I remember hearing preachers declare that "Jesus is the answer". Jesus was the answer to all of life's problems. Meaning of course that the gospel provided wisdom and direction for whatever situation mankind found himself in, and that deliverance from trouble and danger was provided by God in Christ.
So I heard.
But does the modern church believe this?
1. Many believers, and many preachers, believe we are in the "end times". They believe there is coming soon a time of unprecedented horror and tyranny upon this earth, replete with a satanically empowered "police state" known as the "Beast" and a tyrannical dictator who will persecute believers to no end. These last days are to make the Holocaust of Nazi Germany, or the Bolshevik reign of terror in the former Soviet Union, look like nice walks in the park.
BUT, these same believers continue on in their lives, blithely living AS IF no such thing was going to happen. They make no preparations, either spiritual or even physical, to deal with such troublesome times. I suppose they excuse their apathy by calling it "faith". They believe God will "take care" of them, so they have no need to prepare, either spiritually or physically. They think their church attendance, tithing, and nightly prayers before bedtime qualify them as "spiritually prepared" for anything that may come.
But notice,
Noah was a man of faith. He found grace in the eyes of God. He was chosen by God to be saved. He was made aware of the coming judgement upon the world. And what did he do? Did he simply relax and carry on, nonchalantly passing the time, AS IF there were no danger ahead? Not at all, rather he HEEDED GOD'S WORD and BUILT AN ARK. He PREPARED for what was coming.
The modern church? Well, Jesus declared that the coming of the Son of man would be LIKE NOAH'S DAYS. The problem is, the modern church is largely like those fools who ate and drank, and married and gave in marriage, until the flood came and took them all away, rather than being like Noah who spent his time doing two things: warning the world of the coming judgement and preparing for it in accordance with God's Word, living AS IF there REALLY WAS A COMING JUDGEMENT and time of trouble.
2. The nation is sinking deeper and deeper into oblivion. We are on the brink of total financial collapse. The border is gone. We are being invaded by foreignors, literally. It is in fact a replay of
Judges 5-6, in Israel's history. We have been engaged in numerous wars, that never really amount to much in the way of victory - one has even resulted in plain out and out defeat. Victory is nowhere in sight, it seems, in all these wars. In fact, we don't seem to get into these wars with a CLEAR goal and objective, whereby victory is plainly described. We are in debt beyond our ears. The entire nation is in debt to international financial powers and greed and corruption run rampant among our "leaders". Immorality from the slum to the Capital. We engage in all these programs - war on poverty, war on drugs - but the people are slipping further into poverty and the drugs keep rolling in.
And what does the modern church offer to the nation? Is there no balm in Gilead? Does not Jesus have the answer? Why are there so few preachers, indeed, so few believers, loudly proclaiming to the nation the source of its ills, namely sin and apostasy from God, and the solution, namely NATIONAL repentance? No, the modern church would rather send forth a message of get rich quick by sowing a seed of faith, or (if they are not that jaded) the message is essentially that the nation is going to hell in an handbasket and the only hope is to just pew and tithe until the rapture.
The church commits a bait-and-switch when it claims the Bible holds to the key to our problems, but fails to deliver that key, choosing instead to offer people building programs, bake sales, peanut brittle, and DVDs of pep-talks for sale (operators are standing by!)
3. The family has been practically destroyed in the last 50 years. Divorce tears apart about 1 in every 2 families among the lost. And among those professing to be saved and delivered, living in the RECONCILING power of God, the divorce rate is... well, identical! Children turning against their parents, abandoning the faith as soon as they can get out of the house, adults praising Jesus on Sunday having forgotten to visit Mother in the nursing home for the 8th week in a row....
And in the midst of all this BLIGHT upon society, this PLAGUE that is killing families left and right, what does the modern church offer? Why, segregated church services. No children allowed in the "real" service, they must be shuttled off to "children's church" or "youth power hour" or whatever else it's called. At least the coloured folks got to sit in the balcony back in the day....
Church programs are offered and marketed on the premise that the family will be strengthened thereby... never mind the growing number of families who are abandoning church because they feel these programs are DIVIDING their families even more. The world by its ungodly anti-family culture teaches youth and adults to SEPARATE, to view each other as strange and alien... and the modern church perpetuates that cursed deception, while all the time passing out flyers saying "your family needs the church"....
Men take precious little oversight of the church, have precious little ministry in the church, and are not tapped as leaders and examples to the younger men and boys... women's ministry often amounts to little more than baking the peanut brittle... no wonder young ladies drop out...
Where are the men who take the younger men and boys and show them by example what GODLY MANHOOD is all about? What godly LEADERSHIP in the home, in the church, and in the "gates of the city" are all about? Where are the women teaching the younger women to love their husbands and raise their children...
Speaking of men in the gates...
Seems the church has decided that separation of church and state requires church men to stay out of the gates of the city....leave that business to the ungodly...
4. The Christian religion teaches that material wealth is at best a worrisome bother, more likely a snare of the devil. But the modern church teaches that poverty is at best a curse from the devil, at worse a sin against God! Jesus is presented as if He sported around Galilee in a gold plated chariot with platinum wheels, drawn by a team of the finest 1000-shekel horses, practically tossing bags of money to the folks (like Bagwan Shree Rajneesh used to do from his Rolls Royce in California?)
The Bible does not teach that poverty is fun, nor that it is somehow holy in itself. But the warnings against seeking to have wealth go unheeded in much of the modern church. "No man engaged in warfare entangles himself in the affairs of this world" seems to have been forgotten.
Jesus' early disciples could say honestly "Lo, we have forsaken all to follow you" but the modern church can only say "Sow a seed and get a 100 fold financial blessing! Credit cards accepted!"
The Bible teaches those blessed with money, "rich in this world" to share that money with the poorer brethren, and to finance "good works". But there are too many churches with wealthy believers sitting in the same building as other believers who don't even know if they can keep the lights on for another month... and ne'er the twain shall meet, it seems. I know of one poor sister, a single mom (her children would Biblically be called "the fatherless") who stated her desperation, and was told by the elders of the church to get on welfare.
The modern church is full of hypocrisy. Sure there are good people in the modern church. Sure there are good churches, doing the right things. But there seems to be a tsunami overflowing this world at present, a flood tide of APATHY and CARNALITY.
We look at the sinful world, and preach that people should flee the wrath to come, and escape the coming judgement...
But, have we forgotten, that "judgement BEGINS AT THE HOUSE OF GOD?"
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