The Need for Evangelism in a Pagan Culture6 min read

As we are faced with the realities of immorality, we should be faced with the realities of judgment. Were not Sodom and Gomorrah righteously judged? Has history not shown that the nation which compromises truth, denies God, radically accepts sexual sin, and teaches others to do so will fall into chaos? Think about it, without God there is no morality and no standard. Therefore, even governmental laws are put into question, because there is no ultimate authority even to those laws. And if God doesn’t exist, people do in fact have a right to ask why we should be moral at all if it is all subjective. This kind of thinking has resulted in moral destruction, and if the generation coming will not realize it, sad things will happen – economically, socially, religiously, intellectually.

In reality, we are faced with three possibilities: 1). We will only go further into national decline and fall apart either internally by economic, social collapse or externally by international war or invasion. This would be a sign of the absence of God’s blessing. 2). The rapture, which will then bring judgment in the Tribulation for seven years. We believe this to be a most plausible case, seeing as we are filled with “signs of the times” in more ways than any other generation has been. 3). God could be trying to wake Christians up so that we might have revival once more before the Lord calls His Bride home: this is the most preferable case, though it may or may not be true. Each of these possibilities should solemnize our hearts and should make us consider what our response should be in such a pagan culture.

Proof We Are Pagan

When we think of pagans, we think of Animistic African tribes who treat everything as if god, or perhaps we thing of pagans as those who practice child sacrifice and hold fertility feasts centered around many open sex-oriented practices. Thankfully, we are not in such a society today! Or are we?

How can we not see child sacrifice in our developed societies today? Have not over 1,000,000,000 living children been sacrificed (aborted) to the god of Choice and Women’s Rights? And ironically in the saline method of abortion in which the child is poisoned, the result of the injection is a burning sensation on the baby’s little body for over an hour until dead, as if it were a burnt offering and tribute to Choice. People of the world don’t see it this way, but it is the truth.

And in another aspect, can we not see pantheism in today’s environmental and animal right’s movement? “Save the trees! Protect the animals! But children? Who cares about them? Don’t worry about murdering a precious body in the most protected place on earth (the womb), but by no means kill an animal!” How far have we departed from sense!

But then, as to fertility feasts, gay pride parades serve to be a good modern-day equivalent. Public openness about “love” and “sexual orientation.” Scantily clad men and women. They all are gathering in worship of the god of Sexual Freedom and Rights.

How are we not living in a pagan society?

Don’t Be Like Lot

Lot is the example of a Christian in pagan culture. Sodom was not only open but was adamant about homosexuality, which gave Lot the choice between standing for truth or compromising with lies. He chose the lies. And because of that, his family remained unconverted, he lost his wife to judgement, some of his children were consumed, and the two daughters he had left made him drunk and took turns committing incest with him so that they could “carry on the seed.” What chaos! How did it start? One word: compromise.

Are we as believers ready to count the cost of our compromise? Let us realize the danger of laying treasures on earth, because it implies that earth is our home. And when that is the case, when our nations collapse, when believers are persecuted, we will be left with nothing but wood, hay, and stubble. Are we willing to risk that for the sake of being accepted for a while? This should be our greatest fear!

Yet we have not feared enough. Many professing Christians have fallen prey to a socially-acceptable “gospel,” and that mentality has caused us to compromise in any other area in which the Bible contradicts the world. We could nickname today’s evangelical culture “Lot.” Don’t be verbal about Truth; in fact, don’t even pretend there are absolutes, because it offends people. Don’t preach about sin or repentance; and how dare you think Hell is a real place! When the world is offended by a passage of Scripture, it simple: don’t preach it. Just claim the name and blend in with the world… Is this not the “Lot” mentality we see in Christendom today? If it is, what will it take to wake us up?

Our Greatest Need Now

Maybe we can’t change the world. Maybe we can’t bring revival. Maybe we can’t bring people to Truth. But we can still preach the Truth. God doesn’t hold us accountable for how the world reacts to the gospel, yet we are responsible for how faithful we are in upholding its truth and preaching it in God’s way.

So then, our greatest need now is to obey. Just as our call was 2,000 years ago, we must go into all the world and preach (not our own method) the gospel (not our own message) to every creature and make disciples. We cannot do this if we divert responsibility to “other” Christians because “preaching is not my gift.” We must all take a stand on Truth.

Now, some take this to the extreme and make clear fools of themselves. This is not our calling. We are called to be “wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” Our two greatest problems in evangelism today is that we either don’t do it at all or forget the “wise and harmless” part. Both are deadly mistakes. Our greatest need at this point is to not only preach the gospel, but to do it right.

If the verbal declaration of the gospel is the power of God unto salvation unto everyone that believes, how do we expect to see revival at any level if we divert to either preaching it with our own method/message or not preaching it at all? In the words of Paul, “How shall they hear without a preacher?” and “Woe is me if I preach not the gospel!” Our burden is real: our task is solemn.

Now only that, but the harvest is great, it is ready, yet the labourers are few. We need to realize that there are needs in our own nations for missionary work. We are just as pagan and dark as many other nations, yet we are the most “Christian” of nations. Clearly there is a paradox. Where Christians are, there should be light, yet the problem is this: while we hide ours under a bushel because of shame, the cults and false prophets are fueling their public bonfire of a light by burning our Bibles as it were. In other words, they are profiting by our lack of standing. No wonder, we are such a dark society. Thankfully the gospel is still preachable, and thankfully we as believers can still be obedient. And thank God that just as we were saved, so can lost souls be today! But that can only be the case when we stand up and take our place as labourers together with God. And so, wherever your sphere of influence is, be a Christian to the full – full of Truth, full of love. For one without the other is deadly.