This article series shares Pastor Erik’s latest Twitter posts as articles for anyone to read, whether you have access to Twitter or not. You can find Erik's original Twitter thread here.

Christians who refuse to engage in the “culture war” are not glorifying God or loving their neighbors.

What is the culture?
Culture is that collection of beliefs, values, norms, and practices that permeate a society or institution. When we talk about “culture war,” we are describing the culture of our nation, society, or Western civilization.

Why should Christians engage?
Because if we want to see God glorified and people flourish, that means His name, His ways, His commands, and His promises should be promoted. This is for people’s joy and freedom!

If we believe what we say, then we can’t possibly claim that a godless and disobedient culture brings God maximum glory and is good for the people in that society. If everyone is in search for what is good, beautiful, and true, how can we say nothing with a straight face?

Why is it called a culture “war”?
Because there truly is a battle over what ideas, values, norms, and practices will shape society. There is a very clear contingent of people (the majority) that want man to live under self-autonomous rule.

Left unchecked, unchallenged, and undeterred, these people will instill what they deem as good, beautiful, and true on society.
And they have:
• hatred of children
• perverted sexuality
• dismantling of the gender binary
• hatred of men and families

It’s endless.

Christians must “war,” not with swords and guns, but with preaching the gospel, winning hearts, planting churches, honoring the family, shaping legislation, and forming God-fearing institutions. This is our battle. Sitting on the sideline doesn’t honor Christ or serve others.

C.S. Lewis said:
“For Christianity is a fighting religion. It thinks God made the world—that space and time, heat and cold, and all the colours and tastes, and all the animals and vegetables, are things that God ‘made up out of His head’ as a man makes up a story. But it also thinks that a great many things have gone wrong with the world that God made and that God insists, and insists very loudly, on our putting them right again.”

God insists on our putting the world right again. This is the culture war. The sophisticated excuses for not participating are often a smokescreen for not offending the world. It’s being Neville Chamberlain instead of Churchill. Appeasement rather than victory.

If you were a man of fighting age in Britain during the Nazi tyranny of Europe, fighting was thrust upon you by circumstances. To sit it out, hoping to enjoy a peaceful life outside the noise, was delusional. Left unchecked, the Nazis would have taken away that opportunity.

The same is true for Christians today. You don’t get the choice to sit it out and hope your peace will remain undisturbed. We’re fighting for the opportunity for you, and many others, to enjoy that peace. Unchecked…the other side will take it from you anyway.

Engaging in the culture war doesn’t require being a jerk. It’s quite the opposite. Additionally, we must avoid friendly-fire. We can debate as friends, but we shouldn’t shoot each other as enemies. There are too many real enemies to shoot the good guys.

Our culture, which is pretty rotten right now, it needs to change. May God raise up a generation of Christians and churches ready to enlist in the battle, marked with:
• Grace & truth
• Kindness & conviction
• A steel spine

If we believe what we say, then we can’t possibly claim that a godless & disobedient culture brings God maximum glory & is good for the people in that society. This is our battle. Sitting on the sideline doesn’t
honor Christ or serve others. 

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I’ll close with Lewis again:
“Enemy-occupied territory—that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.”

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the original thread click here: 
Christians who refuse to engage in the “culture war” are not glorifying God or loving their neighbors.

Check out short my book on the subject. I think this is especially crucial for newer and younger Christians.
Hold The Line: A Call for Christian Conviction in a Culture of Conformity