Dennis the Menace, in reflecting philosophically with one of his buddies, whimsically pronounced, “These are the good old days. We just don’t know it yet.”
That is the human tendency, isn’t it, to reflect on how much better it was back then, when people ate a really healthful diet of whole grains and vegetables straight from the garden—and died at age 42.
There seems to be something embedded in the human psyche that sees the past through rose-tinted glasses. When I was in the military someone observed that the two best assignments in the army are the last one and the next one.
Consequently, it is easy to misinterpret evangelical reformation as a yearning for the good old days when Christians were spiritual giants. However, this is a misconception.
Reformation means to re-form something, especially for the purpose of correcting flaws and making it better. Going back is not an inherent part of the meaning.
I believe that some aspects of the past were better. But some were worse. We pine for the past because we tend to forget the bad parts and remember the good ones.
For example, in the past evangelicals were largely isolationists. They tended to shy away from politics and media and other aspects of the public arena. This resulted in the loss of territory that we are still seeking to recover.
However, it is true that that isolation led to a greater purity in some dimensions of life. For example, back then many evangelicals did not attend movies, which pollute mind and heart with cursing, nudity, and promiscuity.
The challenge in that dimension of Christianity is to be engaged in the world but to keep from its contamination. We achieve that not by going back, but by going forward guided by a commitment to understand clearly the teaching of Scripture and to follow it.
Ecclesiastes 7:10 warns, “Do not say, ‘Why were the old days better than these?’ For it is not wise to ask such questions.” This verse does not actually say that the old days were not better. A times, this would be invalid. Sometimes the past is better than the present.
Rather, I believe Solomon’s point is that we should not revere and seek to emulate the past. Rather, we should work at being all that God wants us to be today.
These are different days with different opportunities and pitfalls. An evangelical reformation includes reshaping evangelical Christianity so as to take full advantage of today’s opportunities and avoid today’s pitfalls.
An evangelical reformation not focused on the present and the future will produce not just a reshaped, but a misshaped, form of Christianity.