The Gathering Storm
The Gathering Storm: Secularism, Culture, and the Church
By: R. Albert Mohler Jr.
[Fulfilling “A nonfiction book about a topic you’re interested in” as part of the 2021 Fall Reading Challenge.— yes, I’m still working on this challenge in 2022… so sue me]
“Christians must display faith in God’s design, faith in God’s Word, and faith in the power of the gospel.”
“The great threat we face is not to the church’s existence, but to its faithfulness.”
Al Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, hosts a popular podcast called ‘The Briefing’ where he analyzes news and current events through a biblical worldview.
This book is basically an extension of many of the topics he discusses in his podcast.
It is an intelligent, relevant book that will spur us on as Christians to be on guard against the secularization of our culture and to stand firm on the truths of the Bible.
He enlightens us and exposes the trajectory of a secular worldview and how it opposes true freedom. His arguments are logical and easy to understand.
Mohler has a really good handle on politics and current affairs as well as what the Bible teaches. He is very qualified to share this information with us.
“Only the Christian worldview is sufficient to answer the demands of secularization, nor can any other worldview provide the framework for true human flourishing.”
What is the Storm?
Mohler borrowed the phrase ‘The Gathering Storm’ from Winston Churchill who used it to describe the rise and threat of Hitler in Germany. The threat here is not the same, but Mohler presents throughout his book ways that secularization has produced a ‘storm’ between biblical beliefs and cultural demands.
These storms revolve around Western civilization, the church, human life, marriage, the family, gender and sexuality, generations, engines of culture, and religious liberty. These are his chapter titles.
The Gathering Storm hits all the most controversial issues including abortion, same-sex marriage, the nuclear family, transgenderism and binary sex, freedom of speech, the Supreme Court, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, social media giants, language and more.
His main point is that many Christians, when forced to choose, follow what the culture tells them is ‘the right side of history’ and thus compromises God’s design, the authority of Scripture, and the power of the gospel for the appearance of cultural acceptance.
His secondary point is that we are in a war between revolution and revelation. The secularization of society is radical and eternally unquenched. Mohler quips, “Revolutions are never satisfied.” People who used to be considered far left are being pushed further to the middle by the continuous radicalization of the left. The implications of this shift are grave for religious freedoms and the church’s ability to publicly stand in their beliefs and share them with others.
[Carl Trueman’s interesting book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self traces the historical path of the sexual revolution and how the culture has changed how it identifies and views the self.]
[The book The Coddling of the American Mind is written by Democrats who see the loss of freedom of speech and diversity of opinion on college campuses.]
These are no small things.
What Does ‘Secular’ Mean?
So what does Mohler mean by secular?
“In terms of contemporary sociological and intellectual conversation, it refers to the absence of any binding theistic authority or belief. It is both an ideology (secularism) and a consequence (secularization).”
As Christians our authority is God and his word. He defines our identity; he has created the design for marriage and the family— life in general— that we follow; he reveals objective truth. The culture is trying to remove God and his principles and replace them with ever-changing subjective truth and authority rooted in fluctuating feelings.
The Declaration of Independence says “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
The rights of human dignity that the culture claims to uphold are 1) self-evident, meaning objective, and 2) come from their Creator. If they remove God from the picture, where is human dignity rooted? If everyone determines their own truth, how are these ‘rights’ self-evident to all?
[This idea is the main point of Rebecca McLaughlin’s book, The Secular Creed— that human rights come from God and they are in jeopardy if we remove him.]
Mohler quotes Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s famous words, “Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.” He is referring to the Communist oppression in Russia. Is it any wonder why virtually all totalitarian and communist governments reject and remove religion? When God is not the authority, the government becomes god.
[The similarities between the current American state and what happens in Communist countries is interestingly explored in the book Live Not By Lies by Rod Dreher.]
Some may claim that Christians are trying to force our religion on others as we oppose certain cultural demands, but what they fail to recognize is that atheism is also a belief system. There is no morally neutral opinion or policy in the public sphere. There are certain belief systems that are easier to target and keep out because they recognize a deity like God or Allah or Buddha, etc, but atheism as a religion is sneaky because their god is themselves.
There is a discussion here about who gets to decide what is right, but it is dishonest to claim that Christians are the only ones promoting their own beliefs.
[Jonathan Leeman talks about this important realization in his book How the Nations Rage.]
Secularization is a slow and often subtle process. But if we don’t think critically about the implications of its trajectory, we may find ourselves in a very dangerous and compromised position.
So What Now?
This idea of ‘being on the right side of history’ is noble and right. We want to look back and see that we loved people and took care of them, especially the vulnerable and outcasts. And it is true that the church, along with the rest of humanity past and present, does not have a perfect record of that.
But when Christians start believing that the culture presents the right path more than the Bible, they are deceived.
If ’the right side of history’ asks you to tame the word of God to be more palatable and universally acceptable, we must recognize this deception for what it is. God doesn’t need us to ‘fix his mistakes.’ He is not embarrassed by his truth.
Paul was not ashamed of the gospel and neither should we!
We are here to trust God’s design, obey his Word, and preach his truth.
Jesus straight up tells us that the world will hate us because of him. If no one is offended by your beliefs, you have probably traded your Bible in for the Book of Post-Modern Geniality.
Mohler brings up many concerns we have with the culture and religious liberty. But he reminds us that we are not without hope.
The government can’t save us. Laws can’t save us.
The Lord alone saves. And he is sovereign and powerful.
And He promised that he has established his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18) He has faithfully shown us that he preserves a remnant and he protects his people.
Mohler writes this book to remind us of God’s truth and charge us to defend our right to believe it and proclaim it. He writes this book to remind us that God is pro-people and pro-human flourishing. Therefore, his design is best for humanity and when we fight for that design, we are loving our neighbor.
“We must defend the right of Christians, along with all other believers, to be faithful in the public square as well as in the privacy of our own homes, hearts, and churches. We must defend the right to teach our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We must defend the rights of Christian schools to be Christian— and to order our institutions around the Word of God without fearing the crushing power of the state. We must defend the right of generations of those yet unborn, to know the liberties we have known and now defend.”
“[Christians] know why every human life at every age under every condition is precious. We know why truth is truth. We know that sin is what explains the brokenness of the world, and we know just how broken it is, starting with ourselves. We know why marriage can only be the union of a man and a woman, and we know why the family best be respected and protected by any sane civilization. We know why right is right and wrong is wrong. We know that life is not meaningless, and that right is not merely socially constructed and up for negotiation. We know that we are responsible creatures— that one day God will judge us for our every thought and deed.”
Conclusion
I’ve read a lot of books along these guidelines and have tagged them accordingly— browse the ‘Cultural Books’ link below for more. I’ve always appreciated Mohler’s viewpoint in his podcast and helping us understand the world through a biblical perspective.
Likewise, I think this book is a really important book for Christians to read and consider. Capitulating to the demands of our culture is not what God has called us to. The pressure of the culture is great, but the power of the Lord is greater.
At some point, we have to make a choice. We cannot serve two masters.
Mohler will inspire you to defend truth, love people, and put your hope in our sovereign Creator.
“hope gives us the reason to build a home and live in it. Love gives us the reason to build a home for others, for them to live in. Because we love our neighbor, we work for just laws, for righteousness and justice, for the protection of human life, for the good of our neighbors in all things.”
[Sidenote: Similar to Candace Owens book, Blackout, this book was written in 2020 before the presidential election. Mohler is not hiding the fact that he hopes his presentation will influence the way readers think as they cast their vote. The election is over, but nonetheless, this book will continue to be relevant.]
Additional Quotes:
“The cultural engines of progress driving toward personal autonomy and fulfillment will not stop until the human being is completely self-defining.”
“I am arguing that there can be no sustained defense of religious liberty without intellectual respect for belief in God and cultural respect for religious devotion. Even when Americans claim to rest their argument for liberty, for human rights and human dignity on a secular foundation, they are actually borrowing intellectual capital from Christianity…. we are witnessing the collapse and retreat of any secular notion of human rights and human dignity that would include religious liberty.”
“The secular age writes checks it cannot cash. It claims to uphold human rights even as it undercuts any argument for human dignity and natural rights. It invents new rights (like same-sex marriage) at the expense of fundamental rights (such as religious liberty). It claims a high view of human dignity, but aborts millions of unborn human beings in the womb.”
“No God, no truth. No truths, no liberty. No liberty, and nothing remains but the heel of someone’s boot.”
“The kingdom of Christ will not hide in a political platform.”
“The first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court said that the power to tax is the power to destroy.” (This is what’s at stake when politicians threaten to remove tax-exempt status from churches and institutions that express beliefs they don’t agree with and demand they change their beliefs to keep their tax exempt status)
“On many campuses, a significant number of faculty members are representatives of what has been called the “adversary culture.” They see their role as political and ideological, and they define their teaching role in these terms. Their agenda is nothing less than to separate students from their Christian beliefs and their intellectual and moral commitments.” (Surviving Religion 101 is a great book for students going off to these campuses)
“[Celebrities] have the social capital that allows them to influence others— and they are driven by a celebrity culture that now requires them to signal their moral precepts and politics, constantly. These celebrities usually have no expertise nor experience in the complex issues to which they speak.”
“The push of a secular worldview erodes the roles of parents in the upbringing of their children. Case after case, story after story, chronicles the downgrade of parental rights—secularism subverts the authority of parents who refuse to sing its seductive tune. If parents object to secularization, then they must be removed from the equation.”
“Language really matters. The use of language serves as a moral signal, and the moral revolutionaries understand the power of language and the influence words carry. The sexual revolution insists that society must alter its use of language and terms to accommodate its moral agenda.”
“Pornography represents one of the most insidious attacks upon the sanctity of marriage and the goodness of sex within the one-flesh relationship. The celebration of debauchery rather than purity, the elevation of genital pleasure over all other considerations, and the corruption of sexual energy through an inversion of the self, corrupts the idea of marriage, leads to incalculable harm, and subverts marriage and the marital bond.”
“A society that disbelieves in God will eventually disbelieve in marriage.”
“What morally atrocious age have we slipped into where we sacrifice babies on the altar of ‘women’s health, autonomy, and their right to the pursuit of happiness’?”
“While we must never demean the importance of elections nor diminish the responsible stewardship Christians have with their vote, we also dare not believe political victory will secure ultimate and lasting peace. Rescue will not come by mere politics. We do not need a political movement. We need a theological protest.”
Share this book review to your social media!