A New Breed of Sinners

How can such a question be asked? Sin is sin and sinners are sinners. From the perspective of violation that is true. However, from the viewpoint of the transgressor, things have changed. This is vividly illustrated by my conversations with pastors, youth workers, and concerned laymen. I frequently hear something to the effect that we just cannot seem to reach people any more with the Gospel. Alternatively, youth workers might relay frantic concerns over the lack of response or conviction among some of the young people they work with. They know things have changed, but they cannot necessarily put their finger on the problem. The problem is that we are dealing with a new breed of non-Christian.

Prior to the cultural upheavals of the 1960’s, the general population believed in a Christian view of life and reality (worldview). However, with the firm entrenchment of enlightenment thinking (humanism – the ability of man to conquer and reason through all problems and dilemmas) in the universities and among the intellectuals, liberal thought began to seep down from the universities into the general population. This happened through the media, music, and the arts. In this process, theology was also affected. There was an aggressive agenda on the part of the humanist.

However, during this time, because of the radical aggression among intellectuals, conservative churchmen withdrew, choosing to major on evangelism and discipleship. While this was noble and certainly biblical, the absence of a competing, challenging worldview in the secular part of culture left a vacuum. In other words, the church simply did not fight for the soul of culture on their turf. Consequently, the Christian worldview became less and less accepted. The process of secularism was accelerated because religious ideas, institutions, and interpretations eventually lost their significance and validity in the broader culture. The church lost its broader influence among a whole generation. By the 1990’s America became a post-Christian culture.

At the same time Christianity was loosing its influence in sectors of society, humanism was not fairing very well either. Young people were discovering that with all of the advancements in philosophy, technology, science, social theory, psychology, and other disciplines, man was still not able to handle the deep questions of life and existence. Therefore, they began to reject abstract thought and abandoned the hope for the ability to reason.

So, on the one hand, among the new general population coming of age, church had little influence except with those who were raised in church, and the intellectuals had little influence because they were not able to grapple with the basic questions of life. The result was postmodernism. People concluded that absolute truth did not exist.

Now, decades later we find a new generation that is not only not acquainted with the basic tenants of Christianity, but also thoroughly convinced that there is not such thing as truth. They are mixed up and frustrated. They have not been raised in church and they have lost any hope that society has any real answers.

By the way, I am not speaking of just university students are intellectuals. The warp and woof of culture believes this way. While they may not be able to articulate how they believe or to put a label on it, they sense a futility and hopelessness. From philosophers to blue-collar workers, from the rich to the poor, many, if not most have lost any frame of reference about truth, God, and reality.

This is precisely why the church is running into so many problems in evangelism and discipleship. For the most part, the people we are winning are the last vestiges of those raised under a Christian worldview. Nevertheless, the others are just as lost. We cannot give up on them. I believe with all of my heart, we must regroup to reach them too. God has put eternity in their hearts also. We must lead them to recognize their spiritual needs.

Yes, there is a different breed of sinner. Nevertheless, Christ died for them too. We cannot give up. We must reach them. God is not willing that any should perish. And the Gospel is still the way to accomplish the task.