This article is a great summary of why many Bible-believing Christians don't go to church anymore. Although Baldwin doesn't bring that up, he makes some great points on why the American Church has lost the First Love. For those who don't have time to read, I'll just summarize:
I. Major Problems
A. Success Orientation
B Statism - Misreading of Romans 13 - fear of feds
C Ignorance of Natural Law and Law of Nations
D Church is Filled with Hate
I hope Pastor Chuck can get some traction with this conversation.
I. Major Problems
A. Success Orientation
B Statism - Misreading of Romans 13 - fear of feds
C Ignorance of Natural Law and Law of Nations
D Church is Filled with Hate
Here is an excerpt:
The American Church has focused on being “successful” instead of being righteous; it has capitulated to the lordship of the state; it fears the IRS more than it fears God; it has stopped preaching the “hard” messages of the Bible; it is popularity-driven, entertainment-driven, and comfort-driven; it has abandoned the fundamental principles of Natural Law and liberty; it has replaced genuine patriotism with statism; and it has used Romans 13 as justification for idolatry.I've seen all the above and it rings true to me. I was considering visiting a local KJV church until I saw that the pastor enjoys taking selfies with Lamar Alexander and every other flag-waving holiday is a chance for idolatry of America. Uh, no thanks. So many churches have now equivocated being hard-core with being ultra patriotic, playing into the hands of the L/R dialectic.
I hope Pastor Chuck can get some traction with this conversation.
"Churches are led and comprised of sinful, fallen people. Accordingly, there will be imperfections, shortcomings, failures, etc. Name an institution managed by people..."
ReplyDeleteI keep wincing at these kind of statements from Chuck and hope that eventually this mindset of his will change. Jesus is the head. There is but one mediator between God and man. He said something about building his Church upon a rock and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. "Institutions managed by people" are not that. Pleading for resurrecton of the "black robe regiment" will not get it - although that too is what generations of "undershepherding" has brought to the church: reliance upon institution managers.
He is spot on regarding our secularism/patriotism (if generalized - though Chuck has played the patriot card quite a while himself -appealing to founders, etc.), our refusal to hear the teaching of Jesus regarding our enemies, and the involvement of our government in surreptitious funding/arming/training/participating in terrorism and their propagandizing of their own people. But I don't think a "non-501C3" institution is the answer (albeit an improvement). Hopefully they "can grow a little more" (read raise enough money) so Chuck can come talk to them....oh brother.
I understand what you're saying about forming an institution (with love offerings) to battle the institutionalization of the church. I find it refreshing when any pastor admits problems in the church that aren't the people giving the money.
DeleteThe American church is about the most un-awake group of people I know. They're being fed this cotton-candy control talking point religion and not the stuff a Christian in the 21st century needs to know. Like the Lucis Trust headquartered in the UN, the coming one-world religion, the elements of the Babylonian mystery religions everywhere, etc. Satan is building the infrastructure of his hate-filled world all around us and the average Christian is oblivious.
I'm wincing as well, Eric. I have to wonder if the sordid "crisis" of sexual abuse, where allegations are trumpeted in the press, prone to aggressive prosecution, plea deals and payoffs, but then relatively ignored when defendants are exonerated have anything to do with that statement. So many things about many of these cases never quite passed the smell test with me, starting with the sheer volume of them compared to other professions as well as homosexual vs heterosexual predation that seems to defy mathematical probability. It's like a war between the geo-political government vs the government of the church on you know who's home court.
ReplyDeleteI can tell you that the crisis of sexual abuse is very much a real thing. I personally have shook the hand of no less than three convicted child abusers who victimized underage persons in church or Christian school. Of course I didn't know they were abusers when I shook hands with them at the time.
DeleteThe sheer volume you describe is because historically, church is where people let their guard down and if the perp is in a position of power, they can use cult tactics to make people afraid to confront them. When my MIL's church announced they were searching for another pastor (because the one they had was going to "Federal pound me in the a@# prison") one of the ladies in the choir starting crying because they loved Bro Boy Butts so much. Yeah, lady cry me a river.
Name me another profession where old ladies will cry for ya when you're gone after you've statutory raped children. No where else could you get away with it but in church, that's why all the pervs are there. I've seen my Sunday School teachers mugshot on the morning news getting my kid ready for school. In that case, there were three times as many victims, but only a fraction would come forward. I always thought there was something off about that guy, because in Sunday School, he would use extreme examples of sin that Jesus would forgive. Like dirty, sexual sins that I thought were a bit too gratuitous. Now I know what was going on with him. I hate that none of us picked up on what he was doing to our teen girls.
My other example is very close to home, but I think I've made the point that the sexual abuse scandal in the evangelical church is something I have seen first-hand. Most churches have instituted safety measures like two adults in every room. However, what you want to watch our for is grooming behaviors - I might need to do a whole post on the signs that a molester is after your kid. Most molesting of kids happens with a relative or close family friend, someone you may have met at church. Rare is the stranger in a trench coat that actually tries stuff with kids.
"Name me another profession where old ladies will cry for ya when you're gone after you've statutory raped children. No where else could you get away with it but in church, that's why all the pervs are there. I've seen my Sunday School teachers mugshot on the morning news getting my kid ready for school."
DeleteHonestly though, this is not some administrative fault, this is the fault of a faulty message. Pauline theology in particular. Grace grace grace. Dump a mountain of salt on Paul, because taking him with a grain of salt ain't gonna fix it, it's gonna have to be a mountain. Slap the next 10 people who say "We're saved by faith alone" because they're what's fueling this mess. However, really, isn't it earlier in the message than that? Isn't the true corrupting force that the whole point of life is to "get saved" rather than to live righteously? or in other words, that the point it to "be justified" rather than actually "live justly"? Yeah, the OT is superior to the NT; sorry, just a fact. Unfortunately neither Jews nor Christians take it seriously because Jews replaced it with the Talmud and Christians with Paul. I'm not arguing for sabbath observance or rituals, even in the Prophets like Isaiah there is rhetoric to the effect that only the moral part of the Law matters, that God despises the feast days and so on, but the constant "Christianity is about faith in Jesus, not morality; faith alone, morality need not apply" is the problem. And you can't fix that problem so long as you hold the NT to be inspired and inerrant, because the vile corrupting force is still authoritative in that case, passages like Romans 3,4,5,9 for instance. As long as you believe in Romans 3,4,5,9 you might as well be a pedophile yourself, because you're enabling them.
Thanks for your thoughts, David. I believe the entire New Testament and in the New Birth. However, the institutional model of church has created this monster of no accountability. When the church tries to hold members accountable, it quickly turns into a nightmare. God saves us individually and means for us to be discipled individually in a real community of faith, not a building to do rituals in.
DeleteThe Bible says that it is a free gift, but once you are part of God's family, the Holy Spirit will chastise you when you err. This does not look the same to all people, because we are individuals and are in different stages of the journey and interact with the world differently depending on the personality, gifts, and weaknesses we all have. The Bible also says that the wheat and the tares will grow together, so expect weirdos and false converts to be all over the place. Jesus had one in his group of twelve, so it stands to reason we'd have to deal with it in our time as well. I hope to write more on these issues in the future.