The full content of Moreland’s book is much too large to cover within the scope of this article. Therefore, I will limit my examination to just the section regarding his discussion of the current “three-way struggle” between the major worldviews of scientific naturalism, postmodernism, and ethical monotheism.  Moreland argues that scientific naturalism and postmodernism are responsible, in large part, for societal decay in the west and the decline of the Christian church.

Scientific Naturalism

Scientific naturalism is a worldview that holds that science and religion are incompatible because the natural cosmos is all that exists. It denies the existence of anything in the spiritual world, especially God and the afterlife.  As a result, there can be no moral absolutes in scientific naturalism.  Truth is what can be learned through science.

Postmodernism

Scientific naturalism, at least in part, gave rise to postmodernism, which was a reaction to the attempts of science to explain reality.  Postmodernism holds the view there is no objective reality, truth, or meaning to life.  This worldview has led adherents to abandon the search for meaning in life for the pursuit of happiness as telos.

Ethical Monotheism

In discussing ethical monotheism, Moreland means Christianity, in particular, although Judaism and Islam fall within its definition. Ethical monotheism is the worldview that believes that God is the source of truth, reason, morality and everything that exists in the universe and the spiritual realm which is not God.

Moreland’s thesis seems obvious.  Western society is made up of fallen human beings who, by their nature, prefer a worldview which places no moral constraints upon their lives.  Scientific naturalism escapes the notion of God altogether by denying His existence.  Postmodernism denies what can be known.  Either God does not exist, or if He does exist, one cannot know that He does, nor can one know Him personally.  With God out of the way, human beings are free to live as they choose.  When guilt rises up, they tell themselves that it is just a social construct, and that they can live with impunity, since there are no consequences beyond this life, and no one to hold them to account.  As a result, society is crumbling.  Only Christ can save it, His church must do the work.

But, these ideas have crept into the church, too.  Today’s church is more likely to seek to conform with or reflect the culture than to try to change it.  Since happiness is the primary pursuit of life, the church sees its role as that of entertainer and therapist, rather than overseer and guardian.  Biblical discipline is utterly absent from the church today.  Expositional preaching, when it can be found, is usually only present in smaller churches.  People aren’t interested in the message of the Bible; they want answers to life’s problems, not character change.  This explains the success of most mega-churches, who cater to the felt needs of the community rather than its true spiritual needs.

The only solution is the church, and it must recover Christ by reinvigorating its mind, soul, and spirit.  The church cannot stand up and do the work it was left here to do until it returns to its intellectual heritage, devotes itself to character change, and embraces the reality of the power of God’s Spirit.  The church is sleepy, and needs a cold bucket of spiritual reality thrown in its face.  Once it awakens, the gates of hell will not prevail against it.  This is how the lost will be won.