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It is important to discover what is wrong with the American church? Since the church is
made up of people, we could ask, "What's wrong with professing Christians in
America?" To get at the root of the problem, we must not concentrate on the symptoms.
I could spend the whole of this article describing symptoms, but I would never get to the
diagnosis of the problem. The symptoms include materialism, sexual promiscuousness and
indecency, apathy, complacency, false doctrine and a plethora of other ailments. However,
alcohol consumption, and not reckless driving, should be considered the reason why a
drunkard has an automobile accident. Likewise, there is a base reason why the American
Church is careening down the path to certain disaster.
We know that the Church is reckless, flirting with the world system and sin, and has
lost its moral authority and spiritual power, but why? Why, when there are so many church
buildings, so many Christian periodicals, books, radio and television ministries,
Christian organizations, music and an abundance of Bibles and preachers? The vehicle seems
sound, but the person behind the wheel is out of control. We need to know the thing that
has intoxicated the spirit of professing Christians to make them cross the dividing line
and ease onto the path of certain apostasy.
First of all, we should recognize that there is but one root cause for all our sins and
that principle never changes. We could name all the sins that we commit, deal with them
one by one, and never get to the root and nothing really helpful would be accomplished.
The root cause of our sin is us. We can look about us at the terrible,
encroaching influence of evil, but the answer is found within us. Ian Thomas once
wrote, "People repent over sins without repenting over their sin. Sins are what you
do, and sin is what you are."
As a pastor and former evangelist, I have witnessed first hand many people repenting
over their sins without repenting over their sin. Sometimes, they were just sorry that
they got caught. Other time they were under genuine conviction, but were unwilling to
change. They had the desire to change, but as Charles Finney said, "Desire is not the
same thing as willingness."
The sin, which is our condition, is much harder to deal with than sins, which are the
fruit or actions of our condition. We will feel sorry and repent over what we have done so
much quicker than we will repent of our sinful condition. A person's sinful condition is
intertwined with who they are. It involves their personality, their intellect,
their deepest and shallowest lusts and desires, their decision-making process, their
philosophy of life, God and other people. It also involves their concept of right and
wrong, sin and punishment, and the consequences of being caught. It also involves what
they believe are their rights and what means that they are justified to use to satisfy
their sense of entitlements.
Finally, our sinful condition involves our lack of understanding God's word, or
misunderstanding it, and our degree of spirituality. Aberrant doctrines stem from people
trying to justify the sinful condition and make peace with the fleshly mind. As Christians
we should realize that there can be no peace with the carnal mind when we surrender to
God. He is going to transform the carnal mind, infuse it with His Divine Nature, challenge
every speck of rebellion and root out the cause of sin. If we do not believe this, then we
have to accept a false doctrine such as Once Saved, Always Saved. This and other doctrines
like it gives the person with a sinful condition the right to commit sins without change.
We should know by now that for many people the outward appearance is a covering for an
inner condition of sinfulness. Once the ingredients of the sinful mixture rise to the
surface, sins are the result. The individual may become sorry and pray repentance with
tears and apparent brokenness. Not just the sinful acts must be repented over, but the
state of sin that caused them. If not, when the conviction is soothed and the smile
returns, the state of the inner person will begin boiling once more with sin. Sooner or
later it will erupt again into sinful activity.
The longer the sinful state is allowed to remain unchanged, the more frequent sins will
occur and with lessening degrees of conviction. The danger is in reaching the callused
state to where no repentance is possible because no conviction can be effected.
The Desensitized Conscience
Inside of many professing Christians in America simmers a cauldron of sin. People may
appear on the surface to be totally consumed with God, yet many are committing terrible
sins and they are being exposed. The exposure of sins will only desensitize the conscience
if the sinner does not completely repent and make a complete inside change. Unrepentant
sin among Church leaders even causes the general conscience of the Church to become
callused. I believe that we all know someone that we trusted in who has committed
unthinkable sins. Our faith is pounded by revelation of sin in some highly visible
Christian leader. We go into shock and our faith is shaken because we trusted in him or
her. Some people even abandon Christianity and turn back to the world system. This is
because they depended too much on the outward appearances of other people to inspire them.
After enough of these fiascos are exposed, people adapt the attitude of, "Oh well,
everyone makes mistakes." Our nation as a whole is so desensitized to sin that the
majority condoned one of the most sinful presidents our nation has ever had. When the
sense of moral shame and outrage are gone, the sinful condition becomes simply our private
cross to bear. God’s word declares that the sinful condition as the major reason that
people will be cast into hell. We cannot afford to ignore sinfulness and we should be
especially careful in this time of great apostasy and deception.
The American Church is deeply sinful. When I say "church," I mean the
physical church, the one that we see on earth, not necessarily the one in heaven. I may as
well go on to explain that the physical Church is composed of professing and possessing
Christians. The professors outnumber the possessors, maybe ten to one, but I don't really
know the exact ratio. Professors are those who claim to be Christians, but possessors are
people who are actually committed to Christ.
Sin is unchallenged and unexplained for the most part in the American Church. Some
churches have given up altogether on enunciating sin and have just accepted it as a normal
condition for most Christians. These churches condone homosexuality, drunkenness, vulgar
speech, and all manner of worldliness, just to mention a few things. Many Christians want
the church service to be a mass therapy session where they unload their guilt and sooth
the conviction in what remains of their conscience. The unchallenged sin in the leaders
and the masses is causing a deep slide into the type of moral inaptitude that causes
apostasy.
Several years ago, a pastor hired a night club stripper wearing nothing but a G-string
to serve communion. He claimed that he wanted to boost the attendance. It must have been
the male attendance that he wanted to boost or else he was afflicted with lust himself.
This pastor is typical of the mindset that is in control of the inner person of most
professing Christians. It is an "ends justifies the means" mentality that has
plunged the leadership of the Church into the depths of depravity
We can explain that the American Church is sick, weak, and on the verge of dying
because she is in a deep state of sin, but is that the source of the problem? We could
declare that the American Church is desensitized to sinfulness, but is this the problem?
These may be the causes of many of her symptoms, but neither is the true source of the
problem. A disease, illness, injury or deficiency produces symptoms. We want to know the
spiritual cause of the symptoms in this case. We did not list all the symptoms, or sins,
because they are not really the issue here. We need to discover the real problem, the deep
problem, the root cause, of the American Church's sinful state. To get at that problem we
have to discover what causes the state of sin, which produces sins.
The Cause of the State of Sin
The cause of the state of sin in the American Church could be that most professing
Christians have lost their fear and wonder of God. If you have read this far you may be
somewhat disappointed. Pastors are expected to rail against the symptoms until they offend
everyone and make those who stay to the bitter end feel as lost as hell. To explain that
all our problems may be traced to the fact that we have lost our fear and wonder of God is
too simplistic for many people.
But it is true. We are too familiar and cavalier with the gifts of God and too
complacent about His blessings. We believe that we are overly deserving of His benefits
and take for granted that He will provide for and protect us no matter what we do. There
are no catastrophic dangers looming on the horizon and unless we get in deep trouble, we
will not communicate with Him or worship Him deeply. In fact, I would hazard to guess that
most professing Christians spend less than five minutes each day in prayer and seldom read
or study the Bible. I would go further to suggest that most professing Christians do not
think about or thank God during the day.
To such people, He is always there, like the fire extinguisher, only when we need Him
do we turn to Him. He provides a world to live in and if nothing major changes in our
world for the worst, we will draw life from Him with little or no acknowledgment.
But we must dig deeper yet. Something caused the wonder and fear of God to depart, so
there must still be a cause that we have not yet discovered here. Yes, there is something
or some thing's that remain to be exposed. Whatever caused the wonder and fear of
God to wane or completely die is definitely what we are seeking now. Was it a doctrine,
practice, or a condition?
The thing that caused the wonder and fear to depart is a condition that in turn causes
a practice that eventually gives birth to doctrine. The deep root cause of America's sin
is the unchallenged and unchanged carnal condition, the natural state of the person, the
condition that Jesus came to defeat and destroy.
A. W. Tozer explains it most clearly in an article entitled "The Old Cross and the
New." He writes that the new cross came to lift us to a higher state, to make us a
better version of what we are. But the old cross came to kill us. We are liquidated by the
old cross and then raised in newness of life.
The fact of the matter is that a new cross with another Jesus has brought in a new
Christianity. It is a Christianity that does not challenge the carnal nature of the people
who claim to be Christians. The unchanging state of natural humanity causes them to lose
the fear and wonder of God, if they ever possessed it in the first place. Romans 8
declares that, "…the carnal mind cannot please God because it is an enemy
against God." The new Christianity attempts to merge the old nature with the new
instead of discarding it. We cannot develop a spiritual relationship with God and nourish
our old state back to life at the same time. That would be like trying to start a fire and
spraying the wood with water at the same time. We have to get on one path or the other,
but we cannot travel both the wide and narrow path, both the crooked and straight road.
There is no way possible that the church in America can continue to mix the leaven of
the world system into the process of Christianity without baking bread of apostasy as the
result. Oh, I know very well what some people will say upon reading my last statement.
"He's a legalist!" They will declare, "He is a Holy Roller and a judgmental
person!" Well, the old-time holiness people didn't have the message that far off the
mark, even if their method stunk. In the same sense we cannot disallow the truth just
because someone tried to ram it down our throats.
My opposition to the holiness movement was that they carried their message too far to
the other extreme. The answer to antinomianism is not asceticism. We cannot expect to kill
flesh by human means when God has proved that it cannot be done. It took a spotless Lamb
and an old rugged cross to kill the flesh and the cross is the only flesh-killer today.
Mummifying ourselves with laws and rules will kill everything, including flesh and spirit.
It is comparable to getting rid of a cancer on the face with a stick of dynamite. We will
be more prone to sin after experiencing the constricting force of legalism than before.
No one will be free from flesh unless they are willing from the depths of their heart
to submit to the work of the cross and depart from sinfulness. But the work of the cross
is not just the work of Jesus' cross. Jesus did not say, "Take up My cross one day
and follow Me." He said that we must take up our cross daily (scripture reference).
He is not implying that we should get saved daily by His cross, but that we must die daily
on our cross. He died on His cross, now He tells us that we should also have a cross to
die on.
His cross did away with the law of sin and death. The law of "sin and death"
was exemplified in the Mosaic Law. Each sin required a death; a person sinned, and an
animal died. Sin and death, they sinned and something died. Our cross is the consistent,
daily submission to the work of His cross. It is the deepening surrender to His will and
way and that is what makes us Christians. Drawing nearer to Him daily causes certain
desires and lusts to die in us, puts our old sinful state into a condition of death, and
keeps us from re-entering the past to pick up where we left off. When we do this, the old
nature rises up in us and destroys the fear and wonder of God. It does this by causing a
sinful state that produces acts of sinfulness or sins.
This is more than simply putting the old nature with its sinful desires in a prison of
legalism. It is an execution, a liquidation of self so that His image might be formed in
us. Only in the transformation of the carnal nature can death to these sinful desires be
complete. This leads us to the cause of the old nature rising up in us. It takes us deeper
into the root of the problem of what is wrong with the American Church.
The Carnal Nature
What causes the old nature to resurface, to reassert itself, to reestablish the carnal
character, and reassume traveling the course of the world system? We have been taught by
certain false teachers that carnal nature was caused by the original sin that Adam
committed, but was it? If the sin that Adam committed caused the carnal nature, what
nature did Adam have before he sinned? If it was the spiritual nature, then he would not
have sinned. The propensity to sin is intrinsic in the human nature, but that doesn't make
us sinners. Obeying the sinful desires causes us to be sinful. The carnal nature is the
natural state of a person and must have been the nature of Adam before and after the fall.
After the fall, Adam in was in a sinful condition that developed from obeying the desires
of the carnal nature. It is possible to have a carnal nature and still be a Christian, but
it is not possible to be in a sinful condition and continue to enjoy immunity from the
judgement and wrath of God. Carnal means fleshly or natural. We continue to have a natural
or carnal mind after salvation.
The sinful state of humanity, not the carnal nature, is the result of the original sin
that Adam committed. Sin is intrinsic in the human nature and obeying it causes the sinful
condition. Jesus' blood washes away the sins and He recreates us as a new creature in Him.
However, we still retained the propensity to sin. This means that we can be restored to
the condition before the fall and still commit a sin. Adam was a sinless man with a carnal
nature and a pure condition, but he still sinned.
But I don't want to sin and neither should any Christian. I find myself in a struggle
such as Paul explained in Romans seven. It is a struggle, a battle with the old nature
that I thought was dead. Is it revived? How did it come to life if I died and my life is
hidden with Christ in God? Do I have to live with it all of my life? The old nature did
not come back to life, but instead the carnal nature still remains after the salvation.
Let me explain.
The fact is that a new, recreated, cleansed, and made whole human nature is still
a human nature. Being changed into the condition of the human nature before the fall has
indeed delivered us from our sinful condition, but we continue to have a human or carnal
nature. There must be an answer to the question; "Who shall deliver me from this body
of death?" In other words, salvation did not free me from my natural nature.
Therefore, it did not free me from temptation and the proclivity to sin. I still feel
sinful desire rising up in me that must be cast down. I still recognize lust in me and
still contemplate disobeying God. I still feel the dictates of the flesh even though I
know I'm not the rebellious sinner that I was before He saved me.
What will God give me or do to me that I can be free from the intrinsic characteristics
of sin in my nature? Can I bind myself tightly with cords of rules and laws until I
constrict the life of sin from my flesh? Will I destroy the desires and lusts of the
natural mind by surrendering to the law of sin and death again? Will asceticism free me?
The answer is, no. It will suppress sin, but not free us from its touch.
We will destroy flesh with legalism all right, but the acceptable qualities of the
human nature will die as well. We will lose our compassion, our love, our mercy, and we
will scowl our way through life fearing His judgement, but not knowing His presence.
Paul answers the question of how to be free from the sin in our nature in Romans eight.
"The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin
and death."
People tend to view chapter markers as walls and fences. One cannot stop at the end of
Chapter Seven without becoming either a legalist or an apostate. Unless one enters Eighth
chapter and discovers the answer, the question will be answered falsely or not answered at
all.
What is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus? We must turn to Hebrews ten for
the answer.
16 "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the
LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,"
Heb 10:16 (NKJV)
This is the new covenant that the prophet Jeremiah prophesied about in Jeremiah 31. The
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is the Holy Spirit and that is without a doubt. That is the
Spirit that quickened His mortal body, caused Him to rise from the dead, and that lives in
every true Christian. The Spirit's law is the nature of God that is written in our minds
by His law. Paul said in Romans 7 that there is a law of God in his mind as well.
Therefore, the law of the Spirit of life is the same law that was written into the Ten
Commandments.
Oh boy! Now we've really done it! We've put people back under the law! Not so!
The Ten Commandments is not the Mosaic Law, but the law of God. The Mosaic Law was the
schoolmaster that forced the people to obey the law of God. We are not under the
schoolmaster, the Mosaic Law, but we will never get out from under the law of God. To
teach that we have been set free from the law of God is to teach lawlessness.
Lawlessness leads to apostasy and is condemnable to eternal death. We cannot declare
ourselves from the law of God without entering a state of licentiousness and apostasy that
impugns the body and blood of Christ Jesus. The law of God, as expressed in the Ten
Commandments, is the general expression of the Divine Nature of God.
With this final point I believe that I will get to the heart of the problem with the
American church. Of course there are problems with Christianity elsewhere in the world,
but I expect the pastors in those countries to deal with the issues there. I am called to
America.
God's law is the Holy Spirit's law. Therefore, the law of the Spirit of life is a
composition of the elements of God's Divine Nature. We can see this clearly by reading
Galatians 5: 22-23 and 2 Peter 1:3-10. The Holy Spirit comes into to us to teach the
recreated human nature how to think as Christ. His mission is to teach and train our minds
until our minds are transformed into replicas of the mind of Christ. Therefore, He will
work on every section of the proclivity to sin that is resident in our human nature. He
will erase by His instruction every sinful flaw. He does this by constantly giving us
knowledge and wisdom throughout our conscious moments. When we accept the information and
apply it through our actions, we are allowing and participating in the change of our human
nature.
The Work of the Holy Spirit
It is the Holy Spirit that effects the work of our cross. David Wilkerson once wrote
something to the effect, "We cannot crucify ourselves. We could nail one hand, but
then there would be no way to nail the other one. The Holy Spirit must crucify us."
Every bout with temptation or error produces a lesson from the Holy Spirit. Step by
step, increment by increment, He changes our minds in a process, the speed of which is
only regulated by our willingness to permit and receive His input. Much can be written on
this subject, but I must limit my remarks to the issues at hand so that I can stay close
to the original topic. I will expound more deeply on the work of the Holy Spirit in
another article.
The problem with the American Church is that the Holy Spirit has been limited to a
positive emotional experience, a feel-good feeling, and therefore He is misidentified.
Every time excitement, joy, or laughter or some other intense emotion is felt in a church
service, people identify them as moves of the Holy Spirit. That's the
Charismatic/Pentecostal side of the issue. On the liturgical side, the Holy Spirit is
thought to be in the ritual, tradition or even the practice of attending the church
service.
Few professing Christians really know who the Holy Spirit is, what His purpose is, or
how He is manifested to us. The Charismatic/Pentecostals have become too cavalier with Him
and the liturgical denominations limit Him to a doctrine that is believed without being
experienced, or a ritual. To know Him personally and sense His continual presence, they
know not. They miss the essence of spirituality and the key to being a member of Christ's
body and of each other.
More than rules and regulations, more than rituals and doctrines, more than emotions
and other activities, He is a real entity that must be accepted, loved and respected.
Because He is not known, neither is God known. Because He is not respected, neither is God
respected. Because He is not loved, neither is God loved. Because He is not in the heart,
the mind and soul, He is not able to transform the human nature. The Holy Spirit is not
able to inspire and insinuate a sense of God's presence that is vital to defend ourselves
against temptation and Satan's influence that works though the world system.
The problem with the American Church is that it has no sense of God in the soul, no
understanding of His deep things, no grasping of the blazing concept and reality of Him
that can only come through spiritual means. Therefore, they are easily distracted with
vanity and shallowness. Everything that glitters in the world turns their heads and causes
them to wonder after the temporal while within their reach are the overwhelming riches of
God.
No wonder that they are not satisfied with the goodness from God! It is no wonder since
their hearts are overcharged with the vanity of temporal life and their spirits full of
the pleasure of sin. Without the great connection, there is a great separation. When no
awe and wonder develop, there is no true sense of God. God becomes a magic charm, a lucky
word, a good idea that charms the heart but does not win it to full surrender.
Stricken with this destitution, the American Church has turned to substitutions for the
sense of God's presence. There are the massive and beautiful buildings, the great choirs,
the worship bands, the entertaining activities, the joke-filled messages, the pop
psychology and other secular bad ideas interwoven into the sermons. We see the sultry
women singers and dancers, the laughing spirits, barking as dogs, howling as wolves,
mooing as cows, and otherwise making utter fools of themselves. Then there is the
materialism and pronouncement of godhood by the prosperity teachers.
The liturgical denominations are not exempt. Not long ago, the Presbyterians had a New
Age woman's convention full of witchcraft and disorder. Some major denominations ordain
homosexuals and lesbians.
Then there is the American Church’s facination and obsession with false doctrines
that are promoted by movies costing millions of dollars and written into fictional books,
such as Tim LaHayes "Left Behind" series. Christian periodicals promote false
doctrine and false people. Some of the articles promote blasphemy. Christian bookstores
are filled with fiction, romance novels and Christian trivia priced higher than gold in
most cases, but no better in quality than cheap flea market junk.
Next, the media of television is almost completely controlled by apostate Christians.
Even Christians who should know better go on the programs with apostates, mingling their
spirits and lending an air of credibility to their destructiveness. When I see someone do
this, I can have no respect for his or her ministry afterward. It is a form of spiritual
prostitution, only they prostitute the good name and reputation that the Lord God built
them.
Finally, there is the problem of Christian music. Some of it is okay, but most of it is
worthless. You will never find a greater depiction of the current apostasy anywhere
clearer than you will find it in the Christian music section of any retailer. Demonic
people have been invited to "minister" to the last two generations of youth and
the fruit of that is now appearing. It is a plague on spirituality, morality and decency.
All one has to do to discover the depth of this deception is to visit a Christian
Bookstore and browse though the selections of Christian music.
Transformation or Death
The longer that they carnal mind goes untransformed, the more difficult it becomes to
transform it. After a season of hardening the carnal mind to change, the death of
spirituality will be complete. It is no wonder to me that the current crop of false
teachers and preachers have no conscience and therefore manifests no remorse or conviction
concerning their deception. They are polished speakers and very skilled in public
relations, but they carry a message of death.
Most professing Christians in America cannot recognize false from true because their
senses are not exercised to know good from evil. The Holy Spirit has been rejected from
working in their lives. They have the knowledge of falseness, but cannot grasp the
knowledge of the truth. In fact, many have lost their love for the truth because the
Spirit of Truth has not been permitted to bring them to a proper understanding and
acceptance of truth.
May God help people to realize that Christianity is not about joining an institution,
but becoming part of an organism. Not only that, they must understand that it is a
spiritual organism called the Body of Christ. He will conform everyone to Himself and
there are no exceptions. Unless we accept this truth, we will not understand exactly what
is required of us as true Christians.
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