I think our society has generally moved in its group thinking away from what it used to think. Often Americans from the last century knew that there was something broken in their lives and that it needed fixing. Thus, they were often more open to the cry for repentance, and at least, more willing to hear the message of the gospel. But the generation today has adopted a groupthink that is as far from this idea of “something broken” as the east is from the west. Christians find they must start in a whole different place to explain the gospel.

My own father was not a Christian until the very last of his life. I lived for decades trying to explain to him the gospel. One discussion that we had must have exasperated him, for I remember him saying, “Pat, I keep all the commandments the best I can. Why are you always after me?”

I pointed out that the first four commandments were personal commands about worshipping the Lord. He muttered, “Well, I do my best with the rest of them.” Admitting the standards was a major part of American persona. The WW2 generation knew the standards were there—they just might tend to disregard them when convenient. But they did realize there was a right and a wrong.

It was at that point that we had something to talk about if he had been more open to discussion. We needed to discuss righteousness before God, for he had already admitted tacitly that there were problems with sin in his life. It was not until decades later that he admitted his need for the Savior.

The problem with today’s generation is that they no longer have knowledge of what is wrong or right. They have no concept of sin, no matter if it is defined loosely. So, we must start the explanation a whole lot differently.

According to Christian thought, we were created for fellowship with God, but lost it due to rebellion. When Adam and Eve entered into that rebellion, the nature of mankind was forever changed. We had a special privilege, as being the highest of all of God’s creation and fell into the unmeasurable depths of sin; we became unable to see our sinful selves, much less to even imagine our prior relationship with the living God.

From the first of the church age it has been so; blindness to sin is one huge hurdle to overcome. Saul of Tarsus had to be blinded with the brightest of visions to stop his persecution of the church, and to make him see the righteousness of God. Once any of us catch a glimpse of his righteousness, like Saul, we are immediately conscious, perhaps for the first time, of our own sin. We become so aware of our sin, not because we really see it; rather we see the very righteous, true and holy God, and that makes us aware of our own condition, perhaps for the first time in a setting very difficult to ignore. The contrast between God and our sin is sharpened so that most often we fall to our knees in repentance and begin the journey of belief.

In a sense, then, the message has not changed. We are still focused on trying to get people to look at the righteous God. But their understanding of sin has changed. In the post-war generation, they knew in some sense they were not right. In the present generation blinders have come up, covering their eyes like never before. It seems evident that there is a blindness that is falling over the world, as they engage in pretending that all truth is relative, not recognizing the folly of such thoughts. Building on the thought that all truth is relative, they begin to make logical assumptions. There can be no right and wrong if there is only relative truth. In their folly they do not recognize that relative truth cannot be truth at all; truth if it exists, must be independent and solidly standing by itself, irrespective of those who might “feel” it to be different.

And so we live in our current society, a society convinced that they have reached the zenith of understanding. Have societies been here before? Yes, the rise and fall of civilizations show an eerie pattern of people losing sight of right and wrong. But this movement is different in breadth. It involves at least the Western World and seems to be eclipsing all rationality that would point against it. The outcome cannot be good, for it appears that civilization, bereft of logical thought, is in danger from within of destroying itself.

In such desperate times we bring the gospel, a truth that has not changed at all in the 2,000 years it has been proclaimed. God is righteous. Man is not. In mercy he grants a pardon, if we will but believe. In times like these, we need a revival, the very Spirit of God himself, to stir up hearts and renew the vision of the living and true God. I am convinced we will not see large numbers of people converted until the people are paused in all their folly to see again, the God who sent his Son that the “whosoevers” might be saved.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life.

John 3:16