Signs of Religious Renewal

27 September 2026  Matthew 21:28-32

“For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the harlots believed him….”  (Matthew 21:32)  

When John the Baptist appeared, there hadn’t been a prophet in Israel for about 400 years. Some editions of the Bible refer to those centuries as the “silent years,” yet they were anything but silent.

Those were the years of Alexander the Great, who conquered pretty much everything between Greece and India.

Not surprisingly, then, the signs of religious renewal popping up all over contemporary culture are being embraced by young men. An 87% increase in conversions to Catholicism on American college campuses is being reported, led by young men

Greek became the common language from Egypt to Afghanistan, so much so that Jews all over grew up speaking Greek first, and not Hebrew or Aramaic; so much so that the need was felt to translate the Old Testament into Greek, and so we got the Septuagint, which was the Bible for the writers of the New Testament; so much so that Antiochus IV Epiphanes, one of the successors of Alexander, outlawed the Jewish Law, set up a statue and altar of Zeus in the Jerusalem Temple, and sacrificed a pig there. That set off the Maccabean Revolt in 167 B.C., which got rid of the Greeks, but not Greek culture. The successors to the Maccabees pretty much adopted Greek culture, and Jewish rulers devolved into rival political and religious sects, like the Pharisees and Sadducees, and eventually civil war. In 63 B.C. the Roman general Pompey the Great put a swift end to the civil conflict, made Judea into a client state, and while he was at it took a tour of the Holy of Holies, defiling the Temple again.

During all that time ordinary people were just trying to get by, and did whatever it took. Some went into the world’s oldest profession and became prostitutes. Others went into the world’s newest profession and became tax collectors for the occupying Romans. Both groups were despised by all, and were encouraged to despise themselves.

Then long came a wild preacher who stood in the water and announced that God had come to visit especially the tax collectors and prostitutes. He called the Pharisees and Sadducees “a brood of vipers,” more cause than solution for the problems faced by these outcasts, dejects, and rejects (cf. Matthew 3:7). And then the wild preacher announced that he wasn’t even the main event, that Another was coming, indeed was already there, the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (cf. John 1:29). No wonder the tax collectors and prostitutes were excited.

A growing body of research today is focused on the problems of young men, 18-29, who are failing – not succeeding in school, not employed, not employable; not dating, marrying or forming families; having few friends and many bad habits, like video games, porn, gambling and extremist views. Schools, starting in kindergarten, are more focused on girls, helping girls succeed, helping girls become leaders, and rejecting the view that boys learn and lead differently. Some even adopt the “toxic masculinity” trope of popular culture. Many young men feel despised and rejected – it isn’t a state of mind; often they just are.

Not surprisingly, then, the signs of religious renewal popping up all over contemporary culture are being embraced by young men. An 87% increase in conversions to Catholicism on American college campuses is being reported, led by young men (triple earlier rates). Publishers report that the increase in Bible sales (tripled since 2016) is also being led by young men. Young men are taking the advice of people like Jordan Peterson to find in the Bible the kind of vision that is helping them to make better decisions – cleaner and clearer living that doesn’t require that they despise themselves first.

Abolitionists in the 19th century were despised and rejected; civil rights leaders in the 20th century were despised and rejected. Evangelical Christianity reached over the fashinable scorn of those days and embraced both. Is it too much to think that the Good News is doing the same thing again with young men?