#1: “This Is Not Your Father’s America!”

SCRIPTURE: Acts 17:16-21

INTRO:

Ken Ham, of the Answers in Genesis organization, wrote in his book, Gospel Reset:

“Billy Graham passed away February 21, 2018. Many news items reported on his death and paid tribute to this great evangelist. One headline really stood out to me:

There will never be another Billy Graham,
because the world that made him possible
is gone.

“This was similar to what Fox News political commentator Tucker Carlson stated during his short tribute to Billy Graham on Tucker Carlson Tonight, February 21, 2018:

‘He basically just preached the Bible. In the America of the time, that was
enough. People stopped him on the street to shake his hand. We live in a
different country now, but Billy Graham never changed.’

“Yes, the world has changed; we do ‘live in a different country’ now, and another Billy Graham would not have the same response as the late Billy Graham the evangelist had.

“The gospel message hasn’t changed, but the way in which it needs to be presented in a secularized culture does need to change. The way to present the gospel does need to be reset in the world we now live in” (pp. 9-10).

Peter’s sermon to the Jews in Acts 2 was to a world that was more like your father’s world than today’s world. Everyone in his audience believed in God and was looking for a Messiah. He merely pointed out to them rather convincingly that Jesus was that Messiah, and that they needed to repent and be baptized. 3,000 believed him and did just that.

Paul’s sermon in Athens to the Greeks in Acts 17 was to a world more like today’s world. Luke wrote in verses 16 through 21: 16Now while Paul was waiting for them (Silas and Timothy) at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city was full of idols. 17So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities” – because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 19And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” 21Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.

Much like Athens,

THE WORLD WE NOW LIVE IN IS THE WORLD OF SECULARISM.

America’s God is no longer Jehovah; like Athens, today’s America has many gods. Like Athens, today’s America is religious, but in a secular sense. In secular societies, the gods are science and education. In secular societies, the worldview is atheistic and evolutionistic. In secular societies, Christianity is ultimately targeted for annihilation.

While the secularization of America has been going on for many years, the America of your father was quite different from that of today. In your lifetime, you’ve seen the de-Christianization of America’s institutions and government schools. Prayer and Bibles have been eliminated from government-controlled and financed schools. A ridiculous interpretation of the so-called “separation of church and state” clause in the Bill of Rights has been pushed and promoted to the point that our founding fathers wouldn’t even recognize it.

What’s happening flies into the face of the biblical quotes and references to God in our historical documents and on our government buildings, coins and currency.