Unshaken & Unafraid | Jack Hibbs

Q: Your book is titled Called to Take a Bold Stand. What does it mean for believers to take a bold stand in today’s culture, and why now?
A: There is no doubt that, as we read the Bible and consider the full counsel of God’s Scripture, throughout all of human history it has been God’s plan for His people to stand upon the promises of God and to conduct themselves in a confident and bold manner when it comes to living out a godly life in this world. For far too long, the Christian Church has suffered from a cocktail of apathy, complacency, and cowardice. It’s my prayer that this book will encourage today’s believers to be bold and to know that the God who has called us is faithful and trustworthy in all matters of life.

Q: We’re living in a time where truth is often silenced or labeled as hate. How do Christians stand firm without backing down, yet still walk in love and wisdom?
A: Perhaps one of the most debilitating realities that the modern-day Christian suffers from is a self-imposed doctrine rooted in fear itself: that we are to be always polite about all things, always tolerant of all things. In reality, as good as being patient or being tolerant sounds, the truth of the matter is that it is not Christian. We are to be winsome and loving, without a doubt, but we are never to compromise God’s truth, even in light of our own personal emotional stress or conviction. At all times, we must be biblical. If we are going to be biblical, then we are going to be like Jesus said we would be… like Jesus Himself is. We are to be the most loving people the world has ever seen, and yet at the same time, we will be the most hated people that the world has ever hated. Jesus is our prototype in this matter. No one has loved bigger, better, or more sacrificially than Jesus Christ. Yet, when Jesus spoke the truth of God and stood boldly and firmly upon that truth, He was immediately hated by those who hate the truth. Jesus made it clear that if we’re going to follow Him, the world will hate us, just like it hated Him. Period. We are not to worry about this or to be concerned about it, because we are not living our lives to win the praise or the approval of mankind. We seek the approval of only One, and that is our God.

Q: What do you say to believers who feel overwhelmed, disqualified, or afraid to speak up about their faith in public or political spaces?
A: You’re going to have to pick a side again. Jesus made this very clear. Jesus said, “You are either for Me or you are against Me.” We must understand that we have a divine calling to bear the light of the Gospel and God’s truth into the darkening world around us. Christianity was designed by God to do this very thing: to bear the light of Christ into all areas of life, from the greatest of platforms and exposure to the most subtle and quaint and quiet areas of life. Our witness must be consistent. There is no realm, be it political, corporate, or communal, where the Gospel is not to be represented. In fact, the greater the influence of power upon man, the greater the need for Christianity to be rightly represented. Christians must stop viewing their Christianity as something that is only usable on Sundays versus a 24/7, 365, moment-by-moment reality that is to be lived out at all times and everywhere. There is no separation between the sacred and the secular when it comes to being a Christ-follower.

Q: You have been vocal about the Church’s role in shaping culture, not just reacting to it. What responsibility does the Church carry right now in influencing our nation?
A: I have been vocal about the Church’s role in shaping the culture, not because it is my opinion. In fact, if I were to follow my feelings, I would rather stay out of all things controversial or volatile, but I cannot do that. I do not have that liberty, nor that authority, to excuse myself or our church from such fallacy. It is clear and evident from Scripture that we are responsible to carry the concerns of God and walk righteously, so that our nation is influenced. History has revealed that wherever Christians take their faith seriously, they also take their faith into the public square, and by doing so, shape culture by shaping the hearts and the minds of men and women to consider the biblical worldview. Our founding fathers, though not all of them of the same denomination, and some of them not having a deep understanding of any particular denomination, still stood unified in one thing: all of our 56 signers of the founding documents of our nation’s birth believed in God. Every single one of our founding fathers quoted and/or wrote about the influence that the Bible and Jesus Christ had on the formation of our Republic. Their declarations drew from the pilgrims before them, whose own declaration is known as The Mayflower Compact, which I recommend every American read.

Q: You talk about the importance of spiritual backbone. Where does that courage come from?
A: I’m often asked where I got my courage and my ability to stand up against that which is ungodly. Some people will attribute it to the fact that I was born and raised in a Marine Corps family. But that’s not the case. Somebody might ask if my courage came from overcoming personal struggles in life. That’s not the case either. The answer for all of us—not just a few of us, not just the pastor or the Christian worker, but for all of us who bear the name of Christ—is that we can be courageous based upon the fact that God is our strength. Courage has been defined as managing fear rightly. I like that. To be courageous doesn’t mean you’re not tempted by fear. To be courageous means you bring fear under the control of what you know to be true. When we stand courageously, we stand upon the foundations of God that we hold dear. If the Bible is your foundation and the Word of God your strength and your power, then you have no option but to be courageous. Courage is not limited to someone who might be able to bench press 300 pounds or make a profound argument before the Supreme Court. It is a fortitude that comes from an internal conviction that God is upon His throne, that His Word is true, and that for the time we have here on earth, God has given us a mission to represent Him in all areas.

Q: Many Christians feel the pressure to stay silent in the name of peace. How do we discern the difference between being peaceable and being passive?
A: Passivity never accomplishes anything. To be passive is to be weak. It is to be lazy. It is to be disengaged. It is to be, as Jesus said, salt that has lost its saltiness and is therefore good for nothing. We can also hide behind our Christianese by saying something to the effect of, “Well, God has made me a peacemaker, so I’m not going to get involved.” That is not only inaccurate, but it is also a false and deceptive interpretation of biblical doctrine. We are to be peacemakers. There’s no doubt about that. But the Bible makes it clear that there’s also a time for war. In America today, the Christian doesn’t have to physically wear a helmet, take up a weapon, or put on a camouflage uniform and join the armed services. However, the Christian is in a constant state of warfare. We wage war against invisible spiritual powers. Paul the Apostle reminded us that it is a war against principalities and against powers and against invisible forces that seek to rule over this physical realm. We must understand who our enemy is and how we are to fight and resist that enemy. The Bible is clear that the real enemy is Satan and his spiritual entities who seek to impose their will upon the minds and hearts of man. In a real way, I am reminded that, just as in J. R. R. Tolkien’s book series The Lord of the Rings, we do in fact live in a Middle-Earth type of existence. From above, the God of Heaven is calling us to not only know Him, but to exemplify His kingdom here in this world. At the same time, from below, the devil seeks to blind and to deceive the hearts of man in this world, hoping to take captive all those for whom Christ died. The war is real, and all we need to do is look around to see that we are in the middle of it. We must not be spectators. We must not be conducting ourselves in any cowardly fashion, but we must seek the Lord, asking Him what it is that He would have us to do to unite in fighting against wickedness.

Q: You’ve called out the rise of spiritual compromise and biblical illiteracy. How do we return to a Church that is rooted in Scripture and unafraid to live it out?
A: The answer is actually in the question. How does the Church conduct itself in an uncompromising way? By being rooted and grounded in the Scriptures. And there’s no other possible substitute. Paul told the church at Rome that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Faith is a powerful weapon, but faith can only be developed and used if it is based upon the Word of God. Having faith in faith is having faith in a shadow or a vapor, but having faith in the Word of God puts the Word of God in us to action. Far too many Christians have settled for a spectator type of position, thus having a very poor experience of the authority and power of the Scriptures themselves. But the moment we make ourselves available to God to live out the Word of God in the world around us, it is then that we can expect God to show up in power. It is then that you will see the miraculous work of God and witness the Holy Spirit using the Word of God to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not something to be prayed about or to be thinking about. It is something to be obeyed.

Q: What are some of the current events or trends that you believe are clear indicators we’re in a spiritual war, and what’s the Church’s battle plan?
A: The understanding that we are in a war is no new revelation to those who read their Bibles and follow Jesus Christ. Current events clearly are announcing that we are in a battle… and indicating that we are in the last days as well. Take, for example, the battle for the unborn child. We war against political powers seeking to declare that abortion is a political issue, not a biblical issue. The truth is, it is a biblical issue, and an unbelieving world seeks to label it political in order to tell believers to stay out of the topic. This is repeated over and over again. The current events of our day, however, are spiritual battles, because they all concern the Scriptures. Consider the definition of a male or a female. That’s a spiritual battle. God has made it clear what a male and a female are, and how many genders there are. God is in no doubt about this; neither is His Word. Consider the definition of marriage. God has made it clear. But again, the political world has sought to redefine what these things are. Consider parental rights. The Bible is crystal clear on this topic, yet politicians say that the state knows what’s best, not the parents. This type of logic and warfare repeats itself many times during the course of any given day. That’s why we are to walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh, and we are to hold forth the Word of God before us, and not the assumptions of man.

Q: How do we equip the next generation to stand for truth in an increasingly hostile culture?
A: For those of us who take the Bible seriously and also take discipleship seriously, it is incumbent upon us to make sure that the young people in our lives are handed the baton of truth now, while we are still able to help them hold it. At our particular church, for example, from the youngest of ages in children’s ministry, our children are taught the principles of biblical apologetics. The children are not taught Bible “stories.” They are taught Bible realities. The account of David and Goliath is not a story. It is an actual recorded event. The account of Creation is not a story. It’s an actual scientific fact. We avoid “stories” and teach our young people realities so they can understand that the Bible is not a book of wishful thinking, or even a book of moral principles and standards. It is a book of profound spiritual power, of ultimate truth, and of historical record of what has been. It is the perfect guide to how we should live. It is the looking glass into the future as to how all things conclude. We go to great lengths to communicate to our children that God is not only real, but He can be experienced because He is a relatable living God.

Q: Who is a biblical figure that inspires your own boldness, and how can their story fuel courage in us today?
A: Preeminently, it would be those heroes of the Bible, those patriarchs of the faith, who put what they believed into action as God called them to take a bold stand. Pick any example from the Bible, and you will glean from these men and women profound things that we would do well to embrace and to pray into the very fabric of who we are. Just one example is Abraham, a Gentile from Ur of the Chaldees, whom God called out of paganism and made the first and foremost father of not only the Jewish people and the nation of Israel, but all those who put their faith in Yahweh and believe. But perhaps two of my all-time favorites, apart from Jesus Christ Himself, are Gideon and Joshua. I love the fact that Gideon was not a strong man or a bold man. He was fearful, he was timid, and he was hiding out from the enemies of God’s people until God spoke to him and called him into the fight and thereby equipped him. If God did that for Gideon, He’s going to do it for me, and He continues to do it for me. Joshua is very encouraging to me because he is a man who learned how to follow the leader. Of course, that leader was Moses. Joshua had no problem being second. But over and over again, in the book of Joshua, God called him to be strong and of good courage, to be not afraid. That tells me Joshua was no doubt a man who did not naturally have strength or courage; perhaps he was prone to being afraid. If God can strengthen and encourage Joshua, then God can do that with any one of us.

Q: How do you respond to critics who say Christians should stay out of politics or cultural issues and just preach the Gospel?
A: If we as Christians only preach the Gospel, then we need to repent of our sin. Preaching the Gospel is a call to evangelize the lost, and we are all called to be engaged in it. But the very critique is also the diagnosis of what makes the Church powerless, weak, and ineffective. Today, the Church has failed to make disciples. Jesus Himself said to go into all the world and make disciples. He didn’t say, “Go into all the world and evangelize,” because that is a given. That is what every believer does. Believers tell others about Jesus Christ. But after they come to Christ, what are we to do with them? We are to disciple them. That is, we are to replicate the nature of Christ through the Word of God into them, and we are to encourage them to follow our examples in doing the same. The person who says we shouldn’t get involved in politics is misguided. Biblical issues are not separate from political issues. The posted speed limit in your town or city is a political issue. Paying taxes is a political issue. In the United States, we have the legal freedom to preach the Gospel, and that is a political issue. There is no “separation of church and state” when it comes to biblical issues. There is extreme overlap between what is found in the Bible and what is found in our nation’s laws and documents. It has been my life’s experience that those who claim to follow Jesus and stick to only preaching the Gospel are also those who fail to light the world around them by shining the Gospel truth into that dark world. It is a grave danger to be given the light only to bury it.

Q: If there’s one truth from this book that you believe the Church needs to hear and act on right now, what is it?
A: It’s my hope and prayer that this book will promote a healthy understanding that the Word of God is above all things and that we as believers must enter into our rightful calling of being ambassadors for the kingdom of God. What I do not expect, nor teach, is that the Christian in his obedience to the Word of God will usher in the kingdom of God. I do not believe in politics being the great deliverance. In fact, the case can be made that the more we stand against evil in the dark days, the more costly it will be for us as the days continue to darken around us. But that should never be the reason why someone doesn’t get involved. We are to get involved no matter what the outcome is because it has already been communicated to us by the Lord Himself. The battle belongs to Him, and the war has already been decided. We are to do the right thing, no matter the outcome. We are not to determine or question what the proper plan is, but rather to simply obey God’s Word. So in closing, we are to know the Gospel. We are to consume the Word of God, thereby understanding what it means to share the love of God while at the same time standing against the evils of this world. We are to be a Church that should cause a godless culture to tremble and to be in awe of God and to know that if they disobey Him, they will tragically pay the ultimate price. Christianity today in the United States is no longer respected or feared. It has become the brunt of jokes and something to be persecuted and discarded. It is my hope and prayer that in this book, Called to Take a Bold Stand, we could see a revival within the Church that causes us to become a holy and attractive people, both to God and to the world as they see our witness and desire to know Him.