No one in their right mind would want to spend all of their time thinking about the potentially dangerous things that could happen at any moment. The reason we purchase security systems, insurance, and things of the like is so that we can rest easy knowing that should a hazardous situation occur, we will have the tools to either manage the situation or even prevent it from happening altogether. But for these counter measures to exist in the first place, at least some people must be willing to put their time and effort into addressing the problem. This is the mindset that has been applied to the problem of house fires over the years. The National Fire Protection Association states that the annual rate of house fires in the U.S. dropped over fifty percent between 1980 and 2021. This is partially because less people own things like fireplaces and gas stoves, but the rest can be credited to the people who recognized immense threat that house fires posed and put a slew of money and resources into solving the issue. People worked to upgrade firefighting tactics, hire and train more people to improve response time, and most importantly help to develop preventative technology so that they could stop fires before they even got started. Not only did this result in a massive drop in the number of house fires, it also meant firefighters were able to widen their scope of care to medical emergencies, allowing them to save even more lives.
This has become especially important because houses and furniture are far less durable than they used to be. First coast news reported on findings by the Fire Safety Research Institute and said, “Modern homes burn eight times faster than 50 years ago and produce 200 times more smoke [...] Families 30 years ago had 17 minutes to escape before the entire house was engulfed in flames, now it’s down to four.” While the supplies that builders use to construct houses holds up fine under normal circumstances, as soon as it is put under stress from a fire it rapidly loses its structural integrity. With houses having such weak foundational materials, it has made preventing fires that much more critical.
I described all of this to help demonstrate two things: the power of taking preventative action and the importance of being proactive when problems do occur. Most everyone would agree that the steps taken to prevent house fires are a net positive for society, but when it comes to churches, many seem to be unwilling to follow suit when trying to accomplish their mission.
The Church is often referred to as “a hospital for the sinner.” This title fits well enough, with Christ as the great physician helping to heal world of its sin, and the churches serving as the place where people are introduced to Him. And while it is good and necessary that people have a place to come to recover from their “spiritual injuries,” churches often don’t do much to address the things that are causing the injuries in the first place. Those in charge of fire safety began to study the situations and actions that led to fires being started so they could prevent people from ever having to go to the hospital. The logical conclusion would be for churches to follow suit and try to identify what is hurting people and to prevent it from happening. We certainly wouldn’t have to look far; our culture is brimming with ideas and ideologies that leave people spiritually burned. People are being taught to hate marriage and family in favor of “sexual freedom,” babies are being killed in the womb, kids are mutilated and castrated by people calling it “Healthcare,” and so on. To say these actions are evil is an understatement, and churches should be working to expose and dissuade the people who support these actions, so they don’t destroy any more lives.
But many churches are staying silent. As far as they are concerned, they don’t want to engage with anything that might put them in danger or cause tension. They try to excuse themselves from speaking out by saying “We stay out of politics” and “We are just here to spread love.” All the while people are going about their lives getting scorched by destructive ideas and even convincing some churches to stop being hospitals altogether and to participate in the madness. Far too many churches are content to watch the world spiritually burning people around them—so long as afterwards those people come through the church doors so they can keep the lights on. This is not a rational response to what is going on. In no other context do people act this way. This is like if I saw a fire coming towards you and I still had time to warn you about it before it got to you, but instead I refused to do anything about it until after you got torched. Everyone would be appalled by my actions and say I should have helped before it burned you, and they certainly wouldn’t assume that I cared about you. In fact, they would conclude that I must have a deep hatred for you because I allowed you to endure such agony. But so often when churches see things that happen in the culture that they know to be evil and wrong, they refuse to say anything about it because they are worried about offending people and driving people away.
Unfortunately for them, this non-confrontational approach of responding to cultural issues has the opposite effect. The church has been tasked with proclaiming truth and morality to the world, but when churches won’t defend their beliefs in the face of cultural pressure, people who take their Faith seriously are bored and disgusted by their lack of conviction and leave. And rightly so. They want a church that will follow the firefighter’s example and work to combat the spiritual fires in the world. They want churches that apply Law and Gospel faithfully to every situation—who logically and boldly dispute the false claims that are made by secular culture and uphold the truth of Scripture. They want churches who will both tend to the wounds of those who are spiritually broken and fight the ideas and lifestyles that made them that way. Because just like the houses that are built nowadays, our current culture doesn’t provide good materials with which to build a worldview. The ideas people are fed through social media and public schools are flimsy and cheap compared to the sturdy and substantial wisdom found in Scripture. And while the materials seemingly hold up under normal circumstances, they fail to stand when people inevitably do face challenges and hardship, leaving them depressed and unsure where to turn. If we really care about people’s spiritual well being, we need to provide them with real insights and truth— before their house collapses.
And the wildest part in all of this is that if someone agrees with everything I have been saying and tries to speak out against the culture, they are called unchristian. And while it is natural for non-Christians to level this accusation, there is a large swath of self-professed Christians who would agree with them. They say that Christians shouldn’t respond so forcefully and that Jesus only responded gently and nicely, both of which are simply bogus. We see countless Biblical examples of people confronting the evil they encountered. In Romans 1 when Paul is talking about those who have turned away from God, he describes them with a litany of terms that many Christians would not approve of if used today. In 1 Peter 4, Peter decries the actions of the gentiles and lists off their “debauchery.” Way back in the Old Testament, Elijah famously mocked the prophets of Baal when they were trying to prove Baal as the superior god. But if Christians today use mockery to denounce evil and falsehood they are chastised and ridiculed both by strangers and peers alike. Even Jesus spent a lot of His Ministry calling people out on their sinfulness and false teaching. He called the Pharisees fools and broods of vipers; He told several cities that on judgement day it will be better for those in Sodom than it will be for them because of their sin. And everyone is familiar with the account of Christ clearing out the temple. But what many people don’t realize is that the different details provided between the Synoptic Gospels and the book of John seem to show that Christ did this on two separate occasions. The Bible consistently shows that there are times where we must speak forcefully against sinfulness and those perpetuating it. That is not to say all the time, but times none the less.
To top it all off, I reject the premise that this isn’t loving. Scripture says that the Truth will set you free and that we should not be ashamed of the Gospel. Speaking out against sin and evil in the world is not the problem. Staying silent while people are burned by sin, is.
If the Church can serve as Hospital, could it not also serve as a fire station? If it helps heals the wounds of the sinner, shouldn’t it also fight to douse the flames of the evil that’s burning them alive? If sin is truly damaging to body and soul, then Christians must do everything in their power to bring truth to combat the evil. Our culture is on fire; it is not enough for churches to simply watch people come limping in and feel good about themselves because they feel needed. Churches must stand firm and decry the destructive ideologies that have gripped our culture and destroyed people’s lives. A church that truly loves the people it claims to care for must stand in the face of evil as Christ calls them to do. If it does not, can it even be called a church at all?
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