“The culture wars are being fought in virtually every sphere of life—government, business, law, politics, commerce, education, the sciences, media, the arts, entertainment, religion, marriage, family, health care, and popular culture to name just a few. Each of these spheres produces seemingly unrelated instances of cultural conflict. Yet, it is in the accumulation of such present-day moments of conflict that we gain an understanding and direction of the cultural drift. The purpose of these posts and the books I have written is to participate in the redemption of culture in all institutions of American life through sharing the truth of the biblical worldview which was at the heart of the nation’s founding and formed the central cultural vision by which it is to be governed.
Over the last 15 years I have written and posted many articles about American culture from the perspective of the biblical worldview. Therefore, I have selected a few of the posts that continue to offer time-tested answers to the questions of life and the turmoil found in modern society that we encounter every day.”
Larry G. Johnson
The American Church – 4 – The Early Church enters the Middle Ages 325-1054
The fall of the Roman Empire The ascendance of Christianity came too late to redeem the social fabric of Rome and the western half of the empire. The Roman world was culturally and spiritually impoverished and no longer had a unifying common core of belief. Its citizens had abandoned their reverence for the old Roman virtues that had once provided cohesion within its far-flung empire. It had been in decline long before the Edict of Milan in 313, and the newly sanctioned Christian virtues had not time to infuse life into the dying empire. The Roman world was culturally and spiritually spent and in a slow motion death spiral during the latter part of the fourth century and early fifth century.[1] Historians mark certain milestones […]
The American Church – 3 – The Early Church 33-325
The struggle for sound doctrine Dorothy Sayers was a masterful mystery novelist during the first half of the twentieth century and was counted as an equal among such famous authors as Agatha Christie, G. K. Chesterton, and Baroness Emma Orczy. But her greatest love and calling was as a theologian and Christian apologist. She was friends with several of the greatest Christian writers of the era including C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and J. R. R. Tolkien. In one of her essays titled “Creed or Chaos?” she wrote of the importance of the Christian doctrine. It is worse than useless for Christians to talk about the importance of Christian morality unless they are prepared to take their stand upon the fundamentals of Christian theology. It […]
The America Church – 2 – Knowing God
To know God is the universal and unending quest of all mankind. No culture or age is exempt, whether ancient or modern. In man alone among all of God’s creation there exists an incompleteness which compels him to seek solace. Earthly things do not satisfy, and man’s gaze is inevitably drawn to the heavens which stir in him vague memories and ancient voices from the past that pierce the soul and hint of a time when he was whole. It is God whom he seeks and must know to assuage the loneliness and emptiness of his existence. Ancient man knew there were “…things, not of this world, but mysterious and superior, and worthy of being sought to the exclusion of everything else.”[1] And through religion […]
The American Church – 1 – Love letters to my family
Following the feast of the Passover the night Jesus was betrayed, He spoke to his disciples of a new commandment. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another. [John 13:34-35. RSV] Clearly, Jesus intends for there to be a special love between all true Christians by which is meant everyone in the world who has been born again and walks in the historic biblical faith regardless of denomination or fellowship. This special love binds the church in oneness or unity as expressed by Christ when he prayed for the church. I […]
The American Church Series – Will your house be left unto you desolate?
[This is the 125th article I have written over the past 125 weeks. I feel it is time for a short sabbatical. This article will be the last for about eight weeks and serve as an introduction for a series of articles beginning in September on the plight of the American church. Given the significant moral decline of America over the last half decade, it is necessary to examine the symptoms and root causes that have been present for well over a century. In this series of articles we shall briefly survey the history of the church since its inception two thousand years ago. Understanding the central themes of its history is important and will give insight and perspective to the issues faced by today’s […]