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Looking out the window at the world today, I have to wonder how we got here. Christians are promoting homosexuality as natural, supporting the transgender and gender neutral movements, accepting abortion as a viable choice, and siding with marriage infidelity as a means for necessary happiness.
None of this is biblical. Have Christians lost their backbone? Why do we tolerate what is clearly not godly or holy? There is a damper being put on the truth of sin and the consequences of it, and it hasn’t just occurred all at once.
Front man Mark Hall of the Christian group Casting Crowns describes this “slow fade” that happens in the life of Christians as “the regression that happens when Christians aren’t living intentionally.”
The group’s song “Slow Fade” is the inspiration for this article. The lyrics tell of the gradual turn of the Christian heart toward accepting what God has firmly said is unacceptable:
It’s a slow fade, when you give yourself away. It’s a slow fade when black and white are turned to gray, and thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid, when you give yourself away. People never crumble in a day. It’s a slow fade.
It begins when we ignore the truth about sin and continues as we slowly make one compromise after the other. The truth is that we have chosen to exchange the glory of an incorruptible God for the corruptible images and pleasures of man (Romans 1:23). Christians are choosing to remain silent and are siding with the creation (man’s ideals) rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25).
The journey from your mind into your hands is shorter than you’re thinking. Be careful if you think you stand, you just might be sinking. It’s a slow fade when you give yourself away.
Christians are choosing to embrace sin because they fear they’ll offend others. Our churches are being filled with pastors who are afraid to teach the fullness and truth of God’s Word.
Christians are no longer speaking out about sex, nudity and profanity on television and at the movies. They are no longer speaking out about the depravity of homosexuality. They fear that people will say they are judgmental. Yet it’s not the Christians who are doing the judging. God has already set forth the truth in Scripture, in His Word.
And what is the result? God is choosing to give us over to the debauchery that we are choosing (Romans 1:24).
People never crumble in a day. Daddies never crumble in a day. Families never crumble in a day.
If you are finding yourself in a place you never thought you’d be, then you’ve probably engaged in the “slow fade.” You’ve made one choice that led to another and another, and pretty soon you look up and there you are. First you’re “walking, then standing, and eventually sitting, just slowly shutting down … [you] don’t crash suddenly … the crash is the fruit of the slow fade” (Mark Hall).
Whether we are engaged in or standing in support of or are silent about sin — “sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness” — we will be standing against God’s truth. We will be handed over to what we have chosen to engage in and approve of (Romans 1:32).
But there is a way to stop the fade! If you’re finding yourself in that place, on the slippery slope away from the truth of God’s Word, then dig in your heals! Confess it, acknowledge it as sin, ask for forgiveness and turn away from it, run away from it and don’t look back. Don’t be like Lot’s wife (Genesis 19).
If you find yourself approving of or supporting the ungodly, just stop. Stop the financial support, stop the social media posts and turn back to the truth! Turn back to the truth of God’s Word.
And most importantly, bring people with you! When Lot left Sodom and Gomorrah before the destruction, he took family with him, to save them from God’s wrath. When you turn from the slow fade, take someone with you! Reach out your hand to your husband, your wife, your children, your parents, your neighbor or your co-worker and take them with you and tell them the truth, save them from God’s wrath.
