June, 2019

My heart-wrenching concern for American Evangelicalism over the last 36 months has less to do with who our president is maligning, or what the godless in our nation are championing, than it does with the spirit I hear in the Church as we engage the socio-political issues of our day. Through storm after storm, the Lord is providing our evangelical family with an MRI of the 1 John 2:16 carnality that festers in our soul, and the idols we’ve harbored on the high places. And although I’m ultimately confident in the Holy Spirit’s ability to bring us forth as a part of Jesus’ glorious Bride¹, I’m presently alarmed that from top to bottom, we American evangelicals seem oblivious to the nature and cure for the malignancy that’s ravaging our nation.

What’s the source of our nation’s cancer? It’s a cancer of the spirit. And it finds host in Pentecostals, atheists, conservatives, democrats, racists, LGBTQ, and fundamentalists alike. It metastasizes from one reality: failure to take up one’s cross. It isn’t surprising that this lack should be discovered among a godless, scripture-shunning society. What’s alarming is that a people who, for decades, have been feeding on Jesus’ Words of life, should have no cross.

Allow me state the matter succinctly. Evangelicalism in America has arrived in the nineteenth year of a new millennium without a theological understanding, or pragmatic application of the way of the cross. We have no idea of how to apply the cross to our own lives, and subsequently we haven’t a clue about how it’s to impact our culture where socio-political issues are concerned. Furthermore: our lack, spells our nation’s doom. There is no alternative remedy for a cursed melee of 330 million people, other than the cross.

I’m not saying we Christians don’t revere the cross, or quote from cross-teaching giants like A’Kempis, Luther, Murray, Bonhoeffer and Tozer. I’m not saying we don’t esteem references to the cross, lyrics about the cross, or that we don’t “like” pithy memes about the cross. I’m saying we leaders have failed to teach the cross. We’ve left the gospels’ foundational call to Christ in the footnotes. As John Wimber used to say, “We’ve left the crucified life in the fine-print of our contract with Christ.” For a hundred self-retaining reasons, we’ve simply not instructed the saints on how to take up their cross and follow Jesus. Period. Consequently, as evangelicals address the host of serious moral and spiritual issues in our society, what our neighbors hear sounds more like a people who are desperately For a hundred self-retaining reasons, we’ve simply not instructed the saints on how to take up their cross and follow Jesus. Period. Consequently, as evangelicals address the host of serious moral and spiritual issues in our society, what our neighbors hear sounds more like a people who are desperately “seeking to save their own lives” (Luke 9:24), than those who are so confident in our Lord that they’re joyfully willing to lay down their lives for His sake. (1 John 3:16; John 15:13)

Allow me to clarify where neglecting the way of the cross leaves us in this hour.

When we evangelicals refuse to take up our cross…
1. …we will find ourselves reaching for the world’s definition of power. We will fail to manifest Christ’s definition of power, which is filled with truth, grace, and redemptive compassion. (Luke 9:54, Matthew 18:1-5)

2. When we do not deny our “selves”, we ARE swallowed up by the (Romans 3:9-18; 2 Peter 2:14) curse of rancor, malice, alienation, self-justification, shaming and deceit that rages in man’s pursuit of power; the only cure for which is the cross.

3. When we neglect the crucified life 3. When we neglect the crucified life we will find ourselves clamoring for our own rights and privileges without asking if the fervor of our pursuit is impeding our witness, and our primary mandate to look like Jesus. (See Philippians 2:5-11)

4. When we lay down our cross, we are restricting the beatitudes to Sunday sermon notes rather than employing them as the norms of our heart as we engage our culture. (See Matthew 5-7 and Luke 6:20-49) The simple & tragic truth is, when we evangelicals champion a President without voicing our objection to his deeply carnal spirit we’re declaring to our lost world that when social-moral issues are at risk it’s most wise to ditch Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in favor of the hostile politics of the flesh. Beloved, Jesus didn’t give us the Sermon on the Mount because He wanted to make us religious. He gave us the Sermon on the Mount because He wants our relationships to work, and to honor Him.

5. When we deny the cross and take up our self, we gerrymander sin; neglecting the truth that Jesus calls humanity to bring our whole self to death. Instead, we’re found arguing that sins within our camp (pornography, sexual assault, malice, massive adultery, racial insensitivity, and hostile hate-speech) are less disqualifying than the sins outside of our camp. (See Matthew 5:27-32 and Matthew 5:21-26)

6. When we forgo the cross, we forfeit the integrity and authority of our prophetic voice. (See Mark 6:18 & Luke 13:32) Without the cross we make small prophecies that indenture the Church to political polarization and fear, rather than making Kingdom prophecies in a Spirit of true liberty that call a whole nation to repent.

7. When we shun the cross, we become so intent on defeating the evils of liberal humanism that we become willing to cut deals with the evils of conservative hedonism – the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life that is in opposition to the Father. (See 1 John 2:16)

8. When we do not die daily, we will find ourselves choosing to compromise the values of Christ’s Kingdom in an attempt to “save our own life” (Luke 17:33). The lust for political power intoxicates us so that we more readily give up our fidelity to the way of Christ. (See 1 Peter 2:23)

9. When we marginalize the way of the cross we reformulate what it means for a soul to come to Christ. We redraw the terms of His covenant, giving “baby Christians” in our own political camp every benefit of the doubt; giving them mulligans rather than Jesus’ invitation to “come and die”. (See Mark 10:21; Luke 9:23)

10. When we bear no cross our family, neighbors and culture cannot see Jesus at work in us. (See Colossians 3:3; John 3:30)

Because the Father has promised to give His Son a co-companion Bride, I do have great hope! The Holy Spirit’s zeal to bring forth a bride is greater than our zeal to make America great again. If the Church will maintain her (Ephesians 5:15,16) perspicuity and cry out to God while maintaining our uncompromised fidelity to Jesus, He will use the firestorms of this hour to beautify us, so that we shine forth with unmistakeable Christlike character, favor and power. Halleluia!

But we must not be deceived, beloved. Taking up our cross is foundational to His plan to bring forth the Bride. And a cross-bearing Bride is vital to His plan to redeem a nation. The truth of the matter is, the longer we refuse the way of the cross, the more it will require of us to take it up in the future.

Jesus, above all else, give us passion, unction and grace to take up our cross unto YOUR INCREASE – not our own!

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JSB • June, 2019

1. In the June 2025 article, “Many Have Bowed Down and Fallen“, I lay out why I believe the Lord is now giving millions in our family over to the curse of unrighteousness; an unrighteousness that we have clamored for in our persistence to obtain our own selfish ways at the expense of our cross. I remain confident that the Lord will have His purified Bride for Himself at the end of the age, but I understand that this Bride will be severely refined, and many will “fall away”, and no longer be a part of the Bride through the purging process. Make no mistake however, the “giving over to unrighteousness” is also a part of the refining process. Where His people have spurned being disciplined by a Righteous Hand, the Lord is now allowing us to be disciplined by an unrighteous hand. ↩︎