It is generally thought that the Great Awakening led to the founding of our country. A revival of morals urged men to stand up to the tyranny of England and to live by a higher standard. While it was ultimately the work of God, he used human agents like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield. While we shouldn’t fall into sectarianism condemned by the Apostle Paul,their faithfulness is worthy of respect. The results were real and the world has never been the same.

I think about this in terms of Billy Graham, or even other pastors on a local level. What is their fruit? Since Graham became a pastor our nation has gone straight down the tubes in terms of Biblical Morality. Marriage went from sacred to a joke. Children went from a blessing to a curse. Homosexuality went from illegal to a right. And even the basic created order of male and female is under assault. And all this even in the church. So what do you do with these men? Do you say that they changed a lot of lives? That things would have been worse without them? Why did the world not only, not improve, but get worse?

I wonder if it is because their gospel only called for private individual change, and not for world change. I wonder if Evangelical pastors have not minimized the power of the gospel to a ticket to heaven while we watch the world burn. Perhaps this is why the calls for social justice have become common in young silly churches. Because they know something is missing.