That’s a question many people ask. What must we do to fix the problem? Some die-hard, evangelical Republicans say start by voting for Mitt. Some work for doing whatever is necessary to go back to the “good old days” of 1950′s (we forget the Korean war conflict and that the highest tax bracket was 91%). Some want to go back even earlier. But you can’t go back. The remnants of Christian culture we inherited are quickly dissipating. It would be like trying to rebuild ancient Rome with what little rubble we have left from that period; it can’t be done. Our problems go deeper than the symptoms (homosexual “marriage,” abortion, obscenity, etc.). We are a fallen people.

Which brings us back to the question, what is to be done? Since the problem can’t be fixed naturally, the only answer is supernatural. This is where are recent blog post from Doug Wilson comes in. In it he spoke about how deep in the soup we are.

“We live in a time when the charismatics need the Spirit, the Reformed need a reformation, and the evangelicals need to be born again. We do not need particular doctrines about the Spirit in the abstract. If we are given the Spirit of reformation, we will get the doctrines we need. We will of course need doctrine that arises from the Scriptures in order to help us understand what the Spirit just did for us. But if the Spirit didn’t actually do anything, then our systematic theologies are nothing but printed kits for organizing smoke. If the Spirit didn’t do anything, then any religious frenzies, conducted under an unauthorized use of His auspices, have all the religious authority of a priest of Baal cutting himself with a knife at a Stones concert.”

Apart from God, it’s going to get really ugly, really fast. We’re almost to the point that we can’t rely on anyone else but God to save us; what a place in which to be.

“In short, we need the Spirit to be poured out upon us. And when God is pleased to make this happen, the Spirit will do the work He always does, which is that of making men new. He will make them new in the middle of some metrosexual posedown in front of the mirror. He will make them new in the middle of some stupid sermon they are busy preaching, with puffs of dust arising every time a page is turned. He will make them new in the middle of an academic conference on feminist counter-narratives. He will make them new in the middle of renting one more skeezefest on Netflix. He will make them new in the middle of their very last angry outburst against their wives. He will make them new while they are in the middle of yet another eggy Facebook post directed what little faithfulness we have left. The Spirit will interrupt us, and He will make us new. That’s what He does.”