A Sign Of The Times

We are warned to be vigilant, to be sober, by Peter in 1 Pet. 5:8, for our adversary, the devil, walketh about seeking whom he may devour.

Think about that for a moment. To devour something is to consume it utterly. Here is the Webster definition:

1 : to eat up greedily or ravenously
2 : to use up or destroy as if by eating <we are devouring the world's resources>
3 : to prey upon <devoured by guilt>
4 : to enjoy avidly <devours books>

Notice the first, second and third definitions. They all refer to a very negative connotation in the meaning. Ravenously, to destroy (as if by eating), to prey upon.

This is what Satan is doing to you, to your faith, to the world. And the real tragedy is that the Church is enjoined in this in many ways.

The schisms within Protestant Christianity are dividing us into smaller and smaller "bands". The old axiom - divide and conquer - comes to mind. If you want to defeat an enemy, you have to reduce them to manageable "bites", small enough groups to engage with the surety of victory. So you isolate a small "band" of people and then take them out.

Further, in order to demoralize the Church, Satan has crept into our midst and spread false and destructive doctrine and dogma as gospel truth. It is sweet on the lips, but bitter in the stomach. But by the time we realize this, it is too late and we have been poisoned.

Add to that the permissive nature of even Christian parents, allowing their children to dictate the terms of their rearing in many ways, and we raise up a generation that does not truly know the Lord and His authority in their lives - even though they have gone to church. Because of the "hip" and "with it" approaches of the so-called Youth pastors, who seek more and more fun and exciting ways to retain their charges, even using violent video games as an attraction, our kids are not being guided by appropriate role models, inside or outside the home and at church.

Statistics are clear: 80% of children, when they move away from their Christian homes, abandon church. Those that do not, if they go to college, by the time they finish their "higher" education, are further distanced from Christian truth because they have come to embrace some, if not all, of the anti-God rhetoric put forth in these institutions.

Even the seminaries are not immune to the perversion of God's holy Truth. Without naming them, many seminaries are embracing ideas and practices that have long been known to be false and misguided philosophies. But they churn out their graduates who matriculate into our churches with "new" and "fresh" ideas about how to "do" church. They want to create a whole new paradigm, unlearn the old and stale ways of their fathers.

Our pastors certainly believe in God. They just don't believe God. They rely upon their own knowledge and wisdom, their own ideas, following their dreams and fanciful ideas about how we need to update everything before we can be seen as attractive to this "new" generation of people. It's a postmodern America, and that means we have to change how we do things around here. People don't want to hear all that stuff about sin and consequences, hellfire and damnation. So we have to give them a different message, one about love and understanding, reaching out to neighbours, community oriented and welcoming to the unbelievers.

Which has resulted not only in welcoming them into our midst, but affirming them, too, that they may continue in their sin, whatever it is, because God loves them and doesn't condemn them. He understands their struggles, and you just have to do the best you can in this life and not worry about all that "stuff". Besides, love is the most important thing, isn't it? I mean, if you're in love, it can't be wrong... right?

Willow Creek lead the way in the "seeker sensitive" movement by conducting a survey of its congregation to find out what they wanted from the church. This, of course, is anti-biblical because the people, given their choice, will go astray. Asking a person who is prone to self interest, such as we all are, what they want, they will invariably seek the path of least resistance, the one that does not challenge them, does not convict them of sin, does not remind them of their "righteousness... as filthy rags".

So churches began to adopt this model of presenting a toothless gospel message that was less gospel than it was a "feel good" message about doing good and loving people. It wasn't until about 2007 that Bill Hybels came out and admitted that the results over thirty years proved the "seeker sensitive" method to be an utter and complete failure.

So, did Mr. Hybels return to preaching the whole gospel message? No. Instead he turned to Rick Warren's methodology of preaching, which is more about marketing the "product" of Christianity, getting along with people of all faiths - including acknowledging their beliefs as valid, this against everything written in scripture about how we are not to join ourselves to those who oppose our beliefs.

So now those things that we know to be evil are being embraced by the greater church in the name of ecumenical "can't we all get along" religious tolerance. Evil is now being embraced by the Church as something good and valid and even relevant - even to the point that Christians are celebrating Ramadan along side Muslims as a show of interfaith understanding and respect.

These are just a few of the "high" points in the contemporary Christian church today. I haven't even gotten to the emergent/emerging Christian heresy of Brian McLaren, Tony Campolo, Rob Bell, Mark Driscoll and others. But it is enough to demonstrate the fact that Satan is devouring our beloved body, this body of Christ, of which Jesus is the head.

It is a cancer, and it is spreading, devouring congregation after congregation. And it is in your church even now, if even just in small ways. Make no mistake, it will take hold and move to center stage, count on it. If we do not take drastic action to preserve the body so that it might be healed and restored and reconciled to full health in Christ, to the truth and consistent with the truth of God's Word, we cannot be surprised when our kids are already falling into licentious and dangerous doctrines that are destroying the foundation of our faith, doctrines we are not rising up and decrying as false and unwelcome.

We are warned that ravenous wolves will come into our midst, even from amongst our own people... devourers of truth, destroyers of truth, usurpers of truth, of the gospel, of all things sacred. And they will replace it all with something appealing to the flesh, to our base nature, and we will taste of it. And we will die.

As Paul said, and we affirm, the signs are there because we are told, "... in those days... people will become lovers of self, disrespectful of the truth, turning to their own lusts..." (paraphrased), turning to anything and everything but the Author of Life, Love and Eternity. If these are not those days, how much worse will it be when they finally do come upon us.

Make no mistake, those days of darkness are coming. We are ill prepared to deal with the consequences of our failure to preserve this Gospel of Salvation from the perversion and pollution the false leaders and teachers have been bringing into God's house week in and week out for decades while we stood by and let it happen, all for the sake of diversity, getting along, and not wishing to speak ill or stand in judgment of these false apostles of hell.