Conservative churches have something to offer the world that it does not already have, as do all churches that embrace historic Christian orthodoxy. The reason is because they embody and present the message of Jesus, who came bearing not simply grace, but also truth (John 1:14). For example, the woman at the well was met by Jesus with radical acceptance, yet also confronted with her sexual promiscuity. The woman about to be stoned was protected by Jesus, but then encouraged to leave her life of sin.
It was this combination that made Jesus so winsome and compelling. Because truth and grace were inextricably intertwined, Jesus could thunder a prophetic word and then be invited to an evening keg party by the very people he had confronted earlier in the day.
Somehow, we’ve lost this dynamic. We either confront the world with a caustic or even abusive spirit, or we water things down in the hopes of goodwill. Neither will engage a post-Christian world at the point of its deepest need.
What the world needs is Jesus.
And what Jesus brings is both truth and grace.
That is what I would implore my Anglican brothers and sisters to embrace. This is your moment to take a stand, not compromise. Otherwise, it will be anything but your finest hour, and the consequences will be dire.
Those of you in Britain know to what I refer.
On June 18, 1940, Winston Churchill addressed the House of Commons as to the rationale for continuing to fight the war against Hitler and his prediction that the Battle of Britain was about to begin. Here were his concluding words:
Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, “This was their finest hour.”
Make it your finest hour in a way that transcends even that pivotal moment. This time, it’s not about Europe as a socio-political entity, but rather the very eternities facing the men and women of Europe as spiritual beings.
This article originally appeared here and is used by permission.
