Articles
Rise of the Don'ts
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Because they do not regard the works of the LORD,
Nor the operation of His hands,
He shall destroy them
And not build them up.
(Psa. 28:5)
Surely these are poor.
They are foolish;
For they do not know the way of the LORD.
(Jer. 5:4)
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For many years, George Barna has been conducting surveys to gauge the spiritual condition of American culture. In the most recent survey, Barna discovered what he called "the most rapid and radical cultural upheaval our nation has ever experienced.” The shift is especially pronounced among millennials. These findings do not bode well for orthodox Christianity over the next half-century.
Barna calls this emerging class of Americans the "Don'ts." They either don't believe in God, or don't know, or don't care. Whatever the specifics of their individual beliefs, the net effect of this intellectual emptiness is a widespread societal drift away from God and His word. People will not live up to an ideal if they are not convinced of its validity.
This development may alarm us, but none of it is new to God. The Old Testament is the history of an earlier people who had every advantage to recognize God's role in their lives, yet again and again they drifted into complacency or outright defiance. Their digressions never ended well for them. Their story serves as a template for all of human history: the closer a nation draws to God and His principles of moral conduct, the more likely they are to experience peace and prosperity; the farther they drift away from God, the more likely they are to encounter societal decay and collapse.
Our nation's evolution into spiritual indifference is not exempt from this cause-and-effect principle. Eventually the day will come when "He shall destroy them," not in a fit of pique over being ignored, but as a natural consequence of their apathy. God's instructions for our life are not arbitrary; they fit what we were designed to be, and when we flout those instructions we set ourselves up for a dramatic fall.
Lest we become disheartened by these developments, let's remember the other side of Israel's story. No matter how dark the times, God always had a remnant who remained loyal to Him, and that remnant usually served as the foundation for a renaissance of faith on the other side of catastrophe.
Let us not be discouraged, but hold fast to our faith and look to God's final victory.
--David
