About Following Christ in The Age Of Antichrist

Subjects discussed throughout this book are poverty, same-sex marriage, marriage, ethnicity and racism, sex slavery, sexual morality, refugees, persecution, abortion, orphans and widows, pornography, and religious liberty. Platt broke down these topics and analyzed them each form a Biblical perspective. He also uses moving stories in the beginning of each chapter to help give context to the readers. Throughout each of these chapters, it is all brought back to the Gospel and the glory of God. The whole point of this book is to further the glory of God by addressing issues that many times do not get discussed or that get misunderstood. “On popular issues like poverty and slavery, where Christians are likely to be applauded for our social action, we are quick to stand up and speak out. Yet on controversial issues like homosexuality and abortion, where Christians are likely to be criticized for our involvement, we are content to sit down and stay quiet.”; This quote summarizes what is seemingly Platt’s point for writing this book.

Platt started off by defining the Gospel in chapter one. After this, he dove into addressing issues. He makes a point that the social issues that occur today should concern us because they do concern God. He began with making a pit that many people pick and choose what social issues to address, support, or condone. He also explains how Christians are silent about some social issues. A statement that Platt made that describes the first part of the book is this, “What if Christ in us actually compels us to counter our culture and courageously share our convictions through what we say and how we live, even when these convictions contradict the popular positions of our day”. Platt argues that as Christians, we are called to counter the way that the culture around us is going and to do that, we must have our eyes fixed on God and his glory.

Platt spends a large portion of the book to discuss sex. Sex slavery, pornography, marriage, infidelity, sex before marriage; these are all sexual sins and Christians struggle with these sins too. Platt gives hope in the middle of all of these forms of sexual sin by explaining how the Gospel and God’s Words redeems all of that. He also discussed slavery; slavery in the forms of actual sex slaves, as well as sexual slaves to sin. A continual pattern we see in Counter Culture is that when he brings up a social issue, like sex slavery, Platt discusses what our role as Christians is to fight the battle against the culture. When Platt discusses subjects like marriage and sex, he makes it clear that marriage is good, and God designed sex and marriage, but when it is misused, things go wrong. When the designed for sex is abused or neglected, the glory of God is at stake. Platt addresses this so boldly because he how we steward our lives is important as Christians and we cannot walk in a way that the world is going.

When looking at how Platt addresses poverty, it is different than most people see it. The main goal as a Christians is for our hearts to be softened towards the poor. Platt makes it a point that Christians must be praying for God to soften their hearts for the poor and needy. He also puts an emphasis on the importance of giving and intervening on behalf of those in need.
The way Platt addresses abortion should be very convicting to Christians. Many Christians stand on the streets and protest for human rights, do not ever consider adoption. As Christians, we must support life, because life is a gift from God, but we must also serve others. We must be informed when it comes to who we vote for and how that person will make decisions that concern abortion. Christians should foster and adopt to care for the orphans and the for and needy parents who cannot take care of their child(ren). If not able to foster or adopt, an option mentioned is supporting families who do foster or adopt.

Scripture used in this chapter is Psalm 68:5-6 A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families.”Platt also talks about the importance of countering the culture on a global level. He does this through urging readers to pray for refugees and get involved in that crisis. Not just to get involved but to seek to understand and into not just turn a blind eye. He urges readers to “stay informed”. He also discusses the religious liberty within the United States and in other cultures. It is such a privilege to have freedom of choice of religion and speech. As Christians, Platt urges us to speak out in faith but also to accept rejection, opposition, and disagreement. Platt also urges us in this chapter to be praying for those who are physically persecuted for their faith and that don’t have the same religious liberties as we do in the U.S.

Something Platt does really well in this book, is telling stories in the beginning of each chapter, when he gives a story in the beginning of each chapter, it gets our minds going as readers. It can move us to empathy and understanding. It is also can open our eyes to things we didn’t like maybe the extremeness of sex trafficking in the United States or the tragedy of abortion. These stories set the readers in the mind and gives context for what the rest of the chapter will be like. It grabs the readers attention so that he or she is then prepared to take in the next portion of the chapter that Platt has. Along with this structural success, Platt also adds something very helpful at the end of each chapter. He titles it “First Steps to Counter Culture”. This section has certain prayers that revolve around what the chapter discussed.

Much of these prayers are seeking heart change for the reader and justice for the social cause. This section also includes practical way to counter the culture in that discussed theme. I think that it is so important to have applicable reading but the fact that Platt breaks it down even more at the end of each chapter seemingly makes it more applicable. This section at the end also was helpful for me because as I was reading through it, if there was a concept I did not understand, I was able to realize that I must have misread something. This allowed me to go back and reread certain portions so I could fully take it in. Platt uses Biblical evidence in his book. He backs up his statements with scripture. Platt does this in the previously discussed “First Steps to Counter Culture”, but also through the whole chapters.

Many Christian authors today do not write in alignment with the Word of God and this is a huge problem. As Christians, if we want to live counter culturally, which we are called to do, we must believe that the Word of God is authoritative. If we believe the Word of god is authoritative, then we must sift everything that we do and say through it. Platt sifts his arguments through scripture and provides the verses from which he is getting his evidence. My favorite thing about this book is that he urges Christians to dive into the things that many churches are urging Christians to dive out of. Sex slavery, pornography, and sexual immortality is something that many churches do not discuss. Platt hits the nail on the head but going in depth on each of these issues. Not only does he break each one down, but he makes the clear point that as Christians, we are called to address these issues and that we have a place in countering the culture.

This will impact my life because as a Christian I am called to follow Christ into the battlefield of culture. The only way to counter the culture in this battlefield is by following Christ. As Christians we are called to rise above and we are called to live a life that is not going in the direction of everything around us. Many issues of our day are considered radical to those surrounding us such as abortion rights or sex slavery, but as Christians, we must live out and deliver the most radical message of all; The Gospel. The way that the message Platt was sending affects my life, also affects my ministry. Because the Gospel is the most radical message of all, I must life my life in a way that reveals that. In my ministry I must seek the righteousness and holiness of God. I must seek to see what His hearts are for the nations. I must seek to have His heart for His people. My ministry cannot be about me; It must be about the great and good news of Jesus Christ.