I have put together a list of what I believe to be some of the best things happening in American Christianity today.  There has been a great deal of wood, hay, and stubble.   What we want is gold, silver, and precious stones.  We are looking for true religion, real life, and authentic faith, that will manifest itself in deep-rooted, generational, cultural change.  Since the 1960s, God is doing something in America.  We are beginning to see the roots of real reformation. There are signs of life.  Real life.  [   ]

1.  Francis Shaeffer, Chalcedon, Summit, and the War of the worldviews.
In the 1970's, nestled in the foothills of the Swiss Alps, was a ministry and a man that would lay out the modern antithesis between the Christian faith and secular humanism.  Francis Schaeffer.  R.J. Rushdoony was also writing in the foothills of the Sierra Madres in California.  These men introduced new concepts like "Worldview" and a "Faith for All of Life."  Christians had grown tired of relegating their faith to Sunday morning.  But these men engaged an all-out war on dualism, faith without works, heart without life, and knowledge without application.  They wanted a faith that permeated all of life, Sunday through Saturday.  A relevant faith.  A biblical faith.  A 24-7 faith.  There had to be something more to the Christian faith than a little internal commitment to Jesus, a private and personal faith.  As one writer puts it, your faith needs to come out your finger tips. [    ]

3. The Creation Movement started by Henry Morris and John C. Whitcomb

In 1960, a book was published by P&R Publishing that would change the world, and give an important boost to a biblical epistemological commitment, at least in the minds of the laity.   That book was "The Genesis Flood."  [   ]

6. The Southern Baptist Revival and Al Mohler
It is ever so rare to see large denominations do anything but synthesize and compromise into oblivion.  This has happened to many of the old "main line" denominations.  But something happened with the Southern Baptists, that in my estimation, defies explanation.  The Southern Baptist denomination is the largest of the Protestant sort in the world.  Yet, there has been a significant swing towards the "conservative" bent in the denomination since the 1980s.  This has been partly a consequent of the seminaries and men like Al Mohler.   And one must not forget the work of men like Bruce Shortt and Ret. Gen. T.C. Pinckney, who have challenged the denomination with the notion that education is not neutral and worldviews are critically important in the schooling of our children.  Thus, these men and other leaders in the denomination front new resolutions at each year's convention encouraging pastors and parents to reconsider the education they give their children, especially if it is of the secular humanist variety generally accepted in American public schools.  Last year, Al Mohler suggested the denomination consider an exit strategy from the public schools.  

If there is any more important battle going on over the minds and the life of modern Christians, than what we find in these recommendations and resolutions, I can't think of one.  This is core battle.  

I should add that Broadman and Holman is the publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Church.  Publisher, David Shepherd and his team are printing some of the best books in the Christian world today, by David Noebel, Chris Klicka, and others.  

7. The Homeschooling Movement Touches Two Million Lives.   [   ]

8. Bill Gothard, Doug Phillips and the fight for Honor and Fatherhood [   ]

10. Roy Moore and HSLDA
    

I could not end this list of great works of God in the culture and life of the modern world without mentioning the area of politics.  

Now, I know there are Christians that believe great things have been accomplished by Christian activity in the pro-life movement and in other political endeavors, but most of this is for naught.  The homosexual lobby has made tremendous ground.  The pro-death movement is moving in the area of assisted suicide, euthanasia, and already has won the major ground on abortion.  So where are we?  Most of us have little confidence in the judicial branch making the right decisions, and the legislatures consider themselves powerless to stand up against these judges.   Where South Dakota and Louisiana have recently passed laws to restrict abortion in their states, we are almost certain that the judicial branch will toss these laws aside in a heart beat.  

What we lack is strength, courage, faith, and integrity.  And this was exactly what Judge Roy Moore provided the nation in his battle for the Ten Commandments in Alabama.  At least we found a man with courage, who was willing to put his position on the line for something.   That, my friends, is incredibly hard to find anywhere in politics today.

The second positive contribution from a Christian worldview in politics is the work of Home School Legal Defense Association and the fight for the rights and responsibilities of families to homeschool their children according as they see fit.   It was the battle for the survival of freedom for the family, not unlike the battle for the freedom for the church fought in the 17th and 18th centuries.  When the government insists on controlling the family or the church, it always destroys it.  Freedom-fighting, liberty-loving people have always understood this, as far back as William Wallace of Scotland.   The fight in the 20th and 21st century is for the survival of the family, its freedoms and its responsibilities.  This fight has been waged by a cadre of lawyers who combined forces in an organization called Home School Legal Defense Association.  They include Mike Farris, Mike Smith, and Chris Klicka, men of strong faith and a love for freedom.  The fight isn't over, by any stretch of the imagination.  In fact, it has just begun.

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