Therapeutic Virtue Signaling and the Abdication of the Prophetic Office

by Luke Griffo

We live in a therapeutic age. This is plain from the amount of individuals seeking psychological help and using antidepressant drugs, as well as from our common discourse regarding personal fulfillment and our constant need for affirmation. The spirit of our age is one of insecurity, fragility, and an insatiable craving for psychological peace and wellness. As Christians, we have the only answer for all of these needs—peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ and the abiding comfort of the indwelling Holy Spirit. We have the only true good news: that the kingdom of God has come, that Jesus Christ is the risen King, and that all must be brought into subjection under His gracious and merciful rule. This is the message God’s people have been entrusted with, a world-changing, universe shaking, personally and culturally transformative message to bring to the lost and distressed world around us. Yet it is a message which we have traded in exchange for the therapeutic, external, powerless worldview of the very people who need to be saved.

Because the deeply felt need of our age is ultimately manifested in terms of the personal fulfillment of the individual and not in the flourishing of the covenantal communities we are a part of, the telos of much modern religiosity is found in the self. Rather than a religious worldview being largely defined and characterized by its effect or fruitfulness in the broader community, the final purpose according to our current perspective is our own personal feeling of fulfillment. We want to feel good about ourselves.

To be sure, there are true revolutionaries with a religious zeal to transform the culture. Oftentimes, however, even the most militant of these have in mind more the goal of personal validation rather than effecting positive change in their cultural circles. Cultural change is more a means to the ultimate end of self-satisfaction; it is not itself the end. In some ways, it is difficult to be critical of this mindset; we are all products of our age and have to a large degree been impacted, consciously or not, by the pervasive worldview of Liberal Humanism and its hyper-individualism. This is why our presentation of the gospel message is so centered on a personal relationship with Christ, and why so much of our own concern is about ourselves personally going to heaven when we die rather than prioritizing and emphasizing our true purpose for existing: glorifying Christ in every sphere of creation we touch. Indeed, personal salvation is essential to the Christian message, yet it is not the whole of it, and the fact that so many treat it as such is evidence of the impact that individualism has had on even the most earnest and sincere Christians.

Put together the therapeutic craving of our age and the emphasis on the self and one arrives at a fairly satisfactory explanation for why we are currently experiencing the cultural dullness that we are. People want to feel good, and specifically they want to feel good about themselves. This being the highest goal, one can fully acknowledge a host of cultural and political issues, recognize their danger, and respond by sharing a news article or buying a bumper sticker, and then continuing to live in the culture more or less content, acting as if all is well. It is the reason why a person may fly a “Don’t Tread on Me” flag, and yet make essentially no serious sacrifices to combat our corrupt ruling authorities, much less die for such a cause like those who originally marched under that banner. This is because, while social change may be genuinely desired, it is not the highest goal or the aim of these actions—the motivation behind these is to feel good about oneself, to personally feel validated, as if one is actually making a difference by these outward and often superficial gestures. The common terminology to describe this phenomena is “virtue signaling,” and it is found across the board, on the political left and the right, and in the Christian world as well.

Such virtue signaling will be on full display at the annual Pennsylvania March for Life in Harrisburg coming up next week. This is not meant as a slam against the sincere Christians who grieve abortion that will be in attendance; virtue signaling is something we all do to an extent, it is a part of our cultural milieu. What this is meant to do is challenge those Christians to rise above the low-cost bar that passes for sacrificial labor and to treat modern day child sacrifice with the biblical urgency that is required.

The March for Life, in Pennsylvania and everywhere else, is therapeutic virtue signaling. It does not accomplish political change, it does not raise awareness against abortion, and it does not take meaningful, actionable steps toward eradicating it. Ultimately what it does is make thousands of Christians feel as though they have done their part to combat child sacrifice, allowing them to go home feeling good about themselves, thus satisfying the basic religious need of our day. Christians can—and must—do better than this. We cannot fall into the patterns of the world, following it into a sedated and safe therapeutic mindset that dulls the radical message we proclaim and limits the impact of the gospel to the individual. The message of Scripture has ramifications that are felt in every area of life—personal and cultural—and this must be a significant element of our proclamation.

The most famous verse in all the Bible reads: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Jesus goes on to say that He was sent into the world “in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17). This proclamation shows forth the gospel’s perfect balance between the personal and the communal: “whoever believes in him” speaks to individuals entering a personal relationship with God through Christ, while God’s love for the world and His intention for the world to be saved through Christ indicates the universal consequences and implications of the gospel. Our mistaken age is so individualistic that we regularly take “world” to mean something like all people will eventually be personally saved, yet what is in view here is the restoration of all the world, all of creation, through the redemptive work of Christ, and the effect this redemption has on “whoever believes.” Through the salvation of individuals, God intends to save the world. Therefore the impact of Christians ought to be felt in every area of life, in the whole world, comprehensively. Our mission is not limited to the salvation of individuals; we are to be God’s agents of salvation for the whole world.

Part of the way in which Christians individually, and the church as a whole, have this effect is by exercising the prophetic office to which we have been called. Christ of course is the Prophet, the fulfillment of the prophetic office who perfectly reveals the triune God and His will (John 1:18, Deut. 18:15-19, Acts 3:22-26, John 17:6-8, Luke 9:35). The church, as the body of Christ, is tasked with imitating His prophetic work under His authority in the here and now. We are His witnesses (Acts 1:8), filled with the Spirit of truth who through us convicts the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:7-11), who both proclaim and live out an authoritative message of repentance, faith, and new life in Jesus Christ (Acts 17:30-31, 26:16-18, Eph. 4:1-6, 1 Tim. 1:15-17). Every Christian is a prophet equipped with the authoritative word of God and called to proclaim that message wherever we are given opportunity, and particularly in the face of rampant sin and injustice.

However, when we succumb to the therapeutic virtue signaling of our age and are content with the self-satisfaction that comes from it, we abdicate this prophetic office. If we simply fly a flag, make a post, or march in the street without clear, consistent, and authoritative proclamation of God’s full counsel, we are falling short of our calling as Christians. When it comes to our national child sacrifice via abortion it is insufficient for the church to voice its polite dissent—that is not the prophetic work for which we have been set apart. When we confront this great enemy, we must do so articulating exactly what abortion is—murder—and exactly what God says about it: that the state is obligated to execute justice against murderers, or else He will visit in wrath the unjust nation which refuses to do so. And, as the prophets of old who confronted kings with God’s perfect law, we must inform our governing authorities that God will hold them accountable, according to His standard, for how they executed public justice, or else disobeyed God by failing to do so.

So by all means, attend the March for Life; yet do not stop there. Do not be content with what amounts to virtue signaling. Be prophetic. Use biblical terms to describe the child sacrifice of our day. Personally let your representative know that the current state of affairs is unacceptable, not because you do not prefer it, but because God hates it. Speak the word of God plainly and consistently, confident in the authority that the King of kings has given to you as a prophet and trust that through your courageous obedience He will accomplish His will.