WHY DO PEOPLE THINK THE WAY THEY DO?
This Week has seen the production of the annual British Attitudes Report. This is the 26th year it has been produced. The survey involves asking 3000 people about their thoughts and experience of living in Britain. People are chosen on a random basis according to standard statistical research criteria.
There are several areas that are of particular interest to Evangelical Christians:
There are also a number of other issues discussed which are mainly focussed on political attitudes.
(All these details are taken from natcen.ac.uk)
There is an absence of any strong Christian perspective in the thinking of the people. Historically that has not been the case in British society. However the last fifty years has seen the whole “Christian heritage” decay and disappear. Britain is now more clearly than ever a godless and heathen society. The question that we must ask is why this has happened, and how the decline can be rectified.
We must recognise that this move away from Christian values has been a very long process. But the problem that now faces us is that there really is no Christian voice at all within the nation. On issues of the family and morality, of the voices that are heard, and considered to be Christian, there is no clarity or Biblical focus. The rationale and power, therefore, of Biblical arguments on these crucial issues are lost. The propaganda of the gay lobby, the anti-family consensus, and the liberal intellectual world have received no answer at all of significance. Within the Evangelical world, and in academic theological circles, there has been quite substantial discussion. But in the public arena Evangelicals are now almost entirely silenced, and when they do speak it is as a reaction to some event (usually an Anglican dispute). This shows almost more than anything just how peripheral the Gospel has become in our nation.
What can be done to rectify this situation? Surely it is not to modify what we have to say? The clear teaching of the Bible must continue to be heard, if only within our own constituency and in our own pulpits. The truth must continue to be spoken without fear or favour. In doing this we must continue to proclaim that the Bible has something important to say about every aspect of life. Evangelism must be our primary role, but at the same time the whole teaching of God has to be declared. In this way Christians need to be taught what the Bible actually says so that they may present this in their personal testimony and witness. Of course there is an almost total disregard and disrespect for the Bible in our society and that negative attitude will grow over the coming years. The witness of the lives and testimony of Christians will be even more significant.
But beyond that there must be something extra from God. We hear quite a lot from some Christian leaders about the methods and means we need to be using. Some of that is useful, and much is too mechanistic. The unavoidable fact remains that we are reaching a very low point for the Gospel in our nation. We have been there before and God has brought us out. He has done so by an extraordinary revival, which has sometimes involved new methods and approaches, but which has always been based on much prayer and a concentration on the preaching of God’s Word. So let us work harder to evangelise our generation and use whatever means the Lord puts in our hands. But let us also take ourselves more and more to prayer and beseeching the God of heaven that He might come down.
When He does come down one thing is certain; people will start to think very differently.