Where Do We Go From Here?: Hope and Direction in our Present Crisis

WHERE DO WE

GO FROM HERE?

Hope and direction in our present crisis

Erwin W. Lutzer

MOODY PUBLISHERS

CHICAGO

© 2013 by

ERWIN W. LUTZER

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

All Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

Interior design: Ragont Design

Cover design: Kathryn Duckett

Cover image: George Peters / 2008 iStock

ISBN: 978-0-8024-1013-9

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CONTENTS

Five Troubling Trends

The Slaughter of the Innocents

A Historical Perspective

Five Unshakable Pillars

Motivated By Another World

Commitment Unto Death

Notes

It’s gone.

Some of you will remember when the Christian philosopher Francis Schaeffer told us back in the 1970s that someday we would wake up and find out that the America we once knew was gone. That day is here.

We have crossed an invisible line, and there are no signs that we are capable of turning back. Like a boat caught in the mighty torrent of the Niagara River, we are being swept along with powerful cultural currents that just might put us over the brink. Seemingly irrevocable trends put in motion forty years ago continue to gather greater momentum and speed. Our Judeo-Christian heritage that gave us the freedoms we have enjoyed is for the most part gone, and in its place is an intolerant form of humanism that can boast of one victory after another. The cultural war we used to speak about appears to be over, and we have lost.

Daily, perhaps hourly, we are losing the war for America’s heart and mind. We must understand the direction and speed of this cultural river that has spilled over and engulfed our land. We must also ask: what should we be doing at this critical hour?

This booklet is above all a message of hope, a message intended to help us refocus our priorities in a day of great opportunity. Rather than lick our wounds, withdraw from the public debate, and stand aside as we bemoan the fate of this great nation, we must regroup, get our bearings, and remember why we are here and what we are called to do. Never before in American history has it been more important for the church to be all that it can be in a society that is increasingly hostile to Christian values.

My prayer is that after you have finished reading these pages, you will be encouraged, hopeful, and excited to be alive