Putting the Urgency of the Hour in Historical Perspective By MICHAEL BROWN for The Stream
In 1944, Rev. Peter Marshall declared, “Surely the time has come, because the hour is late, when we must decide. And the choice before us is plain — Yahweh or Baal. Christ or chaos. Conviction or compromise. Discipline or disintegration.”
That was 1944, 9 years before the first edition of Playboy.
Compare that to the epidemic of internet porn today, affecting even our children. Marshall never could have imagined America falling this low.
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1944 was a long time ago.
In 1959, Prof. Robert E. Coleman wrote,
In a day when unprecedented numbers of people have a form of religion while at the same time the church seems unable to stem the rising tide of degeneracy that threatens the land, the question must be raised: Why this paradox? Should not the church have influence for righteousness in proportion to her numbers? However one may seek to answer this question, it is obvious that what we need is not more religion, but more power. In short, we need real revival!
And this was written before the counterculture revolution of the 1960s swept the nation. How much more urgently do “we need real revival” today?
In 1969 Dr. Bill Bright wrote, “We live in the most revolutionary period of human history. . . . Social band-aids and reform antiseptics give little hope for a cure or even an improvement. A revolution is needed. . . . You can experience this revolution. In fact, you can help bring it to pass.”
Also in 1969, Rev. Tom Skinner wrote, “I’m convinced America is at her crisis hour. Revolution is inevitable. It’s just a matter of which faction is going to prove strongest and will win out in the end. I believe most Americans are so apathetic that they will just sit back and go to whoever wins the struggle.”
What would these men of God say today?
1969 was also a long time ago.
It was the year of Woodstock. And it was the year of the Stonewall Riots.
No One Could Have Predicted
But I doubt that the most zealous gay activist in 1969 would have predicted that the Supreme Court would one day redefine marriage. Or that the White House would light up in rainbow colors in celebration. Or that a “married” gay man would run for president. Or that another presidential candidate would say that transgender rights were the Civil Rights issue of our day. Or that a famous male athlete would be declared woman of the year. Or that the American Library Association would endorse Drag Queens reading to toddlers. No way!
And 1969 was four years before Roe v. Wade. Put another way, 1969 was four years before a court ruling would allow for more than 60 million babies to be aborted in their mother’s wombs.
How much more, then, do we need massive awakening today? How much more do we need a sweeping revival in the church that will spark a moral and cultural revolution in the society?
