By Tom Ambrose
February 27, 2008
NewsWithViews.com
February 27, 2008
NewsWithViews.com
While America continues its quest to seek salvation from politicians like Clinton, Obama and McCain, our nation is continuing its slide into the hellish abyss of government tyranny. At the same time, interestingly enough, the Christian church in America is becoming impotent and irrelevant.
Think I exaggerate?
According to a recent AP report published by ABC News citing multiple studies, "nearly half of American adults [are] leaving the faith tradition of their upbringing to either switch allegiances or abandon religious affiliation altogether," "mainline Protestant churches are in decline, non-denominational churches are gaining and the ranks of the unaffiliated are growing," "[o]ne in four adults ages 18 to 29 claim no affiliation with a religious institution," and "[t]he religious demographic benefiting the most from this religious churn is those who claim no religious affiliation. People moving into that category outnumber those moving out of it by a three-to-one margin."
The report also notes that "The majority of the unaffiliated - 12 percent of the overall population - describe their religion as 'nothing in particular,' and about half of those say faith is at least somewhat important to them. Atheists or agnostics account for 4 percent of the total population."
For those of you who are tempted to blow off this report as the fiction of a globalist media conspiracy, consider this: In addition to America's descent into government tyranny, homosexual marriage is ascending to prominence, Christian couples are divorcing at a rate competitive with non-Christian couples, butchering babies in abortion clinics is still the law of our land, and prominent American church leaders continue to embrace sexual sin as an acceptable lifestyle choice.
With such an increase of evil, do you honestly believe the church in America is alive and well, never mind healthy and vibrant?
If the church is strong and well in America, then no doubt you will also have very interesting explanations for the progressive sleaze of the entertainment industry, the disgusting increase of child molestation in the church and elsewhere, the growing promotion and prominence of homosexuality in public schools and church pulpits, and the increasingly brazen attempts of government officials to censor and persecute both church pastors and homeschooling families.
If the church is strong and well in America, then why is the church not systematically using its vast resources to help those in need rather than supporting by their silence prominent pastors who are calling for "faith-based" government solutions? If the church is strong and well in America, then why have cesspools of filth and violence like Los Angeles and San Francisco continued to fester? If the church is strong and well in America, then why are morally corrupt Supreme Court decisions like the ones involving the Ten Commandments and other religious monuments, prayer in schools, etc. allowed to stand with little more than a peep from church leaders?
God didn't cause these things to happen, though He is obviously allowing them. I submit to you that the church in America, overall, is weak and weary - not strong, not well, not healthy. It has a diminishing voice because it has lost its integrity - its message has been watered down, and many of its leaders not only don't lead, but are themselves morally compromised. And, as the son of a traveling preacher, I personally have witnessed numerous churches across this country that don't even bother to welcome strangers, or when they do, it is often with a plastic smile: "Welcome ... glad you could visit us today ... the offering plate is over there by the door ... next!"
You know, my dad used to tell me that "when a fish stinks, it stinks from the head down." I'm beginning to understand the wisdom of that statement. Though our political leaders are responsible for the rise of lawlessness in our nation, ultimately the moral decay behind that lawlessness can be traced back to America's pulpits. One of our Founders, John Adams, surely understood this when he noted that "[o]ur Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." Surely, Thomas Jefferson would agree:
And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure if we have removed their only firm basis: a conviction in the minds of men that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever.
Folks, the church in America needs to reclaim its God-given role of being light and salt to a dark and decaying world if the ugly boot of unconstitutional government is ever going to be removed from our throats. If we are to solve what is popularly referred to as "the vision thing" in our nation, it must start with the people and pastors of America's churches. It must start with humbly asking God for forgiveness for our moral lassitude and asking for His help. And it must continue with each of us daily seeking Him in Scripture and prayer.
We are the church - you, and I and every believer, as Paul notes many times throughout Scripture! The church is not a white box with chairs or pews that people seat themselves in once a week. When Paul laments persecuting the church in I Corinthians 15, for example, he is not talking about assaulting a building.
We must stop giving lip service to God and walk the walk. In particular, secret sins hurt all of us, be it sexual sin or anything else that places barriers between us and the sovereign, holy God. We need to repent of our sin, not glory in it as many of our nation's leaders now do. And we need to reach out to those who are lost, hungry and hurting, not waste our time courting sleazy politicians.
Only then will we ever have a chance to recover what is quickly being lost in America - our freedom and God's hand of blessing and protection on our nation.
Think I exaggerate?
According to a recent AP report published by ABC News citing multiple studies, "nearly half of American adults [are] leaving the faith tradition of their upbringing to either switch allegiances or abandon religious affiliation altogether," "mainline Protestant churches are in decline, non-denominational churches are gaining and the ranks of the unaffiliated are growing," "[o]ne in four adults ages 18 to 29 claim no affiliation with a religious institution," and "[t]he religious demographic benefiting the most from this religious churn is those who claim no religious affiliation. People moving into that category outnumber those moving out of it by a three-to-one margin."
The report also notes that "The majority of the unaffiliated - 12 percent of the overall population - describe their religion as 'nothing in particular,' and about half of those say faith is at least somewhat important to them. Atheists or agnostics account for 4 percent of the total population."
For those of you who are tempted to blow off this report as the fiction of a globalist media conspiracy, consider this: In addition to America's descent into government tyranny, homosexual marriage is ascending to prominence, Christian couples are divorcing at a rate competitive with non-Christian couples, butchering babies in abortion clinics is still the law of our land, and prominent American church leaders continue to embrace sexual sin as an acceptable lifestyle choice.
With such an increase of evil, do you honestly believe the church in America is alive and well, never mind healthy and vibrant?
If the church is strong and well in America, then no doubt you will also have very interesting explanations for the progressive sleaze of the entertainment industry, the disgusting increase of child molestation in the church and elsewhere, the growing promotion and prominence of homosexuality in public schools and church pulpits, and the increasingly brazen attempts of government officials to censor and persecute both church pastors and homeschooling families.
If the church is strong and well in America, then why is the church not systematically using its vast resources to help those in need rather than supporting by their silence prominent pastors who are calling for "faith-based" government solutions? If the church is strong and well in America, then why have cesspools of filth and violence like Los Angeles and San Francisco continued to fester? If the church is strong and well in America, then why are morally corrupt Supreme Court decisions like the ones involving the Ten Commandments and other religious monuments, prayer in schools, etc. allowed to stand with little more than a peep from church leaders?
God didn't cause these things to happen, though He is obviously allowing them. I submit to you that the church in America, overall, is weak and weary - not strong, not well, not healthy. It has a diminishing voice because it has lost its integrity - its message has been watered down, and many of its leaders not only don't lead, but are themselves morally compromised. And, as the son of a traveling preacher, I personally have witnessed numerous churches across this country that don't even bother to welcome strangers, or when they do, it is often with a plastic smile: "Welcome ... glad you could visit us today ... the offering plate is over there by the door ... next!"
You know, my dad used to tell me that "when a fish stinks, it stinks from the head down." I'm beginning to understand the wisdom of that statement. Though our political leaders are responsible for the rise of lawlessness in our nation, ultimately the moral decay behind that lawlessness can be traced back to America's pulpits. One of our Founders, John Adams, surely understood this when he noted that "[o]ur Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." Surely, Thomas Jefferson would agree:
And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure if we have removed their only firm basis: a conviction in the minds of men that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever.
Folks, the church in America needs to reclaim its God-given role of being light and salt to a dark and decaying world if the ugly boot of unconstitutional government is ever going to be removed from our throats. If we are to solve what is popularly referred to as "the vision thing" in our nation, it must start with the people and pastors of America's churches. It must start with humbly asking God for forgiveness for our moral lassitude and asking for His help. And it must continue with each of us daily seeking Him in Scripture and prayer.
We are the church - you, and I and every believer, as Paul notes many times throughout Scripture! The church is not a white box with chairs or pews that people seat themselves in once a week. When Paul laments persecuting the church in I Corinthians 15, for example, he is not talking about assaulting a building.
We must stop giving lip service to God and walk the walk. In particular, secret sins hurt all of us, be it sexual sin or anything else that places barriers between us and the sovereign, holy God. We need to repent of our sin, not glory in it as many of our nation's leaders now do. And we need to reach out to those who are lost, hungry and hurting, not waste our time courting sleazy politicians.
Only then will we ever have a chance to recover what is quickly being lost in America - our freedom and God's hand of blessing and protection on our nation.
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