Approaching the Tipping Point: Eric Metaxas' Urgent Wake Up Call to the American Church

Author and radio talk show host Eric Metaxas warns that America is fast approaching a dangerous cultural tipping point, although he says it's not too late to reverse course. In his new book, Letter to the American Church, Metaxas writes of parallels between today's America and pre-World War II Germany.

"It is the silence of the American church on a host of issues today that many people say, 'Oh, that's not a gospel-related issue. I don't want to be divisive. I don't want to be political.' It is that silence which directly parallels the silence of German Christians in the early thirties, and it led to the satanic evil of the Nazi takeover of that culture where they crushed the church."

He believes if only another few thousand Protestant pastors had spoken out, the Nazis would not have succeeded. Instead, their silence doomed the German church and nation while leading to the Holocaust. 

"This was not biblical. This was not what God was calling them to do," Metaxas explained. "But the church hesitated enough and kept silent enough, for long enough for the Nazis to utterly take over and really do things so evil that we look back and we think, 'well, that can never happen again.' And what I am saying in this book is that exactly the same thing is happening again today because of the silence of the American church."

Metaxas says that today, cultural Marxism is infiltrating American society.

"It is advancing leftist ideas like transgenderism in schools and Christian persecution. Breaking silence to make change takes courage and persistence."

Nearly 200 years ago, Christian abolitionist William Wilberforce fought to end slavery throughout the British Empire. 

"He knew it was satanic, and he was political in saying, 'We've got to do what we can because we're Christians,'" Metaxas explained. "And when people say, but you're being political, he would say, 'No, I'm simply doing what God commands me to do, to be a voice for the voiceless. The African slaves don't have a voice. If I don't speak, God will judge me.' If I don't speak for the unborn today, God will judge me. If I don't speak against socialism and Marxism and the totalitarianism that is coming into our country, which is basically, you know, Chinese communist thinking coming into America and into American churches. The fact is that Bonhoeffer and Wilberforce were both told, 'be quiet, just keep your faith private, just preach the gospel and stick to gospel-related issues.' And they said, 'what is not a gospel-related issue?'"

Metaxas believes speaking up is not enough. He encourages Christians to respond by following Wilberforce's example. In his book, he writes about stepping out of the boat, miraculously walking on water or drowning. 

I asked him what Christians need to do, specifically. 

"We just have to ask our Lord, what would you have me to do? But do something. Do anything you can do," Metaxas said. 

"Yes. We should be running for school board meetings. Yes. We should be taking our kids out of public school and homeschooling them. Yes. We should be writing self-sacrificial checks to help those who are being persecuted by the big state, by Big Tech.

"I mean, I was wiped off of YouTube – my whole show – because I dared to talk about things that suddenly people said, 'Oh, you're not allowed to talk about that.' And I said, 'This is America. This is America. People have died so that we can talk about anything freely.' But a chill has fallen over this country and the church has been silent. And there are voices in the church advocating silence, advocating that we just don't be political."

Metaxas said like many others, American Christians fear offending people and being canceled by the prevailing culture. He urges American Christians to take courage and respond boldly before it's too late. 

"God will not hold us guiltless. God will judge us for our silence because our silence is wrong. God calls us to the battle. And if the church will understand this and will speak, we will avoid the horror that befell Germany. But if we continue in this, exactly what happened there will happen here. Time is very, very short."