God's Judgement And The American Church

In a time of ongoing and seemingly endless disasters - a Plague, a failing economy, civil unrest, inclement weather, and fires (and that is only through August!) - one would think that the American Church would be calling for a time of repentance, fasting, and prayer.

You did not miss the call.  I did not either - because it has not come.

I am of an age that I can remember a time when such a thing would happen and while not perhaps being universally adopted, would have been at least universally acknowledged.  We have long passed that point amongst the general population and now, it seems, amongst the Church.

That is not to say that such pleas are not occurring within the Church on a case by case basis.  I know too much of parts of the Church to believe that to be true.  But in large part, they have simply abandoned their posts.

We are increasingly under the judgement of God.  There is no other way to say it.  The list of reasons is rather lengthy and in some cases, exceeds the material that we would discuss here.  But in every sense, we appear to be under the increasing judgement of God.

What do I mean by the judgement of God?  Two types, really (there are much smarter people - like Reverend Paul - that can explain this far better than I can).  The first is what one might call the "Old Testament Wrath of God Judgements" - you know, the ones from the Old Testament where bad things happen:  plagues of gnats and frogs and mice or just flat out sicknesses, darkness, destructive weather that destroys crops and livestock, drouth, conquering armies, servitude, even death.  The "Thou Art Smitten Hip And Thigh" set of judgements.

The second type - arguably far more subtle - is the removal of God's presence and sheltering hand.  In this case, God does not "do" anything except absent Himself from our lives and our circumstances - He just lets Nature "take its course" as it were.  This can physical - the hurricane that hits the coast, the lightning strikes that cause the fires - or mental and spiritual - the people in our lives that just walk away from Him and in a different direction, the increasing decay in a society.

What has the Church done when confronted with these circumstances?  Almost nothing.  Lamented some very social and political causes (beyond the scope of what we talk about here).  Prayed for certain aspects of the community - for example, those displaced by the economic shutdown - while ignoring those that have been displaced by the ongoing civil unrest.  They have pretended that somehow one aspect of culture needs to be focused on while completely ignoring the overall coarsening and debasing of the other 95% of culture.

And somehow, confusing to me, they feel more confident than ever that they are doing the right thing and boldly expanding the Kingdom.

I cannot answer if they are expanding the Kingdom or not; that answer is far beyond me.  What I can conclusively suggest that given the nature of the world around us, evidence suggests that they are only fooling themselves in their supposed relevance to the world and its goings on.

If the Church cannot see God's judgement upon the world, I fear that the Church itself has become as lost as the world it proposes to lead to the knowledge of God.