What are our options when faced, as The Church, in the midst of a culture in which the Worldview we espouse is seen increasingly as immoral? As we become unloved and despised for our beliefs, how do we respond? History has taught us several options.

What I am writing, what I have started, is based on these premises:

Option 1 – The Sadducees represented a fundamental reformation of the Jewish faith. In their model, I/We leave the biblical faith, join the culture (and enter irrelevance).  We might still call ourselves the same name, but we walk away from any doctrine that doesn’t receive the approval of the culture.  The modern liberal “Christian” church is an example of this. 

Further, many mainline churches that are joining the world are choosing this.  Their biblical views – and their understanding of the Bible itself, have morphed to match with what the broader culture is calling for.

It is my opinion that methods are always changing and evolving in The Church based on trends, generations, and even fads!  Many churches had roller skating rinks in the 70’s, bowling in the 80’s, sandpit volleyball in the 90’s, etc.  These are merely changes in the methods.  These can be healthy adaptations – not compromises.

However, there have also always been churches that are compromising the basic tenets.  It is my opinion that eventually, these have to die.  They die, because once joining the world, they have nothing to offer the world that it doesn’t already have.  We are more like hospitals in this trait.  If a hospital has nothing that you need – nothing that you don’t have in your home and life already, why would you go?  “Don’t worry, we won’t be giving shots, taking blood, setting bones, etc.… because those make you uncomfortable.”

If the church tells the world – “your solutions are good ones.  We are on the same page with you.”  We may maintain cultural approval and avoid persecution, but we die nonetheless.  Why would anyone come?  If we respond to the call to turn down the lights to protect people who want to walk in darkness, then all we have to offer a dark world is darkness – and they already have tons of that.

This is what many European churches chose in the post-Christian culture they are in.  I suspect this will be the most common response in the US over the next few years. As churches dim the lights in order to be more comfortable to the mainstream culture, they will discover that no one sees any need to come where the darkness is the same as everywhere else.

Option 2 – The Pharisees, and the early persecuted Church, chose to stick with their fundamental faith while working and moving within the culture as much as possible.  They had a public presence and engaged in political dialogue.  In this option, we stick with our biblical beliefs and lose our cultural appeal… and eventually, receive persecution for it.  Later, the early Church went into hiding in various locations but continued to live out their faith within the culture to the degree that they could.

In this model, we continue to live it out under the boot of the oppressor government, un-cloistered, but with essentially no immediate cultural impact – the impact is at the individual level only.  Many modern churches within Tyrannical cultures have chosen this… or a combination of hiding and presence when possible.  You can learn more about the modern expression of this with the Voice of the Martyrs.

There are two more options to come: