Article originally published on Doorway Publishing

Lot, our main man from Sodom, is one very complicated person. Known to most as Old Abe’s favorite nephew (Genesis 13:5-13), he lived during some serious cultural chaos. Loaded with wealth, two beautiful daughters, and a marriage that ended on a rather salty note (Genesis 19:26), Lot is a person we can learn quite a bit from. Do you remember his wife (Luke 17:32)? There has been much debate about him in biblical circles, especially those wondering if his heavenly citizenship has been revoked or not. But, not to worry, the Apostle Peter in his second letter, gave Lot a pass. He used the word “righteous” in describing him. We will talk about what that term means a bit later.

But if you have ever read the story about his time in Sodom (Genesis 19) there was something sadly familiar about his society and ours. His relationship with the people of that sick ancient city reminds me of the posture one branch of the Protestant church has taken with our equally sick modern progressive culture. The group I am talking about is known by those who categorize such things as Post-Evangelicals. As the culture descends into madness — “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isa. 5:20) — this Post-Evangelical group seems to grow numerically in equal measure.

I wonder if there is any correlation? Let’s talk about it.

I want to begin by defining what it means to be Post-Evangelical, and then I want to compare Lot’s behavior to theirs. I am taking the definition of Post-Evangelical from an article titled “The Six Way Fracturing of Evangelicalism” by Michael Graham on the Mere Orthodoxy website.

Here is his definition of Post-Evangelical: People who have fully left evangelicalism from a self-identification standpoint and reject the “evangelical” label yet are still churched and likely still agree with the Apostles Creed and Nicene Creed. They are more deconstructed than neo-evangelicals and they are more vocal in their critiques of conservative and popular evangelicals would be. Some remain firmly in Protestant circles and others have crossed over to mainline, Catholic, or orthodox traditions while still holding to the basic creeds. Concerning threats within the church, they are focused on abuse, corruption, hypocrisy, Christian nationalism, and the secular right. Outside the church, they are primarily concerned with the matters of injustice, inequity, the secular right, and to a lesser extent the radical secular left. Many identify with the Post-Evangelicals because their experiences with predominantly white evangelicalism have been so difficult and strained that physical distance seemed to be the only conclusion.

In other words, Post-Evangelicals try to swim in the currents of culture while at the same time clinging to some vestiges of traditional Christianity. The similarities between Lot and the Post-Evangelicals are astounding as they both move from Acceptance to Tolerance to Compliance to Destruction, which ultimately ends in the Next Generation’s Ruin.

Sodom was a beautiful and fertile land, that is why Lot picked it. Abraham gave him first dibs and Lot looked and saw that the region of Sodom and Gomorrah was well watered like the garden of the Lord (Genesis 13:10). So he moved there with his flocks, herds, and family. Sodom sounds a lot like California — a beautiful land, full of abundance (and I won’t even mention the old joke that it is full of fruits and nuts). Have you ever noticed that when riches come easy, people get lazy and bored? God talks about the dangers of luxury all the time in scripture (Deut. 8:8-15). So too did the wealthy people of Sodom grow proud of themselves pretty quickly and began to do wicked things (Ezekiel. 16:49-50; Genesis 13:13). Can you say the Met Gala, Coachella, and Burning Man? In modern parlance, Sodom was full of the cool popular people, the in-crowd, the elite.

There is a strange desire in the heart of man to be accepted by the elite. Pride is attractive — if proud people accept me I must be important. But in order to be accepted by this crowd, you will need to look past their personal proclivities because the problem with the elite is that they are masters at inventing evil (Romans 1:18-32). It is the same group that worshiped the golden calf on Sinai, they were the same class of excellent people who wanted to see the splendor of King Solomon, and they were the people of Sodom. Our modern-day elites are cut from the same expensive hubris-stitched cloth. They are the ones who run shows like The View, live in multi-million dollar townhouses in Manhattan, create Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity policy at Ivy League Institutions, and of course, they give financial backing to the next Hollywood blockbuster movie producers. Another word we now use for this elite group is “progressives” because progressives believe in progress. Evolved humanity is getting better and better every day. New ideas by default must be the best ideas, when often, new ideas are nothing more than strange deviations from the right path, “Ask for the ancient paths, the good way, and walk in them.” But the new way to the progressive is the good way. Old is bad. So to allow any kind of moral law or ancient God to hold you back from taking the new way is to stop the progress.

Enter Lot. The town he was living in was a mess — it is a lot like moving your family to the red light district in New Orleans, or spending midnight in the Castro District in San Francisco. Anything goes. And don’t buy the foolish notion that Sodom’s problem was inhospitality. No, the men clearly wanted to have sex with the angels who looked like men. What else could be meant in Genesis 19:5-9? “They called to Lot, ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.’” And Lot knew what they were up to, that is why he offered up his daughters instead, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”

Instead of standing strong on the values he learned from his Uncle Abe, and promoting God’s culture of righteousness all the years he lived there, he capitulated to the current trends and norms that the people of Sodom lapped up like thirsty dogs. Lot wanted to be accepted as a member of Sodom’s elite society, so he said nothing as he saw the filth roll down their chins. When the angels came, he knew they were not going to like the wickedness that went on. He tried to play the middle, he called the angels ‘my lords’ and made them a meal, but at the same time, he called the Sodomites friends. And you know what God says about being friends with the world (James 4:4)? That is the whole problem, you can’t please both sides, sooner or later you will come to the crossroad where you will have to choose.

Post-evangelicals are following Lot’s example by trying to straddle the middle of the road. As the definition says, “they agree with the Apostles Creed”, but they politically side with the progressive agenda of “inequity.” They claim to have Christian hearts on the inside, but they obviously love wearing society’s clothes on the outside. So what happens when they have to make a choice? And like I just said, they will have to make a choice. Just like the story of Lot, the world will take complete advantage of the moral cowardice of Post-Evangelical niceness. Look closely at Genesis 19, Lot wanted to be accepted so badly that he was actually willing to give up his daughters to the sexually perverse mob. Shouldn’t he be ashamed of his immoral compliance?

Here is how this stage of cowardice and compliance happens. There are three stages to it. 

(1) To be accepted by society, the Post-Evangelicals think they need to separate themselves completely from the embarrassing beliefs of the church. They believe that to win the culture you can’t upset them. You need to kill the lust for sin with kindness. That will do it! And the only way to look kind and caring is to abandon the rough edges and strange teachings of orthodoxy.  Primitive stuff like the inerrancy of scripture, the virgin birth, personal holiness as a goal, eternal condemnation of the sinner, and the oneness of marriage. 

(2) They then accept without a fight the new definitions thought up whole-cloth by the elite. New definitions are meant to turn the old specific sins into exciting new avenues of exploratory behavior all the while forgetting Ecclesiastes’ clarion call that there is “nothing new under the sun.” Perversity has always existed, but with the modern elite’s creative magic and fairy dust they turn old immorality, dress it up with shiny new terms, and viola, life can be fun without consequences. With the help of Freud, Hegel, Jung, Marx, Du Bois, Freidan, Sanger, Derrida, Foucault, John Money, RuPaul, the Beastie Boys, and the rest of the elite’s gurus of progressive thought, the starry-eyed utopian dream can come true for the Post-Evangelical dreamer. Heaven on earth is possible if you just believe that everyone down-deep has a good heart. It is the immoral Judean-Christians Decalogue and theological dogma of “The Depravity of Man” that has made this world a terrible place. Like the tattooed man who worked with me at a car garage who was addicted to meth and quaaludes once said to me, “It is you and your God, with his laws, and your repressive church traditions that make this world a living hell.” 

(3) The culture will then use force and demand that you pick a side. When it is time to get serious, the gloves of the elite will come off, and they will tell you that there is no middle ground. So in order to be accepted by the elite, the Post-Evangelicals will be cajoled into throwing the people they once claimed to be a part of (usually the church they grew up in) under the bus. The original people who actually loved them — though they may have had obvious flaws, which all people have, and had the courage to tell the truth out of love — are the ones who are then thrown as fresh meat to the smiling sophisticated wolves. The new definitions were all a distraction, a cruel game of moral smoke and mirrors, hoping to get the Post-Evangelicals so furious at those who hold to the old paths, that they will never use their energy to call out the clear debauchery and soul-killing behavior being perpetrated by the elite because they are busy fighting against their own. The end of the game is when the progressive-leaning church tears apart the conservative-leaning church, while the secular elite eats popcorn and laughs.

I know Satan is behind it all, but Post-Evangelicals are embarrassed to acknowledge a being so evil actually exists. They downplay him by imagining a silly cartoon with red horns and a tail. But let’s be clear, the debauchery of the elite at times is so disgusting and obvious that if they can get you to look the other way while society is decaying, that dirty angel has done his job perfectly. His goal was accomplished through the gullible pride of the Post-Evangelicals.

Take two obvious issues: Abortion and Transgenderism. Abortion, from a purely biological perspective, is the termination of a life in the womb of a mother. That is the simple definition. But for the elites, abortion is a cheap and easy way to end an unwanted pregnancy. So to get what they want, they will portray the murder of a baby as a wholesome and even holy option. Now, this is where their genius comes in, if they can change the definitions, terms, and call the crime of abortion simply a matter of political disagreement, they win. All they have to do is get those who want to be accepted by them to fight on their side. Offer the Post-Evangelical a creative solution: throw in some “saving the victims of poverty” virtue signaling, make abortion sound like a woman’s health is at risk when it is only a small fraction of reality, and then blame those “judgmental conservative evangelicals” and they will win the cultural battle every time. All because the Post-Evangelicals will become the fiercest fighters on the elite side. 

Are the conservative Christians really against women’s health? No, the most vocal opponents of abortion by far are conservative women! They are not fighting to hurt themselves. They want to save the most vulnerable people’s lives. But the elite sure are good at making people feel bad for calling sin a sin. Listen to what the people of Sodom said to Lot, “Get out of our way,” they replied. “This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.” See how quickly they will turn on you and point the finger at you as the problem if you don’t support them and give them what they want?

Transgenderism is the saddest trick of all. The elite tells us a boy can be a girl if he feels like it and a girl can be a boy if she feels like it. Forget Sovereign design, the goodness of original marriage and genders, and obvious sexual creative differences. The elite tells us that we are what we feel. When has that ever been true? And when do we give 6 and 7-year-olds the autonomy to act on their feelings? But if you try to speak sense to culture, you are the cruel one. So the experts who don’t really care about your children want to ruin your children, it has always been that way. Again, what did Lot say when the people wanted the angels? “Look, I have two daughters.” Really Lot? Don’t you love your daughters more than wanting to be liked by the elite? Post-Evangelical, don’t you love the innocence of your children more than joining in with a warped cultural movement that is going to end badly?

Speaking of ending badly. Lot made it out by the hair of his chin. Sodom and Gomorrah were decimated. Lot’s wife was solidified in sodium. And Lot’s daughters were willing to go places sexually that only those whose minds have been already deceived and distorted by cultural consensus would. Such a sad story. The moral? When you try to straddle the middle of moral warfare, you never end up a winner.

But wait, wasn’t Lot himself considered righteous? Didn’t he win accolades from God? Yes, only because God promises to save those who place their faith in him, but as 1 Corinthians 3:15 says, “the builder suffers loss (he doesn’t have much good service to show for himself), but he himself will just escape the flames.” Do you want to just barely escape? Do you want to quite possibly lose the good standing of your wife and children? Or do you want the elites to like you while the stench of smoke clings to your garments? Yes, Lot is saved, but he is not admired.

Don’t ever forget what Winston Churchill said about these kinds of people, “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile — hoping it will eat him last.”