David Platt still wants to wake you up from the American dream. Back in 2010, his bestselling book Radical chastised the church for growing fat and complacent with consumer comforts while unbelievers worldwide die and enter hell without ever hearing the good news of Jesus Christ. Indeed, hundreds of thousands of Christians around the world heard this call to radical faith.
Platt’s 2015 book Counter Culture [review], now updated and re-released for 2017, takes aim at just about every issue that divides America today: abortion, homosexuality, religious freedom, refugees, immigration and much more. As with his previous work, Platt seeks to show that awakening from our moral and ethical slumber will be costly, but ultimately rewarding as we risk big things for a big Savior. Perhaps the Spirit will again work where worldly means of motivation have failed.
With the re-release of Counter Culture, and in our context of tremendous racial and political turmoil, Platt joins me on The Gospel Coalition Podcast to discuss our era’s rapid pace of social change, churches that care as much about slavery as marriage, and the implications of our behavior for international missions. Platt is president of the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention and a Council member with The Gospel Coalition.