How We Should Respond to a Hostile Culture

The Jewish people were facing a very real threat.

There was a growing hatred of their moral values. Their belief systems and family values were contrary to the culture. More and more people saw them as a threat to the nation. There was a growing undercurrent pressing for the Jewish people to conform to the culture of the day. Political pressure began to stir this caldron.

The prime minister set in motion a plan for destroying every Jew who did not follow the politically correct morals and cultural values.

God had strategically placed His representative to make a difference at that momentous time.

Esther, a Jewish virgin, was chosen queen, from all the women who had been selected to go through the preparation. Her beauty and elegant bearing was succeeded only by the critical hour in which she rose to position.

Esther’s cousin, Mordecai, stated it well.

“Do not think that in the king’s palace you will be more likely to escape than all the other Jews. For if you remain silent at this time, protection and deliverance for the Jews will be ordained from some other place, but you and your father’s house shall be destroyed. And who knows if you may have attained royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:13-14).

This was the very reason Esther was born.

She had been given the favor and grace of God to make a difference at such a juncture in history. Through her intercession the Jewish population was delivered from genocide.

The church in the USA has been given a similar task.

There are many in America who wish the Bible believing Christians would retreat into obscurity. The moral standards, belief systems and family values of the Bible believing Christian are counterculture. The pressure to conform to the politically correct and cultural norm is becoming extreme. Into this caldron of social upheaval, a leader has come to power who is fomenting divisiveness and mounting the pressure to conform.

The church is not here to protest the evil but to shine the light of God into the ever growing darkness. Like Esther, the church is here to lead the people out of destruction and into safety and deliverance.

The church was born to plunder hell and populate heaven.

Jesus said He would build the church to crush the gates of hell. He has given the church the authority to bind the powers of darkness and to lose the people held captive by sin and demonic forces. The church does her work best, not by protesting the level of evil, but by increasing the intensity of her light.

The church can increase the wattage by living holiness and righteousness more consistently, loving the sinner more passionately, giving mercy and grace more kindly, and speaking the truth more faithfully.

When the church lives holy, loves passionately, gives mercy and grace kindly, the truth spoken without compromise will not sound like a noisy gong or blaring trumpet. Rather, loving conviction will be applied by Holy Spirit to the heart of the sinner. They will be saved from a multitude of sin!

Church, do not think you can compromise with political correctness and show tolerance to a culture in moral free-fall and escape the consequences. “For if you remain silent at this time, protection and deliverance for the Jews will be ordained from some other place, but you and your father’s house shall be destroyed. And who knows if you may have attained royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14).

Indeed, this is a difference making time. The church is at her finest hour. This is why Jesus built His Church,

“For such a time as this!”

F. Dean Hackett has served in full time Christian ministry since October 1971. He has ministered throughout the United States, Canada and Europe, serving as pastor, conference speaker and mentor. He has planted four churches, assisted in planting fifteen others, and currently serves as Lead Pastor of Living Faith Church in Hermiston, Oregon. Dean has been married forty-five years to his wife, Wanda. They have three children serving in full time Christian ministry. Their two daughters are missionaries in Croatia and their son is planting a church in Portland, Oregon. They have nine grandchildren. Dr. Dean is known for training many leaders who are presently in full time ministry around the world. He has completed a Masters in Ministry, a Masters of Theology and a Ph.D. in practical theological with an emphasis in marriage and family counseling. His enthusiastic and challenging ministry has made him a popular teacher and conference speaker. He has written eight books and is presently writing the third book in a trilogy Freedom Series. Dr. Hackett founded Spirit Life Ministries International in 2001 to facilitate ministries in Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina and to open a training center for workers in those nations. You can find him at F. Dean Hackett – Foundational, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.