Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. With the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street. How long can a civilization endure once it's detached from its roots? Most importantly, from the root of truth itself? At questions at the heart of the recent documentary Truth Rising, a film produced by Focus on the Family and the Colson Center for Christian Worldview.
Oz Guinness, one of the world's leading apologists and my co-hosts in this documentary, often refers to the West as a cut flower civilization. In other words, it's been detached from the essential truths that rooted and nourished it, and so the West cannot survive. When an entire civilization abandons the ideals that have nourished it, there are certainly consequences. And that's why most civilizations we think about are subjects of history books. Their artifacts stock the shelves of museums.
History can tell us that a civilization died.
Sociology might even tell us why. But neither helps us know what it means for us to be called to a particular pivotal time in a civilization's history and how we should live. But that is where we are. And so we have to choose: will we be agents of renewal or complicit in the decline? For followers of Christ, it's not a strategic choice, it's an issue of obedience.
We're called to this time and place, not by accident, but by God's design. Every Christian has to decide then: will I obey the call of Christ in this moment or will I shrink back? In Truth Rising, and now in the accompanying Truth Rising, the study, which is now available at colsoncenter.org/slash study, God's game plan for this civilizational moment is summarized in four essential concepts: hope, truth, identity, and calling. The very first lesson of Truth Rising the Study deals with the essential concept of hope. When the Bible speaks about hope, it's not in the sense of wishful thinking as we often use it today.
The Bible doesn't speak of hoping for some circumstance to change. Biblical hope, both for this moment and for the future, is instead based on something that has already happened, what Jesus Christ has already accomplished. Our hope's eternal, because Christ defeated death, sin, hell, and the grave. Christians believe that the most important truth about this civilizational moment or any civilizational moment is not what we do, it's what Christ has already done. There are four pillars of our Christian hope that the Bible gives us that we should recognize in this cultural moment.
First, that Christ is risen. The resurrection is not only the central moment in the history of Jesus, it's the central moment in human history. It's the most important truth of this or any cultural moment. Second, Christ is Lord. As the sovereign over all the universe, the Lord Jesus Christ sits on the throne of heaven and earth.
And that's true whether we recognize it or not. Third, Christ is making all things new. That's the direction the world is moving towards renewal within God's redemptive plan. Whatever happens in our civilizational moment, the larger story is secure. Finally, God has made us for this time and place.
In other words, we're not in a civilizational moment by accident. We're here because God chose us to live in this time and place. As Christians, even amidst the significant cultural challenges we face today, we are people of hope. We're made for such a time as this. We're providentially placed in this moment of God's unfolding story.
as Peter writes, were born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And so we must not despair, nor should we wish that we somehow lived in different times. God has put us in this precise moment of history for His own sovereign purposes. Our calling is to step into this moment that we've been given with the kind of hope-inspired courage that He provides for us, knowing that He's the one reigning over all things. God has His people in this time and place to do much more than just exist or survive.
We're called by God for His purposes in this world. Get the game plan for this civilizational moment with Truth Rising the Study. You can access it for free today at colsoncenter.org slash study. That's colsoncenter.org slash study. For Breakpoint, I'm John Stone Street.
If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download your podcast. And for more resources or to share this commentary with others, go to breakpoint.org. In a moment of cultural confusion, many Christians know their faith matters, but aren't sure how to live it out with clarity and courage. That's why formation matters. Through the Colson Fellows Program, believers are being shaped by a Christian worldview and sent back into their families, churches, workplaces, and communities, prepared to live what they believe.
Your generosity makes the Colson Fellows Program affordable, so more can say yes to life-shaping Christian Worldview Education. If you care about spiritual formation that lasts, learn how you can help at ColsonCenter.org slash February. That's ColsonCenter.org slash February.
