A good and long-time friend of mine and a brother in Christ sent me a message the other day. He shares my deep concerns about the future of our country and called my attention to GOD’s way of raising the warning flag throughout history. The simple phrase “Take Heed” is used fifty-four times in scripture when GOD warns His people about departing from His principles and precepts. And every time they ignored His admonition, they paid the price. Since He is the Lord and does not change, should the ultimate fate of the United States be any different than that of other great nations throughout history
I have a lot of respect for my wife’s thoughts and ideas and particularly for her spiritual discernment. She believes (and I have no reason to doubt her) that the finger of blame for the current sad state of affairs in America points directly at the church.
In the Book of Mattew (Matt 16:18), Jesus says: “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.(NIV)” Well, the “gates of Hades” seem to be doing a fair job of overcoming right now, so the only conclusion I can reach is that, in may cases, “the” church is no longer “His” church.
During the past six decades, two things have happened that have weakened the church in America, turned participants into spectators, and made it largely ineffectual. They are:
- The church has constantly made an attempt to be “relevant” in order to attract greater numbers on Sunday because everyone knows that greater numbers mean greater influence. The problem with this attempt to make it more relevant is that the church ends up competing with the world’s attractions at a secular level, and it will lose that contest every time. In the Book of Isaiah, chapter 52, verse 11 God tells His people to “Depart, depart. Go out from there, you who bear the vessels of the Lord.” In a bit over two thousand years, the church has grown from a handful of believers who met, often secretly and at great personal risk, to an estimated two billion followers of Jesus world-wide. The Apostle Peter wrote (1 Peter 2:9): “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood , a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (NIV” )Ask any pastor of a third-world Christian fellowship if he worries about being relevant. He will probably say that his main concern is to bring the truth of salvation and GOD’s judgment of sinners to the lost. So, this attempt to achieve relevancy has made the church in America irrelevant.
- The church has, too often, refused to take a public stance on confronting sin. If homosexuality is a sin (and according to the Bible) it is, the church must take a stand against its practice. If abortion is the sin of murder, the church should say so. “Love the sinner, but hate the sin” is as true now as it ever was. Too many of those in leadership in the church are afraid of alienating a few, so they refuse to acknowledge and condemn sin. GOD’s grace does not extend to enabling behavior that offends Him.
Eph 6:14-16: Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. (NIV)