Biography
Michael Green was Rector of Saint Aldate's Church and a professor of New Testament in Oxford, England. Recently he has relocated to Regent's College in Vancouver where he teaches Evangelism. His special concern is for the renewal of lives in local churches that have grown dull and ineffective. He is the author of several books. [Biographical information is correct as of the broadcast date noted above.]

"Whither America?" 
I have just come from Oxford, England over to Vancouver and I find there is a tremendous difference in the religious climate in England and in North America. A tremendous movement has happened in North America in our life times. Did you know that a century ago America was almost at the bottom of the league of church going nations in the western world? And now it's miles away at the top. Everything is completely upside down and changed.

Now that's a very remarkable thing. There's tremendous media openness to the Christian faith, there's a tremendous impact on the student world, there's a very great amount of church planting going on all over the place. I, for instance, am a professor of Evangelism in Vancouver Regent College. They don't have such things in England, they've never even heard of it, it doesn't exist. The "Born Again" phenomenon is something that you can't help taking note of in North America, whatever you may feel about it. The Roman Catholic Church, I was told only yesterday, not only has set up a nationwide program of evangelism for the next ten years, but it has already added eight million members since 1980.

Above all, the whole climate is different. In North America, if you go sit in an airplane you might very well find yourself sitting next to somebody reading a Bible. I did that just the other day. Coming down here I was talking before the plane had taken off, to the two passengers sitting next to me, and we were talking about God. Now that sort of thing would not happen in England. It's fascinating and I wonder where it's all going to lead.

You know, it's an important question. Because there are very different forces at work in our society in the States today. A few years ago, a Senator would never have got up and declared himself an unabashed, active homosexual and remain at his job. But it's happened. A candidate for Judge of the Supreme Court would never have attracted an unprecedented amount of odium primarily because he was against abortion. There is an ideological battle going on today of very great proportions in our midst and the next 25 years or so is going to determine which way America will go. That of course, with a nation of this significance could be very, very important for world history.

On the one hand, we've got an unprecedented renewal of Christianity in American society - turning to Christ and His way of life. On the other hand, we've got a disturbing social unrest and an increase of violence, the collapse of family life, free-for- all in ethics, a terrifying nuclear "brinkmanship", and selfishness that allows millions to die of starvation in Afro-Asia while we stockpile the grain that could have saved their lives. Where are we headed? I wish I knew. But it's probably just as well that we don't know.

Instead, let's have a look at the past because I think we could learn from it. I want to take you to two different scenarios. The first one comes in the 7th Century B.C. The little kingdom of Judea lies between the Babylonians in the north and Egypt in the south - the two great super powers of the day. They have just endured the worst administration that Judah has ever suffered under King Manasseh - human sacrifice, terrible cruelty, social unrest, wickedness rampant like it was in Chicago before Mayor Daley, you know? A real mess.

Then a young man, Josiah, comes to the throne. He wants really to please the Lord. And one day an incredible thing happens. It was in the spring cleaning in the temple and some guy picked up an amazing old book - it was the book of Deuteronomy. And it really showed what God wanted for his people and the King tore his clothes. And he realized what a mess he was in - in his personal life, and what the nation at large had done. So the King realized the claims of God upon the country and an amazing revival happened in the days of King Josiah.

At least it was amazing from one point of view. But it was only skin deep. Jeremiah, who was one of the greatest of the prophets, was living in those days and Jeremiah never mentions it. The historical books say what a fantastic thing it was. Jeremiah, with his passionate earnestness for reality never once mentions it. Instead in the seventh chapter of Jeremiah he says that justice was corrupted. And it still happens today. Aliens were oppressed, and think of the Hispanics or the blacks in D.C. Chaos was rife in the family cores - the fatherless, the widows, the seniors - they got so squeezed to the wall that they either had no medical help or they simply couldn't afford what was available. That's got a curiously modern ring, too. Innocent blood was shed to the God, Moloch, as infant sacrifices were made in the valley of Hinnom. Think of the million aborted fetuses that degrade American society every year - a million a year and more, today. Stealing, adultery mentioned in this passage - it's daily stuff, isn't it? False testimony, worship of Satan - highly contemporary, this material.

And then the Jewish people rolled up to the temple on Sunday and they said, "Here we are God, we are saved. You ought to be extraordinarily pleased to see us in your house. "

And Jeremiah says, "That will never wash with God." God does not call us primarily for religious observances. What he wants is the obedience in daily lives of our hearts and minds. And that is what they are not prepared to offer. They would not allow their week day behavior to be influenced by what they did in church on - well it wasn't Sunday was it? It was Saturday.

"This is the nation which did not accept discipline", our passage ends, "truth has perished - it is cut off from their lips." And that's the first scenario. It's not a very beautiful one, but it's a great surge of religion in this ancient kingdom - a tremendous revival - but it was only skin deep. It made no change in politics and life style and social action.

Now let me take you to the second scenario. It's 2000 years later and more in the end of the 18th century and early 19th century in England. Once again there was a great spiritual awakening. It's associated with 4 names you probably know: Wesley and Whitfield who operated, both of them, to very great effect in the U.S. and then, a little bit later, Wilberforce and Shaftesbury. Of course, there were many others involved. But it had the most profound effect upon the whole nation at a turning point in world history with the rapid industrialization of society and the spread of the British flag very widely over the developing world. A critical period and these were critical people.

Just before the beginning of this movement, in the early 18th century, England was sunk as low as she'd ever sunk. Gangs ranged the streets and bumped people off. Alcoholism was a way of life. You were drunk for a penny and dead drunk for tuppence and sometimes there was clean straw thrown in. Men were executed for stealing 10 cents. Immorality and sexual disease reached absolutely epic proportions and the government was corrupt, the poor were left to rot, and the rich entertained themselves with riotous living.

The religious state of the country was disastrous. One observer went around to all the churches in the main part of London and he found not one pulpit where the name of Jesus Christ was mentioned.

Now within 30 years from that low the whole thing had turned around. It all happened under the great revival which took place with Wesley and Whitfield. Imagine a combination of Billy Graham and the Pope and you get a rough idea. Hundreds of thousands of people were moved by the good news that the Lord loved them, that he went to that cross for them, and that he was alive for them and he spoke of coming into their lives to change and transform them. And those men like Wesley and Whitfield would preach to crowds of up to 50,000 without any P.A. That makes us look amateurs these days, doesn't it? And you would see on the dark, black faces of the miners - black from the coal - rivulets of light as the tears of repentance streamed down their faces. That was something pretty much like the renewal that we've seen in America in the last 25 years as the thousands streamed forward onto the field as Billy Graham preaches.

It wasn't just a flash in the pan, you know, it kept going. On the one hand you had the rise of the Methodists, wrought into being by John Wesley. All over the country they sprang to life. Prayer meetings were held nightly in Yorkshire for instance - a pretty tough part of the country. And it led to thousands of conversions of people who were drawn to houses where these prayer meetings were going on and as they came in they felt the presence of God and turned their lives over to him.

At the same time, between 1790 and 1840, there was a parallel going on in the Anglican Church - the Church of England or the Episcopal Church as we know it over here. The initiative had passed firmly into the hands of the Evangelicals. Men like Simeon and John Newcombe (?), by the 1830's had led the Evangelicals into a leading position in the Anglican Church and they were the guys who called the shots.

What did they achieve? I'll tell you. They achieved something fantastic. A great many of them got into Parliament. By 1832 when the Great Reform Bill was passed there were 100 Evangelicals sitting in Parliament as members of Parliament who had gone there for the sake of Jesus Christ to change the face of the country. They were the people that passed that bill. They were there to fight institutional evil at its roots.

Parliament was at that time held in very low esteem. People bribed their way into Parliament. They bribed people at the races to put them in. And the Evangelicals wouldn't have anything of that at all. They were absolutely clean and straight in their political careers. They refused to pay to get elected. Once they got into Parliament they were serious for the good of the country and the country had never seen anything like it and they were incredibly popular. They had one question only as they voted. It was not party pressure, it was not personal advantage, it was "is this morally right?" That was their question.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, after voting against his government on one occasion, said, "I voted today so that if my master had come again at that moment I would be able to give and account to him of my stewardship." Wouldn't it be marvelous if more Congressmen, more Senators, more members of Parliament who voted like that. What's more, the Evangelicals, the men who knew themselves to be born again, didn't vote conservative by instinct - by "knee jerk". They were conservative on the scriptures, they weren't necessarily conservative on everything else. They had a passionate concern for the poor and the oppressed. Social Action did not emerge from the liberals in that century. It sprang entirely from Bible believing, born again lobbyists. Isn't that amazing? Their faith in Jesus Christ was no private part of their lives reserved for Sundays. It led to tremendous purity of life, it led to great simplicity of life-style - they gave much of their money away in missionary work - and they had absolutely tireless endeavor for the good of the country - to meet human need wherever they found it.

Let me give you a couple of examples. Take William Wilberforce for example. Born in 1859, a brilliant young man, got into Parliament at the age of 21. The closest friend of William Pitt who was Prime Minister, if you please, at the age of 24. He came to a living faith through reading the Greek New Testament on holiday. And he sacrificed an absolutely brilliant political career for two "lifetime ambitions", as he put it. One was to abolish the slave trade and the other was to reform British morals. And he achieved them both in a lifetime in Parliament. He first speech against slavery took four and a half hours on the floor of the House of Commons. It was one of the most brilliant speeches that chamber had ever heard. And people voted solidly against his bill. Entrenched interests kept them into slavery. He tried again the next year and the next year and the next year. He got slapped down again and again and again. In 1807, I think that was the year, the slave trade as such was abolished and in 1833 - two weeks before he died - the Commons abolished slavery throughout the British Empire. 700,000 slaves were freed in one day, more than half a century before it happened in the U.S.

Or think of the Earl of Shaftesbury, a close friend of Wilberforce. He was brought to Christ by a servant girl. Tremendously wealthy background, aristocratic home, he gave his life to Jesus Christ and for the cause of the poor and he transformed the lot of society. In the mental asylums he absolutely changed the scene there. He was head of the Board for 50 years. He so cared for the women and children that he stopped them from working in the coal mines. He stopped people working in factories for more than 10 hours a day. That seems a bit long, but they were there for 20 hours a day sometimes in those days. He was the guy who stopped little kids going up chimneys in order to sweep the chimneys. He began all preventative public health care. He founded "Ragged Schools" for the kids that were never looked after and had no education. I suppose his greatest achievement was to establish the right, indeed the duty, of Government to interfere in industry and commerce to protect the concerns of workers. He did it all out of love for Jesus Christ.

When he stood in Parliament to stop the kids going down the mines, in 1842, he said, "As I stood at the table and just before I opened my mouth, the Word of God came forcibly into my mind. `Only be strong and of good courage' and, praise be His Holy Name, I was as easy from that moment as if I were sitting in my own chair at home."

Now it was men like that, that changed the face of England. Men full of the Holy Spirit and of Christian conversion. People like Mary Slessor who transformed the "White Man's Grave" in Nigeria. People like Thomas Benardo who took the ragged children off the streets and made citizens of them by providing homes for them. People like Elizabeth Fry and John Howard who reformed the whole prison system. People like Florence Nightingale who cared for folks who were dying of appalling disease. These were the things that transformed the face of England.

Do you see now why I'm so concerned for America? America stands at a cross roads. There is an undeniable spiritual revival at the heart of American society. But will merely be surface stuff like it was in the days of Josiah in the 7th Century B.C.? Or will it really change the abuses and meet the moral and social needs of this nation as it did in the Evangelical revival in England? I see that Chuck Colson's faith has produced something wonderful among the penitentiaries of this nation but I don't see so much else. I hear of 60 million born again and more than 40 million active Catholics but I do not see that, that faith and that commitment is fearlessly shown in public life today. Religion has become a private matter, a Sunday matter. Shame on us!!! If Christ is Lord at all, he's got to be Lord of all. He himself told us that we are going to be judged by how we behave to the poor and the needy and the oppressed and the prisoners. That's what is going to differentiate the sheep and the goats on the day of Judgment.

I believe that this is a solemn day for America. I believe we are weighed in the balances and the Lord is saying, "How deep is your commitment to me? What does it mean to be born again? What does it mean to be a practicing Catholic? Is it just going to be a Sunday affair? Or is it really going to change the way you behave, the way you act, the way you vote in Parliament, the way you really deal with the abuses in society - the pornography, the homosexuality, the adultery, the breakdown of the family. In all these ways, and the holds of colonialism - economic colonialism - that a very rich country like America has upon primary producers. Are we going to really attack those things or are we going to just keep God for the little slot on Sunday and maybe the devotional time mid-week.

That is the critical question that faces America and on the answer to that question will determine whether we can pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven" and really see it begin to happen, or whether there won't be any earth much longer for anybody's will to be done. Pray God we make the right decision while there is still time.