John S. Dickerson - Hope of Nations: Standing Strong in a Post-Truth, Post-Christian World

PRAISE FOR HOPE OF NATIONS

With a decorated journalists eye, John S. Dickerson has given us not only a realists analysis of the Post-Truth culture, but also an idealists sense of hope. Christians who want a sober understanding of the times in which we live and practical ways that will positively impact the culture will get much out of Hope of Nations.

ABDU MURRAY, North American director of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries and author of Saving Truth: Finding Meaning and Clarity in a Post-Truth World

In my own lifetime, the values of the world have flipped upside down. We have landed not in a wonderland, but in a world of Post-Truth. Hope of Nations traces the result and what it means for the church. John S. Dickerson does not stop there, but examines how the church should face this new reality, as hard as it will be. Read this book, and you will be equipped to stand strong, not fearing this new reality but able to face it with a wisdom that comes from what Scripture says about living well in a difficult world.

DR. DARRELL BOCK,New York Times bestselling author, Humboldt Scholar, and senior research professor of New Testament studies, Dallas Theological Seminary

John S. Dickerson is forthright about the challenges we are soon to face in a Post-Truth world, but he doesnt simply predict doom and gloom. In Hope of Nations, John communicates a practical and powerful path for Christians to be Jesus to our lost world. This is a critical book for every thoughtful Christian.

DR. JULI SLATTERY, cofounder of Authentic Intimacy and author of Rethinking Sexuality

John S. Dickerson points to the ultimate solution for todays cultural crisisthe crucified Christ. He correctly concludes that our Christian response to a changing culture should be a return to the teachings of Jesus: to love our enemies, to pray for those who persecute us, to feed the poor and care for the widows, to live knowing that every earthly kingdom will fall, but there is one Kingdom that will never be shaken.

CAL THOMAS,USA Today and nationally syndicated columnist, TV commentator, and author of What Works

The foundations are failing beneath us. Much too quickly, Western civilization will find itself frantically looking for a lifeboat as it sinks into a moral and ethical cesspool bearing no similarity to its regal past. Fortunately, there are a few watchmen still seeking to point the way to a profitable and God-honoring future. John S. Dickerson has done it again with Hope of Nations. This should be required reading for any follower of Jesus who yearns for our society to escape a nihilistic demise and regain hope.

J. PAUL NYQUIST, PhD, former president, Moody Bible Institute, and author of Prepare: Living Your Faith in an Increasingly Hostile Culture

John S. Dickersons journalistic research ability and gentle shepherds heart will take you on an extraordinary journey.

LINDA PENN, host of Todays Living Hope

I am a believer in John S. Dickersons ability to hold readers in his thrall, to tell simple, uplifting human stories, to share his eloquent hopes.

KEN AULETTA,New Yorker media critic, bestselling author, and Pulitzer Prize judge

Few writers can gather, process, distill, and apply a host of facts with the precision of John S. Dickerson.

JOHN MCCANDLISH PHILLIPS, the late New York Times star reporter

ZONDERVAN

Hope of Nations

Copyright 2018 by John S. Dickerson

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

ISBN 978-0-310-34193-2 (softcover)

ISBN 978-0-310-35540-3 (audio)

ISBN 978-0-310-34194-9 (ebook)

Epub Edition May 2018 9780310341949

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.Zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version). Copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Quotes from the following article are reprinted with the permission of Johns Hopkins University Press: Roberto Stefan Foa and Yascha Mounk, The Danger of Deconsolidation: The Democratic Disconnect, Journal of Democracy 27, no. 3 (July 2016): 78. 2016 National Endowment for Democracy and Johns Hopkins University Press.

Quotes from the following book are reprinted with the permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc.: Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987).

Graphs and citations from the Pew Research Center are copyright 2011, 2012, 2015 by the Pew Research Center and are reprinted with the permission of the Pew Research Center. The permitted use of Pew Research findings in this book should not be interpreted or inferred as a Pew Research endorsement of any cause, candidate, issue, party, product, business, organization, religion, or viewpoint.

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

The author is represented by Ambassador Literary Agency, Nashville, TN.

Cover design: Rob Monacelli | RAM Creative

Cover photo: Pexels

Interior design: Kait Lamphere

First printing April 2018 / Printed in the United States of America

A scared world needs a fearless church.

A. W. TOZER

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CONTENTS

W hen did it become normal and routine for us to daily expect news of another terror attack, shooting, or act of evil?

We are pummeled each day with news of bloody terror attacks, social rioting, deep political hatred, missile launches, global unrest, and moral blindness here at home. Worse than the happenings themselves is the response from many of our neighbors and leaders. Where there was once a civilized pursuit of truth and social cohesion, there is now hatred, division, dishonesty, and destruction.

In the static noise of these cycling conflicts, we sense that we are losing something foundationalan entire way of life. We sense that the world our children and grandchildren inherit may be unrecognizable from the life of peace, stability, freedom, and prosperity that we once knew in America and the West.

The great cataclysm of this era is not merely a catastrophe of disconnected events, but fully the collapse of a culture, a society, a civilization. In moments of perspective, we suspect were not living through typical shifts in a stable society. No, it seems the tectonic plates are rupturing deep beneath our civilization.