Right Thinking in a World Gone Wrong: A Biblical Response to Today's Most Controversial Issues

This is a compilation of essays by various authors vetted by trusted John MacArthur of today’s controversial issues with the biblical truth that aligns with each one. An excellent book and learning tool for sharing.

Have you taken the time recently to personally examine your lifestyle? Do you believe your lifestyle is a reflection of being transformed by the Holy Spirit, or have you allowed the surrounding culture to creep too deeply into your life?Have you taken the time recently to examine your local church and denomination? Do you believe your local church and denomination are committed to the Great Commission, or do you believe they have allowed the surrounding culture to introduce competing commitments, not supported by scripture?My wife and I read this book after our local pastor used parts of it in one of his classes. We were impressed by the thorough scriptural references provided to support statements about ‘Right Thinking’. We agreed with the author’s theology in all areas covered by this bookThe next step was to act on what we had read and accepted as theologically correct for our own lives. We personally examined our lifestyle in each of the areas covered in it. The two areas that really impacted us are:Part 1 - Entertainment and Leisure – Chapter 1 Glorifying God in the Gray Areas and; Part 3 - Politics and Activism – Chapter 11 God, Government, and the Gospel.We made changes related to the ‘Entertainment and Leisure’ area almost immediately. We were motivated to undertake several hundred hours in prayer, denominational research, pastoral inquiry, and Biblical inquiry related to the ‘Politics and Activism’ area. We determined that our theology was more in line with that espoused in this book than with our denomination’s theology. We quietly resigned from our local church and denominationI have intentionally avoided naming our former local church, our former denomination, or any other organization with whom I disagree on theology. The Lord has not told me that I am the authority, or that I have any authority, on this topic, except to make my own choices by my own free will.I recommend that every Christian do their own praying, researching, and studying to determine what they truly believe about Christ and Christianity. I recommend including books like Right Thinking in a World Gone Wrong as a significant part of your spiritual journey. You should continue this effort throughout your lifetime and continue to make course corrections, as needed.It is critical that each one do so because each one of us is accountable to Christ individually. We cannot use the excuse that some pastor, some church, some denomination, some other believer did not show me the right path.The following paragraphs provide more details about the changes in our lives that are the net result of reading this book. We pray that other readers will take any steps needed to make their lives a reflection of being transformed by the Holy Spirit.Part 1 – Entertainment and Leisure – Glorifying God in the Gray AreasWe evaluated the few television entertainment programs that we were watching and decided that most of them failed several of the ‘Principles for Living to God’s Glory’ presented in this chapter. We also decided not to renew our season tickets for local live theater performances for the same reasons.Part 3 - Politics and Activism – Chapter 11 God, Government, and the GospelWe were spending more time watching political commentary on television than we spent watching entertainment television. This chapter made us realize that we should be politically informed but we should reduce our time spent on politics and invest more time growing spiritually and spreading the gospel. We immediately reduced the time we were spending on politics.The real eye-opener for us in this chapter was the reasoning about the conflict between the Great Commission and political activism in the church. We were active congregants with our local church for over 15 years. We purposely avoided political discussion in our local church and our local church body tended in that direction. We were concerned in recent years about political activism by the national leadership for our denomination. We disagreed with their political positions but we felt there was something deeper that was disturbing to us about their political activism. This chapter brought us the clarity to see and agree with the author that political activism in the church is Biblically wrong, regardless of the political position taken.We began researching our denomination’s national website to get a more complete perspective on the motivation and depth of political activism. The first thing we noticed on the Home page was a statement of facts about our denomination. This is really a high-level statement of beliefs but it did not mention the following facts: the virgin birth of Christ; the Trinity; Christ as God’s Son; the Cross. The more detailed statement of beliefs on this site mentions the first three of these, but fails to mention the Cross.We read several policy documents enumerating individual and group ‘rights’ to things such as: food, shelter, clothing, health care, a secure and healthy environment, clean air, pure water, etc. These policies affirmed denominational support for programs and measures to assure these rights.Our denomination, along with many other denominations, is a communing member of a national organization. We researched the site of the national organization and found that our denomination, along with several other member denominations, provides full time staff for lobbying our national government in Washington, D.C. for the aforementioned ‘rights’ found in our denominational policiesWe prayed a lot during our research; for understanding and because we were disappointed to discover that our denomination was so deeply involved in political activism. (Admittedly, we were naïve in thinking our local church was representative of the denomination, at large. The Internet now makes it easier to investigate at all denominational levels initially and to monitor ongoing.)We met with our local pastor to review our findings and our concerns. Our pastor requested and received a response from our national denominational leadership. The denominational leadership stated that our denomination’s social activism is based on Biblical principles from the following references: The Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-11), The Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-25), and Jesus Telling About the Last Judgment (Matthew 25:31-46).We studied and prayed about the references provided. We prayed, studied, and thought about what we already knew from prior extensive Bible study. We were unable to see any true Biblical justification for either the denominational policy goals (human ‘rights’, instead of honoring God and saving souls) or the coercive political and social activism methods (‘living wage’ and ‘affordable housing’ laws, business boycotts, public defamation) used to achieve these goals. Being politically informed provided us with the ability to recognize that the ‘social activism’ being promoted by our denomination is a political ideology. This is also evident in the coalitions formed with secular and anti-Christian organizations to promote these goals.We firmly believe that we, as individual Christians, have a biblical responsibility to help the less fortunate in our society. Our Christian biblical responsibility requires that we lovingly share our personal resources (our blessings from God) for this purpose in a way that helps to spread the gospel message.Our denomination’s political activism is just a symptom of the deeper conflict we have with the claim that it is Biblical. We resigned from our local congregation because it is imperative that we have theological agreement on such a critical issue.We have started on a new faith journey to find a new church home that is in concert our theological beliefs.

For believers who are serious about living for God in a society thats circling the drain.

This is a great book I recommend everyone to read this one.

I saw this book promoted on a show and ordered it based on what was said. The book is not at all what was said.This is a good book but not what was promoted.

How do godly men use scriptural principles and apply them to modernity? Here are some examples. Though I wish it was a bit more in-depth and more "inspiring" per-se, this is an excellent resource for proper Christian thought. Good one to discuss in group settings too:).

Great book! So relevant and truthful The authors stick to God's word and do not deviate from it at all. I enjoyed reading an objective book that showed me how to think and respond to world issues.

This is a excellent book in that it gives the reader biblical answers to today's most controversial issues. This is a must read for all Christian youth in the jr high years and up. It prepares the Christian reader for questions they will be asked about biblical teaching. I highly recommend this book for all Christians as well as Messianiac Jews.

A great religious reader

Great book

Well worth reading

This is a great resource for reasoning through various contemporary issues from a scriptural perspective. As it's mostly written by a pastoral team, it leans more (in my opinion) to the application of theology as opposed to setting out theological answers in detail. Far from this being a flaw, it is on purpose designed to help people apply biblical thinking to modern world challenges. Very worthwhile.

Straight to the point and a must for every christian