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FIRST-PERSON: The times in which we live

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GREENVILLE, S.C. (BP) — There was a time when Americans associated America with freedom. Today, we have lost touch with the concept of real freedom and have begun to think of it as the right to do as you please rather than the power and insight to do what is right.

Our culture has embraced the idea that truth is not absolute, but relative; subjective, not objective; and self-centered, rather than God-centered.

A nation that was founded on godly principles has become increasingly godless with the passage of time. As Election Day approaches, we face daunting challenges and problems that would have been unimaginable to our founding fathers.

We need the kind of change that politicians and political parties cannot provide.

LifeWay Research recently released the results of a survey of 1,000 Americans. Two questions were especially telling:

1. Is it morally wrong for an individual to identify with a gender different than the sex they were born? Amazingly, 45 percent said no, 14 percent said it was not a moral issue, and only 35 percent said yes.

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2. Is it morally wrong to change the gender you were born with through either surgery or taking hormones? Again, it was almost unbelievable that 43 percent of the people surveyed said no, 11 percent said it was not a moral issue, and 42 percent said yes.

How did we get in this shape? We left our foundation and drifted away from the one true God. Too often, our churches fell short in offering God’s light to this dark culture.

As a nation, we allowed the rhetoric of radical untruth to usurp the voice of truth. Our Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage — something God’s Word clearly condemns. The current tumult over a person using whatever public restroom they want based on who they think they are sexually, rather than who they are by birth, is minor in comparison to what is coming. As our culture has become more and more godless, it has become more brazen in its immorality.

Radical Islam, meanwhile, continues to murder and destroy anyone who does not agree with its agenda. Terrorists not only seek to build a country on land they do not own, they seek to create mayhem in countries they cannot defeat on the battlefield. In this age of terrorism, Christians are prime targets. Franklin Graham has repeatedly said, “The fundamentalist Muslims hate us because they perceive us as people who believe in Jesus — Christians.”

Our Bible-believing pastors who preach the Word of God faithfully will unfortunately face increased pressure, and even persecution, in the future. George Orwell wrote: “The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it.”

What Americans need to desperately know in the light of our cultural morass and worldwide radical Islam’s assault is the very truth this culture refuses to hear: the Word of God.

Apologist Ravi Zacharias has observed that we have a deep crisis of the American soul and that “we have no recourse, because the only cure has been disparaged and mocked by the elite and the powerful.” In a recent post, he bemoaned the death of “morality, truth and reason” in our culture. “We are sliding into the future with evil stalking us,” he said, “but we have no morality, truth or reason to guide us.”

In a time when the bondage of evil grows, we need the freedom and power of the one true God more than ever. In John 8:32, Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” He is the truth. His Word is truth. We have challenges before us that are so large, we can only meet them in the power of the God who is greater than the challenges we face. God’s people can make a difference in Him, through Him, and for Him.

God’s power is not diminished. His Word has not been weakened. He was the hope of the faithful in ages past, and He is our hope for such a time as this.