We stopped being socially and culturally
relevant since at least the turn of the 20th century
probably decades before. Why did we check out of the
culture?? Many possibilities. Some thought we should
only focus on wining souls and not worry about
politics and government and culture as the world is
not our home we are citizens of heaven and so we
should be focused on spiritual things not temporal
things. We
shouldn't dirty our hands with the things of
this world. Some
believe that we can ‘hasten the Lord's return’
(2Peter 3:12) by letting society go to pot. The sooner
society crashes the soon Jesus returns to set
up his kingdom. (I have actually
had someone write me about this when I was
encouraging the christians I knew years back to
write the boys scouts and tell them not to allow gay
scouts in. The person thought I shouldn't bother
because gay scouts getting in would 'hasten the
Lord's return' and that we are told in scripture to
'hasten the Lord's return' and so we shouldn't fight
the downward spiral of society. He even said in his
email "Go Homos Go!”). Perhaps it was because
we wanted to be loved by people we decided that if we
compromise they will love us and if the love us they
will become christian. Whatever the reason we
disengaged and society plummeted.
The 60s were a major problem we
decided the only way to reach the young people was
to imitate the world and should how 'hip and cool'
we were and that they could still be 'hip and cool'
and be christian they just had to add Jesus to their
lives. We coopted the devils music and 'claimed it
for Christ' so they could still rock out just to use
Jesus in their lyrics to just add vitamin J to your
daily routine and you can stay the same. Jesus loves
you right now so he doesn't need you to change just
add him to your lives. It reminds me of the old
packaging "just add water" we wanted them
to "just add Jesus". We didn’t do, and aren't doing, them any favors
acting like the world
because they
didn't change, and aren’t changing, to conform
to Christ they stay the same because we have
conformed, and are conforming, Christ to them.
We are supposed to be set apart from the world
in our actions and in or mannerisms but looking
around all I see is a church trying
desperately to look and act as much like the world as possible.
Many churches have programs they offer that are just
worldly programs but offered in the church building. We try to compete
with the world but on IT'S terms not ours. We don't show that Christ has a better
way but that his way is the worlds
way but with a few christian words and phrases
added in.
Like
'can I get a Hallelujah???' and 'Praise the Lord'. We talk the talk
but we do it while walking like the world.
We
(the church as a whole) take pride in the number of
people we convert to the Lord but when we teach them
they can stay like the worldly people they are just
add Jesus to their worldly lives and say some
prayers now and then how can we truly say they are
converted. 2 and 1/3 Billion CALL themselves
christian I venture the true number is at most 850 million
and I think THAT
is being generous! I wouldn't be at
all surprised if the real number is between 250 and 500 Million!
Who is stoping pastors from speaking out??
Themselves that is
who.
If
they start speaking out and TRULY preaching the
bible they will lose a lot of their flock.
That mean the offering plates get as empty as the
pews. Mammon is important
to many a preacher and even more important is EGO.
Having a large flock is a big ego boost. (kind of
like a carnal man and the size of his penis [you
should see the size of my flock]). But
what good
is having a large
flock if most or all are unsaved????
I am sure the Lord would be more thrilled with the
preacher whose church only has 10 parishioners but all 10 are saved
then with the preacher of a 1000+ parishioner mega church
who only has 10
people saved. Imagine how many people would
leave if the church threw out all worldly influences??
Especially the rock and heavy metal???
Talk about an Exodus! One person I talked to
about how rock etc was the devils music and we
shouldn't be using it and just use our hymns and
gospel and spirituals and existing religious music
said it that was all there was he would kill himself.
I don't think he literally would but obviously the
rock and stuff mean so much that without it
christianity wasn't worth anything to him. THAT is what is
keeping them in church!! NOT the
gospel NOT the love of Christ it is the LOVE of
worldly music, albeit with
christian words and phrases, that they come
for. It is the
worldly atmosphere they come for
and they just
accept the sprinkling of Jesus
that is added to it. Remember Jesus said narrow is the way
and straight the gate that leads to salvation and FEW
would find it. Well 2 and one third billion is not
few. That is
many. And what did he say
about the path with many??? That the path with many would be wide and lead
to destruction. How many pastors have marched
people down the wide path for the sake of a
few dollars??? 30 pieces of silver seems to be quite attractive these
days!
How many how call themselves christian
refuse to get involved because they are afraid?? Being
liked has become so important to christians they go
with the flow even when they know the flow is in the
wrong direction so the world will see how kind and
loving and nice they are. We are afraid to get involved in
someone else's life when we see them headed to
hell but how many seeing a person they don't
even know drowning would just walk away????
It is the same thing. While yes hell is not the
physical death like drowning it is death. Do we can more about a persons
physical life than we do about their very
soul???
Another problem is we love our family so
much that when one announces they are part of a en vouge
sin we decide to change our minds
about that sin rather than help change them to be what
Christ wants them to be. We would rather rewrite the bible and put
words in God's mouth than risk the
lost of a family relationship. How
many a christian has had the biblical belief on
homosexuality only to "evolve" their belief once
a son or daughter or other close beloved family member comes out as gay???
Or how many of us decide God made our precious son a girl in a
boys body simply because he is our
son and I want to show him I love him and I don't
want to hurt his feelings. Transgendered people are
essentially saying 'God made a mistake'
because they have a boys soul in a girls body or
vice versa since
God puts us together in our mothers wombs he
puts the soul with the body so if the wrong
soul is in the wrong body the only conclusion
is 'God made a mistake'. They
try to deny they mean this but it is the only
conclusion that would fit the facts.
Christians need to clean house. We
must remove ALL worldly influences from the church.
That means CCM,
that means the endless programs (sex gods way
and all the programs having nothing to do with
God or the christian perspective on life), the
paganism (YoGod yoga etc), That means the
interfaith breakfasts that include
non-christian faiths, the prosperity Gospel,
all worldly things must be jettisoned and we
must return to the bible. We can
look at some of the
best of the old preachers to help.
Whitfield,
Spurgeon, Edwards, Finney,
and others.
While I agree the gifts of the spirit are
for today too I think there is too big a
emphasis in some circles on tongues and that is can
turn people away from knowing Christ. Not all have
the gift of tongues not all who are filled with the
Holy Spirit will speak in tongues so we should not
be so adamant that someone speak in tongues before
using the gifts God has given them to help the
church. (As a aside on pentecost the disciples did talk in
tongues but they were languages that existed on
earth as seen by the fact people knew what was
being said. Nowhere
do it suggest that there is some kind of heavenly
language or language of God or language of angels
out there that only with the help of the Holy Spirit
can you speak. It is this belief that allows
people to fake tongues by speaking gibberish. Tongues
exist but are real languages.) Plus how many who
insist on tongues follow the biblical protocol that if
speaking in public in tongues, i.e. not alone, one
must have a interpreter or be silent??? How many are
prideful about their speaking in tongues??? Or even
believe you aren't saved if you don't speak
tongues??
Once we get back to the TRUE faith based
on the BIBLE not based on MAN then
we will be bold and speak out when we are to speak
and be willing to accept the consequences of that
speech. Only then we we be willing to take up our cross and go
to our deaths rather than cave in
a please man. I fear too few today would be willing to die
for the bible and all too many
would be willing to drop Christ like a stone to save
their miserable hides.
Maybe the one thing the church in
the west needs
more than anything is REAL persecution.
Not being banned on twitter. Not being 'unfriended'
on facebook. Not being shamed in a class at college
or high school or even middle or elementary school.
Maybe what we
need is to be facing torture and death for our
beliefs. Maybe then we will see
who is one of Christ's flock and who is just a wolf
in sheeps clothing. Maybe then we will be
able to stand tall and fearless and go forth and
preach to all he world. We
might then have true
'fearless girls' and fearless boys
and fearless men and fearless women. We might
finally as the world puts it 'grow a pair'.
I think the one thing that will wake up the
American church is a good dose of JUDGMENT!
A Good EMP followed with a Chemical, Biological, or
Nuclear attack would set us back 150 years or more and
mean we would have to rely on each other. It would
also many many deaths (Upwards of 90% of the population in the first year for a EMP
alone)(Maybe more if a
Chemical or Biological attack were involved or
the fallout from a Nuclear attack).
Quite a judgment. Yet it would give the
church a chance to
walk boldly and rely on God and
peach to the dying and get many souls into heaven.
As for Europe and Australia
it is time to stand
with God or stand with allah. They
must realize that you can not do both because Yahweh is NOT
allah! It will mean dying for Christ in many
cases but if we aren't willing to
do that then we are not truly christian. THAT
is truly to take
up ones cross and follow him since
the cross was a means of death then and unfortunately also is now in
several islamic countries. Though I think if I found
myself facing death in a islam country I would prefer
to be crucified and know what the Lord went through
than to get a simple beheading.
Paul Wilson
Protestant (only to show I don’t
follow the pope)
Independence MO USA
"If
man will not be governed from within, he must be
governed from without."