Eric Metaxas exhorts pastors to be bold amid revival

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif. — Author Eric Metaxas told a group of pastors gathered at Turning Point USA’s recent Faith Forward Pastors Summit to live out their faith boldly amid what he sees as “the beginnings of revival” in the U.S.

The bestselling Bonhoeffer biographer also warned pastors and other Christians in the packed room last week against being too cautious or quiet about important political and cultural issues.

“We need to be living our faith out, so that the devil is threatened by how you live out your faith,” he said.

Citing the “golden triangle of freedom,” a principle he said he learned from English author and theologian Os Guinness, Metaxas explained why he believes it’s especially important for American pastors to stand firm, noting the inextricable nature of Christian morality and the American system of self-government.

“Freedom or liberty or self-government requires virtue, virtue requires faith and faith requires freedom,” he said.

Referencing themes he wrote about in his 2017 book If You Can Keep It, Metaxas said the Founding Fathers were steeped in the presuppositions of Christian thought and valued religious liberty because they “knew that liberty, freedom and self-government required virtue, but they also saw that virtue required faith.”

While praising recent acts by the Trump administration to allow greater religious liberty — such as guidance issued last month allowing federal employees to share their faith in the workplace — Metaxas characterized the willingness of Christians to stay silent on important issues in the first place as a danger to the republic.

“How pathetic that we need a presidential memo to tell us that we have freedom of speech and freedom of faith!” he said. “I need to be told by a presidential memo, ‘Oh, it’s now OK for me to talk about Jesus?’ That church is a dead church.”

“And I’m telling you, folks, the reason we got into the problems we did in the United States of America up until recently — and of course, we’re trying to dig our way out — is because of those kinds of Christians.”

“If you’re not living fearlessly, you’re failing,” he said. “And by the way, this is not a guilt trip. God created us to live that way. He created us to live freely and to rejoice in Him.”

Metaxas also praised recent pushback against the Johnson Amendment, a 1954 provision in the tax code that makes religious leaders and entities liable to lose their tax-exempt status if they endorse specific candidates ahead of elections or engage in other types of political activity.

“Patriots have bled and died so you can say whatever you want,” he said. “It doesn’t even have to be true. You can speak your mind on anything, because we have religious liberty and freedom of speech in America.”

“You’re telling me the one place that [we have to] watch it is in the pulpit? That is demonic; that is sick.”

Drawing from the warnings he laid out in his books Letter to the American Church and Religionless Christianity: God’s Answer to Evil, Metaxas exhorted his listeners to speak courageously and suggested God has been refining the American Church in recent years by exposing weakness and cowardice among some religious leaders.

“We need to know when it’s time to speak, and I’m here to tell you, the Church needs to speak loudly,” he said. “The Church needs to stop cowering and saying, ‘What am I allowed to say?’ And I’m here, again, to say that this idea that we’re not supposed to be political? That is demonic, folks; that is absolute demonic nonsense.”

Metaxas concluded by expressing hope for revival in the U.S., driven by love and a personal experience with Jesus.

“When the Church begins to be the Church of the United States of America — and that is happening, by God’s grace — we will see revival. We’re seeing the beginnings of revival. And the spirit of revival in America really has a lot to do with loving Jesus. It’s not about doctrines, because you can have doctrines and not love Jesus. And the Lord wants us to have an experience with Jesus.”

“Pray for that, folks. Pray that God would give you an experience of Him.”

Metaxas’ talk of revival and exhortation for boldness echoed that of fellow event speakers John Amanchukwu and Greg Laurie.

Amanchukwu pushed back against those who urge him to “tone it down” when it comes to speaking out against the increasingly blatant evil in American culture, and Laurie observed “a dramatic shift in the culture toward the Gospel and toward Jesus Christ” as spiritual hunger manifests among young men especially.