Journal: Journal of Ministry and Theology
Volume: JMAT 19:1 (Spring 2015)
Article: Post–Christian Culture As An Aid To Christian Ministry
Author: Michael D. Stallard

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Post–Christian Culture
As An Aid To Christian Ministry

Mike Stallard

Seminary Dean
Professor of Systematic Theology
Baptist Bible Seminary
Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania

Introduction1

The ancient prophet Habakkuk opened his small oracle, a text inspired by God, with an angry questioning of both the sin of the people and the silence of God:

How long, O LORD, will I call for help,
And Thou wilt not hear?
I cry out to Thee, “Violence!”
Yet Thou dost not save.
Why dost Thou make me see iniquity,
And cause me to look on wickedness?
Yes, destruction and violence are before me;
Strife exists and contention arises.
Therefore, the law is ignored
And justice is never upheld.
For the wicked surround the righteous;
Therefore, justice comes out perverted. (Hab 1:2–4; NASB)

His questioning is aimed mostly at God. But the prophet’s spiritual analysis of the Judean culture in the late seventh century BC is analogous to many declensions of faith down through the centuries, including the present time in North American culture.

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A century ago, Arno Gaebelein complained about the decline of true Christian faith with these words: “What an awful sin to criticize the Bible, to deny its verbal inspiration, to put the Word of God which He has exalted above all His Name down to the level of profane literature. Yet this is the common drift of our times.”2 If at that time it was a “common drift,” then today it could be considered the fastest moving water since Noah! At least, that is how Christians who believe the fundamental doctrines of the Bible often feel as belligerency toward Christian faith rises to the point that a book of forewarning has been written on the criminalization of Christianity.3 From the fundamentalist perspective, this may take on an ominous spirit. Mohler, commenting on Bauder’s statements on fundamentalism,4 noted, “He and his colleagues are trying to rescue fundamentalism from cultural obscurity and institutional fratricide.”5 Over the last

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several decades, the evangelical critique “industry” has thoroughly vetted the sins of evangelicals in order to warn and document what has allowed the precipitous and rapid downhill spiral to occur.

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