Author: Joel

Things were going so well.

The Holy Spirit was poured out on Pentecost and 3,000 believers repented and were baptized (Acts 2:41). There was “gladness and sincerity of heart” in the newborn church (2:46).They had “favor with all the people” (2:47) and were held “in high esteem.” (5:13). Their growth was explosive. Soon, another 5,000 heard the good news and were added (4:4). In fact, “multitudes of men and women were constantly added to their number.” (5:14). Many were cleansed and healed as well (5:15-16).

A legitimate complaint rose over the treatment of needy widows in the church and the apostles turned to seven young men to step up to the challenge.

Here we meet Stephen, one of the most valuable assets the early church had, both for the way he served the saved and reached out to the unsaved. He was the first man named to help care for the widows (Acts 6:5). In a nutshell, here’s what Stephen meant to the early church:

1. He had a “good reputation,” much “wisdom,” and was “a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.” (6:3-5).
2. The church counted on him as a capable administrator and servant of others (6:5). His effectiveness, along with others, resulted in the spread of God’s word and “the number of disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem.” (Acts 6:7). Even many priests obeyed the gospel.
3. Stephen was charismatic, “full of grace and power.” He performed great wonders and signs among the people (6:8).
4. He knew the Scriptures and excelled in debate and speech (6:9-10).
5. He even had the “face of an angel.” (6:15).

Alas, his many virtues attracted hostility and he was accused of blasphemy against Moses, God and the temple. On trial for his life, Stephen spoke to the Sanhedrin of God’s promise to Abraham, God’s provision through Joseph, God’s guidance through Moses, God’s judgments against idolatry, God’s deliverance through Joshua, God’s favor for David, and God’s “house” built by Solomon. Perhaps knowing his fate was sealed, he indicted his judges as “stiff-necked” and “uncircumcised in the heart” (7:51). He likened them to those who scorned and persecuted the prophets of old — treacherous, murderous and disobedient to God (7:52-53).

Outraged, they screamed, covered their ears, and rushed at Stephen to take him outside the city and stone him to death. A Pharisee named Saul was in hearty agreement with this sentence and he presided at the stoning.

There was loud lamentation when Stephen was buried. Imagine the distress throughout the church when one of their best and brightest was so brutally executed by the leading men of the city. What a devastating blow to a fledgling movement. And this was just the beginning! Listen to Luke:

“And on that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.” (Acts 8:1).

Adding insult to injury, this thug Saul began ravaging the church entering house after house dragging Christians off to prison (8:3). So the heartbroken and discouraged church gave up and Christianity was nipped in the bud.

Wrong! The next verse explains why the church survived and stands forever as encouragement for anyone facing tragedy with no visible light at the end of the tunnel. Luke wrote:

“Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.” (Acts 8:4)

It’s like they hardly skipped a beat. That’s grit at its greatest. In fact, it’s amazing!

Alexander McKee passed away on February 20, 1922, at the ripe old age of 102 years, 2 months and 7 days. I know him only through his tombstone at the Wild Rose Cemetery just north of Kendrick on Idaho State Highway 3. It spells out Alexander’s longevity in detail.

His tombstone testifies not only that Alexander lived long but also that he lived well. The epitaph inscribed on his headstone reads thusly:

Upright and just he was in all his ways,
A bright example in degenerate days.

It occurred to me that old Alexander would roll over briskly in his grave if he knew how degenerate the “days” would become nearly a century later. What would he think about our 41% rate of American babies born out of wedlock? How would he handle the crusade to decompose marriage itself? What about the millions of unborn and partially born babies exterminated because their lives are inconvenient? Would he own a TV? We can only guess.

Of course, there never really has been a “golden age” when such things as sin, corruption and evil were in short supply. Every generation is flawed in different ways. But every generation has men and women like Alexander McKee too. How bright is your example?

Born in 1820, Alexander. lived through the Civil War, Reconstruction and at some point became part of our expansion into the great American West. It’s easy to idealize these times but we don’t need to watch Westerns to know that these were difficult and often degenerate times.

Jesus often called His generation “evil and adulterous.” Miraculous sign-seeking was a generational vice Jesus observed along with his generation’s refusal to repent (Luke 11:29-32). Jesus likened his generation to Noah’s “deluge-deserving” generation (Luke 17:26-27) for being blind to their impending judgment. His own hapless disciples once prompted a complaint from Jesus about His “unbelieving and perverse generation” (Matthew 17:17). Jesus’ rhetoric was unpopular then and it helped get him executed. He predicted that his generation would reject him (Luke 17:25) and He was right.

Jesus did not hate his generation. He wept for them. Because he loved them, he pulled no punches regarding their sick condition, longing for them to repent. When Christians today lament the moral and mental bankruptcy of our times, we are walking in the courageous footsteps of our loving Savior.

Preaching on Pentecost, the apostle Peter called his generation “perverse” (Acts 2:40). That means the Lord’s church was born from the ranks of the perverse. Later, the apostle Paul used such terms as “crooked and perverse” to describe his generation (Philippians 2:15).

I have three concluding points of inspiration:

1. The prevalence of wickedness does not indicate the absence of hope.
2. The need to speak up boldly, vividly and lovingly (as did Jesus, Peter and Paul) is enormous! Moral courage is a must!
3. Alexander was not the first man to be “upright and just” in degenerate times. We can live in such a way as to make sure he was not the last.

Soon, there will be fireworks. There will be “oohs” and “ahhs.” Hopefully, there will also be gratitude, rising from citizens well aware of the gifts our forebears have laid at our feet.

One such gift is the Declaration of Independence, penned by Thomas Jefferson, revised by fellow delegates and approved on July 4, 1776, articulating the great ideas and principles upon which our nation was founded. This document dealt with the very nature of humanity, our created dignity, our essential equality and the ultimate origin of our basic rights–all ideas deeply rooted in our faith.

Soon, we will celebrate our nation’s independence, reclaiming the self-evident truths “…that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

In 1926, when this document and our nation were just 150 years young, an interesting speech was heard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the birthplace of our freedom. It was written and delivered by a smart yet humble man who himself was born on July 4, 1872; a real Yankee Doodle Dandy, as they called him, “born on the fourth of July.” Did I say smart? Just for fun, he once translated, Dante’s Inferno from the Medieval Latin into English (one of seven languages he knew). For work, however, he was the 30th President of the United States of America. Some called him “Silent Cal” but when it came time to celebrating our independence, Cal could not be silent!

Calvin Coolidge (1872 –1933) knew that the great ideas and principles in our Declaration did not just appear out of the blue. He knew about the influence of some French and English philosophers on our Founders, but he was well-read enough to also recognize the rich home-grown influences on them, including that of several generations of colonial preachers.

Coolidge understood the spiritual roots underneath the Declaration of Independence. In his Philadelphia speech celebrating America’s 150th birthday, he cited the preaching of Rev. Thomas Hooker and Rev. John Wise as formidable forces shaping the values of our founding generation. The deep convictions we held regarding the divine origin of our rights and liberties, and the essential value of the people’s consent, and the accountability we all share before God and each other, came primarily from our country’s early preachers.

In his 1926 national birthday speech, Coolidge said of our colonial clergy:

“They preached equality because they believed in the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. They justified freedom by the text that we are all created in the divine image, all partakers of the divine spirit.”

No wonder our Declaration of Independence includes four references to God; as our Creator (making us equal and endowing us with rights), Lawmaker (author of “the Laws of Nature”), “Supreme Judge,” and as Protector (“Divine Providence” being the object of our “firm reliance”).

To prepare yourself for a joyful and more informed celebration this coming Independence Day, let’s listen to Coolidge:

“Equality, liberty, popular sovereignty, the rights of man–these are not elements which we can see and touch. They are ideals. They have their source and their roots in the religious convictions. They belong to the unseen world. Unless the faith of the American people in these religious convictions is to endure, the principles of our Declaration will perish. We cannot continue to enjoy the result if we neglect and abandon the cause.” ~ Calvin Coolidge, 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 5, 1926.

Why not celebrate the Fourth of July by reading that Declaration to your family before the sun goes down and the fireworks go up? Meanwhile, listen to “Silen Cal” one more time:

“We do not need more material development, we need more spiritual development. We do not need more intellectual power, we need more moral power. We do not need more knowledge, we need more character. We do not need more government, we need more culture. We do not need more law, we need more religion. We do not need more of the things that are seen, we need more of the things that are unseen… If that side be strengthened, the other side will take care of itself.” ~ Calvin Coolidge, Vice Presidential address at Wheaton College, Norton, Massachusetts, June 19, 1923.

Imagine a man pushing an innocent old lady into an oncoming truck. Ouch!

Now picture a different man pushing an innocent old lady out of the way of a speeding truck.

Both stories involve a moving truck. Both men engaged in the same pushy behavior, shoved an innocent elderly lady without her consent. Nevertheless, can you see a difference between these two men?

How would you feel if both imaginary events actually occurred and the next day’s headlines read: “Men Pushing Old Ladies Around on the Rise!”

Sadly, headlines like that are more common than you think.

An uncompromising non-violent pacifist would insist on never ever pushing old ladies, innocent or not, truck or not. Pushing is an act of violent force and therefore always wrong.

On the other hand, an unscrupulous thug would also ignore the context and just push people around, even into danger, innocent or not.

Both responses above fall short of ethical goodness. Why? Because goodness is not about hard laws, rigid formulas, easy excuses or compelling feelings that demand the same one-size-fits-all response in every situation. Ethical goodness is not that easy. Sorry.

Laws and formulas have their place but real goodness must root itself in love. The man who pushes people into danger is not driven by love. The terrorists who hijacked United Flight #93 on 9/11 to turn a plane into a weapon of mass murder were filled with hate. The one who acts (with force if necessary) to protect people from harm is acting in love, much like the heroes who stormed the cockpit of United Flight #93 on 9/11 in order to prevent further mass murder.

Those who do nothing in the face of real need are probably just selfish. Those who remain passive in the face of real evil are moral cowards (I realize that active resistance to evil can also take non-violent forms).

Jesus and the apostles understood the law of love and its moral authority far beyond rigid laws, formulas and “isms.”

• Jesus identified the two greatest commandments as a dual call to love God first and our neighbor as well. Then he said, “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:40)
• Peter: “Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.” (1 Peter 4:8).
• Paul: “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” (Romans 9:10). Later, he said, “Let all that you do be done in love.” (1 Corinthians 16:14).
• James: “If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing well.” (James 2:8).
• John: “God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” (1 John 4:16).

The difference between the man who pushed a lady into danger and the one who pushed her out of danger is obvious. Both acted in a similar manner in an isolated and superficial sense, but one willed the good for her and the other willed her harm.

Beloved reader, I presume you are a person of good will. Good! But remember, the man who willed the good for the lady did not just sit around feeling good about willing the good. He acted in love!

Go and DO likewise.

Holidays are heritage-handles to help us carry memories, values, ideals and traditions home to our hearts and minds. Our children need these handles.

Religious holidays nourish my faith in God and focus my heart on where my ultimate hope lies—namely, in Jesus Christ and His birth, life, death and resurrection. God alone, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, deserves all my worship.

I celebrate national holidays on an entirely different level, in order to inspire and cultivate gratitude. Worship has nothing to do with it.

Gratitude is a Christian virtue fitting for any day of the year. Christians find great peace and unity in knowing that our ultimate hope rests far beyond the realm of politics and nations. But we can still be deeply grateful for persons and things that may not offer ultimate hope. I bring gratitude, not worship, to my celebration of Independence Day. And I bring it in earnest.

America was founded on the belief that God is the source of liberty. John Dickinson, a Continental Congressman from Pennsylvania and Delaware, and a delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787, made this clear:

Our liberties do not come from charters; for these are only the declarations of pre-existing rights. They do not depend on parchment or seals; but come from the King of Kings and the Lord of all the earth. ~ John Dickinson (1732–1808)

Our Founders also saw God as the source of our rights. The Declaration of Independence, approved on July 4, 1776, appealed to God with such foundational phrases as “endowed by their Creator”, “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God”, “the Supreme Judge of the world” and “firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence.” And what did the Creator endow? He endowed “certain unalienable Rights” like “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Nevertheless, the 4th of July, our national birthday, is no more a religious holiday than my own birthday. Do I owe my very existence to God? Yes. However, there is nothing about me that should command your worship. There is nothing about America that commands it either. God alone deserves our worship.

I have loved my country with a love that never minimized my love for people in other lands. It’s a deep gratitude (never idolatry) for an incredible heritage. I for one never wanted my country “fundamentally transformed” by a messianic politician and his devoted followers. Nevertheless, this has happened. And since America has never been an object of worship for me, its loss simply transports more of my focus on my love for Jesus’ church. As a patriotic citizen, I never believed America would outlive the church. My faith always ran deeper than my patriotism, so my trust in God currently overrides my disappointment in America.

At a prayer breakfast address in Dallas, Texas, August 23, 1984, Ronald Reagan said, “America needs God more than God needs America.” Those of us who worship God realize that America’s health and future depends on us knowing Who to worship and who (and what) not to worship, and that includes The Declaration of Independence and its signers. If we turn our worship away from God toward powerful pieces of paper (money, contracts, diplomas, deeds or documents) or swaths of land, or promising politicians (then and now) or beautiful statues carrying torches or anything except God, then we are initiating the demise of this great experiment we called America, born on the 4th of July.

Which option below best describes eternity?

a. A long time.
b. A really really long time.
c. A really really really really long time.
d. Existence above and beyond time.

I’ll take “d.” God exists beyond measurable time and space. We won’t need clocks in heaven. I presume that eternity with Him also means living beyond the tangible realm of created reality as we know it now. According to the apostle Paul; “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. (1 Corinthians 2:9).

That’s why our top priority is to love Him.

The Bible often uses fixed terms for heaven (a place with “pillars”, “pearly gates”, “foundations”, “windows” and “golden streets”). Jesus often spoke of the kingdom of heaven as something we “enter into.” He also said it was “not of this world” (John 18:36). He told his disciples, “I go to prepare a place for you.” and He called that place His “Father’s house” (John 14:2).

However, this does not mean heaven can be found on a map. These descriptions may well be parabolic. God is inspiring in us a hope for something more real and lasting than anything we can currently see, hear, touch, smell, taste or measure.

Poetic language in Scripture promising a “new heaven and a new earth” does not necessarily consign us to an eternal future in tangible terms. While Jesus spoke of heaven and earth passing away (Matthew 5:18), Paul seemed to expect the redemption of creation, liberating it from its bondage to decay (Romans 8:21). This makes me scratch my head.

Paul spoke of wanting to be “clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life” (2 Corinthians 5:4). In fact, this is the purpose for which God made us (5:5). He used metaphors like a twinkling eye and a trumpet to explain our heavenly hope more as a transformation than a destination:

I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:51-52)

The apostle Peter spoke of an imperishable and undefiled inheritance which will not fade away, reserved in heaven for His children (1 Peter 1:4). The Hebrew author wrote figuratively of a “greater and more perfect “tabernacle” that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation.” (Hebrews 9:11).

For you and me in the here and now, eternity remains a humbling mystery. It’s also an amazing promise. Listen to the apostle John: “This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life.” (1 John 2:25). Can we claim this promise without knowing the details?

When Jesus prayed for His followers just before going to the garden of Gethsemane for the last time, He defined eternal life in personal terms: “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (John 17:3).

Instead of trying to measure the distance to heaven or its dimensions or duration, our top priority is to know God the Father. To know Him is also to trust and love Him. Since He has made Himself personally accessible to us through Jesus, we have access to eternity through Him. And if you are reading this now, you still have time to make knowing and loving God your top priority.

Soon after a murderous rampage on May 23, 2014, in Isla Vista, California, opinions abounded as to what causes such brutality. Among the culprits are allegedly a corrosive culture, mental illness, Hollywood, violent video games, grievance grinding and guns. A few actually blamed evil.

A renewed focus on gender is also apparent in response to this atrocity. Maleness, in particular, is getting some blame. One article observed that out of 71 mass murderers over the past 33 years, 70 were men. I responded that none of them were real men. The word “man” means more to me than a biological appendage, whether you are born with it or add it surgically. There is nothing noble about being born male or “choosing” to be so because you don’t “feel” like a female. There is, however, much to admire about being a real man, a quality well defined in God’s word.

1. Real men are not loners: “The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.’” (Genesis 2:18). The original Hebrew word for “helper” was an honorable description for the woman since the same word is often used in the Bible for God Himself in relation to us. The term “suitable’ conveys equality. God made the woman beautifully different and completely equal in value to the man. Whether a man marries or not, his manhood is not independent of his relationships with the women in his life who receive his love, respect, protection and support.
2. Real men brace themselves under the authority of God. “Then the LORD spoke to Job out of the storm: ‘Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’” (Job 40:6-7).
3. Real men pursue moral integrity. The apostle Paul referred to his young protégé Timothy, as a “man of God” and immediately advised him to “…pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith.” (1 Ti4. mothy 6:11-12). Excellent advice for a man of God!
4. Real men who marry must lead and love like Christ. Paul wrote, “For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church.” (Ephesians 5:23). They also love their wives “just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” (5:25). When a culture diminishes Christ-like masculinity, the integrity of marriage decomposes.
5. Real men who become fathers, encourage, comfort and morally inspire their children. Paul compared his love for a church he planted to that of a father who “…deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging [them] to live lives worthy of God.” (1 Thessalonians 2:11-12).
6. Real men develop virtue early. Paul encouraged young men to be self-controlled and to have “integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech…” (Titus 2:6-7). Today, male self-control seems to be in short supply and male adolescence extends well beyond the teens too often. Silliness is glorified. Young men should listen to Paul.
7. Real men increase virtue with age. Paul exhorted older men “…to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.” (Titus 2:2). Clearly, self-control is a biblical mark of manhood, regardless of age.
8. Real men overcome evil! The apostle John commended young men for being strong and because “the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.” (1 John 2:14). Real men are humble before God and tough against evil.
9. 9. Real men pray. Paul wrote, “Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing.” (1 Timothy 2:8).
10. The character qualities of an overseer in Jesus’ church also apply to real men. Listen to Paul
    Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. (1 Timothy 3:2-4)

Real men have a God-ordained responsibility to respect, protect and provide for their sisters, wives, children, parents, community, churches and the needy. There is far less need for food stamps, welfare, subsidies, police work, jails, and orphanages when real men step up in greater numbers. And real men don’t hold their breath waiting for others to step up. They just do it, unselfishly.
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Post script: The 22-year-old murderer in Isla Vista was reportedly able to be selectively polite and charming when convincing authorities and others that he was not dangerous. But deep inside, he felt that women who rejected or ignored him deserved to die. After planning and acting on that perverted feeling, four innocent men and two women were dead. He may have been one of the 70 males who murdered multiple human beings over the last 33 years, but he was no man.

Dear Graduate,

Long ago, an old missionary wrote something to a young minister that puts all the wisdom any graduate needs into a nutshell, or nugget. The old man did not tell his young protégé to follow his dreams or pursue his passions. Instead, he bid him to “pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness,” a line-up neglected in many commencement speeches.

Then the old traveler offered this unbeatable two-punch advice:

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. (The Apostle Paul, 1 Timothy 6:12).

Actually, this is the best advice ever, period.

1. “Fight the good fight of faith.”

The original imperative verb here was “agonizou.” The connection between faith and agony was not lost on Paul. He knew there is no such thing as a Christian never under fire.

On October 29, 1941, as World War II raged on and his nation’s fate seemed dire, Great Britain’s Prime Minister Winston Churchill famously said to the students at Harrow School:

Never give in–never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

For Churchill in 1941, the battle was against the Nazis. Paul, two millennia ago, envisioned far more lethal enemies than mere Nazis. He wrote:

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12)

Satan is our public and private enemy number one. Never confuse this adversary with his victims. The good fight of faith pits us less against sinners than against sin, often working from the inside out. Unwisely, our culture minimizes the severity of sin, urging us not to judge it, admit it, fight it or speak the word.

Jesus, by contrast, hit sin head on, knowing how deadly it is. He understood that sin’s first and greatest casualty is love. He said, “Because of the increase in wickedness the love of most will grow cold.” (Matthew 24:12). No wonder real love is hard to find and hold–wickedness is too widespread. No matter how bad you think sin is, it is worse! It’s why Jesus came and put up such a fight against it. Wickedness hides and thrives behind pride. Love, however, grows from the soil of humble repentance. Confession of sin (agreeing with reality) is where virtue and goodness begin to take root, by God’s grace. There’s always a fight when humility stands up to pride.

There is a battle ahead. No, it’s a war and you need to choose sides. The forces fighting to enslave us to sin are gaining strength by the minute. The forces of freedom and decency are on the ropes. Which side will you join?

2. “Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”

The original Greek verb here was “epilambano,” to seize upon. Paul also used this verb to describe being arrested for preaching truth. Here he tells Timothy to do the seizing believing eternity to be within the young man’s grasp. A guide can open the door, but you must walk through it. Medical science can come up with a miracle drug but you must act to take it. “The good confession” was probably a reference to baptism which finds its transcendent meaning as a godly means of taking hold of eternal life. The act of receiving a gift by no means makes you the gift giver. It doesn’t even make you deserving. Paul wanted Timothy to never lose his grip.

Your time on earth is short. That’s okay because you were not made simply for time but for eternity. Without eternal life, you don’t have much of a future. Without it, might makes right but even the strong go wrong before long. Without eternity, evil terrorists and thugs can get the last word over the innocent and justice remains a joke. Without eternal life, even love at its best is a meaningless flash in the pan. So seize it!

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In the end, there is no graduation to eternal life without the forgiveness that Jesus accomplished on the cross. His forgiveness is what makes baptism more than a bath. The apostle John said, “You know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins.” (1 John 3:5). This put Him at odds with the forces of evil. He took them on so that we might take hold of God’s gift of eternal life.

Some leaders use great words to manipulate the masses. “Freedom” is one such word. Nearly every tyrant in history has used “freedom” in promising, glowing and demagogic ways. It is wise to look beyond mere words.

Art can help. It can carry themes like liberty beyond the realm of mere words. Of course, art can also be abused to distort and manipulate but it can also uncover needs and notions that words alone keep hidden. Art can shed a brighter light on the path of culture to reach a wider swath of hearts and enable the forces of good to outshine evil. Art has a power to inspire beyond words.

Liberty has inspired great art over the ages. Great art, in turn, has inspired greater love for liberty. Below are a few examples of art elevating our love for liberty.

Revolution came to America in 1776 and no painter recorded its events and ideals like John Trumbull (1759-1843). His classic, “The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker’s Hill, June 17,1775” was created eleven years after the event it idealized. Joseph Warren (1741 – 1775) was a citizen doctor who embodied all the idealism of his era. His passion for freedom led to a very real sacrifice—one that Trumbull (an artist with one good eye) commemorated on canvas in 1786. Consider what President Ronald Reagan said about Dr. Warren in his First Inaugural Address (January 20, 1981):

On the eve of our struggle for independence a man who might have been one of the greatest among the Founding Fathers, Dr. Joseph Warren, …said to his fellow Americans, ‘Our country is in danger, but not to be despaired of…. You are to decide the important questions upon which rests the happiness and the liberty of millions yet unborn. Act worthy of yourselves.

A few years later, revolution came to France. The French Revolution (1789 to 1794) is a classic case featuring the abuse of the word liberty. The road to the Reign of Terror was greased by words like Liberté, Egalité and Fraternité (French for freedom, equality and brotherhood or solidarity). Those words convey noble ideals and often fell on sincere ears, but the overall impact was excessively bloody. Empire-hunger and the monarchy soon returned with the usual oppression through Napoleon and another succession of kings. A generation later, liberty lovers rose up in the July Revolution of 1830 to topple King Charles X. To support this spirit of liberty, Eugene Delacroix (1798 – 1863), personified liberty on canvas as a woman leading Frenchmen forward over the bodies of the fallen victims of tyranny. The bodies served as a pedestal from which Liberty takes her stride. Delacroix told his brother, “If I haven’t fought for my country at least I’ll paint for her.” In 1831, he created, “Liberty Leading the People” (see above) to inspire France for another shot at freedom.

Delacroix inspired Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi’s (1834 –1904) Statue of Liberty which France later gave to the United States to celebrate freedom. A noble lady is again enlisted to carry the torch for freedom. While Delacroix’s painting depicts the advance toward liberty, Bartholdi’s statue stands up for freedom already achieved.

The hard won liberty won in 18th century America did not include everyone. Slavery persisted into the mid-19th century. The American painter, Eastman Johnson (1824 – 1906), spoke for the hunger for liberty in the hearts of countless slaves with his compelling “Ride for Liberty—the Fugitive Slaves” (March 2, 1862). A brave black family flees to Union lines during the Civil War at dawn, risking all for freedom. Father and son focus forward for freedom while mother, with infant, peels her eyes for danger.

Archibald MacNeal Willard (1836 –1918) is far less known than his most famous painting, “Spirit of ’76,” previously known as “Yankee Doodle” (1875). Willard, a Civil War veteran, was inspired by a parade through his town square in Wellington, Ohio. Notice the wounded soldier at the bottom waving the marchers on.

A century later, as World War II raged in 1943, Norman Rockwell (1894 – 1978) looked to a 1941 speech by Franklin D. Roosevelt for the inspiration to craft “The Four Freedoms.” (freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from fear and freedom from want). It’s first exhibition raised $132 million in war bonds. Rockwell’s illustrations were initially criticized as overly idyllic and nostalgic. Art put to positive use often gets criticized but Rockwell knew the heart of the American people too well to be discouraged. His four portrayals carry the case for freedom beyond the word itself to other realms necessary for freedom to thrive, like faith, family, moral conviction and gratitude. Rockwell’s brush declared the co-dependence of freedom and morality.

Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990, understood something about liberty that Rockwell captured but many of his critics missed, along with the 18th century leaders of the French Revolution. She said:

Freedom will destroy itself if it is not exercised within some sort of moral framework, some body of shared beliefs, some spiritual heritage transmitted through the church, the family, and the school.

America is passionate about neutrality. This explains the rapid rise of the following fashionable leanings in our current culture:

Aesthetic neutrality: Beauty is only in the beholder’s eye and no one can label things beautiful or ugly. Everything is “equally valid,” including crotch-grabbing, drug-glorifying, misogynistic rap songs about killing cops, hating The Man, or exploiting women.

Moral neutrality: “Sin” is an impolite word to use in polite company. Judgmentalism is one of the few traits we can still judge harshly. You do your thing and I’ll do mine. Preacher-types who object are just puritanical moralists. Of course, this presumes a “do nothing” God who, if he actually exists, does not fret over good and evil.

Political neutrality: Political parties are commanding less loyalty as people run from labels (unless that label is “Independent”). This may have merit but it does not stop there. To appease the new neutrality, our leaders neuter words and rob them of their meaning. Abortion is rendered as “choice,” homosexual becomes “gay,” tax morphs into “investment,” and deficit spending is re-labeled as “economic stimulus.” Moral neutrals even use the word “love” for adultery or pedophilia. The keepers of nomenclature hold great power to manipulate and control us.

Spiritual neutrality: All religions are basically the same. As soon as someone sees me as a Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Jew, or whatever, I am in a box. No boxes please. God is love in heaven but little is particularly sacred here on earth.

Gender neutrality: Men and women are interchangeable. Moms and dads are replaceable. Marriage is fungible. Why limit the definition of marriage by gender or number? How would redefining marriage hurt your marriage anyway? Some school districts have actually begun to dispense with restrooms that “discriminate” between boys and girls.”

Nonsense thrives amid neutrality.

Earlier this month, I attended a class at the 2014 Pepperdine Bible Lectures titled, “Gay Marriage, Zombies, Islam and Liberals.” I can only offer an honest summary of what I heard. We were encouraged to back off gracefully from “anxiety inducing issues.” People under 30 do not care about gay marriage but they do sense the anxieties of those of us who do and it turns them off. Accept the world as it is and focus on that which glorifies God.

As I listened, some questions rose to the top of my mind. Here they are:

• How high does the tidal wave of sexual chaos have to get before Christians notice it out loud?
• What toll must it take on children before we take a stand?
• How long will we play church as if this tidal wave were just a ripple?
• What rate of babies born out of wedlock constitutes grounds for a healthy reaction from believers? Currently, it is over 50% among women under 30
• To what extent can marriage be redefined and decomposed before we stop backing off to protect the young from undue anxiety?
• Should Catholics practice a graceful silence in response to the problem of child abuse by some priests?
• Should Martin Luther King, Jr. have backed off and accepted the world as it was instead of making millions uncomfortable and angry with pesky preaching on public polies?

It’s hard to observe injustice, ugliness, corruption and perversion and stay neutral. It’s much easier to conform to the changing patterns of this crazy world and make nice. Jesus demanded repentance and preached that the gate that leads life is narrow. Look what happened to Him.

Prepare for opposition if you threaten people’s comfort and neutrality. You will get mislabeled as a hater or bigot by people who claim to hate labels. You will get blamed for things you never said, did or believed. Your efforts will be disparaged as “witch hunts.” Ouch!

My number two concern regarding our current culture is the growing neutrality it promotes for marriage, family and the innocence of children.

Number one is the way it undermines repentance. Neutral minds just don’t roll that way.