What is the greatest threat to civilization today? Is it the increase of open and avowed Atheism? Is it the sexual revolution? Or is there something more subtle, more sinister of which we are unaware?
Elton Trueblood argued that pure Atheism is never really dangerous.[1] It’s not dangerous because it “is a dull and unexciting position to hold.” (32) That, and it is a position that makes men sad, if they are intelligent enough to realize the hopelessness of their belief.
If Atheism isn’t the great danger, then what is? “What is dangerous is not intellectual atheism, which is unpopular, but mild religion, which is very popular indeed.” (32). To hold to a “mild religion” is truly what it means to break the third commandment.
In Exodus 20:7, God said, “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.”[2] It’s a significant command because it is the first one with a specific threat of punishment. We’ve reduced this commandment to mean: thou shalt not use potty words. But is this the true sense of it?
“The third commandment,” as Trueblood explains, “condemns those who believe and do nothing about it.” (32) Consider that “the worst blasphemy is not profanity, but lip service.” (31) To put it a different way, you break God’s third commandment when you call yourself a Christian, yet don’t delight in true godliness
The man with “mild religion” has no interest in obedience to Christ. He’ll occasionally show up to church, shirt collar in the clutches of his momma, wife, or girlfriend, but he has no passion for honoring Christ by the way he thinks, talks, or behaves.
A culture pervaded by this sort of bland Christianity is in great danger. And that’s the sort of “Christian” culture we have in the West. We have what Trueblood calls a “cut flower civilization.” We are “trying to keep the fruits and flowers of our Christian faith, especially its benevolence to the common man” while denying Christian roots. It’s the kind of Christianity whose only morality is: be nice to everybody. (37)
In a family, this would look like a father teaching his children not to lie, steal, or fornicate, yet he never teaches them to this obedience is unto Christ and for His glory. All he can speak of are the practical side-effects of such behavior. “You don’t want a baby at 14, do ya?”
This is the great danger we face at home. While “our pulpits are occupied these days with outcries against paganism and infidelity…[t]he real enemy we face is not irreligion but vague religiosity.” (38) Based on recent surveys, our churches are full of men with “vague religiosity.”
In our current state, we can only head in one of two directions “We shall either become openly pagan or we shall be driven to…commitment to the will of the Living God in a radical Christianity that is not ashamed to be frankly missionary and evangelical. We must pray and preach in order to avoid the former.
[1] Elton Trueblood, Foundations for Reconstruction, Revised Edition (New York: Harper & Row, 1961).
[2] Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references ESV.
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