How could a person of faith answer that question if someone asked?

This is an interesting time to be a witness for Christ. The last encouragement Jesus gave his disciples was that when the Holy Spirit entered their lives, they would become witnesses everywhere they went (Acts 1:8). Christians bring the holy presence of Jesus Christ into every room they enter but let’s face it, sometimes we keep the light of Christ “under a bushel.” 

Jesus told us to let our light “shine before others” so that they would see our good works and give glory to our “Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). Jesus accomplished that in every place he walked on earth, and we are supposed to follow his perfect example.

It’s important to note that people stood in the actual presence of Christ and still walked away unchanged. If Jesus was rejected, we can be sure his witnesses today will experience a similar response. Jesus chose to step into the world at a time when Rome was the world power. During that same time, the number of people who followed Jehovah God had dwindled to an insignificant number in the world’s population.

Jesus changed the world then. Do you believe he can, and will, do the same thing for the world today?

A Time Magazine Article: Is America in Decline?

Joseph F. Nye Jr. is the Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus and former Dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He has written a book titled A Life in the American Century. In a Time Magazine article, he said, “A majority of Americans tell pollsters they think the U.S. is in decline.”

Nye said, “Americans have a long history of worrying about our decline.” He spoke of the concerns our founding fathers voiced, the worries the Puritans felt about the American culture, and the various times of war and financial crises throughout American history.

He said that personally, he had asked the questions: “What sort of world am I leaving to my grandchildren and their Generation Z?” “Is the American Century over?” 

His conclusion was “no,” but he then warned that Americans would need to understand that the culture in this century would not look like the culture of the twentieth century.

Nye said, “Technology is creating an enormous range of opportunities and risks that my grandchildren will face as they cope with the Internet of Things, AI, big data, machine learning, deep fakes, and generative bots—to name but a few. And even larger challenges are approaching from the realms of biotechnology, not to mention coping with climate change.”

The hope Nye offered Americans was this: “For all our flaws, the U.S. is an innovative society that, in the past, has been able to recreate and reinvent itself.” He hoped Gen Z might be able to recreate the American culture, but he warned: “We should be wary of counting too heavily on American exceptionalism.”

Do you believe the American culture will improve?

I’m asking that question of you, my readers, because I don’t have the answer myself. 

I believe in the eternal truths of Scripture that we can rely on in the midst of the partial truths of this world:

• I believe in God, his Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. 
• I believe in the promises of heaven. 
• I also believe that we serve an unchanging God, in a changing world.
• I have faith that God’s word is always true because the source is God himself.                                                 

I believe that the eternal truths of God’s word have impacted every culture and always will. I know that every nation and every culture described in the word of God had a beginning and an end – except one.

The only culture that lasts forever.

I want to believe that the American culture will improve. I will vote my beliefs, be a witness for Christ, and try to live as perfectly as possible in my imperfect culture. I will need to ask God to help me battle my numerous imperfections every day. Let’s just say politics don’t bring out the best in me or my mouth!

Politics don’t bring us the hope we are looking for. We should have learned by now that every candidate we vote for will be imperfect too. 

The only lasting hope we can hold onto is the promise that Paul quoted in the book of Romans. That promise is from the Lord who said “every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”

I’m not sure when America will improve. Honestly, I can’t be sure if America will improve. We have always been a strong and resilient people but it is a new day, a new century. Some things will improve and others will not.

We can be sure America will change. Nations always do. Let’s do all we can, as witnesses for Christ, to help America become a culture that knows God and honors him. But we should also remember that people walked away from Jesus himself, and some will walk away from us as well.

We aren’t perfect, but we can be patient.

Will our culture improve? The only answer I know is for the culture of Christians, not the culture of any one country. Everyone who has made Jesus Christ their Lord can live each day with the hope Christ gave his disciples. Jesus said, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:1–3).

The only perfect culture we can hope for is eternal. Jesus left us with a vague description of his Father’s house and the promise we would get there. Until that day our hearts don’t need to be troubled, just patient, because we believe.