Yes! It absolutely can, and it will, if we don’t wake up!

How do I know? Because it’s already happening.

In the past few years, our world has turned topsy-turvy. Black is white and white is black. Good is evil and evil is good. Right is wrong and wrong is right. Truth is relative and there are no absolutes. People are “woke” when they need to be AWAKE.

In April, 1967, a high school world history teacher in Palo Alto, California, was asked by his students how it could have happened that the German people claimed not to know about the killing of the Jews, and how they could have let the Nazis come to power. The teacher, Ron Jones, conducted an experiment which he hoped would demonstrate just how this could happen among ordinary people not so different from us, in a civilized, highly cultured, beautiful country.

The following video from 1981 is an accurate portrayal of that experiment. I share this video as a way of illustrating something far more important for us as Christians today. My comments follow below the video.

Back to my original question: Could this happen here?

The question those students asked their teacher are questions that I had for a long time. But in recent years those questions have weakened considerably as I’ve observed the many dramatic and alarming changes that have taken place in our own society. Far worse, is seeing those same changes happening in the church. None of this has happened overnight, despite the way it may feel at times. The changes have crept in so slowly and quietly that we haven’t even realized it until the past couple of years when so many smaller changes have converged into what looks like one gigantic change. And a great many churches have been caught off guard, and fallen victim to the ideologies of our day.

Division and polarization make it more important than ever to know what we believe, and why. As true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we can no longer sit on the fence or hide in the grey areas of life. It is vitally important that we be always on our guard against anything that draws our attention away from Christ, and our growth in Him. Today, more than ever, we need to know His Word, and live by it. We must take a stand with and for Christ, at every opportunity.

“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” – Psalm 119:105

“The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple” – Psalm 119:130

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Nine years after the event, Ron Jones, the high school teacher, wrote a short story about that memorable week in April, 1967. If you would like to hear the story in his words, read by another, you can hear it in this video.