In the West, we have had the benefit for centuries of a culture impregnated with biblical wisdom that fashioned our worldview. When our Western society turned from that consensus over the last century, proud intellectuals thought they could do without that biblical backbone – indeed, they thought that without it society would be much better. They thought they could open up a different path without needing to acknowledge the Lord Jesus as “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14.6). Now as our society descends further and further into disgrace, some serious thinkers are realising what a big mistake those former bright minds made, when they led society to abandon the old paths.

Too many people suffer from the angst that shows itself in hopelessness, confusion of mind, and mental ill health. Too many young people grow up with insufficient moral guidelines to enjoy a full, balanced, and fulfilling life; rather they bring upon themselves guilt feelings without realising why they feel that way; more and more we hear of children knifing people, juveniles killing juveniles. While statistics show there is less sexual immorality, there remains a lot of sexual confusion in the minds of the young. The family breakdown has fostered a beleaguered generation of children struggling to understand themselves in this fractured society.

Intelligent thinkers search more seriously to understand where we went wrong and begin to see that the fundamental error of our Western society was the adoption of the false premise that we could manage better without God and his Word. There is now more openness to turn again to the wise Christian bases that former generations thrived on – or at least that kept society relatively stable.

We would do well therefore, to listen again to what our grandfathers took for granted as their common sense bases for their good living.

So what are these elements that we lack today?
That there is a Creator God who gives us value and purpose; that we are responsible to him; that he gives us the best and wisest moral compass in the commandments of the Bible that we ought to obey; that we will be called to account to him on the Day of Judgement which we cannot escape, and that while there is a rightful fear of hell, there is also a glorious hope of heaven; that God’s wisdom instituted marriage as a life-long unique commitment between a man and a woman, where children can be brought up and taught the ways of God; that the way of personal fulfilment and true lasting happiness is to follow the example and teaching of Jesus – whose wisdom has remained unsurpassed in twenty centuries.

And the unsuspected key to all this? Jesus’ insistence that it is in denying our selfish will and by engaging our powers to do good to others that we both find personal satisfaction and become elements of positive change in society. I sometimes think what a loss it has been that children for a generation have not followed teaching in Sunday Schools about loving their neighbour. Just think what a transformation would come on society if we all took Jesus’ teaching seriously, to love God and to love our neighbour as ourselves.

Is that not what we’re missing in society? Yet each of us can decide to do this and turn our “evil and adulterous generation” into a place where human happiness is much more the norm. Let Christians awake to give a better example, and let others learn to follow Jesus who can transform lives and cultures for good.

Clive Every-Clayton