Why are professing Christians so passive during an unprecedented encroachment of evil on Christian liberty in America? There are the standard reasons. They are apathetic, weak, backslidden, hypocritical, etc. We could make a case for one or all of those things.
I also believe that many professing Christians abhor any negative information, especially what they believe to be “doom and gloom.” They’ve shut their minds to everything relative to eschatology. Thus, they cannot recognize historical precursors for full-scale violent persecution. A large faction believes that Christ is going to “come and get us before all the bad stuff happens.” They refuse to recognize that “bad stuff”, including the wanton slaughter of Christians, is already occurring in other nations.
However, I believe that there is another major underlying factor that may be responsible for all the other factors resulting in obstinate passivity. And it is simple. There is no threat to their status quo.
Most professing Christians “go to church” and listen to sermons. That’s what they do to no viable end. They get the family ready on Sunday morning and they head to a church building. When they get back home, they put it behind them like a dental visit. They watch sports on TV, go fishing, play golf, shop, and basically reward themselves for “doing church.” Most of them do not attend the Sunday night meeting, if their church has one. In other words, the Sunday morning event has minimal impact in their lives. It simply satisfies the inherent urge to be religious.
Monday through Friday, they focus on the cares of life with little or no expression of Christianity. Saturday, they enjoy the day off. Sunday rolls around and it’s off to the church building again. It is the stuff of “hearers-only” religion.
So where’s the threat? So what if the militant Homosexual/Progressive Liberal Movement attacks a Christian florist, cake maker, or some other Christian business. The congress passes so-called hate crime and anti-discrimination laws intrusive to Christians. So what? Radical atheists get angry about nativity scenes. Department stores refuse to say “Merry Christmas.” Some bank teller gets fired for saying, “Have a blessed day.” The Ten Commandments are removed from a courthouse. So what? New Age paganism is a swarming invasion. Entire denominations are succumbing to Contemplative Spirituality. So what? It doesn’t even slightly hinder the routine of “going to church” on Sunday.
Therefore, even though there is a concerted effort to force acceptance of the homosexual agenda on the workplace, the marketplace, public education, churches, government, military, and you name it, it does not significantly hinder the status quo. Professing Christians can still “go to church,” hear sermons, and coast along enjoying their “best life now.” Warned repeatedly about the invasion of heresy in the church, and the rapid declension of culture into hedonism, they refuse to process the information as a threat.
The fact is, far too many professing Christians consider the diabolical intrusions as “much ado about nothing.” Everything goes on as before. Besides, they do not actually practice Christianity in public anyway. So where’s the loss in having something pilfered that you never bothered to use?
You know what’s really pathetic? We have history to inform us about the pattern that evil employs to gain dominance over and then persecute Christians. But people do not (or refuse to) recognize the first step by Christophobes toward abolishing our liberty. It is to poke the sleeping giant. What I mean is they begin by caricaturing and then challenging public expressions of Christianity. If the giant does not awaken, they go a step further and remove liberties by legislation. They continue to poke and gouge as long as the giant sleeps. Eventually, the giant is so full of holes (liberties lost) and its hide so bound to stakes (rules and laws) that when it finally awakens, it has little or no power to do anything other than moan.
The sleeping giant is of course Christianity. It is a massive subdued, ritualistic, apathetic, hireling-infiltrated, spiritually anemic, and heresy-poisoned monstrosity composed mostly of professing Christians who have no concept of true Christianity. Further they have no interest in theology other than sound-bite explanations of what separates them from other Christian factions. They have no idea of where their doctrines came from, or the scriptural paths that produced them. All is well if they can only “go to church” under a specific title, hear a sermon, and go home.
The millennials with their mega-churches and New Age “church” have a worse problem. They believe they have superior Christianity because they have shaken off the old garments of traditionalism and are breathing the fumes of Spiritual Formation. Wrong. They only poured old contaminated wine in new wine skins. It is still about maintaining a status quo.
What they all fail to realize is that “going to church” will be the last Christian indulgence to be banished. At the moment, they can “go” all they want as long as they don’t attempt to “do” anything Christ-like in society. While that status quo is maintained, a furious attack on “doers” is underway. The “hearers-only” placidly look the other way.
I believe that when the time comes to drive a wooden stake in the heart of the giant, the “hearers only” will applaud the decision. The reason? Because Christianity will be replaced with an ecumenical world religion that will eliminate any threat to their status quo. The government will slide out the old, battered, and heresy-fragmented shell of Christianity, and slip in place a new, human-centered, ecumenical religion benign to culture, atheism, and all else that opposes righteousness. It will preserve their “church-going” indulgence. The millennials with their Seeker-Friendly, Emergent, Ecumenical, New Age, New Apostolic, Spiritual Formation, etc., are leading the way and assisting in the process.
When the One-World religion is set in place, the “church-going, hearers-only” folks, clinging to their venerated paradigm, will breathe a bated sigh of relief. They will not have lost anything. What will be destroyed they never possessed. Their ritual was their faith. It was the crux of their belief system, the sum of their duty to whom they deem as God. Killing the battered giant will not matter to them anymore than knocking a fish in the head with a stick.
That is why they are so passive today. There is nothing in their superficial understanding of Christianity that is considered expensive enough to stand up for and defend. Their pastors could switch present theology for another one on any given Sunday and they would neither recognize nor care. It’s the status quo that matters. Come into the building, breeze through a short burst of fellowship, enjoy the “worship” music, endure a short message, relish the mild inebriation of the meeting’s end, rush to the food, and enjoy life with God in the distant background—a paradigm of the church “triumphantly” dead.
Thank you for writing this. May I post an excerpt and link to the rest of the article?
In Him,
John
mywordlikefire.com
Certainly, and thank you for doing so.
I would like to post the whole thing with a link to your site at the beginning of the article. Is that okay?
Absolutely, John. Thanks you for doing it.
You are correct about the status quo. This is not only apparent in church but also in Christian’s involvement in politics. As long as the I-phone and smart TV subscription are paid up as well as being able to make the payment on the new car without breaking a sweat… life is good and they are “blessed” It’s hard to be hungry for God when you don’t really understand what true hunger is… America is not blessed, we are spoiled rotten.
“As long as the I-phone and smart TV subscription are paid up as well as being able to make the payment on the new car without breaking a sweat…” Lol. You nailed it, Larry.
This is what really hit me. You wrote: What they all fail to realize is that “going to church” will be the last Christian indulgence to be banished. At the moment, they can “go” all they want as long as they don’t attempt to “do” anything Christ-like in society. While that status quo is maintained, a furious attack on “doers” is underway. The “hearers-only” placidly look the other way.
The last Christian indulgence…
Amen ! Thank you for standing and telling the truth. I agree 100%.
I used to work at a call center whose main network is in USA. We did political surveys with Americans as interviewees, and once, I talked to a woman who complained about her neighbors who wanted her to disassemble her Nativity Scene on her yard. She mournfully complied, but rather placed it on display at the window next her main door. Again, the neighbors got angry!
I felt so sorry for the woman and expressed my sympathies, and even sounded delighted when I told her God bless you with a sincere intention, not for the purpose of pleasing her.
A day after that call, my supervisor called me and told me: “Don’t tell your customer God bless you although she/he is a Christian. Refrain from sympathizing with people even if you feel bad for them about the problems they tell you.” I was aghast with that advice. Is that how really bad is to offer sympathies to another burdened Christian in that kind of job, and to say God bless you? Needless to say, I resigned after 3 weeks of working there.
Ahh abandoning the truth to achieve equality and fairness. Very sad story.
I am commanded to love the church. My church is not dead. We have always loved and accepted everyone, we are all sinners. The sacrament of Marriage is between a man and a woman and that will never change. Our leader Pope Frances says, love, forgive, do not judge, same sex marriage not an option. Oh, it is good to be ROMAN CATHOLIC! Meanwhile we have the government we deserve. Who is to blame?
Mike,Is experience the pramiry factor? Are we sure that we would recognize an experience of God if we had one? Or perhaps that is your point. Since we can’t know if we are experiencing God then we can’t be expected to believe in him. I think most of us have an expectation of what an experience of God would be like. What if that expectation is incorrect?What about others who tell about their experiences of God? Might one believe in God based on the experience of someone they trust? Or is all experience, even our own, too subjective and open to multiple interpretations to ever be taken as a certain or highly probable experience of God?Sorry about the barrage of questions; they are intended for all readers just triggered by your comment. Belief is indeed a curious and perplexing phenomenon.
Your query seems as the curiosity of a secular individual. In nearly 4 decades of being a Christian, I have never met a true Christian who expressed convoluted ambiguity after experiencing salvation. Salvation is the most powerful event I have ever had. Another powerful experience was when I fell in love with the woman I married. I did not meander about in confusion about either event, wondering if they were actually occurring.
Anyone who has had an experience with God knows beyond any doubt that it was a genuine experience. I cannot affirm that everyone has an expectation of what an experience with God would be like, but I can affirm that those expectations would be irrelevant. I held cultic beliefs, had experienced demonic activity, and was bound in drug and alcohol addiction. None of that mattered when I first experienced God.
The problem with your line of questioning is that it appears based on the idea that an experience with God is “too subjective and open to multiple interpretations”. All true experiences with God satisfy the same standards; agrees with God’s word, and bears witness with the Holy Spirit. Individuals that experience God produce the right fruit, abhor darkness, love truth and righteousness, and have a passion to do His will.
Of course, there are many individuals that have diabolical experiences. Many of them end up in false religions, cults, or the occult. Some of them are comfortable in certain denominations or heretical churches. The truth is that no one can come to God unless they are drawn by the Holy Spirit, and they come through Christ. Further, no one can experience that process and be inundated with doubt and questions that more are consistent with someone who has never experienced it. One may be tested through trials and even have a crisis of faith, but for he or she to doubt that God can ever be experienced would indicate that faith no longer exists.
Your questions are actually doubts about faith, its purpose and power.
But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. – Hebrews 11:6