THE CHURCH? IRRELEVANT!
07/14/20133 Comments
by Mike Taylor
Matthew
5:13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
5:14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
In recent polls, it is reported that the modern church comprised over 75% of the population who call themselves Christians. Of those 75% the poll shows that 43% of those people attend a church somewhere, every weekend. But if you look at the societal conditions of the current century that we are in, they are the most impotent, insignificant, and irrelevant group of people to influence the direction of this society in all our history.
Think about it. We are talking of upwards of 159 million people who attend church in this country. That is a significant bloc of people that would make the ACLU or the AFL-CIO unions envious of their numbers and would give them untold power to control the social structure of this country. Each of these aforementioned groups are a minority of individual members that comprise only about 11% for all unions and about 1/2 million members of the ACLU. Then why is the American society and our country going to the proverbial “hell in a hand basket” when we have a lop-side majority?
There is no mistaking that prior, during and after the American revolution that the church of God fearing men and women had a vast amount of influence over the direction of this country. But in the last half of the 20th Century, since WW2, that influence grew silent. How can we see it any other way when God was kicked out of our schools, and we stood silent? What did we do when abortion laws of Roe V. Wade was enacted and passed into law during the 1970s? Did men and women, pastors and clergymen stand up and voice their opposition? Do we stand unified in our opposition to homosexual unions of marriage and gay lobby agenda that God calls an abomination or have we stood silent? Do we stand for the back bone of our country, the family of one man, one woman united to produce Godly children? You know the answer to those question as we would not be in the societal mess we are in today if they were not true in the negative.
The modern churches have been whipped into submission and have become irrelevant. Now the church continues to stand silent, deaf and mute when the police state threatens to turn this country into a godless Socialist state. When compared to our beginnings of a republic founded on the Ten Commandments and Godly principles what influence does the church have today? Again zip, nada, zilch, nothing is all that can be stated with any truth to it.
We had a resurgence in the 1980s for a short period of time, where the Religious right, the Moral Majority stood up, or whatever you want to call it, were in the political arena, but where are they today?. I would tell you they are comatose, beyond comatose, as they are clinically dead. Further our churches today are spiritually dead. Our Christian universities are dead. Our Sunday schools to teach our children are dead. Denominations of every stripe are dead. They have become entertainment centers, social clubs, and employ pastors that wish not to offend. They build bigger and better churches, larger gymnasiums, coffee shops and shopping malls so in their minds they can draw the masses for a “feel good time” while giving messages of self improvement, purpose driven lives, entertainment and ignore hell fire and brimstone messages of judgment, repentance and salvation through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Oh, no, that would offend.
II Timothy,
4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4:4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
America’s pastors, these wolves in sheep’s clothing, have fleeced the flock, and they have become irrelevant to address the societal concerns of our days. In America, we are talking about a nation in which citizens (including Christians) are able to lobby, redress government, protest, rally, organize opposition, speak, vote, form PACs, march, petition, etc. Christians are as free to influence their societies and governments as are any other group of people in the United States. It is not like we have no voice, but it’s like we have become complacent, deaf, dumb and mute.
And who is to blame? I tell you, it’s the pastors of these churches who teach a feel good gospel that Paul warned that if they preach anything once delivered to the saints of the church of Galatia (Galatians 1:8-9) let them be accursed. Do they speak the truth? Do they stand for righteousness? Do they stand in the gap when government enacts laws contrary to the Word of God? I tell you they do not.
They have been whipped into silence by the government that gives them tax breaks or they wish to not offend their congregation, so they speak soft words that does not offend anyone about their sinful condition, or their need to stand for righteousness in a nation that is going to the dogs. I have warned of teachers of the “Word of Faith”, “name and claim it” crowd who preach a Prosperity Gospel who look for a kingdom on earth, that will get better and better, and they grow richer and richer, but they are only a subset of the cancer that grows in our modern church pulpits that must bear the brunt of the blame for the failure to influence society in Jesus Name. The symptoms are wide and they are perverse.
ARE IN FOR A RUDE AWAKENING?
In other lands, the “true church” is growing underground. They have restrictions over influencing society or politics by a government that is persecuting them in Communist China, or Russia and they prevent any uprising or revolution by eliminated their ability to mount a revolt by removing the ability to bear arms. They have removed all individual right to ownership of guns. Does this sound familiar? Christians in persecuted lands are not enamored with entertainment, recreation, and irrelevant Bible exposition. You don’t have to bring in some big-name rock band to entice them to fellowship. You don’t have to give their teenagers the afore mentioned big gymnasiums. You don’t have to give those young adults coffee shops and espresso machines. You don’t have to shy away from criticisms of tyrannical government. And you certainly are not going to score any points with your fallacious “obey-the-government-no-matter-what” interpretation of Romans 13. Unfortunately, sometimes the church must be oppressed to return to the teachings of the bible, much like these citizens of Communist countries have been oppressed and persecuted, so I pray for the USA and it’s citizens to wake up, as the Nazi like atmosphere could come to these lands, as it did in Germany.
LET US RETURN BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE
We must return to the mind set of the 19th Century when Charles Finney said these words, “Christians must vote for honest men and take consistent ground in politics. God cannot sustain this free and blessed country, which we love and pray for, unless the Church will take right ground. Politics are a part of a religion in such a country as this, and Christians (and citizens) must do their duty to the country as a part of their duty to God. It seems sometimes as if the foundations of the nation are becoming rotten, and Christians seem to act as if they think God does not see what they do in politics.”
Finney also said, “If there is a decay of conscience, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the public press lacks moral discernment, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the church is degenerate and worldly, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the world loses its interest in Christianity, the pulpit is responsible for it. If Satan rules in our halls of legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it. If our politics become so corrupt that the very foundations of our government are ready to fall away, the pulpit is responsible for it.”
Let me ask you something. If you preach and teach the stories of the Bible concerning Daniel and the lions den, or the three Hebrew children and the fiery furnace, or say, the life and example of Jesus Christ and not apply it to your everyday life around you, what good is it? They just become stories that have no effect on your life, or your society at large.
What good does it do to preach expository messages on the Bible if one does not make those messages relevant to the times and circumstances in which we live? Yet, ear-tickling, entertainment, and irrelevant exposition seem to be what the modern church in America excels in. The result: ineffective, impotent, weak, unprepared, and sheepish Christians. That’s what we have become….irrelevant. If you look around at your church members, you see businessman who would steal from their grandmother. There is no difference in them from the secular world who do the same. Deacons and church officers caught in lies and cowardly deeds that are the same in the unbelieving world. So called Christians chasing the neighbor’s wife or lusting after the latest luxury. How can you expect the world to change when the so called “church” does the same?
What good has it done with all the youth groups, prophecy forums, and expositions on Eschatology that argue it’s nuances to ad nauseum while we play, party, prance, dance, philosophy and pontificate and a fire has been burning down the foundations of this country and we lift not a finger to fetch a bail of water to put the fire out?
ARE WE IN THE RUN UP TO THE TRIBULATION?
There is coming a time, and it may have already started, when “the rain will fall on the just and the unjust”. (Matt. 5:45). When the ship of state crashes on the rocks of tyranny, Christian and non-Christian will be affected equally. When our economy crashes and goes down in flames because of society that has grown evil and the church stays silent, then Christian and non-Christian will be equally affected.
Truly did the Lord Jesus say, “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” (Matthew 5:13).
In ancient times and even during the beginnings of this country, salt was used to preserve, to prevent spoilage, and to retard rot and ruin. But when Christians loose their saltiness they open themselves to oppression and tyranny. They are good for nothing, accept to “be trodden under the foot of men” Can you say, Seig Heil” of Hitler’s Germany? Unfortunately, pastors of this nation have become “good for nothing” by a large majority as the pastors are suppose to protect the saltiness of the saints to preserve the nation. We have all but become rotten in our core beliefs of this nation and I tell you, judgment is coming. We have been warned for many years now, as the prophets of old to the likes of Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Ezekiel warned Israel, we have BEEN WARNED.
There is an event that all of us long for and I believe it is coming soon. An event when the true believing church will be removed from this earth. Then those who have filled the walls of big modern churches will look around and see people missing. They will hear news flashing from all over the world that a cataclysmic event has happened. What I pray for is a army of God before that day happens, will arise and speak God’s truth. Much like Gideon who God whittled down his army of 30 thousand down to 300 of God fearing men who took the fight to the enemy and defeated them. That’s what I pray for that God will use whatever means to bring Godly men to the forefront to speak to the truth of our times, to boldly go where others fear to tread. An army of black robed regiment of pastors who fear no one but God. Only problem may be, is they will be part of the 144,000 from the 12 tribes of Israel who will finally speak the truth without fear. Too late for America is what I expect, but I can pray God’s mercy to reach even some of those asleep at the present in this country.
The great Christian patriot and “Father of the American Revolution,” Sam Adams, said, “It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in the people’s minds.” That is what we need. We need brush fires before this nation is destroyed. Will you who reads this, take that charge? Pastor, will you take the mantle and wear that black robe and become part of the regiment to spread the truth of God’s Word? Have you been tickling the ears of your congregation? If you have, if you be found in the faith, take that oath from this day forward, you will speak only God’s truth no matter who it may offend. Christian in heart, but not in deeds, make that pledge you will NOT continue in your La-La land of ear itching, feel good messages, but will find a church, a pastor, a bible believing group of like minded Christians in a church or in a living room, “so help you our God”. Will you vote in any remaining election for only God fearing men, and throw the other bums out? If not, I speak to you both, may God have mercy on you, and this country. You’re going to need it.
This is pastor Mike Taylor, praying God builds a fire in your soul. If you need counseling, prayer, or just a listening ear, email me at realteam1999@sbcglobal.net, or visit me online at www.churchofgod-usa.org. God bless you all, till we meet at Jesus feet.
