Why You Should Stand Up to the Cancel Culture Bully

Why You Should Stand Up to the Cancel Culture Bully

Anyone struggle with the “cancel culture”? According to Dictionary.com, “Cancel culture refers to the popular practice of withdrawing support for (canceling) public figures and companies after they have done or said something considered objectionable or offensive. Cancel culture is generally discussed as being performed on social media in the form of group shaming.” 

It’s a real thing, and it’s happening at an individual level, too. 

I’ll be honest, it scares me. I don’t want to be cancelled. Rejected. Shunned. I don’t want to be hated and all alone. But as a follower of Christ and believer in the absolute truth of scripture, unless I choose silence, it's bound to happen. At some point, standing for God’s truth will put us in opposition with what’s popular and trending. 

In Daniel 3 of the same Bible that might “cancel” you with culture, there’s the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego, Hebrew exiles in Babylon who refuse to bow down and worship the golden statue King Nebuchadnezzar erects in his own honor. Anyone who took a stand (pun intended) would literally be thrown into a fiery furnace (see verses 1-7). 

The Hebrew trio refuses, and they are brought before the king, who’s incredulous that anyone would refuse. 

Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying to them, "Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the gold image which I have set up? Now if you are ready at the time you hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery, in symphony with all kinds of music, and you fall down and worship the image which I have made, good! But if you do not worship, you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you from my hands?" (verses 14-15 NKJV)

Their response is the stand God would have us take today. With gentle humility, they firmly rest in God’s goodness and faithfulness and refuse to bow down to the king’s god.

"O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.” (verses 16-18 NKJV)

Friend, this is determination.  

I. 

Will. 

Not. 

In addition to faith, we have a choice to make. A resolve, because lack of resolve makes for wavering. It can lead to bowing down to whatever worldly god demands our loyalty with threats of destruction, and that can leave us like the unstable man in James 1:6-8. The wisdom we need is from God, and James says:

 But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.

Who wants to be this guy? But when we waver, this is exactly what happens. I’m preaching to myself here, “Shauna, you must resolve that you will not bow to any other god. You must refuse to bow even to the most reasonable, popular thinking and trends if the wisdom behind it is not from God.”

In other words, it’s what God said to me the other day, “If I’m not in it, you don’t want it.”

When Jeremiah confronts Israel with the idolatry that would lead to the very exile Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego are living in Daniel 3, he says in Jeremiah 4:1, “’O Israel,’ says the LORD, ‘if you wanted to return to me, you could. You could throw away your detestable idols and stray away no more.’” 

If you wanted.

Do we want? 

Do we want to stand with God even if it means standing alone? 

Listen, it’s hard! Look at the similarities between Daniel 3 and today’s cancel culture:  

•  In rage and fury, commands are given and demands are made (Daniel 3:13).

•  Noncompliance or standing for anything else is unacceptable (verses 14-18).

• That choice if voiced is met with fury (verse 19).

• You’re thrown in the fire to be destroyed (verse 20).

It will be a risk to remain unmoved in a single-minded devotion to God and His truth. We may stand alone, and we might pass through the fire because of it, but look at this.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego aren’t alone! 

First of all, the three of them stand together. “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:12 NIV). It takes one other brother or sister in Christ, and you’ve got three—Jesus being the third in the fire. But the more the merrier. Who are your three? 

WE NEED EACH OTHER NOW MORE THAN EVER, because the furnace is exceedingly hot (Daniel 3:22). Even so—even if we stand alone and find ourselves in the fire to be destroyed, consider these four relevant truths from their time for our time (and for forever, for that matter):

1.     The ones who throw God’s unwavering martyrs into the fire are the ones who get incinerated (verse 22). 

Therefore, because the king's command was urgent, and the furnace exceedingly hot, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego.

2.     It is in the fire that the Hebrew boys encounter the person and presence of Jesus Christ (verses 24-25)!!! 

Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished; and he rose in haste and spoke, saying to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.” “Look!” he answered, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” 

3.     They come out of the fire unharmed and untouched by the flame. They don’t even smell like smoke (verses 26-27)!!! 

Then Nebuchadnezzar went near the mouth of the burning fiery furnace and spoke, saying, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, servants of the Most High God, come out, and come here.” Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego came from the midst of the fire. And the satraps, administrators, governors, and the king's counselors gathered together, and they saw these men on whose bodies the fire had no power; the hair of their head was not singed nor were their garments affected, and the smell of fire was not on them.

4.     GOD reveals Himself and is glorified through their fiery trial (verse 28)!!! 

Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, who sent His Angel and delivered His servants who trusted in Him, and they have frustrated the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they should not serve nor worship any god except their own God!”

When we refuse to bow to popular thought and culture’s demands—the waves of current events that threaten our loyalty to God—God reveals Himself and is glorified. We might end up in the fire. We might not make it through. Even so, we can know that God is good and faithful, regardless of what He chooses to do, and we can know that He is with us in the fire. “Cancel culture” is a bully, just like King Nebuchadnezzar. Neither is a match for the Most High God.