The opposite of love is not hate,

it’s indifference.

The opposite of art (beauty) is not ugliness,

it’s indifference.

The opposite of faith is not heresy,

it’s indifference. And

The opposite of life is not death, but

indifference between life and death.

Elie Wiesel-Romanian-born journalist-author and Holocaust survivor.

America is spiraling down into the abyss of chaos. The body of believers has been overcome and remains paralyzed by indifference—a case of terminal apathy, an astonishing lack of concern. Elie Wiesel’s profound observation should be flashing in neon from every lamppost, on the bumper of every car, crackling through hundreds of cable TV channels, and splashed in banners across cyberspace.

Years ago, Dr. Francis Schaeffer proclaimed that the American culture, including (or perhaps especially) the culture of Judeo-Christian believers, has devolved into the two impoverished values of “personal peace and affluence.” A typical believer, sucked into the backdraft of the secular drift away from God, lives a life message that essentially says, “Don’t bother me while I devote my life to accumulating more and more stuff!”

Such a view, displayed more by actions than words, displaces all the wonderful Biblical values that give life the richness and security that God intended. It is the direct result of the distorted, corrupt, and spiritually bankrupt objective of materialism, combined with physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual laziness. Rampant indifference deprives life of real love, beauty, faith, and the fullness of life.

Speaking recently at a Heritage Foundation panel in Washington, DC, Timothy Samuel Shah (Associate Director, Religious Freedom Project at Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs) pleaded, “Where are the spontaneous grassroots campaigns? I don’t see them. If one-tenth of one percent of Christians in America were really outraged and mobilized we would see political action across the board.” Although his remarks were directed toward the plight of severely persecuted Christians in the Middle East they could and should equally apply to any controversy that involves a culture-busting view contrary to God’s Word, e.g. abortion, same-sex “marriage,” dilution and redefinition of the family, removing all vestiges of Judeo-Christian tradition from public view and discourse, crucial end-of-life decisions and more.

As we near the end of 2015, what does God think of humanity, His greatest creation? What will YOU say on that day when you face God and He asks, “Why did you abandon My call to be the ‘salt of the earth, the light of the world, and my ambassador’ to join the army of the indifferent?” Indifference supports the enemy at God’s expense. Consider:

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” [2 Corinthians 5:10 ESV] “Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God?” [Romans 2:1 & 3 ESV] “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” [James 4:4 ESV]

The power and inevitability of God’s judgment appears to be largely lost on the Judeo-Christian culture in 2015. But God does not leave us naked. We can and must understand at a soul-deep level that, “…we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” [Ephesians 6:12 ESV] When we clearly understand the spiritual nature of every battle, we can,

“…put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the

belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the

breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the

shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the

helmet of salvation and the

sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” [Ephesians 6:13-17 KJV]

When we are fully prepared, we can respond to Isaiah’s question, “Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” [Isaiah 58:7 NIV]

However, when the government interferes with our God-given mission, Peter and the other apostles proclaim, “We must obey God rather than men! [Acts 6:29 NIV] Jesus Himself said, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” [Mark 12:17 KJV]

The sanctity of life, sanctity of marriage, and the sanctity of the God-designed family ALL belong to God, not to Caesar. Freedom comes from God not from the government as do all the freedoms enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. As God’s earthly representatives, we must be willing to take a stand!

What do YOU think? What are YOU personally willing to do with respect to even one of the issues raised in the preceding discussion?

What does it take to wake up the body of believers?

What does it take to wake up the clergy?