I’ll confess I’m not an authority on churchy affairs, but perhaps that’s a good thing. Perhaps it’s time political correctness within the church faced a little more opposition from those who aren’t under its power…
I’ve no doubt that many or most church ministers are working hard and doing their best for their congregations and for their God. But my experience and my observation of today’s church world, overall, is that the flock is not being prepared for what it already faces, or for what may be coming. There’s just too much feelgood church going on.
We don’t have to go any further than our television or our web-based news feeds to see the direction our world is heading in. Here in the US we’re becoming more and more polarized as the haters crawl out of the closet and make their intentions clear. Our culture is being torn because those who are most intent on changing it have the power of most of the media on their side.
POLITICS AND RELIGION
Of those who take a Biblical view of culture and politics in the Church how many are talking about it? Alright, we don’t have to side openly with either major political party, but we absolutely should be discussing the issues, because they affect all of us and all our children. We don’t live in a theocracy or a church state, and I wouldn’t want to. But we all, in a so-called “democracy” or “republic” or “democratic republic” have a right and a duty to shape it, rather than just handing it over to those who want to tear down all the principles our Creator created us to live by, and even the obvious principles of nature itself.
ORIGINS
Some in the Church regard the subject of our origins as being insignificant. Where we came from isn’t important, they say. But what did Jesus say? He said:
If you believed Moses, you would believe me…but if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? (John 5:46).
The writing of Moses, and the prophets, and the apostles, and the Psalmists, all speak of our creation: not our evolution. We’re made by God in the image of God, not by chance, random mutations and billions of years of time, in the image of a lemur or an ape-like creature. Calling into question our creation is calling into question our salvation from sin, our eternal destiny, and the words of God. It’s calling God a liar, or at very least, an obfuscator. If all the Bible writers are wrong about creation, so are they wrong about salvation: we can’t confidently rely on salvation or resurrection or God’s intentions.
Our kids are being taught that they evolved from soup. The church which is not working to correct this view is not, I repeat not, caring for its flock.
WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD
I believe in the rapture of the Church. However, what many ministers in churches and on the radio and internet are teaching is that before all that’s foretold in Revelation and elsewhere occurs we’re all going to be taken to heaven…
Why did our God go to so much trouble to foretell last days events if we aren’t going to see them or experience them? Why do so many prophecy “experts” make a living at what they do if all the time we’re going to disappear before it all happens? Why are so many in the Church sticking their heads in the sands of rapture, when half way across the world many of their believing brothers and sisters are already having theirs cut off for their faith? We are not all going to escape what is to come. We are not all going to get out of here, without some very serious opposition first. So why are the churches passing out buckets full of sand when they should be equipping the saints for what may come and for what has already come in many parts of the world?
FELLOWSHIP AND WORSHIP
One powerful way to prepare the Church for what it has to deal with and for what it may have to face is through fellowship and worship. Sadly, I see very little. I see cliques and little groups who like each other and turn their noses up at the rest. I see very few Bible studies where the Bible is studied and where it’s not just another opportunity for someone to give a sermon rather than openly discuss Scripture in relation to today’s world. And I see a kind of worship where if you don’t like or accept a very specific genre of music, i.e. Christian “contemporary” music-an innocuous and generic form of pop-you’re out of luck and probably out of any possibility of fellowship. In some circles falling over backwards is seen as the way to spirituality, in preference to studying the words of the living God.
REVISION
We all get bombarded with lies from every direction. And who did Jesus say was the father of all lies? The devil.
Our history is being revised and scrubbed out by our education establishments and our media. Our “news” feeds are not giving us news at all any more but propaganda, gossip, slander and fakery. Our schools and universities are teaching that we all evolved out of nothing, that there’s no truth to Christian “myths”, and that the Christian Church is the cause of all that’s wrong in the world. Our entertainment world is stuffing gross immorality and extreme violence down our throats, sometimes dressed in special effects, and always with attractive people, to get our attention. Our politicians are (generally) out of touch with reality, with their own voters, and with any sense of Godly wisdom, and our judges are making laws and ignoring others to suit their own agendas.
SEX
Another but not unrelated subject is sex and romance. Without these none of us would be here, right? But how many churches and their ministers discuss the hows and the whys of love: the principles God expects us to live by? How many discuss that stuff which the Bible calls “sin”? “Sin” is such a little word, but it’s so profoundly important. How many young people are being told what sin is and what its consequences are? How many are being told that the things now being forced onto the Western world regarding morality and sexuality are enough to bring eternal consequences?
…those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19-21 NIV).
So how is the Church countering all the lies and deceit we all face every day? I’ll rephrase that last question:
Is the Church countering all the lies and deceit?
This post was previously published under the title, “The Unprepared Pilgrims”
Fuel for Faith 