Before we get to today’s article, I just want to mention that am writing from the perspective of a man that has experienced many of the challenges of which I write…. and those spiritual battles continue daily. The articles are implications of what it means to obey the commandment to raise your children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. They require some reflection and are particularly for Christians who, as Peter would say, are diligently seeking to confirm their calling and are making every effort to supplement their faith. Said more succinctly, serious Christians. If you know other believers who desire to walk more faithfully with the Lord, please forward an article to them and tell them to sign up for future articles. Thanks so much!
People are fascinated with conspiracy theories, and with the invention of the internet and the proliferation of social media and streaming TV, the exponential number of anything and everything that excites the imagination continues. Recently, the greatest number of conspiracy theories have found their genesis in one of the most transformative events in history- the birth of COVID.
However, conspiracy theories are not new. Some notable theories were the secret nuclear tests of the 50’s, the chemicals sprinkled from the sky over America and the electronic waves bombarding our brains in the 60’s (remember the hats made of tin foil), or the alien abductions that have been allegedly occurring for the last 100 plus years.
These conspiracy theories often draw many into unending research, changes in personal behavior, and a compulsion to share such theories with those they love and care about. In addition, some have gone further by building home bunkers, stockpiling mass amounts of food and water, or building safe homes far away from the cities.
Now, I’m not naïve about conspiracy theories; some actually have their roots in a version of truth. And I’m not like that religious man in War of the Worlds, who stands in front of a clearly weaponized spaceship and says that I know you have come in peace… just before it fries him with a laser blast. But I am concerned about Christians spending vast amounts of time and energy paying attention to conspiracy theories while the greatest conspiracy, that is, a true conspiracy, is not getting the attention that God demands.
It is a conspiracy to destroy God’s creation, reputation, glory, and to steal all of that for himself. It is the lifelong objective of the one we call Satan, or Destroyer, and it is a plan that began in the Garden of Eden and is being worked out in our lives today. It is truly the most powerful, most comprehensive, most diabolical, and most ingenious conspiracy ever created and your destruction is a central part of it.
The apostle Peter says this devil, also called Apollyon, is a roaring lion and he leads every non-Christian on earth against the church or, Christ and His people. Psalm 2 says, Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”
So, last week we took a brief look at the culture and today we will do a brief survey of the church. As an introduction, I will say that while we can rejoice in the work that some churches are doing, we should be deeply concerned about the vast majority of churches and their woeful lack of faithfulness to the mission God has entrusted to them.
I’ll begin by referencing a sermon preached by John MacArthur in February 2022 titled, “One Lord, One faith, one God: the exclusivity of Christianity.” MacArthur was citing reports that he had seen and stated, “66% of American Christians say many religions lead to eternal life. That’s two out of three. 52% of evangelicals say many religions can lead to eternal life. 48% of evangelicals say that God accepts the worship of all religious people.”
This is just one example of many surveys and studies that have been done over the last 25 years that clearly shows the incredible ignorance of professing believers in America and calls into question how many churchgoers are actually true followers of our Lord. This also illustrates one of the core problems in the American church- that many, many, churchgoing people do not know (nor care to know) God’s truth revealed in the Bible, and without the truth intellectually known and believed from the heart, professing Christians will be fools, but not fools for Christ.
How can this be? How did we get here? Have not Christian leaders poured themselves into many things to advance the gospel? Yes, much blood and sweat has been spent but the question is, has it been spent on the right things?
Wrong Headed Strategies and Bad Theology
I became a Christian 30 years ago at the ripe age of 36. Since that time, I have lived through years of observing church leaders and run of the mill Christians that were passionate about getting more Christians elected to political office. Do you remember the Moral Majority? Do you remember how we were going to make our country a Christian nation through control of the legislative process?
However, we will not advance the Kingdom by using the tools that the world uses. Spiritual weapons must be used to accomplish spiritual things. Conservatism cannot save us. At best it will help us live in a better society, but it will never save one soul. Our help and salvation is in the name of the Lord, the blessed gospel of Jesus Christ.
I have also witnessed the rise of the seeker driven church. Fundamentally, the seeker driven church fails at the start because it doesn’t understand that God’s design for the church is to equip the saints (believers), not to have strategies to serve the lost. We will not advance the cause of Christ by making our churches more comfortable for those who do not believe in Christ. This has been a plague on the American church for several decades and has greatly contributed to large churches that are filled with nice people who are on the road to perdition.
In addition, we have seen the rise of the faith healer and the false teaching of the word faith preacher. They are money grabbers who teach that man can manipulate God for his own gain. Blasphemy.
Concurrent with the rise of the seeker driven/friendly church, churches have been more open to reconsidering what the Bible teaches regarding sexuality and gender. It opened the door to the bad theology of accepting women as pastors and has subsequently moved on to a push for the acceptance of other gender and sex related issues such as homosexuality in church leadership. Sadly, all of this is a symptom of the church taking its cues from the culture rather than the Bible.
More recently, we have had the devastating battle over the implications of Critical Theory. Churches have split, relationships have been severed, and the gospel has been replaced by a new gospel that is in fact, no gospel at all.
The Church and the American Culture
As the salt of Christianity has been on the wane in our society, the devil has not been slow to encourage the government to squelch the preaching of God’s Word. This will continue because the message of the gospel is literally hated by the unconverted. In an upside down world where wrong has become right, we are seeing the loving gospel of Jesus Christ become classified as hate speech.
How about our young people? Many churches have been posting their weekly, monthly, and yearly statistics on how many young people accepted Christ and were baptized. Yet, we have also seen numerous reports for the last 25 years saying that 70-90% of our young people fall away from the faith after they leave their parents’ home for college or to live on their own. What happened to their faith? Or, what kind of faith was that? Many churches have coerced young people to verbally assent to the truths of the gospel without the appropriate follow up for real fruit that necessarily comes after an actual heart change.
Conspiracy of the Enemy
I believe the church has not been shrewd as serpent and wise as a dove. But, there is one who has been shrewd and wise and crafty. He is committed to the “long game” and has been willing to invest in a strategy and methodologies that bear fruit not in years, but in decades. He is focused and determined and never tires, and his name is Satan.
Satan has used the sinful heart of men to blind them to the truth, and to manipulate and destroy them by tempting mankind to love the things of this world. He has taken the blessings that God has given us and has refashioned them into all kinds of idols so that in the end, people have become worshippers of the gifts instead of the Giver and have no interest in giving thanks to the King of kings. I believe our churches are filled with these Romans 1 people.
But true Christians are not impervious to these same temptations, and many go about their Christian lives walking with the Lord in a manner that comfortably fits around their many worldly interests. This is manifested in their lukewarm giving, their lukewarm serving, and their lukewarm daily worship. They do not fully embrace the fact that they have been bought with a price and that their lives are no longer their own. However, God has made it very clear that you cannot love God and this world. And sadly, because most churches are unwilling to confront this kind of so called, “Christian life” they are now complicit in this ongoing unfaithfulness to Christ.
Does the church have a strategy to defeat this greatest conspiracy of all time? Yes, and I will get into that in future articles but for now, I wanted to focus on the state of the church in America and get you thinking deeply about two things. First, can you begin to get your mind around the bowl of wrath that God is storing up for people and churches that call themselves Christian, but teach things that are actually against the clear teaching of the Bible? Said another way, think about what we know God thinks about His name- His reputation and all of His attributes- and how His name is being blasphemed and misrepresented by so many churches in America. Frightening.
Second, understand that your life is woven into the devil’s conspiracy plan either as a supporter and tool for its success, or a name on the list of those he is trying to kill. And what should you be doing about it?
Next time, Lord willing, we will look at the state of parenting in America.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Last modified: February 17, 2023
