Stating the (Not So) Obvious

Introduction

We live in a day and age where the obvious is not so, well, obvious. Some people, like Carl Trueman, have gone to valiant lengths explaining how we got ourselves into this precise predicament, but that is not my point in this post. My point here is simply to state some obvious, creational truths, and I want to see if you can stomach them. Mind you, most of the things I’m about to say would have been painfully obvious to just about everyone in our society only a few short decades ago. 

So, let’s begin.

The Times They Have A-Changed

There was a time in our society where everyone intuitively knew that men cannot get pregnant and that only women can nurse babies. We knew that little boys are aggressive and like to wrestle and that little girls like to play with dolls and have tea parties. We knew that young girls usually do better in school than young boys. We knew that women generally choose not to pursue careers in the STEM disciplines and that men make up an overwhelming majority of chess grandmasters and mathematicians. And even when there were exceptions to these generalizations, we knew that the exceptions proved the rule rather than undermined it. 

We knew that women should not play football against men and that men should not powerlift or swim against women. We knew that hundreds of highschool males annually post faster 400 meter dash times than Allyson Felix’s personal best time. And believe it or not, we even knew that the most beautiful, gifted, and successful woman in any given year should win the Woman of the Year award. 

Are we doing okay so far? Well, keep your seatbelts on because this is the point where Billie May’s voice interjects to say, “But wait, there’s more!”

Buckle Up, Round Two

We knew that women are more people-oriented and inward and that men are more object-oriented and outward. We knew that women generally have superior verbal skills and are more nurturing than men. We knew that masculinity is not inherently toxic and it helped us to tame the frontier and win two world wars. We knew that sex ordinarily produces babies and that—to put it bluntly—eggs are expensive and precious and sperm is cheap and expendable. 

We knew that a human embryo is a human person and that abortion is murder. We knew that chivalry should not die and that there is some truth to the idea that the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. We knew that the institution of marriage is not determined by our definitional whims and fancies. And we knew that children generally turn out the best when they are raised by a mom and a dad (preferably their biological mother and father). 

We knew these things. In fact, they were such obvious truths of general revelation, people simply assumed them without question. And more than likely, we would have found most of these truths acknowledged plainly in our public schools.

Fast forward to our day, and the erosion of the obvious is almost complete. Now, if you mention half of these revealed truths, you could find yourself butting heads with the nearest HR department or getting docked points on your latest college writing assignment. We find ourselves living in a society where the judgments of Roman 1 have metastasized. To a considerable degree, God has given our nation up to debased minds, darkened hearts, and futile thinking. 

So What Is the Point?

I don’t bring all this up simply for the purpose of being provocative. I believe that it’s important for Christians to recognize the velocity at which these obvious creational truths have become cultural anathema. Especially regarding the issues of sexuality, our society went from legalizing contraceptives (Sanger) to legalizing no-fault divorce (Reagan) to legalizing abortion (Roe) to legalizing same-sex mirage (Obergefell) in the span of about 100 years, and then from legalizing same-sex mirage to the present trans-insanity in the span of about 5 years.  We are in rapidly changing times and we need to see that for what it is worth. However, it is not enough for us to simply recognize the turbulent changes around us. We must recognize them and then we must respond. 

So as I close this post, I want to recommend three (non-exhaustive) ways that we can respond to our moment.

Denial of Truth Is Denial of God

First, understand that these denials of obvious truth reflect a larger denial of the Creator who has given this world its purpose and order. When we stand against the tide and are ridiculed for standing firm on revealed truth, we don’t need to take it personally. John 15:18-19 says, 

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

Sinners don’t reject God’s revealed truth because Christians failed to dress it up with the appropriate amount of “niceness.” They reject the obvious truth because they hate the Creator who revealed it. Watering down the truth or affirming something contrary to God’s law will not bring a dead heart to life—only the Spirit of God can do that. So, yes, be kind and loving to your neighbor, but love them according to the firm law of God and leave the rest up to Him. 

You Are Not Alone

Second, as G.K. Chesterson put it, familiarize yourself with the democracy of the dead—the consensus of your many ancenstors. Or as C.S. Lewis said, keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries flowing through your head. Read old books and get outside of the echo chamber of the present times. Know that you are not alone in your sanity. The obvious really should be, well, obvious. Our culture might try to push the inflated beach ball of revealed truth underwater, but reality will always find its way back to the surface. Two plus two will always equal four, and boys will never actually be girls. In God’s world (which is the only one), you can rest assured of these things. 

Be Optimistic

And third, be optimistic as you stand against the willful ignorance of these days. The house of cards cannot last forever. So fight this battle knowing that “the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).

And as you do this, be patient and play the long-game, build your culture with joy, and take a deep breath.

In Christ, we will win.