I pray we can live in a September 12 kind of world someday. But the only way that happens is through Christianization of the culture from both the bottom up (individual conversions) and the top down (Romans 13 governance and cultural saturation).
It’s time to realize what world we live in, how we got here, and how we’re going to get out.
Last night we did a live Think Deeper episode on the Kirk shooting, mostly focused on the church’s response to it. You can watch below or get podcast links at focuspress.org/thinkdeeper
God opened a door for us after 9/11. People who had never been inside a church building gathered with their neighbors to pray. As the church, what did we do? Smiled and welcomed people without taking the opportunity to share the gospel with them. As time passed we found ourselves defending the presence of God in face of tragedy. I hate to say it, but most congregations use the Wal-Mart model, “We’re open, come on in.” God brought us people, and most of failed to take advantage of it.
Re. Doug Marshall’s remark: Some kind of study or poll was mentioned this week. They said half of democrats said political violence is ok under certain circumstances. I don’t see much regular social media (mostly friends etc.) but my daughter informs me that horrible things are said against Christians and republicans. Everyone needs to wake up. I believe Jack is exactly right.