Have We Learned Anything in 100 Years?

In 1909, President Teddy Roosevelt said, “I believe that the next half century will determine if we will advance the cause of Christian civilization or revert to the horrors of brutal paganism. The thought of industry in the hands of paganism is a nightmare beyond imagining.”

He also said, “Every thinking man realizes that the teachings of the Bible are so interwoven with our whole civic and social life that it would be impossible for us to figure ourselves what that life would be if these standards were removed.”

And here we sit and the end of the century that this was spoken in, witnessing his warning for the nation played out in a myriad of scenarios. Everything from leadership without moral character to children without moral absolutes. From good people being ridiculed and labeled as evil, while those without moral conviction are raised up as the standards for tolerance.

But the battle is not political, it is spiritual.  It is not geographic, but territorial in the spiritual realm. If Christians fail to understand this, then we may not even recognize ourselves in the next half century.