Coming up on this episode of The World View. As the conflict between Israel and Iran continues, it raises a deeper question. Why do so many of the conflicts that drive world history still to this day revolve around the big three? Judaism, Christianity, and Islam? What Christian moral teaching says about war and the lives of children? A troubling new report about declining pro-life evangelical conviction and, finally, what pastoral sabbaticals mean for the state of masculinity in the church. All that coming up on The World View. Before we go any further, remember that this show is an outreach of ABWE, the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism. If you want to take your next step in engaging the world with the gospel, that's why we're here. Learn more at ABWE.org. But first, the hinge of history. The escalating conflict between Israel and Iran has, once again, put the Middle East at the center of global attention. Every time a new conflict erupts in that region, analysts immediately begin talking about geopolitics, the energy markets, nuclear deterrence, military alliances, and all those things matter. They matter a lot, obviously. But there's something deeper that often gets ignored. The conflicts that continue to shape the course of human affairs revolve all around three religious traditions. Judaism, Christianity, the one true religion, and Islam. If you were to draw a Venn diagram around those three religions, and mark their points of overlap and disagreement, you would find that the single greatest point of contention between them is none other than the person and work of Jesus Christ. Modern Judaism rejects him completely. Islam honors a version of him as a prophet but denies his divinity. And Christianity, of course, alone confesses that Jesus Christ is the son of God and Lord of the universe. In some, the whole world is continuing to ask the question that Jesus himself asks his disciples, who do you say that I am? For secular observers, trying to figure out why these conflicts seem to endure generation after generation, the explanation is actually quite simple. Human history continues to orbit around the most important question humanity's ever faced. Who is Jesus? And what will we do with him? Political alliance has changed. Empires rise and fall. Borders shift. We know that. But the central issue remains the same. The question every nation must eventually answer is the same question every individual must answer as well. What will we do with Jesus? And that brings us to the second story of the week. The Iranian school bombing and Christian moral conscience reports emerged last week of a double tap, Tomahawk missile strike in Iran that struck a school filled with hundreds of women and children. No matter what side one takes in the broader conflict incidents like this provoke immediate moral outrage across the world. And rightly so. Christians should not be tempted to treat the deaths of women and children as a routine feature of war or just dismiss them as mere collateral damage. Scripture teaches that every human being is made in the image of God. That truth alone establishes the dignity and worth of every human life, even in the middle of bloody war. Now, Bible does contain passages describing the conquest of Canaan, for instance, where entire populations were destroyed. But those events were unique moments in redemptive history, unrepeatable ones directly tied to God's judgment and to covenantal promises. They're not a template for modern warfare. Now, Christian moral reflection on war instead throughout history developed along different theological lines. Beginning with the likes of Augustin and later articulated more fully by Thomas Aquinas, the church developed what came to be known as just war theory. The principles were intended to restrain violence and impose moral limits even in times of conflict. And these principles are things like just cause or legitimate authority leading the fight, right intention, proportionality, and right distinction between combatants and non-combatants, those that we're talking about in this case. In other words, even when a war is justified, the deliberate targeting of civilians is not. And the accidental targeting of civilians must be rejected. But here's another question worth asking. Where does this type of tragedy provoke such universal moral outrage in the first place? Why do people instinctively recoil at the killing of women and children? The answer is that our moral instincts have been shaped for the last 2,000 years by Christian influence. The Christian worldview alone insists that human life has inherent dignity on both sides of a conflict because it's created by God and redeemed by Christ. Even people who reject Christianity often retain moral instincts that were formed by their Christian heritage whether they know it or not. And that instinctive outrage is actually evidence of Christ's moral influence that continues to shape the conscience of the world, to prove that he's Lord and that he's reigning. It's also a reminder though of how much we've lost as society moves further and further away from the moral framework that produced our instincts in the first place. Our wars and the way we conduct them are evidence of that. The source of that moral conscience disappears eventually the conscience itself will fade away and the world will be worse off as a result. Which naturally takes us to number 3, declining pro-life convictions in the church. A recent article from last week highlighted survey data showing that support for pro-life positions among evangelical churchgoers, not just churchgoers in general, but evangelicals in particular, has been declining. At first glance, that may seem surprising, we're talking about American evangelicals after all. Keep in mind evangelicals for decades have tried to stay out of politics to one degree or another, but typically even those who stay out of politics make exceptions for the pro-life cause, as evidenced by the many single issue voters on that topic. But this shouldn't really surprise us despite all of that. For years after all, mainstream evangelicalism has emphasized a particular set of virtues at the cost of almost everything else. Things like sensitivity, compassion, and kindness. But when these are detached from the truth, they become grotesque parodies of themselves. In many churches, the dominant ministry philosophies been shaped by a methodology that says that we should attract and accommodate the unbeliever. The assumptions often been that if we make Christianity palatable enough and remove enough barriers, people will be naturally drawn into the kingdom. The problem is that we can't nice people into heaven. Faithful ministry requires preaching the whole council of God and applying it to all of life. When churches focus exclusively on evangelism while neglecting discipleship, they eventually produce believers whose moral instincts are more shaped by the surrounding culture than by scripture itself. What we're seeing in these numbers is not just the result of a cultural zeitgeist heading to the left, but also of ministerial softness, which takes us to the final topic for today. Number four, the sabbatical debate. The final story revolves around a debate that erupted last week online about pastoral sabbaticals. Now, when it comes to sabbaticals, I'm pro-choice. I think it's a decision that should be made between a man and his doctor. But I want them to be safe, legal, and rare. Sabbaticals can be healthy and restorative. I've been a part of ministries where leaders are given seasons of rest, and those times can be genuinely beneficial. But if we're honest, the real issue is not whether sabbaticals are permissible. Real reason is why they're increasingly necessary. Why is it that pastors appear to need extended seasons of recovery in a way that most other professions don't even think to ask for? Why is it that pastors of all people appear to need extended seasons of rest and recovery in a way that, say, ice-road truckers don't need? There are certainly ministry hazards that are unique to the pastoral office. It involves emotional strain, constant spiritual warfare, and the burden of shepherding souls. But it's also worth asking whether or not something deeper is going on here, too. Could part of the problem be that modern churches and seminaries are producing fewer huts and tailors and more Toby Flandersons? Well, I was in the seminary for a year and dropped out. To think about history for a moment, Isaiah preached both naked and barefoot for three years. Ezekiel preached laying on his side for over a year and had to cook his bread over dung, and then when his wife died, he was told not to cry about it. Consider John Calvin, who four or five times a week, preached with chronic GI issues and pain afflicting him all along, sometimes needing people to carry him into the pulpit. Or think about Teddy Roosevelt, who finished a speech after being shot in the chest. And then there's us. Oh, my thing, he's still hurt. Now, it's entirely lawful to rest. Jesus himself tells his disciples, come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest for a while. Mark 631. We need to do that from time to time in life. But compared with the godly men of old, it's also worth considering here whether our reliance on sabbaticals doesn't reveal the loss of something else. The doctrine of the Sabbath. If Christians treated Sunday as the Lord's day, a true day of rest, worship, and renewal, not just a second Saturday with all the same sports and errands, plus an hour long church service at the beginning of the day, then just maybe pastors and their people alike would find deeper restoration. And since this is the world view, we should also ask, this is how soft we've become. What kind of Christianity are we exporting through missions all around the world? What kind of missionaries are we sending out? Are we sending out men with the spirit of William Carey or an adenirum Judson, missionary statesman willing to endure hardship for the sake of the gospel? Or are we simply raising up people who are bored with ordinary life at home and looking for adventure abroad? People that are sure to burn out. Very service demands resilience. It demands courage. Men who can endure the stress of culture shock, language acquisition, spiritual opposition, and isolation. If we want to see strong churches planted all around the world, we must be committed to forming strong men at home and sending some of them to that world that's in need. And not men like, I'm going to teach you about religion. Hi, my name is Alex Cochman. I serve in Christian missions and I've spent years working with churches, missionaries, and families who are trying to figure out how to live faithfully in a disordered age. I've just released a book called Ordered to Love restoring the biblical order of affections from the household to the ends of the earth because right now, Christians are being told that we must feel equal obligation to everything everywhere all at once. The family, the church, our nation, and all the nations, every issue is framed as urgent. Every cause is a cause for moral outrage. And that pressure, while it hasn't produced more faithfulness, it's led to more guilt and confusion and instability. But the good news is, Scripture does not treat love that way. In Scripture, God orders our obligations. He orders us to love and then he shows us the right way to go about that. Love begins with him and then it's practiced in the household, strengthened in the local church, exercised tangibly in one's own community, and finally carried outward to all the nations. But when that order is ignored, well, discipleship at home collapses and missions abroad loses all credibility. So in order to love, I make a case for recovering that biblical order. Not as an excuse to withdraw from society or stop loving people that are hard to love, but as the only way to sustain faithful obedience to the Great Commission over time. This book is written for pastors, parents, missionaries, and ordinary Christians who simply want clarity instead of slogans and marketing. There's also a companion workbook for individuals, families, and church groups that want to apply these truths to real life. So you can find all that at orderedtolove.com. You can get the book from Founders Press, visit the link in the show notes or go to orderedtolove.com. Sign up for more stories or be fulfilled right now. Again, go to orderedtolove.com.