THE CODE 18 APRIL 2026 www.goodnewsfl.org Good News • South Florida Edition As I type the words culture shock, my mind is racing back over the decades of my life. Flashing before me are the many changes I have personally witnessed in the cultural collapse of the Judeo-Christian ethic of our Western world in my lifetime. I was born in 1947 and spent my boyhood days in the 1950s, when tens of thousands of American troops had just returned home from Europe and the South Pacific at the conclusion of World War Il. They married their high school sweethearts, and what sociologists have termed the baby boom began. In the 1950s, we were a grateful and thankful people. Average church attendance was at an all-time high. We never locked our doors at night. I left my bicycle in the front yard every evening, and it was always still there the next morning. We heard Bible readings each morning over the intercoms of our public elementary schools. The Ten Commandments were prominently displayed on the classroom walls, and once a year some good and godly folks called the Gideons visited our school and gave every student a copy of the New Testament. As always happens, the mood of the culture was reflected in the music of the day. Doris Day had one of the biggest hit songs of the era in “Que Sera Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)." It was a new day of optimism and hope. Change in the wind Then came the 1960s. I have always felt a bit sorry for those folks who didn't get to spend their teenage years in the golden oldie days of the '60s-the days of madras Windbreakers, Bass Weejun shoes, glasspack mufflers and sock hops. But in sharp contrast were certain events that did something to the psyche of our nation: the assassination of President John F, Kennedy in 1963 and our entrance into the Vietnam War. We shifted from the more innocent and optimistic white-picket fence mentality of the '50s to one that became extremely introspective. Once again, the culture was reflected in the music. Peter, Paul and Mary had one of the biggest hits of that decade when they sang, "The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind." Many Americans realized that the answers they thought they had were simply blowing in the wind. The culture became immersed in introspection. Next came the 1970s, the decade of such traumatic events as Watergate and the resignation of a president, the legalization of abortion in Roe v. Wade, and ongoing involvement in Vietnam. I watched as the culture moved from one that was introspective to one that became extremely skeptical. Skepticism influenced the mindset of millions, and it showed up in the music. Billy Joel, the piano man, had one of the biggest hit songs ofthe'70s when he sang, "Only the good die young.” Skepticism in a nutshell. Then came the 1980s, and Ronald Reagan spoke of the United States as that "shining city on a hill." The economy grew, and new hope permeated the fabric of our national pride. Then we saw the Berlin Wall come crashing down on the other side of the Atlantic, an international event that fueled hope in our nation. In the 1990s, the USSR — the «evil empire” — collapsed, and the Cold War came to an end. This was followed by the start of a new millennium, and a horrific event in the first decade of the twenty-first century scarred the psyche of our nation. The infamous 9/11 attack on America changed profoundly the way we think and go about our everyday lives. And here we are today My own grandchildren are growing up today in a culture where issues that slithered down the darkened back alleys of my childhood now parade themselves proudly down the main streets of every city and town in America. We have watched an entire culture slowly but surely sink into a moral malaise of unfathomable proportions. How can we believers and our faith in Jesus survive in our modern, counter-Christian cultural world? We aren't the first followers of God to face this situation. The Old Testament hero Daniel wrote the book on how God's people can survive in a pagan, permissive and perverted culture. He was born in Jerusalem and grew up there until he was taken captive to Babylon as a young man. He found himself uprooted from a Jewish culture built upon the Mosaic moral law and dropped into one that was foreign to everything he had known and been taught. His value system, his truth claims and his moral compass were all challenged repeatedly. Overnight, his world had become one of pluralism and paganism. Daniel could have spent his energy blaming his circumstances on societal ills, the court system of his day, government policies, political leaders or the educational system, just as we Christians in our contemporary culture can place blame today. However, Daniel steps off the pages of Scripture and into our modern culture to reveal some principles, a sort of "Daniel Code," that can enable us not to simply survive in our culture but to engage it, thrive in it and even be used by the Lord to transform it. A believer’s options Can we really expect to change a culture that is crumbling around us? I absolutely believe so, but it is interesting to observe the various ways in which people of faith address the culture today. There are those who compromise: they accept cultural ideas — including the call to tolerance — that subtly shift their allegiance away from following Christ and Him only. Some believers condone the culture around them: they find it simply much easier to adapt to a changing culture and accept alternative lifestyles. Others condemn; they beat their Bibles a little harder and scream a little louder, as if their long, pointed fingers of accusation would win over a lost generation. But thank God, there are some believers who, like Daniel, choose to confront the culture and engage it by speaking truth in love. I am not minimizing how hard that last option is. After all, we have evolved into a schizophrenic society. We listen as ministers pray at presidential inaugurations and then punish high schoolers who try to pray at football games or valedictorians who attempt to insert a prayer in graduation speeches. We watch as our president and other elected leaders place their hands on the Bible at swearing-in ceremonies while school administrators are fired for opening the same Book to give counsel to a wayward student. We cry out for law and order in the streets and, at the same time, teach kids in our classrooms that there are no moral absolutes. And we wonder why relativism runs rampant in our society! And the list goes on. And this is the culture we, as believers, are called and commissioned to engage and reach. Not many years ago, one's failures and perversions were occasions of shame or at least embarrassment. This is not true in our postmodern world: what were once considered perversions are now occasions for public promotion and stardom on television talk shows. And too many of us believers remain hunkered down behind stained glass walls, opting to isolate and shelter ourselves from the world outside. Some of us continue to live as if we were in a world governed by an ethic and culture that is compatible with the truth of the Bible, but we aren't. Besides, Christ has called upon us to be salt and light in this dying and dark world (Matthew 5:13-16). A biblical example In the book of Acts, the early church exploded when Paul and other believers stepped out of their comfort zones and engaged a culture completely different from the one they had known. Likewise, God calls us to engage a culture that is not the least bit interested in our stained glass or our morals. It is a culture that is not only asking, 'Is the Bible true?” They also want to know, "Is it relevant?" Does this Book written in an ancient Middle Eastern culture hundreds of years ago have any relevance in a world where we are transplanting organs, experimenting with genetic engineering and sending probes to the farthest reaches of our solar system? They will never know the answer to those questions — and the answer is “Absolutely yes!" — unless we engage them. Taken from The Daniel Code by O.S. Hawkins. Copyright © 2016 by Dr. O.S. Hawkins. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson. O.S.Hawkins,anativeofFortWorth,Texas,isagraduateofTCU(BBA)andSouthwesternBaptist Theological Seminary (MDiv, PhD). He presently serves as Chancellor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the former pastor of First Baptist Fort Lauderdale and the historic First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, and is President Emeritus of GuideStone Financial Resources, the world’s largest Christian-screened mutual fund. Visit him at OSHawkins.com and follow him on X (Twitter) @OSHawkins. - Dr. O.S. Hawkins - Chancellor, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Culture Shock Thank God, there are some believers who, like Daniel, choose to confront the culture and engage it by speaking truth in love. “ ”
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