Is my Generation Out of Touch?

According to the insights on my Facebook page, TruthKeepers, my articles are read mainly by individuals in the age group 55-64 years old.  That’s the difference between Cheryl’s and my age.  Hmmm…I wonder if there is some correlation here. Maybe so.  Maybe we are just a couple of old fashioned folks from a fading generation that does not know how to change or accept current trends in Christianity.  A case could be made for such an assumption if we were against harmless changes in methods, style, music, and etc., and I stress the word harmless.  Every Christian generation has resisted the transition in leadership to the next generation.  The elders get “stuck in their ways” and feel as if they are being pushed out of the way, made irrelevant and useless. 

Sometimes they have a legitimate complaint.  The next generation does not always know what it is all about.  They did not fight the fight of faith, pray, work, give, and make all the other necessary sacrifices to establish a church in a community.  They merely step into the roles being vacated due to age and death. It can become a game or an experimental process to discover how far they can stretch their power and the time-honored rules.

Regarding this issue, a friend once asked me what the solution might be.  I replied that when the last of the generation that made the church possible is on his or her deathbed, someone ought to be standing by with a can of gasoline and a match.  As soon as that soul passed into eternity, they ought to set fire to the facilities, give all the money to a worthy charity.  The younger generation could start afresh and experience the joy of fighting the good fight of faith.  Of course, that is unlikely to occur.  But if there is no knowledge of the history, no understanding of the price that was paid, then there will be little respect for the elders and the legacy that they bequeath to the next generation.  Thus, there will not be a continuum from the ministry of one generation to the next.

However, my articles on TruthKeepers Facebook page, website, and blog, are not necessarily about the inevitable transition of the younger generation with their “new” ideas and methods.  Instead, I inform and warn Christians about the final deception and great apostasy.  Most discerning Christians believe that we are in the last days and the final deception and great apostasy is now in full force.  It is an insidious evil invasion of doctrine and practices that attempts to hide behind the guise of “God is doing a new thing” and the “old people don’t like it”.  In fact, some synonymous terms are, “A new way of doing church”, and “Church for people who don’t like church”.  They (“they” meaning heretics) make their case by pointing to the deadest, most boring, uneventful, unproductive, and in some cases hypocritical churches and make them collectively the icon of what’s wrong in Christianity.  Then they turned to the cults, the New Age Movement, and ancient heresies, for help in making church more interesting and relevant to secular society.  That is a bit like observing the worlds system with its evil and failure, and running to Satan for help instead of turning to Christ.

They purposely ignored and still refuse to consider churches with Christians that are responsive to God, empowered by the Holy Spirit, and where spiritual life flows and lives are being changed.  The conspicuous absence of any references to those churches reveals the true motive behind their diabolical plot to invade and eliminate true Christianity.  Their motive was not to make a deteriorated generation of Christians alright with God, but to deflect them from a focus on God and to a foray into the mystical realm of the demonic.  They play the “out-of-touch-generation” card, and the “church-as-usual-is-wrong” card, which led to them playing the “God-is-doing-a-new-thing” card.  Of course, the last few Christian generations are greatly distracted by the sensual offerings of the world system.  Every night of the week and weekends there is deemed a must-watch event on television.  They leave precious little time left for God or Bible study.  Life can easily snatch that time away with the numerous, grasping, boney, little hands of perceived priorities.  Additionally, the contributing faction of youth has now been split into young and younger.  Technology has made the very young relevant and even active in the scheme of life.  Some toddlers learn how to text before they learn how to spell.  And they may never learn how to spell if texting becomes the standard communication.

The fact is that God does not text.  If you want power, you have to pray.  If you expect to text God with a “Hi Dad” and then go on your way, then you walk away from a wealth of power and knowledge that cannot be sourced by any other way or means.  Satan knows that very well.  Further, if you worship God it must be in spirit and in truth (John 4:23).  Relying too heavily on the iPod, smart phone, high tech visuals, worship band, the worship leader and singers, and etc, is like relying on cheerleaders at a football game to inspire you to get interested in the game.  Have you ever noticed that the parents of the players do not need cheerleaders? What I’m saying is that it used to be all about God.  Then somehow, in gradual increments, it became all about us.  Once that paradigm shift occurred, people quit checking with God for direction, purpose, activities, and even doctrine.  They insisted something new was needed, that the old doctrine and ideas just were not working anymore.  I guess not since it is now all about us.  Most everything worked just fine when it was all about God.

In each generation where Christians lost their focus on the center, Christ Jesus, and refocused on self, apostasy has occurred.  Whatever happened to, “I died, and my life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3)?  We do not need new ideas and new paradigms in Christianity.  We simply need to return to the ones that worked for every generation that focused on Christ and fully surrendered to God.  Methods may change, but truth can never be altered without dangerous consequences.  The truth is; there are no worship bands, no slick, charismatic, articulate, preachers, no video or sound systems, and gimmickry, no Contemplative Spirituality, no New Age practices and other evil, in the jungles, in the house churches in China, or in the underground churches of Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, and etc.  Instead, there is violent opposition to Christians simply gathering and sharing the word of God.  However, people are more intimate with God and their spiritual lives are full and vibrant.  While the American Christian may run home from church whining over a broken fingernail, they meet with broken bones.

It is true that I am out of touch with the present generation and its successors that practice mysticism and are obsessed with self-gratification and sensationalism.  It is certain that I would not be accepted in an Emergent, Seeker Friendly, and probably the great majority of the Launch Churches.  I am content to go where God sends me, when He sends me, and not before.  I’m not mourning about that in the slightest and I am not fishing for opportunities.  Instead, I am as the rest of God’s remnant, deeply grateful that He has enabled me to recognize and hold onto truth.  Truth is considered by those factions at the least as a bizarre oddity and at the most repulsive heresy.  Is it only the 55-64 year old individuals, my generation, which agrees with me?  Maybe so, but that does not make it old fashioned.  The simple truth is that maybe they are the ones who have been through enough fire that they will pay attention.