The American Church has failed - or perhaps has largely failed.
To hear polls, more people believe in "God" than ever. The American Church is involved in all the trendy and important social movements of the era. In some cases they build larger facilities than the cathedrals of Medieval Europe (but, however, not nearly as lovely). The American Church is more available - by radio, TV, Internet - than ever.
And yet the society around us bears none of the marks of a society regenerated.
I recall Henry Blackaby's description of the Welsh Revival in 1904-1905, how society was changed: bars were closed, churches were filled, sins were repented off. In other words, there was an outward manifestation of the inward changes in the lives of people.
How can the American Church say that it is doing better when the society is doing worse? How can anyone seriously look around today and say that the Church is truly making an impact in the way we live.
Are we more holy as a society? Is sin being reduced in our society, or our we finding new ways to accomplish it? Are we manifesting the works of the Spirit as a society: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Self Control? Or does society continue on as it ever has, or worse?
I wish I had a solution. I do not, beyond that which Scripture calls out: Pray, Repent. Preach the Word. Be Holy. Read the Word and Live It.
But woe to the American Church if it continues to dwell in a decaying culture and yet somehow convinces itself it is more powerful than ever.
A large portion of the people in America worship a "Buddy Christ;" they make God into what they want Him to be, instead of letting God make THEM into what HE wants them to be.
ReplyDeleteGod doesn't change. He has never changed. People need to change, and that's not happening. Our country will indeed pay a price for this...
Already paying, I think anyway. The cost will just keep getting higher until we return to him...
DeleteThat other Paul wrote that churches "qill act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly." And he told the Thessalonians (and probably everyone else, too) there would be a "falling away" of the church. Pretty clear to me, that it's happening before our eyes.
ReplyDeleteTo me as well, Reverend (or the other other Paul, as I know him). I was actually thinking about this a couple of weeks ago, how I can see - perhaps not quite Bible prophecy but certainly God's word - playing out right before my eye. A falling away has begun - is the Great One? Only time will tell, and I admit that I geocentric in this (I am reliably informed Christianity is alive and well in other parts of the world), but I certainly have a sense that the temporal tide has turned against us.
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