How will you respond to the drastic social and political changes in our culture?
That was a question I tossed out at a class I was teaching. Actually, my words were, “What’ya gonna do?”
The class dealt with the impact Gentile empires had upon Jews living in the Holy Land during the 400 years between the Old and New Testaments. I challenged the class members to imagine they were Jewish parents who had just welcomed a new baby into the family during the rule of a Greek tyrant, Antiochus IV. Antiochus, who had adopted the title “Epiphanes” or “god manifest”, was violently forcing his Greek culture upon the Jews in Palestine.
Antiochus Epiphanes had decreed that Jews must worship the Greek gods. A pig would eventually be sacrificed upon the sacred altar that had been dedicated to YAHWEH, the God of Israel. The times were difficult for a practicing Jew. Circumcision and Sabbath observance was declared illegal.
Jewish believers had to choose how to respond their Greek oppressors. The Greek language was rapidly replacing Aramaic and Hebrew. It seemed that everything these Jews once loved and practiced was being threatened.
So, imagine you’re that Jewish parent. Circumcision was mandatory under the Abrahamic Covenant. So, “What’ya gonna do?” Ignore the covenant with your God and rationalize that circumcision was just an unnecessary painful surgery. After all, your son would face ridicule at the local gymnasium while swimming in the nude—also the law. Will you resist Antiochus and sharpen the knife on your son’s eighth day of life?
Will you continue honoring the Sabbath, or will you submit to the local Greek police? Perhaps, you could observe the Sabbath dinner with shades pulled and candles dimmed and singing at a whisper? Imagine your children hearing their parents discussing the options and asking, “Papa, What’ya gonna do?”
During this traumatic era when Hellenization– the enforcing of Greek language, culture and religion upon the world\d—was the spirit of the day, Jews had to decide what to do? How they would respond?
The easiest route was to accept the Greek presence and to cooperate and reap and enjoy the benefits of the amazing Greek culture. Just to bend as far as necessary to keep the peace was an obvious choice.
Some Jews, such as the Pharisees, didn’t welcome the intruders but continued to practice their faith and try to stay as separated from the Gentiles as far as possible.
A few fervent Jews chose to resist. They would be called the Zealots. Their patriotic and religious fervor would lead to violent resistance—often at a terrible price. But it’s what they decided to do. Eventually, under Roman rule, their zeal would result in the total destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersion of Jews throughout the world.
A fourth group of very conservative Jews chose to leave town. To get as far away from the pagans as possible. They preferred communal living out in the Judean wilderness than trying to co-exist with the intruding Gentiles. These became known as the Essenes. They were the true separatists. Some of them would leave portions of their Hebrew Scriptures in caves above the Dead Sea that would be discovered in the late 1940’s.
But all that was over 2,000 years ago. Does that ancient history even matter today? Is it relevant?
Perhaps you’ve heard the old saying, “If we don’t learn from history, we’re bound to repeat it.” To paraphrase a truth in the book of Ecclesiastes, “There’s nothing new under the sun.” Seems like, “What goes round comes round.”
Today, 2024, Christians in several parts of the world live under persecution. Their life is difficult, even dangerous. Professing believer must choose what they will do. Some, while kneeling under an Islamic blade, must choose death or reciting “Allah Akbar.” What would you do? Think about it, “What ya gonna do?”
Fortunately, you don’t have to decide. At lease, not yet.
But let’s bring this closer to home. Consider the confusion over gender identity and the debate whether a parent has the right to deny their child to pursue an impossible surgery—a sex or gender change. No physician can transform a boy into a girl—at least not a girl that can have a baby. If your child or grandchild would ever confide with a teacher or a counselor that his rights are being denied by his parents, and the State gets involved—especially possible here on the West Coast—threatening to remove your child from the home, “What’ya gonna do?”
I hope you never have to decide.
Our culture is changing so rapidly that someday, perhaps soon, you may need to make one of these hard decisions. Will you bend as far as possible? Will you break and surrender to the culture? Or, will you resist, even if it may result in imprisonment, as it has for some who have dared to stand outside a clinic encouraging women to reconsider a decision that will terminate the life of an innocent human?
Will your zeal result in retaliation—even burning the clinic? God forbid! That will never solve the problem.
Or, like several believers in my home state that have chosen to escape across the State Line into a more conservative Idaho. That’s a legitimate option. But, I ask, what about the need for salt and light where we live?
I cannot tell anyone what they must do in response to our degenerating culture, but I do ask you to consider, “What’ya gonna do” if the challenge ever faces you?