Reverence for God and the things that represent His person and presence are dead or near death in many American churches and lives of those who profess to belong to the body of Christ.

In some instances reverence and respect may be used interchangeably, but they are not identical. While respect is a special regard, esteem, or consideration, reverence has a much narrower focus and rises to a higher level such as worship, adoration, awe, veneration, or devotion.

The demise of respect for authority and hierarchy

Without a doubt, the decline in reverence within the church and the lives of individual Christians is a reflection of the decline of respect for authority and hierarchy in the larger culture and has led to a general loss of civility and respect for law. The demise of authority and hierarchy is a result of the ascendance of humanism’s false definitions of freedom, democracy, and equality. These false definitions have seeped into the church and eaten away at the biblical understanding of holiness, reverence, and ultimately the fear of God.

As the evangelical church has become a cultural captive of the humanistic spirit of the world, it has absorbed humanism’s demands for a perverted understanding of democracy and equality. God has been “democratized” and is no longer the Great “I AM.” He is ignored much of the time, even in His own house. What is preached from many pulpits today is only a single-sided message that God is all-loving, kindly, non-judgmental, and tolerant. Many in the church have begun to see the once mighty Creator of the universe as little more than a kindly grandfather that is visited only on special occasions (Christmas, Easter, or when in need of a favor). For others, he is portrayed as the big daddy up in the sky, a cuddly teddy bear, or a good buddy who will see them through when they are in a pinch.

This casualness that borders on insolence has invaded the sanctuary where “God meets with His church community.” This informality and indifference in the sanctuary has extended to the manner in which Christians dress. Although there are no biblical directives for dress in the sanctuary, there are manners of dress that are at best disrespectful and at worst are sacrilegious. The position of one evangelical denomination expresses the proper approach to dress that reverences the sanctuary which represents God’s presence.

The dress of both men and women should show at least as much respect as we would expect to show in the presence of an important government leader. On the other hand, we cannot demand the same of a sinner who walks in off the street needing to find Jesus as Savior. Maturity in the Christian walk will naturally show more reverence and respect for God’s presence.[1]

To varying degrees, the profane beliefs, attitudes, and actions of the dominant anti-Christian culture have been absorbed by the church and have greatly contributed to the death of reverence.

Decline in the fear of God

It is a safe assumption that many Christians and churches do not reverence God because they no longer fear God. A. W. Tozer wrote that, “No one can know the true grace of God who has not first known the fear of God.”[2] But fear is a negative concept in our modern society. And the evangelical church that presents only the soft side of religion agrees with the culture’s assessment of fear. That is why for almost two generations messages on sin, the end times, the rapture, tribulation, judgement, punishment, hell, and other “negative” topics have been banned from many pulpits in America for they don’t sell well to consumer-oriented Christians shopping for the right gospel. In their efforts to avoid the topic of fear, ministers must leave out considerable portions of God’s revelation because the Old and New Testaments speak of fear in relation to God almost three hundred times. But the Bible is explicit that Christians must have a healthy fear of God.

His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation… I tell you my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell, you, fear him. [Luke 1:50, 12:4-5. NIV]

First and foremost, reverence is a matter of the heart. For those that love and obey His commands, fearing the Lord means that they must remain in awe and total reverence of His majesty, holiness, anger against sin, and judgment. For those of His followers who lose the fear of God, there is a corresponding loss of awe and reverence. Those Christians who have lost their fear of God generally develop a casual and sporadic relationship with Him. This strained relationship and growing separation often leads the Christian into a state of ungodliness by which is meant a loss of purity and separation from evil. Therefore, we can say that reverence begins with a right understanding and practice of “the fear of God” as taught by His word.

Reverence for the things that represent God’s person and presence

Although reverence to God must first be a matter of the heart, the depth of that reverence is generally revealed by the manner in which the Christian reverences those things which represent His person and presence. The Old Testament has much to say about reverence for God and the things of God. “Observe my Sabbaths and have reverence for my Sanctuary. I am the LORD.” [Leviticus 19:30, 26:2. NIV] However, many moderns say that we are not living under Old Testament law but in the age of grace. Therefore, grace has released the Christian from the strict rules and rituals required of the Israelites in the Old Testament. In other words, grace has effectively suspended many of the requirements to reverence the things of God. But this is a misunderstanding of grace.

The Holy of Holies contained the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat and was where the presence of God resided in the wilderness tabernacle and later the Temple. God’s presence in the Holy of Holies was separated from the people by the Temple Veil. The high priest was allowed to enter into God’s presence only once a year to offer a sacrifice for atonement of the sins of the people. No one could enter the Holy of Holies but the high priest. When Christ died on the cross the Temple veil was rent from top to bottom. The significance of the torn veil is that Jesus’ sacrifice made God accessible to all people. For those who put their trust in Him it was now possible to come directly into His presence.

In the age of grace, God’s children may approach Him directly as a child would approach a loving father. But the child must still have a filial fear of God which does not lessen or excuse the Christian’s duty of reverence for God and the things that represent His person and presence. Claims that grace is a replacement of the law is an excuse for many to bring the things of the world into the church but which clearly dishonors those things that represent God’s person and presence. Christ said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” [Matthew 5:17. NIV] The law that Christians are responsible to follow are the ethical and moral principles of the Old Testament as well as the teachings of Jesus and the apostles. These laws and teachings disclose God’s character, desires, standards, and general purposes for all people and still apply today.[3]

There are numerous biblical commands in both the Old and New Testaments which require Christians to reverence God and the things that represent His person and presence. The New Testament does not lessen or relax those standards of reverence due God. We see this continuing requirement of reverence in the book of Hebrews. “Let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our ‘God is a consuming fire.” [Hebrews 12:28-29. NIV]

As we have said, a Christian’s reverence as he communes with God is a matter of the heart, but reverence is also required for the “things” which represent God’s person and presence. These can generally be grouped as reverence for places (His sanctuary), persons (people and their relationships including hierarchy), and actions/things (worship, dress, and music). It is through these things which represent God’s person and presence that Satan often attacks the church. In our modern times Satan attempts to lure the church into worldliness by claiming it must be relevant to the culture but which is merely an attempt to lessen and ultimately replace the church’s reverence for the things of God. Writing over a half century ago, our friend Tozer once again cuts through the fog oozing from the smoke machines populating evangelical sanctuaries across the nation and reveals the heart of the matter.

Those Christians who belong to the evangelical wing of the Church (which I firmly believe is the only one that even approximates New Testament Christianity) have over the last half-century shown an increasing impatience with things invisible and eternal and have demanded and got a host of things visible and temporal to satisfy their fleshly appetites. Without biblical authority, or any other right under the sun, carnal religious leaders have introduced a host of attractions that serve no purpose except to provide entertainment for the retarded saints.

Any objection to the carryings on of our present golden-calf Christianity is met with the triumphant reply, “But we are winning them!” And winning them to what? To true discipleship? To cross-carrying? To self-denial? To separation from the world? To crucifixion of the flesh? To holy living? To nobility of character? To a despising of the world’s treasures? To hard self-discipline? To love of God? To total committal to Christ? Of course the answer to all these questions is no.[4] [emphasis in original]

As the church focuses on self and its fleshly appetites, there is also a precipitous decline in attention to and reverence for God and the things of God. In Parts II and III, an examination will be made of the death of reverence with regard to three things that represent the person and presence of God—the sanctuary, worship, and music.

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:

[1] “Reverence and Respect,” The Assemblies of God. https://ag.org/Beliefs/Topics-Index/Reverence-and-Respect (accessed May 8, 2017).
[2] A. W. Tozer, The Root of the Righteous, (Camp Hill, Pennsylvania: WingSpread Publishers, 1955, 1986), p. 39.
[3] Donald Stamps, Commentary – Matthew 5-17, The Full Life Study Bible – King James Version – New Testament, Gen. Ed. Donald C. Stamps, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Bible Publishers, 1990), p. 1683.
[4] A. W. Tozer, Man – The Dwelling Place of God, (Camp Hill, Pennsylvania: WingSpread Publishers, 1966, 1996-997), pp. 150-151.

The third and final prescription for the church is to seek a broad spiritual awakening across the body of Christ as well as revival of individual Christians and the local church. The pattern of sin and falling away from God followed by repentance, revival, and restoration of His people is a recurrent theme in the history of God’s dealings with the Israelites in the Old Testament. This pattern is illustrated in Psalm 80 as the author pleads with God to once again revive and restore His chosen people.

Return to us, O God Almighty! Look down from heaven and see! Watch over this vine, the root your right hand has planted, the son you have raised up for yourself. Your vine is cut down, it is burned with fire; at your rebuke your people perish. Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself. Then we will not turn away from you; revive us, and we will call on your name. Restore us, O Lord God Almighty; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved. [Psalm 80:14-19. NIV] [emphasis added]

The essence of revival of the church is a return to God and His ways. In the Old Testament there were at least twelve instances of revival.[1] Preceding each of these revivals there were at least four common elements present:

• A spiritual decline among God’s people.
• A righteous judgement from God – While varying from revival to revival, God’s judgement led to prayer, brokenness, repentance, and a desperate seeking of God’s face. Sometimes God’s judgement led to the deaths of the wicked.
• The raising up of an immensely burdened leader or leaders who had a heavy burden of the moral and spiritual needs of God’s people and the nation.
• Extraordinary actions were taken, the most common of which was a call for a Solemn Assembly of the people who humbled themselves, sought the Lord, wept, fasted, mourned, prayed, confessed and repented of their individual and national sins, and who committed themselves to leading a Godly life and separation from all unrighteousness of the nations.[2]

The prophet Joel called for a solemn assembly following God’s judgement on Judah by sending a horrendous swarm of locusts that devastated the land due to the drunkenness and rebellion of the people. “Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord.” [Joel 1:14. KJV] [emphasis added]

For those Christians of our day who are in anguish at the spiritual condition of the church and the nation, there is perhaps no verse that is more invoked in their prayers for revival and restoration than 2 Chronicles 7:14. It is sometimes called the revival verse.

…if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. [2 Chronicles 7:14. KJV]

Notice that God required His people, not the culture at large, to turn from their wicked ways. Although this promise was to Israel and not to other nations, it is a biblical principle that when adhered to has been proven to dramatically change the church as well as the destiny of cultures and mankind’s history for the better. During times of spiritual and moral decline within the church and nation, God will hear His people and respond with spiritual revival, renewed purpose, and restored blessings when the four conditions listed in verse 14 are met.[3]

If my people will humble themselves – God’s people must humble themselves. Humility is a brokenhearted expression of spiritual poverty and wretchedness. This humility comes from their shame and chastisement as their failures and sin are exposed and recognized and for which they now express true sorrow followed by a renewal of commitment to follow God’s commandments and direction for their lives.

If my people will pray – Prayer for revival it is an incessant and desperate plea for mercy and a casting of one’s complete trust and dependence on God. Such prayer is not a casual, intermittent recitation of the awfulness of the one’s situation and a request for a Band-aid® to treat the abrasions caused by a fallen world so that one may get back to more pressing matters of the hour. That’s not a prayer for revival and restoration.

If my people will seek my face – Seeking God’s face is seeking his presence. When God’s presence is withdrawn, Christians feel it. The individual Christian and the body of Christ must turn back to God and seek his presence once again with passion born of a hunger, a burning desire to feel and see more clearly the nearness of His presence. This leads to a deeper and closer relationship with Him. As the Christian basks in His presence, there will be an increasing desire to please Him by obeying His commandments, plans, and purposes for his or her life.

If my people will turn from sin – Christians must repent for their sins and turn from their own sinful ways and rebellion against God. This is a separation from evil influences while focusing on a life of purity and holiness.[4]

Prayer – The common threat

Although all four of God’s conditions are necessary for revival and restoration of His people, it is prayer that stands at the vanguard and acts as a covering for the other three. Dr. A. T. Pierson once said, “There has never been a spiritual awakening in any country or locality that did not begin in united prayer.”[5] Throughout all of history, the common and inextricable thread running through all spiritual awakenings is the concerted intercessory prayer of Christians. This was proven in each of America’s three Great Awakenings between the 1730s and the 1860s.

The church must not be discouraged if it does not see immediate results from its prayers for revival. Sometimes God must shake His people with drought, disease, war, economic collapse, or other calamities. At the beginning of the First Great Awakening in America, Jonathan Edwards prayed 2 Chronicles 7:14. But things didn’t seem to get better immediately, and the shaking continued with many tragic events and unusual deaths. God used these deaths and natural disasters to urge the people to church. Conversions began to increase due to prayer. People started talking about eternal things. And the Great Awakening eventually followed and served as the foundation of the American republic four decades later.

The Third Great Awakening that began in 1857-1858 is a pattern for the modern church. It was called by many names including the Businessman’s Revival, the Layman’s Revival, and the Union Prayer Meeting. Although popularly called the Revival of 1857-1858, it bore all the marks and qualifications of a general moral and spiritual awakening in America. [Note: Revivals tend to be localized events (church, village, town, or city), but an awakening encompasses a much larger area (district, county, or country), can last for years or decades, and significantly raise the moral standards of a society.[6]

The revival sprang from an initial meeting at the noon hour on September 23, 1857 in the upper room of the Dutch Reform Church in lower Manhattan. Jeremiah Lamphier had advertised the prayer meeting, but only six came that first day. Three weeks later, a financial panic that had been building since August exploded on October 13th when banks were closed and did not reopen for two months. Attendance soon mushroomed as businessmen from nearby Wall Street began attending. The prayer meetings quickly spread to other churches, auditoriums, and theaters.[7] During the winter months the crime rate dropped even as in mass unemployment caused by the financial panic engulfed the large city and where one would expect the crime rate to rise under such circumstances.[8]

The greatest intensity of the revival occurred between February and April of 1858. The initial effects of the revival were felt in New York City where the revival began. The prayer revival also sparked local church revivals in New England, the Midwest, and upper South (beginning particularly with New Year’s Eve “watch night” services); in separate women’s prayer groups; and on college campuses across the nation.[9] The character and results of the Revival of 1857-1858 were described by Matthew Backholer.

The lay influence predominated to such an extent that ministers were overshadowed. This awakening was not a remote piety in little corners of churches, but to the fore of everyday business life, college life and home life. It was right there in the nitty-gritty of everyday work, not just a Sunday affair.[10]

After considerable and careful research, J. Edwin Orr, one of the twentieth century’s foremost revival historians, confirmed estimates that over one million solid, long-lasting conversions occurred during 1858-1859 out of a population of less than thirty million.[11] Historians have debated the impact of the Revival of 1857-1858 as it related to nineteenth century social reform efforts. But, the reality was that the 1857-1858 Revival was about personal religious transformation but with which society greatly benefited. The revival caused men and women, in both the North and South, to be spiritually prepared for the coming struggle in which the nation would exorcize the demon of slavery and recover its national unity.

One hundred and sixty years later America and the church are again in profound rebellion against God, and as a result He is pouring out a measure of judgement on the nation. Whether this measure of judgement is remedial in nature or a final judgement depends on the actions of God’s people. Pierre Bynum says that America is ripe for destruction because of the rebellion of the church.

The Evangelical Movement in this country is characterized by an arrogance that is almost beyond belief. The neglect of prayer, the involvement in Philistine methodology, the moral evils, the doctrinal corruptions that characterize the Movement are sufficient to cause the people of Sodom to wonder at God’s justice in destroying their city while sparing the United States.[12]

The nation’s only hope is for God’s people to once again humble themselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from their wicked ways. From such comes revival.

As important as revival is to the church, it must add the previous two prescriptions to complete the church’s healing as discussed in Parts IV and V. Christians must resist cultural captivity through cultivation of resistance thinking that is essential to voice a prophetically untimely message to the church and a lost and dying world. This must occur in conjunction with a restoration of the doctrines, teachings, and practices of the New Testament that guided the first century Christians.

A final word to resistance thinkers who become prophetically untimely people

For those that develop and practice the art of resistance thinking, the outcome will be frustration, anger, and sorrow for they are untimely men and women, out of step with the trendy and fashionable, never at home in their present age, and whose message will be rejected by the majority. This occurs because resistance thinkers have a counter-perspective that is anchored in the uncompromising Word of God. Prophetically untimely people have the courage to say “no” to things that are wrong, but there is a price that is paid for their boldness. They are called purveyors of doom and gloom, mal-adjusted, out-of-touch with reality, divisive, legalistic, and haters among other vilifications. But those labels are of little consequence to the resistance thinker who speaks an untimely message.

Their greater pain and sorrow comes from their broken-heartedness as they see the lost-ness of friends, family, and the church that have become acclimatized to and are held captive by a culture saturated with the humanistic spirit of the age. Anger surges in their breasts as they see Satan’s devastation of the lives of men, women, and children engulfed by a sin-soaked world system and a church that is oblivious to the enemy within. They are in anguish at the destruction of the nation’s hard won Judeo-Christian foundations at the hands of false teachers, secularist and humanist philosophers, ungodly politicians, and their groveling fellow travelers.

The prophetically untimely resistance thinker can take solace in that their feelings of sorrow, anger, frustration, and brokenness are similar to the feelings common to all of the Old Testament prophets. They were few in number and rejected by their own age as are resistance thinkers in the present age. But the prophetically untimely resistance thinker can also take comfort, encouragement, and direction from the words of A. W. Tozer written long ago.

Take nothing for granted…Go back to the grass roots. Open your hearts and search the Scriptures. Bear your cross, follow your Lord and pay no heed to the passing religious vogue. The masses are always wrong. In every generation the number of the righteous is small. Be sure you are among them.[13]

The church is sick and the nation suffers. The road back begins with resistance thinking. Be among those to sound the alarm.

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:

[1] Rev. Pierre Bynum, Family Research Council Prayer Team, April 19, 2017.
http://www.frc.org/prayerteam/prayer-targets-rev-ro-roberts-the-solemn-assembly-national-day-of-prayer-may-4-2017 (accessed April 20, 2017).
[2] Ibid.
[3] Donald Stamps, Commentary, Fire Bible: Global Study Edition, New International Version, Gen. Ed. Donald Stamps, (Published by Hendrickson Publishers Marketing, LLC, Peabody, Massachusetts; Copyright 2009 by Life Publishers International, Springfield, Missouri), p. 723.
[4] Ibid.
[5] J. Edwin Orr, “Revival and Prayer.” http://www.jedwinorr.com/resources/articles/prayandrevival.pdf (accessed April 11, 2017).
[6] Matthew Backholer, Revival Fires and Awakenings, (www.ByFaith.org: ByFaith Media, 2009, 2012), p. 7.
[7] Michael McClymond, ed., Encyclopedia of Religious Revivals in America, Vol. 1, A-Z, (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2007), pp. 362-363.
[8] Backholer, “Revival and Prayer,” P. 62.
[9] McClymond, “Revival Fires and Awakenings,” p. 262-263.
[10] Backholer, “Revival and Prayer,” P. 63.
[11] Ibid., pp. 62-63.
[12] Bynum, Family Research Council Prayer Team, April 19, 2017.
[13] A. W. Tozer, The Root of the Righteous, (Camp Hill, Pennsylvania: WingSpread Publishers, 1955, 1986), p.5.

In Part IV, we saw that resistance thinking is an essential prescription for what ails the evangelical church in American and Western civilization and is a characteristic of God’s prophetically untimely people who have the courage to give voice to a message that stands against the church’s cultural captivity by the humanistic spirit of the age.

The second prescription for the church is a return to New Testament Christianity by embracing all of its distinguishing elements found in the first century church.

Restoring New Testament Christianity

There are several norms or hallmarks that give shape, definition, and context to New Testament Christianity. All of the distinguishing elements found in the early church (except for the writing of the New Testament Scripture) are available to the twenty-first century church. Space does not allow more that a cursory mention of the more significant observations and findings with regard to some of the missing fundamentals of New Testament Christianity. A more extensive examination of these elements can be found in Evangelical Winter – Restoring New Testament Christianity.[1]

To a lesser or greater degree in many evangelical churches, the hallmarks of New Testament Christianity are no longer found. Before the church can make the necessary course corrections, it must first identify the essential elements that are missing and have allowed it to slide into cultural captivity by the humanistic spirit of the age. Eight of the standards or hallmarks are listed below and include a brief discussion of the modern evangelical church’s departure therefrom. As stated above, the list is not meant to be complete or the discussion comprehensive.

• Irreplaceable power and presence of the Holy Spirit – Many modern churches have dispensed with the irreplaceable power and presence of the Holy Spirit in all aspects of church life which accounts for their powerlessness, spiritual poverty, and shallowness. The Holy Spirit will not allow Himself to be merely an accessory occasionally added to a church’s agenda. He is either the center or He will have no part of the program. Because many in the body of Christ and its leaders are more interested in doing church than being the church, they fail to wait upon the Holy Spirit and His enduement of power. His absence is the missing ingredient that leaves the church’s efforts a dry and tasteless imitation of the real thing. Unless the church moves and operates in the power of the Holy Spirit, its attempts to recapture the missing norms and hallmarks of New Testament Christianity will be in vain.

• The Old Rugged Cross – Many in the church have substituted a new cross for the old cross. The new cross seeks to comfort, please, and entertain. However, they are preaching another gospel and not the message of the cross found in Matthew’s gospel which has reverberated across two thousand years of Christianity and still means today what those words meant when first written. “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” [Matthew 16:24. KJV] Beginning at Pentecost, a small group of Jesus’ followers believed this message, preached the cross of which Jesus spoke, and turned the world upside down.

• Christ – Our Savior and Lord – New Testament Christianity’s concepts of sin and salvation have been replaced in many modern churches by the discredited doctrine of a divided Christ in which Christ the Savior and Christ the Lord have been separated. According to this doctrine, a sinner may accept Jesus Christ as Savior without surrendering to Him as Lord. But, the sinner who accepts Christ as Savior and walks away without accepting Christ as Lord perseveres in his sin. Yet, many evangelical preachers emphasize the acceptance of Christ as Savior and de-emphasize acceptance of Him as Lord. Some will say that the “Lord” part of one’s commitment to Christ comes later, sometimes even after church membership, because it is a process that takes time. In other words, the “saved” Christian will at some point also decide to make Jesus Christ the Lord of his life. But A. W. Tozer wrote that, “It is altogether doubtful whether any man can be saved who comes to Christ for His help but with no intention to obey Him.”[2]

• Repentance and turning from sin – The world’s definitions of love and tolerance have invaded the church and compromised the gospel message. As a result, the message of many churches is that God’s nonjudgmental love is so vast that he will overlook sin for a season if not altogether ignore it if one will only acknowledge Him. The new definitions of love and tolerance require unconditional acceptance of the sinner and is presumed superior to the biblical approach that requires repentance and turning from sin. Cheap grace is the end product of preaching the world’s definition of nonjudgmental love. If the church does not make this distinction clear, it is guilty of misleading people as to their eternal destination.

• Doctrinal purity – For the last several decades many in American evangelical churches have tampered with the meaning of scripture. One source of this doctrinal corruption is the pervasive and careless use of unfaithful translations and even less reliable paraphrases. A second source is the demise of serious expository preaching. There is a greater danger of doctrinal mischief when there is an over-reliance on topical messages that tend to cherry-pick verses which are inappropriately divorced form the larger meaning and context of the biblical passages. They do this in order to “prove” a point or prop up man’s opinion. The third reason is that many evangelical churches ignore serious preaching of major themes of the Bible such as prophecy and end time events. These are seen as not being culture-friendly and therefore a hindrance in growing the church. As a result large portions of the Bible are not included in their preaching and teaching—a form of taking away. These practices water the soil in which heresy grows.

• The narrow path – The church has become worldly because it has accommodated the spirit of the world within. There is a dynamic tension in which the individual Christian and the church must live—being in the world but not of it. We cannot avoid this tension for it is an inherent part of every Christian’s walk and every church’s ministry. To attempt to lessen the tension is to fall into the ditch of worldliness or, conversely, to disobey Christ’s command to share His message by separating ourselves from the world. In spite of the best of motives, a large majority in the modern evangelical church appears to have fallen into the ditch of worldliness through an accommodation of the spirit of the world within the church. When the world’s value system invades the church, the church becomes worldly and is the true church no longer.

• Preach the Gospel message – The church has failed to adequately and effectively proclaim the gospel. If the chief function of preaching is to unleash the word, then we should be concerned with how that word is to be unleashed. We have previously mentioned the decline of expository preaching. Topical preaching, polemical or disputational preaching, historical preaching, and other forms of preaching have their rightful places. But these forms have replaced expounding the Word of God to a substantial degree in many of today’s evangelical churches and have greatly contributed to a rapidly growing biblical illiteracy within the church. The message of the Bible has been dumbed down and therefore is made a husk without the life sustaining core from which the Christian finds spiritual nourishment. But such is foolish preaching (as opposed to the foolishness of preaching) and also inhibits the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the sinner. Without the work of the Holy Spirit, both the minister and the sinner are utterly powerless to change the sinner’s condition from death to life.

• Avoid being unequally yoked – Under duress from a culture heavily saturated with humanistic concepts of relativism, tolerance, and inclusion, many evangelical leaders and Christian organizations have embraced an ecumenicalism that reaches beyond the boundaries of the Christian faith. [See: culturewar.net for articles on “Ecumenicalism – Evangelicalism’s misguided group hug – Parts I, II, and III”] In their efforts to be ecumenical and culturally relevant, they have attempted to find common ground with apostate churches which are Christian in name only, with anti-Christian organizations, and with false religions that stand in opposition to God’s word. When ministers, ministries, and churches mix the light with darkness, they effectively have disobeyed God’s word and bring reproach on their ministry and the gospel of Jesus Christ. [See: 2 Corinthians 6:14]

______

In their quest to reinvent and re-energize itself through human efforts, many churches have pushed aside, trampled upon, or forgotten the essential foundational standards of New Testament Christianity including the eight listed above. It appears that many modern accommodating church leaders believe the disciples’ ministry in the first century could never be successful in the twenty-first century because it is too hard, too narrow, and too dull for the modern generation. It is said that it offers little to maintain their congregants’ interest or capture the attention of the post-modern generation. Therefore, the Bible’s old-fashioned, austere message is judged to be out-of-tune with the times and must be modernized to win friends and make converts. To that end the gospel message must be revamped by softening the rhetoric to make it seeker-friendly. The Christian church must also be overhauled and reorganized around sound business principles. It should identify its purposes in light of the culture and be driven by specific goals whose achievement in numbers and dollars can be properly measured and success gauged. It must also hire a first-rate public relations firm to survey the market and construct a ministry theme to best attract and connect with the community and meet its wants and felt needs. Next its leaders must rent or build a high-tech, multi-media, theater-style auditorium; employ a well-educated and socially acceptable ministry team to replace that scruffy band of disciples; and mount a multi-faceted media campaign to enlist members into Christ’s new church—The Church of the What’s Happening Now. In time the spiritual side will take care of itself if we can just get the seekers in the door and help them become better adjusted. Then the Holy Spirit will be free to do His thing as long as He doesn’t lay any guilt trips on the people.

During his visit to America in 1930, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote about the condition of the liberal church in America. While attending one New York church, he described the church’s profusion of social and charitable activities to the virtual exclusion of the pursuit of its true calling. “One cannot avoid the impression, however, that in both cases they have forgotten what the real point is.”[3]

But almost ninety years later we can say that the evangelical church has also forgotten what the real point is. The point forgotten is that the church must declare the eternal truth of God and His relation to man. This was done in every generation from the first century church to the present in cultures that were uniformly hostile to the message of the church. But in our modern day, instead of evangelizing the world, the world is evangelizing the church. To a large degree the value systems of the church and the world have become indistinguishable. As a result the church has abandoned its role as “…a holy, powerful remnant that is consecrated and available to God…[4]

By returning to the doctrines, teachings, and practices that guided the first century Christians, the modern church can once again gain a comprehensive, integrated, and unifying understanding of New Testament Christianity. In light of that understanding, the church will discover its critical departures from the New Testament’s standard and can make the necessary course corrections. Restoring New Testament Christianity is the tonic that will revitalize the church and empower it to escape from the cultural captivity of the humanistic spirit of the world.

In Part VI, this series will conclude with an examination of the final prescription necessary to restore spiritual health to the evangelical church – revival.

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:

[1] Larry G. Johnson, Evangelical Winter – Restoring New Testament Christianity, (Owasso, Oklahoma: Anvil House Publishers, 2016). Chapters 25-32.
[2] A. W. Tozer, The Root of Righteousness, (Camp Hill, Pennsylvania: WingSpread Publishers, 1955, 1986), pp.96-97.
[3] Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer, (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, 2010), p. 107.
[4] Jim Cymbala, Fresh Power, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2001), p. 22.

The American church is dying and parts of it are already dead. If one needs proof of its condition, a re-reading of Part II will reveal the severity of its illness. This is not to say that Christianity is dying for Jesus said, “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” [Matthew 16:18. KJV] [emphasis added] The remnant church will always survive, perhaps bloodied and bent for the moment, but it will survive.

There are three prescriptions for what ails the evangelical church in the West: development of the art of resistance thinking to challenge the forces of cultural captivity (conformity, popularity, and a quest for a distorted cultural relevance); return of the church to New Testament Christianity by embracing all of its distinguishing elements; and revival of the body of Christ as it moves and operates in the full power of the Holy Spirit.

Resistance thinking

The church has been captured by the modern humanistic, secularized culture, and this captivity has led to fragmentation of the Christian worldview in the West. This captivity has resulted in a loss of a right understanding of objective truth found in God’s divine revelation recorded in the Bible. This loss has caused many Christians to descend from the glorious heights from which they once could clearly see truth to a forest of facts and minutia that obscure truth and ultimately destroys within men’s minds the concept that truth exists. This is the consequence of the cultural captivity of the church.

How does a Christian regain a vantage point from which to rise above the distortions caused by their cultural captivity? Without such vantage point, one cannot understand and resist the prevailing spirit of the world that has invaded much of the modern church. Os Guinness called resistance thinking an art form, something a Christian “can learn and cultivate until it becomes a habit of the heart.” But apart from God’s help, a Christian’s efforts to develop the traits necessary for resistance thinking are futile, and he falls into the same mindset of the culture from which he intends to escape.

Guinness proposes three practices that will help Christians “cultivate the independent spirit and thinking that are characteristic of God’s untimely people.” These are an awareness of the unfashionable, cultivating an appreciation for the historical, and paying constant attention to the eternal. Their relative importance is shown by their ascending order .[1] Notice that the first deals with the temporal, the second concerns the past, and the third is eternity which is beyond time.

Awareness of the Unfashionable

Many of the problems of the modern church occur because of its desire to be fashionable which usually sits on the three-legged stool of conformity, popularity, and the quest for a warped cultural relevance. These comprise the links in the chain that binds the church in its cultural captivity. To discern and resist the essence of the fashionable church’s captivity, Christians must have an awareness of the unfashionable by which is meant an awareness of God and His ways which stand in contradiction to much of what passes for modern Christianity.

Following his call for repentance of the northern kingdom of Israel, the prophet Hosea added a postscript, “Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them; for the ways of the LORD are right, and the righteous will walk in them, but transgressors will stumble in them.” [Hosea 14:9. RSV] Because the wise Christian has the knowledge of God and His ways, he may also discern the fashionable ways of the world that must be resisted.

The Christian message conformed to the fashionable methods of today’s popular evangelicalism is little more than a consensus of opinion that arises from group thinking which has little connection to God and His ways. Such thinking leads to a fuzzy theology which is one of the reasons that a large majority of Christians cannot make a biblically accurate presentation of the gospel as described in Part II. Like their liberal forerunners, the evangelical church in the latter half of the twentieth century and to the present day has abandoned New Testament Christianity and replaced many of its doctrines with another gospel. Guinness described this sorry state of affairs.

And now, early twenty-first century evangelicalism mimics popular culture as closely and successfully as anyone could ever hope to while still getting away with it. In each case the end result is not only a betrayal of the faith but a hapless impotence before the very audience the church was out to impress…Signs are that, unless some drastic rethinking takes place soon, the corruptions in evangelicalism will worsen and show through in theology, not just in practice. Evangelicals have followed the broader cultural shift from “religion to spirituality” and in the process have become chronically individualistic rather than corporate; they have become “do-it-yourself” in their preference rather than living under authority; they are increasingly syncretistic rather than exclusive and discriminating.[2] [emphasis added]

This was written in 2003, but fourteen years later widespread corruptions in evangelicalism are now present its in theology as well as practice as Guinness predicted. One need only listen to the latest heretical pronouncements from the Pontiff in Rome or tune in to many of the mega-church pastors in America. These false teachers forfeit the unambiguous truth of God in the name of cultural relevance through an accommodation of the spirit of the world within the church. But such accommodation leads to a Christian faith that dispenses “…a license to entitlement, a prescription for an easy-going spirituality, or a how-to manual for self-improvement.”[3] It is a false religion, a weak and unrecognizable shell without the sustaining truth and power of New Testament Christianity.

True Christians must define themselves by the gospel and remain faithful in the day in which they live. But the world doesn’t want to hear their message for it is untimely because it conflicts with the audience-friendly message dispensed by many within the evangelical church. However, the radical call of Jesus to come and die will always be unfashionable in the modern world. To retain their prophetic untimeliness, faithful Christians must always have an awareness of the unfashionable.

Appreciation for the historical

One of the central tenets of the humanism is progressivism which is built on the dictum of the perfectibility of man, a “…belief that critical and autonomous human reason held the power to discover the truth about life and the world, and to progressively liberate humanity from the ignorance and injustices of the past.”[4] We see the outworking of progressivism in humanism’s creation story of evolution, the self-centered striving to climb the ladder of Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs, the social engineer’s incessant push for equality through leveling society, and the psychologist’s endless efforts to minister to the needs of unfallen but damaged man.

The common theme of progressivism is that the good old days were all bad and have nothing to teach mankind in his march toward perfection except for one thing. History can serve as humanism’s “horrible example” preceding its altar call. Thereafter, man can kneel at the shrine of progressivism and repent for his original sin of dabbling with a supernatural God.

The progressive view of history rests on the belief that the most advanced point in time represents the point of highest development. It assumes that “…that history is an inevitable march upward into the light. In other words, step by step, the world always progresses, and this progress is inevitable.”[5] A consequence of this view of history is that the historical record must be judged only in light of current beliefs, assumptions, and politics. If one holds the progressive opinion of history, the views of the present generation must be superior to timeless truths, tradition, heritage, and the wisdom accumulated through the ages.

However, the historical record is one of the greatest contributions to Western thinking, and by default the Bible stands at the center of that history in shaping and molding the Western mindset. Undoubtedly, the weight of history supports the biblical worldview which is a reflection of truth received not only through biblical revelation to the ancient Hebrews and first century Christians but is also a reflection of those unchanging cultural universals built into God’s creation and observed down through the ages. But in their rush to relevance and accommodation, evangelicals have abandoned an appreciation of their own historical roots.

In their haste to cast off the wisdom and experiences of generations of our Christian forefathers, today’s evangelicals have mischaracterized the meaning of sola scriptura which has led to a measure of anti-intellectualism and spiritual shallowness. The church must not reject its rich history and knowledge gained over the centuries which are invaluable to understanding of scripture. The successes and failures of the church through the centuries serve as priceless lessons that both illuminate and elaborate upon the Bible’s teachings. The teachings and writings of the great minds of the Christian past such as Augustine, Luther, and Calvin give much insight into a right understanding of the scriptures.[6] Given the benefit of hindsight, we know they got some things wrong, but without a doubt they were profoundly right on many things.

Guinness believes that an appreciation for the historical gives the best counterperspective to the distorted perspectives of the modern day arising from the humanistic spirit of the world that has captured much of the church.[7] Therefore, an essential for cultivating the art of resistance thinking necessary to become prophetically untimely is an appreciation for the historical.

Constant attention to the eternal

Constant attention to the eternal is the last but most important element necessary for cultivating resistance thinking and is characteristic of the prophetically untimely followers of Jesus Christ.

God said, “For I am the Lord, I change not…” [Malachi 3:6] But in our modern times, the church has lost sight of this truth. Over one hundred years ago, the rejection of God’s unchangeableness was evident in the liberal churches of the era. In 1910, Earle Marion Todd, writing in The Christian Century, captured the spirit of the liberal churches’ abandonment of unchangeable and eternal truths.

Change, unceasing change, is the eternal law…Not only are things changing; they are growing. The world, the universe, is becoming more beautiful, more wonderful, more complex…[T]he church, like every other institution that is to continue to live and discharge a vital function, must adapt herself to the changed conditions. (Jan. 20, 1910).[8] [emphasis added]

So too, in the name of change and relevancy, the modern evangelical church since the 1960s has become increasingly obsessed with the temporal at the expense of the eternal. It seeks to make better men for the day but neglects the destiny of their eternal souls.

But as Guinness points out, “the church’s pursuit of relevance by being constantly timely is a mirage.” [emphasis added] Such relevance becomes self-authenticating, that is, we are relevant because we say we are relevant which is meaningless to the point of being dangerous. To be in constant pursuit of relevance, the church must bow to the “unholy trinity of the powerful, the practical, and the profitable.” Guinness writes that by bowing to the idol of temporal relevance, the church has ridden “slipshod over truth” which is a “means of corralling opinion deceptively. Until, that is, we finally deceive ourselves.”[9]
______

An awareness of the unfashionable, an appreciation of the historical, and constant attention to the eternal are necessary elements in the development of the art of resistance thinking. Resistance thinking is not just a mental exercise but also a matter of the heart that requires a return to the hard and unpopular themes of the gospel. Resistance thinking is an essential prescription for what ails the church. The second of the three prescriptions will be discussed in Part V: a return of the church to New Testament Christianity by embracing all of its distinguishing elements.

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:

[1] Os Guinness, Prophetic Untimeliness-A Challenge to the Idol of Relevance,” (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 2003), p. 95.
[2] Ibid., p. 98.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Christian Smith, The Secular Revolution, (Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 2003), p. 54.
[5] Murray N. Rothbard, “The Progressive Theory of History,” Ludwig von Mises Institute, September 14, 2010. http://mises.org/daily/4708 (accessed October 28, 2014).
[6] Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth-Liberating Christianity from its Cultural captivity, (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2004, 2005), pp. 280-281.
[7] Guinness, Prophetic Untimeliness-A Challenge to the Idol of Relevance,” pp. 100-101.
[8] Earle Marion Todd, Christian Century, January 20, 1910, quoted by Keith Meador, “My Own Salvation,” The Secular Revolution, Christian Smith, Ed., (Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 2003), p. 279
[9] Guinness, Prophetic Untimeliness-A Challenge to the Idol of Relevance,” p. 106.

One eminent European scholar at Oxford University asked the question, “By the end of the 1970s who will be the worldliest Christians in America?” Following the silence of his stunned audience, he answered, “It will be the evangelicals and fundamentalists.” At the time this assessment was made, it seemed almost irrational because evangelicals and fundamentalists were considered to have been at the vanguard of understanding the dangers of the world and worldliness which had been exhibited by their forthright resistance to such for almost three centuries. The form of this legendary resistance was both rational and cultural, that is, their inner thought life and their outer life within the culture had stood as the bulwarks against a rapacious world and worldliness. But in the intervening years since that Oxford seminar, the professor’s prediction proved correct, and the “evangelicals and fundamentalists have embraced the modern world with a passion unrivaled in history.”[1]

The truth of this indictment is revealed by the in-depth examination in Part II of the condition of the American evangelical church as a result of its failure to resist the lure of the humanistic spirit of the modern age. The trends and direction of the evangelical church expose it as being desperately weak to the point of powerlessness. Having examined the condition of the church in Part II, we will examine the causes in Part III.

Nancy Pearcey cut to the heart of the matter when she wrote that Christians are called to resist the spirit of the world but to do so the Christian must first recognize the form it takes in our present day.[2] Failure to make this recognition has been the downfall of evangelicals and fundamentalists of all denominations since the 1960s, some more than others.

In 1999, Richard Cimino wrote an article titled “Choosing My Religion” which was published by Advertising Age. He described the factors Americans consider when seeking a church. Cimino’s observations on the desires of consumer-minded Christians had been discovered and applied decades earlier by the leaders of the Church Growth movement. What Cimino and Church Growth leaders found was that mainstream Americans had begun shopping for a God to fit their humanistic beliefs and lifestyles. As a result, their preferences had shifted from “religion” to “spirituality.”[3]

The dominant Christian religion in America through the end of the nineteenth century meant having a relationship with and obedience to God. However, by the last half of the 20th century, relationship and obedience had been pushed aside and replaced with the god of self and its quest for happiness. This shift occurred within the church because of the rise and eventual dominance of the humanistic worldview in all facets of American culture during the last half of the twentieth century.

Instead of presenting the world with the message of hope through Jesus Christ, the world infiltrated the church as it embraced elements of a humanistic worldview. Many in evangelical leadership will strongly deny this assertion and point to their success in reaching out to the lost by being culturally relevant. The church cannot dispute the fact that it must translate unchanging Christian theology into a contemporary language and understanding for each generation. But irrespective of the claims of many in evangelical leadership, there is a difference between evangelism that occurs through accommodation of the spirit of the world in many evangelical churches today and the evangelism of an earlier era which was an uncompromised presentation of the word of God in the face of ridicule and rejection by a hostile culture.

Where such uncompromised presentations are discarded in favor of a more sanguine and relativistic approach to the sinner, such conversions accomplished through accommodating the humanistic spirit of the age ring hollow when large numbers of those converts do not thereafter exhibit commitment to a Christian lifestyle.

Whether occurring through compromise, adding to, taking away, misinterpretation, disregard, neglect, or ignorance, the process of accommodation within the church, however subtle, has diminished the authority of scripture and influence of the church. Writing almost forty years ago, Francis Schaeffer concisely described the importance of fidelity to scriptural authority in both word and deed.

What seems like a minor difference at first, in the end makes all the difference in the world…in things pertaining to theology, doctrine, and spiritual matters, but it also makes all the difference in things pertaining to the daily Christian life and how we as Christians are to relate to the world around us. In other words, compromising the full authority of Scripture eventually affects what it means to be a Christian theologically and how we live in the full spectrum of human life.[4]

As we have previously stated, the rebellious, self-seeking nature of modern man is the essence of Original Sin. This is not a new occurrence for see this same pattern of rebellion and self-seeking in the Old Testament when the Israelites prepared to cross the Jordan River and enter the promise land according to God’s plan. However, the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh liked what they saw on the east side of the Jordan and wanted to dwell there. The meaning of their Hebrew names revealed their inner natures. Reuben was consumed with sexual sin, was attached to the world, and demanded his own way. Gad was outwardly obedient but placed his self-interests ahead of God and His commands. Manasseh forgot his Godly heritage and neglected the commandments of the Lord.[5]

David Wilkerson described many modern day self-professed Christians as being similar to the two and a half tribes of Israel.

Consider these combined traits of middle-ground Christians: Unstable as water in spiritual convictions; never excelling in the things of God; lukewarm, weak with lust; ruled by selfish needs; neglecting the Word; not taking the Lord’s commandments seriously; making their own choices instead of trusting God; forgetting past blessings and dealings; unwilling to let go of certain idols; justifying their own decisions; not willing to die to all that would seduce them back to middle ground![6] [emphasis added]

They chose the middle ground between their complete captivity by the world and Jesus’ command that His true followers must die to the world. Wilkerson’s middle ground closely parallels Paul’s words to Timothy.

For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. [II Timothy 3:2-5. KJV] [emphasis added]

The middle ground is the humanistic spirit of the world that has invaded the church, and Christians must recognize the form it takes in our modern age. Without an accurate recognition, how can the evangelical church resist the middle ground’s charms and deceptions?

As was stated in Evangelical Winter, the reason for the decline of many churches in America is not that the rising tide of secularism and humanism are stronger than the transformational power of the gospel. Rather, the church has attempted to continue as a moral force within the culture by becoming culturally relevant. This quest for relevancy has gradually (and for some almost unknowingly) compromised the biblical message, mixed the light with darkness, and preached nonjudgmental love without the necessity of repentance and turning from sin. These doctrinal compromises and non-biblical activities translate into spiritual weakness and ultimately death.[7]

Os Guinness wrote that in the 1980s and 1990s “The new evangelicals were in the process of becoming the old liberals” and “Church growth was now to be ‘on new grounds’.” But on these new grounds were found an “irrelevance of history, the outdatedness of traditional hymns and music, the uptightness of traditional moralism, the abstractness of theologizing, the impracticality of biblical exposition, the inadequacy of small churches, and the deadly, new unforgivable sin—irrelevance.”[8]

What is needed by the evangelical church in the West is reformation and revival. But to have reformation and revival the church must resist the forces of cultural captivity which Guinness identifies as conformity, popularity, and most damaging, the quest for a distorted relevance. The church’s quest for a distorted relevance is religious triviality in which “…many evangelicals are the most superficial of religious believers—lightweight in thinking, gossamer-thin in theology, and avid proponents of spirituality-lite in terms of preaching and responses to life.” The pursuit of distorted relevance must always end in transience and exhaustion. Finally, seeking a distorted relevance along with the quest for conformity and popularity inevitably leads to moral and intellectual cowardice and compromise which is the antithesis of resistance thinking.[9]

In Parts IV, V, and VI, the prescriptions necessary for the church to escape its cultural captivity and seek reformation and revival will be examined.

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:

[1] Os Guinness, Prophetic Untimeliness-A Challenge to the Idol of Relevance,” (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 2003), pp. 52-53.
[2] Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth, (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2004, 2005), p. 118.
[3] Richard Cimino, “Choosing My Religion,” Advertising Age, April 1, 1999.
http://adage.com/article/american-demographics/choosing-religion/42364/ (accessed October 23, 2015).
[4] Francis A. Schaeffer, The Great Evangelical Disaster, (Westchester, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1984), pp. 44-45.
[5] David Wilkerson, “Middle Grounders,” David Wilkerson Devotions, September 28, 2009.
http://davidwilkersontoday.blogspot.com/2009/09/middle-grounders.html (accessed March 31, 2017).
[6] Ibid.
[7] Larry G. Johnson, Evangelical Winter – Restoring New Testament Christianity,” (Owasso, Oklahoma: Anvil House Publishers, 2016), p. 242.
[8] Guinness, Prophetic Untimeliness-A Challenge to the Idol of Relevance,” pp. 59-60.
[9] Ibid., pp. 71-79.

Part I ended with Os Guinness’ words which call for individual Christians and the church “…to regain the courage of “prophetic untimeliness” and develop the art of “resistance thinking” and so become followers of Jesus who have the courage to become “untimely people” despite the mesmerizing lure of the present age and its fixation with the future.”[1] But resistance must be preceded by an accurate assessment of the condition of the church, recognition of the nature of the mesmerizing lure of the spirit of the age, and how that spirit has wheedled its way into the church.

The evangelical church in America and much of Western civilization is in a deplorable state and declining. George Barna[2] and the American Culture and Faith Institute (ACFI)[3] recently surveyed the religious trends in America, and the results were shocking. The first survey was a nationwide random sample of one thousand adult respondents 18 or older whose demographic profile reflects that of the United States. The second was a national public opinion survey of a sample of five hundred clergy who are part of ACFI’s panel of theologically conservative pastors. Both surveys were conducted in February 2017, and the results revealed the following trends:

• Church attendance is down.
• Professions of faith are at low levels compared to the past.
• As a result the decline of professions of faith, there also is a declining percentage of born-again Christians.
• The number of people who label themselves Christians is falling.
• Participation in small groups has dropped by half in less than a decade.
• There is the same pattern of decline in adult Sunday School involvement.
• Bible reading is less common.
• The number of adults who pray to God has decreased significantly in recent years.[4]

Barna states that the likely reason for the above trends is that Christians, including many Bible-believing pastors, do not share the fundamental elements of their faith with non-believers. This lack of witness has occurred because the level of their faith and relationship with Jesus Christ is not sufficiently exciting to cause them to do so.[5]

The trends in the American church shown above are confirmed by a summary of the raw data from the surveys in the areas of (1) a Christian’s personal responsibility to share the gospel, (2) the Christian’s level of engagement in evangelism, and (3) the message shared with non-Christians.

Do Christians have a personal responsibility to share their faith in Christ with others who believe differently?

Only two of every ten adults surveyed (20%) believe they have a personal responsibility to share their faith with others who believe differently. This result is for all adults surveyed, not just Christians. But what was surprising, only 25% of those surveyed who call themselves Christian believe they have that responsibility. Within this sub-group of people who identify themselves as Christians, 31% of Protestants and 17% of Catholics believe they have the personal responsibility to share their faith.[6]

In a parallel survey among a national sample of theologically conservative Protestant pastors, 73% believe they have a personal responsibility to share their faith with others who believe differently.” The results of the survey of these pastors revealed some variations based on denomination: Baptist church pastors (90%), Pentecostal (69%), and Holiness (76%).[7]

Engagement in evangelism

The low percentage of Christians that believe they have a responsibility to share their faith with others who believe differently is consistent with the low percentage of those who actually engage in evangelism. Only 23% shared their personal faith on a monthly basis. However, many of those sharing their faith were not Christians or professed to be Christians but shared a distorted gospel message not consistent with the Bible. The survey found that 71% of theologically conservative Protestant pastors shared the gospel at least once a month with others who believed differently.[8]

What message is given by those who share the gospel?

Based on the results of the survey, ACFI found that less than 10% of those who actually shared a message about their faith with other people at least once a month during the previous year actually presented a biblically accurate proclamation of the Gospel. In other words, only one in ten American adults has a biblical worldview.

Those who presented a faulty presentation of the gospel do not have a basic understanding of Christianity including the purpose and implications of Christ’s death and resurrection. The survey lists several divergent ideas about Christianity that were shared with unbelievers.

• People are basically good.
• Having faith is more important than the substance of that faith.
• God exists and is omnipotent and omniscient but that humankind has evolved from other life forms.
• God is aware of what happens in the universe and is involved with our lives.
• There is absolute moral truth but it is located in various places.
• Eternal security can be assured either through the sacrificial death and resurrection of Christ or by doing enough good deeds to earn God’s favor.
• A person’s life can be considered “successful” based upon the personal goals accomplished.
• The Bible is the reliable Word of God.
• Jesus understands our struggle because He sinned while on earth.
• Sin is real but Satan and the Holy Spirit are not.[9]

While 23% of those who shared their faith at least once a month, less than 10% presented a biblically accurate version of the gospel.[10]

Barna summarized the impact of the revelations of these surveys.

A large majority of non-Christians in the US do not hear the gospel during a typical year. Worse, when they do have the Christian faith verbally presented to them, shockingly few hear a biblical form of the gospel. Because of this, it is inevitable that the most common metrics of church life and personal spiritual maturity reflect rapid declines. When the fundamental message of Christianity is rarely communicated, and then it is distorted in those infrequent situations when it is communicated, the outcome is not likely to be positive…You cannot give away what you do not possess, and clearly most Americans do not possess even a basic understanding of the Christian narrative as well as the purpose and implications of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.[11]

Barna’s “You cannot give away what you do not possess” is a stinging indictment of a pervasive biblical illiteracy that is typical within most evangelical churches in America, and here once again we are reminded of the importance of a solid biblical worldview necessary to defend the faith from the infiltration of humanism into the church.

Worldview is important because it is the mental framework one uses to cope with and make sense of the world and identify truth or reality. These perceptions of truth or reality determines how they will decide what is right or wrong, good or evil, and distinguish the truth and the false.[12]

To determine worldview, the ACFI survey evaluated the respondent’s worldview by asking forty questions that dealt with their core spiritual beliefs and behavior. The questions did not deal with theological theories but centered on the respondents’ attitudes and behaviors regarding basic biblical concepts such as lying, cheating, stealing, pornography, nature of God, and the consequences of unresolved sin.[13]

The results of the survey revealed that although seven out of ten Americans claim to be Christian, only 46% of Americans claimed to have a biblical worldview. But, the results of the survey indicate that only about 10% of the general public were “integrated disciples” by which is meant that they had “a biblical worldview based on integrating their beliefs and behavior into a lifestyle that reflects foundational biblical principles.” Other results of the survey found that only 4% of the Millennials (18-29 years old) were “integrated disciples.” Almost one-third (32%) of all American adults claimed to be theologically conservative, but only one-fourth of that group qualified as “integrated disciples.”[14]

Barna states that if someone claims to be a Christian but their behavior does not reflect those beliefs, “it is doubtful that they believe what they really claim to believe.”[15] It would appear there are many reasons for this disconnection between beliefs and actions. One reason is that some people are “hereditary” Christians, e.g., “My mother was a Christian, so I identify myself as a Christian” or as many in other parts of the world assume, “You are an American. Therefore, you are a Christian.” A second group claims to be Christian because they are nominally members of a recognized church that for various reasons may not lead their adherents into becoming “integrated disciples.” Whatever the reasons for the disconnection between beliefs and actions, the American evangelical church as a whole has been woefully negligent in producing “integrated disciples” since the 1960s and which accounts for the declining trends in the health of the church including lack of biblical literacy among the congregants and the scarcity of “integrated disciples.”

Having recognized the damage caused by the mesmerizing lure of the present age that has significantly weakened the church, Part III will examine the causes that have led to the church’s powerlessness.

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:

[1] Os Guinness, Prophetic Untimeliness-A Challenge to the Idol of Relevance, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 2003), p. 20.
[2] George Barna, “National Surveys Describe the State of Christian Evangelism,” American Culture Review, American Culture and Faith Institute, March 22, 2017.
https://www.culturefaith.com/national-surveys-describe-the-state-christian-evangelism/ (accessed March 23, 2017).
[3] Ibid., The American Culture and Faith Institute is a division of United in Purpose, a non-partisan, non-profit organization. The mission of United in Purpose is to educate, motivate and activate conservative Christians to engage in cultural transformation in ways that are consistent with the gospel of Jesus Christ. The organization does not support or promote individual political candidates or parties.
[4] Barna, “National Surveys Describe the State of Christian Evangelism,” March 22, 2017.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Ibid.
[12] George Barna, “Groundbreaking ACFI Survey Reveals How Many Adults Have a Biblical Worldview,” American Culture and Faith Institute, February 27, 2017.
https://www.culturefaith.com/groundbreaking-survey-by-acfi-reveals-how-many-american-adults-have-a-biblical-worldview/ (accessed March 28, 2017).
[13] Ibid.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Ibid.

Satan hates God. Satan was cast out of heaven because of his pride in his position and his beauty rose to the point of placing himself on the level of God. As a result of his rebellion, Satan was not only demoted and stripped of every precious stone that was his covering, he was cast out of heaven. So Satan really hates God. It is a vicious, snarling, consuming hatred—something almost beyond our human ability to comprehend. But Satan had no power to strike back at God directly. His only alternative was to strike at God by robbing the Creator of His relationship with man—His special creation.

Humanism’s opposition to God’s plan for mankind encompasses all of human history. The humanistic spirit of the world is of satanic origin and has been present within human society since Adam and Eve were driven from the Garden. All through history, this humanistic spirit of the world is the spirit of rebellion of man against God. It is the essence of Original Sin that infects all of humanity.

In the eleventh century BC, King David wrote, “The fool hath said in his heart: there is no god.” [Psalm 14:1. KJV] But it was the Greeks of the fourth through sixth centuries BC that gave form and body to the man-made philosophy of humanism that would impact the world second only to Jesus Christ. Carried to its conclusion, humanism denies the existence of God for Nature is all there is. And all of life on earth including man is the product of Nature’s long evolutionary process that occurred by chance and was devoid of a supernatural Creator. Man is not fallen and in no need of a redeemer for man is master of his own destiny as he strives for happiness, freedom, and progress in this life for there is no life after death. Truth is whatever man wants it to be to address the needs of the moment. Truth is relative and is not some infallible standard beyond time by which man must be guided. As a result, moral values and concepts of right and wrong must be based on human experience and therefore are autonomous and situational.

The civilization of ancient Greece has fascinated mankind for 2,500 years. Philosophy, politics, much of arithmetic and geometry, and several categories of Western art were invented in an amazingly short four centuries by the Hellenes, the ancient Greeks.[1] In the early sciences, rhetoric, warfare, and grace of manners, the Greeks far excelled all civilized peoples who came before. The incalculable influence of those four centuries of Greek life and thought throughout the world has lasted to the present day where it spreads its tentacles throughout the modern Western world. Greek culture was divided into two periods: the Classical period which ended with Alexander the Great’s death in 323 BC was preoccupied with the ideal. However, the succeeding Hellenistic period (323 BC – 146 BC) was concerned with reality, that is, “relating the exploits of gods, heroes, and common mortals to everyday life and familiar emotions.”[2]

The culture wars are not of recent origin but extend far back into man’s history. It is a battle of worldviews between Christianity and humanism expressed through the humanistic spirit of the world. Dietrich Bonhoeffer called humanism or the Greek spirit the greatest danger to Christianity since its beginning.[3]

The spread of the ideas, culture, customs, and philosophy of humanism of the ancient Greeks is called Hellenization. Much of the ancient Greeks’ early efforts to Hellenize the world were done at the point of a sword, and the Jewish people were not exempted. One of the most famous stories of resistance to Greek Hellenization was the Maccabean Revolt recorded in the writings of Eusebius and Clement and in the Septuagint within a few decades of the actual events. [The Septuagint includes the Apocrypha which is not a part of the Jewish Old Testament or Protestant New Testament. However, the Apocrypha is included in the Catholic Bible.]

The events of the Maccabean Revolt are recorded in the first book of the Maccabees. The story begins with Antiochus Epiphanes, a Seleucid king whose empire was based in northern Syria and whose culture was primarily of Greek origin. He was one of the successors of Alexander the Great. Antiochus’ empire stretched southward into Judea which had been incorporated Judea as part of his empire when his father (Antiochus III) defeated the Egyptians in 198 BC.[4] Judea was important because it was the southern border of Antiochus’ kingdom and the front line with his Egyptian enemies that lay to the west.

Antiochus III attempted to Hellenize the Jews but eventually backed down. But his son reinstated his father’s program of Hellenization and outlawed the central tenets of Judaism including observance of the Sabbath and circumcision. Antiochus also defiled the Temple by opening it to non-Jews, erecting an altar to the god Zeus, and sacrificing swine.[5] Many Jews succumbed to the cultural imperatives of Greek Hellenism, but some chose to resist unto death.

The story begins when a local Greek official attempted to force Mattathias to make a sacrifice to a Pagan god. Following the murder of the Greek official, Antiochus directed many reprisals against the Jews, but many resisted. From their village of Modi‘in located a few miles northwest of Jerusalem, Mattathias and his five sons became leaders of the resistance against Antiochus and fought for the liberation of the Jews. Mattathias soon died, but the revolt continued under his son Judah called Maccabeus which means “the Hammer” in Hebrew. Antiochus responded by sending a powerful army to put down the insurrection. But after three years of this David versus Goliath battle, Jerusalem was recaptured by the Maccabees and the Temple purified in 164 BC.[6]

Some believe that early Christianity was essentially “Hellenized” at its birth, a product of the significant influence of the Hellenistic thought and culture on the newly arrived Christian faith.[7] Russell Kirk (writing from a Catholic perspective) stated that, “…Hellenic thought had been woven inextricably into the fabric of Christian teaching, so that it was next to impossible to distinguish Judaic threads from Greek…”[8] More correctly stated, it was elements of Platonic thought rightly understood that intersected and were consistent with Christian teaching and doctrine. This leads only to an appearance of integration between the two. Although one may accept the importance of Greek cultural influences on early Christianity (the New Testament was written in Greek), Christians vigorously defend the source for Christian tradition and doctrine as the inspired word of God revealed to the Hebrews and later to the Apostles. Christian faith and teaching is not an offshoot of Greek Hellenization whose philosophy of humanism is diametrically opposed to the revelation of God to the Hebrews and New Testament doctrines of the Christian church. This contrast is evident in Paul’s sermon to the Greeks at Mars’ Hill.

Although humanism was a constant enemy of Christianity from the first century, it became rooted within church doctrine during the thirteenth century. Just as he did with Eve, Satan began whispering in the ears of the Churchmen. His scheme was to redefine the condition of fallen man, and Satan used the philosophy of the ancient Greeks to do it. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) revered the 4th century B.C. Greek philosopher Aristotle. Through study of Aristotle’s writings, Aquinas believed that man revolted against God and was fallen but not completely. He believed man’s will was fallen but not the intellect. Therefore, in addition to the Bible, men could rely on human wisdom as well as the teachings of non-Christian philosophers.[9]

Through Aquinas’ efforts, elements of Aristotle’s non-Christian philosophy and other church traditions were accepted by the church as a source of authority alongside the Bible. Because Aquinas’s unfallen human reason was now autonomous and equal to scripture, more and more of the pronouncements of the church were based on pagan Greek and Roman philosophies. Eventually those pronouncements became more important than many teachings of the Bible. Human reason was now autonomous, but unhooking human reason from biblical revelation created a fundamental problem. If one starts with man’s ideas and reason as opposed to the absolutes found in the Bible, fixed standards for determining values, morals, law, and truth no longer have meaning and truth descends into relativism. This is pure, undiluted humanism.[10]
______

All through man’s time on planet earth, his story is awash with Satan’s attempts to destroy him by subverting the truth of the God’s Word through the humanistic spirit of the world as described above. But in every age there have been men of God who spoke truth and stood firm in the face of overwhelming opposition from apostate churches and pagan cultures of their age.

Os Guinness described these men as possessing a “prophetic untimeliness”—independent thinkers out of step with the conventional wisdom of their generation. These were men of great discernment, vision, having a different perspective and commitment, and not at home in the age in which they lived. Not all such men who possess independent thinking are guided by eternal truths as revealed by God. Where such occurs, the independence of their thinking will be misguided, flawed, and ultimately lead to failure or corruption. But for the man who follows God, the foundation for their independent thinking is anchored in the truth of the His eternal Word and not his or her “genius or social stubbornness.”[11]

Having succumbed to the siren song of the humanistic spirit of the age, the modern church has largely been overwhelmed with the quest for relevance and reinvention to accomplish Christ’s mission but at the cost of faithfulness to Jesus Christ. This has occurred because the church has failed to balance the twin commands of Christ—“go ye into all the world” and “be ye separate.” In most of today’s churches the “going” into the world has far surpassed “separation” from the world. For many, this “going” has come to mean being culturally relevant through accommodation of the spirit of the world within the church. In other words, the world has evangelized the church instead of the other way around.

But where are those prophetically untimely men and women in our present age? There are a few such men and women in Western civilization who are ringing the bell of truth, but not many are heard. Their messages are being muffled under the din emanating from an inward-turned modern world consumed with the moment while ignoring the eternal. Thus, these messengers of truth have been reduced to being a voice “crying in the wilderness” because Christian pacifists and false teachers in the culture wars hold the microphone and dominate the platform. Guinness believes there should be more Christians who develop the trait of prophetic untimeliness.

The answer…is to regain the courage of “prophetic untimeliness” and develop the art of “resistance thinking” and so become followers of Jesus who have the courage to become “untimely people” despite the mesmerizing lure of the present age and its fixation with the future.[12]

The church needs many more faithful Christians with the art of “resistance thinking.” Such thinking correctly balances the “go ye” with the “be ye separate” and requires a stubborn awareness of the elements of the contemporary age that don’t fit with the Christian message. Where the gospel is easy, comfortable, and a natural fit with the prevailing self-centered humanistic spirit of the age, then its demands for self-denial and sacrifice are not present and neither is the true gospel of Jesus Christ.[13]

In the remainder of this series on resistance thinking, we will examine the current dismal state of evangelicalism, the causes, and the cure through development of the art of resistance thinking.

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:

[1] Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer, (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, 2010), p. 85.
[2] J. M. Roberts, The New History of the World, (Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 211.
[3] Marcus Cowper, History Book-An Interactive Journey, (Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2010), pp. 20-21.
[4] Steven H. Werlin, “The Maccabean Revolt: Between Tradition and History,” Society of Biblical Literature, https://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/TB5_Maccabees_SW.pdf (accessed March 27, 2017).
[5] “The Maccabees/Hasmoneans: History and Overview (166-129 BCE),” Jewish Virtual Library, http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/history-and-overview-of-the-maccabees (accessed March 27, 2017).
[6] Ibid.
[7] John Herman Randall, Jr., The Making of the Modern Mind, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1927, 1940), p. 46.
[8] Russell Kirk, The Roots of American Order, (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Gateway, 1991), p. 74.
[9] Francis A Schaffer, How Then Shall We Live? (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 1976), pp. 51-52.
[10] Ibid., pp. 52, 55.
[11] Os Guinness, Prophetic Untimeliness-A Challenge to the Idol of Relevance,” (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 2003), pp. 19-20.
[12] Ibid., p. 20.
[13] Ibid.

In Part I, Dr. Charles Crabtree identified three causes of the crisis of discipleship in the Assemblies of God. These causes have affected virtually all denominations. The causes have been profoundly debilitating to the liberal mainline denominations for most of a century, but the causes have also invaded non-mainline evangelical churches in varying degrees since the 1960s.

Dr. Crabtree identified the three causes of the crisis in discipleship as preaching another gospel, the failure to count the cost of discipleship, and a failure to continue in the Word.[1] These are not the only causes of the demise of biblical Christianity but account for much of the humanistic spirit of the world that has invaded the church. This invasion into the modern evangelical churches of America will be examined.

Preaching another gospel

When preaching no longer focuses on the cross of Christ, it becomes another gospel. And it is this other gospel that is preached and practiced by the pervasive Church Growth movement and which has been embraced by many evangelical churches in America over the last quarter century. Crabtree called this other gospel “good news for the ego” which is at the heart of the seeker-sensitive church’s message. This other gospel focuses on adding value to the temporal life of the seeker with no confrontation of seeker’s sin. This focus on the felt needs (often the product of a desperately wicked heart) produces a tendency toward universalism which requires only confessing Jesus with one’s words but does not require a change of heart or a change from a sinful life style (for everyone is going to heaven anyway). As Crabtree put it, the focus is on “making a nice person, not a new person.”[2]

The whole of the seeker-sensitive movement’s dedication to meeting the felt needs of people taps into the humanistic spirit of the world and its devotion to self. In the seeker-sensitive churches, felt needs are assumed to be legitimate but are often merely diversionary measures used by Satan and his forces to defeat the human soul. Not only does the seeker-sensitive church attempt to meet the felt needs of their audience, they also attempt to meet their felt wants. Udo W. Middelmann reveals the heart of the matter in his stinging indictment of many evangelical churches in America.

In the course of a very few decades much of the church has embraced the way of mass culture in its drive to reduce everything to play and attractive entertainment. It has bowed to the demands of a consumer society and offers a message that more often distracts for the moment than comforts for the long run. Adjustments in content and form to match the perceived needs of future possible converts eat away at the content necessary to understand God, the fall of man, and redemption. Marketing priorities preside. The product is matched to the customer’s expectations. There is little room for the doctor to prescribe the medicine or for God to set forth judgment and conditions for redemption.[3]

In seeker-sensitive preaching, there is an inherent conflict between preaching the cross of Christ and their goal of being sensitive to the feelings and needs of the unchurched. We find the correct answer to this conflict revealed in the book of Hebrews.

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. [Hebrews 4:12. KJV]

When preaching the cross, it is well to remember that the Word not only accuses and cuts but comforts and dresses wounds as well.

In the seek-sensitive church world, saccharine superficial messages attempt to massage and caress felt needs without the necessity of spiritual surgery. But the Word rightly applied cuts deeply beneath felt needs to the secret sin buried in the heart of man which Jeremiah called desperately wicked and deceitful (see Jeremiah 17:9).[4]

According to Crabtree, moving from preaching another gospel back to preaching the cross of Christ will require a move of the Holy Spirit that “will bring divine revelation concerning the power of the Cross along with the resurrected Jesus, so people will say, ‘The pearl of great price is worth all the junk, all the stuff, all material riches. God is worthy.’”[5]

Failure to count the cost of discipleship

It would appear that there can be little argument that the American evangelical church has grown soft on a diet of soft-soap evangelism that tickles the ears; provides comfort, ease, and entertainment; and demands little in the way of contrition, repentance and turning from sin.

One of the brightest stars in the Church Growth movement is a purveyor of such soft-soap evangelism. He has said, “Sometimes you need to give the unbeliever some slack in order to reel them in.”[6] “Slack” in the seeker-sensitive model of doing church means attempting to entice the sinner through the church’s doors and then focusing on meeting his or her felt needs. It is hoped that over time the importance of being a Christian and its associated benefits will convince the seeker that they should “make a decision for Christ.” Thereafter, sanctification will come through listening and responding to a series of therapeutic messages designed to make them better people and thereby partake of the popularized view of Christianity known as “the good life.” The only problem with this method is that many preachers never get around to presenting the unadulterated powerful message of the cross nor allow time for the Holy Spirit to do His office work of convicting the sinner of his sin without which no man can come to Christ.[7]

This is called grace on the cheap, but it is a counterfeit grace that is leading millions to an eternity in hell. The real cost of serving Jesus is high, and a great multitude in evangelical churches across America haven’t paid the price. The high cost of following Jesus Christ always centers on the cross and is confirmed by the words of Luke and the Apostle Paul.

And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.” [Luke 14:27. KJV]

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. [Galatians 2:20. KJV]

But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. [Romans 13:14. KJV]

Christ’s call to discipleship is not doing better but embracing the message of the cross, dying to self, and living the resurrection life which will result in true sanctification.

Failure to continue in the Word

Luke described the necessity of continuing in the Word. “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” [Acts2:42. NIV]
Many people truly find Christ as their Savior and Lord, are baptized in the Holy Spirit, and become part of a local fellowship of believers. However, they never truly live productive, fruitful, and victorious lives. Crabtree believes that the third cause of ineffective discipleship is a failure to continue in the Word.[8]

The evangelical church has exhibited a marked decline in biblical literacy in the last decades of the twentieth century which continues to the present day. As used here, biblical literacy means familiarity with the Bible and its central themes and teachings. There are several reasons consistent with the humanistic spirit of the age that account for the decline of biblical literacy.

• Significant abandonment of devotional reading and Bible study among evangelicals of all ages.
• De-emphasis or complete elimination of a weekly Sunday morning Sunday school.
• Discontinuance of children and youth organizations within the church that promote scripture memorization and biblical knowledge.
• Significant decline in expository preaching as preachers began emphasizing the therapeutic realm of personal relationships and feelings. The decline in expository preaching has also led to a drift away from constant and thematic biblical preaching and teaching of the great organizing themes of the Bible such as the nature and character of God; the creation, fall, and redemption; the historical narratives of the Old and New Testaments; the Christian walk in a hostile world, and prophetic and end-time events.
• Decline in number of sermons that Christians hear from the pulpit. Thirty or forty years ago, the average evangelical church member would hear three or more messages preached each week compared to perhaps one each week at present. The church has replaced many regular preaching services with small group meetings and other religious activities that do not provide a consistent exposition of the Bible.
• Decline in regular attendance of church members at services where a message is preached.
• Replacement of hymns with their explicit doctrine-laced biblical themes with more contemporary, personalized themes.[9]

Ten years ago, Crabtree express great hope for the implementation of small groups that would change the direction of the Assemblies in curing the crisis of discipleship. Crabtree’s words from Part I are repeated here.

We will set up model churches around the country that are doing small groups within the guidelines of a Pentecostal church. We will promote our own small-group models…Sunday School will continue to be the fundamental discipleship ministry in the Assemblies of God. I am a fervent believer that Sunday School, when used properly, is the most effective discipleship tool in the American culture. Small groups and Sunday School will feed off each other.[10] [emphasis added]

The imposition of small groups has largely been a failure in accomplishing its intended purposes. It is not because small groups are not biblical by nature. Rather, the nature of the first century small group has been perverted by the seeker-sensitive ministry mindset. Small groups often abandon the guidelines of a Pentecostal church of which Crabtree spoke. Such groups have made fellowship and the breaking of bread their primary focus and failed to devote themselves to the Apostles’ doctrine and prayer. Many small groups have not followed the biblical pattern, but more importantly they have severely damaged other elements of the church which continues to undermine biblical literacy.

Crabtree fervently believes that Sunday school, when used properly, is the most effective discipleship tool in American culture. Yet, many adult Sunday school classes are replaced by small groups meeting at other times. Young couples whose Sunday school classes are eliminated because they are herded into small groups meeting at other times also do not bring their children to Sunday school.

Small groups have been used as a replacement for the irreplaceable Sunday night service which Crabtree states “is time for the church to gird itself…to rise up Monday morning…” But the New Testament pattern for small groups was never designed as a replacement for church services where preaching and teaching of the Apostles’ doctrine and prayer occurred.
______

If the church is to successfully address the causes and provide a cure for the crisis in discipleship, it must have revival. But revival will not come if the church does not forsake all by keeping one foot in the world. Revival must be preceded by the church’s contrition, repentance, and turning from sin and coupled with prayer and petition for revival. When seeking revival, A. W. Tozer’s words of six decades ago give further guidance. He said that we should look to the Bible and the great saints of the past for our directions in this modern age.

Take nothing for granted…Go back to the grass roots. Open your hearts and search the Scriptures. Bear your cross, follow your Lord and pay no heed to the passing religious vogue. The masses are always wrong. In every generation the number of the righteous is small. Be sure you are among them.[11]

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:

[1] Dr. Charles Crabtree, “Discipleship in the Assemblies of God: The Crisis, The Cause, and The Cure,” Supplement to the Enrichment Journal, Winter 2007, p. 2.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Udo W. Middelmann, The Market Driven Church, (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 2004), p. 124.
[4] Larry G. Johnson, Evangelical Winter – Restoring New Testament Christianity, (Owasso, Oklahoma: Anvil House Publishers, 2016), p. 193.
[5] Crabtree, “Discipleship in the Assemblies of God,” p. 2.
[6] Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Church, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995), p. 216.
[7] Johnson, Evangelical Winter, p. 216.
[8] Crabtree, “Discipleship in the Assemblies of God,” p. 3.
[9] Johnson, Evangelical Winter, p. 189.
[10] Crabtree, “Discipleship in the Assemblies of God, p. 4.
[11] A. W. Tozer, The Root of the Righteous, (Camp Hill, Pennsylvania: WingSpread Publishers, 1955, 1986), p. 5.

Dr. Charles Crabtree served as the Assistant General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God for fourteen years. Following his tenure at the Assemblies of God headquarters in Springfield, Missouri, he became the president of Zion Bible College in Haverhill, Massachusetts, and served until 2013. Dr. Crabtree published an article in the Enrichment Journal, Winter Quarter, 2007, titled “The Crisis of Discipleship in the American Church.”[1] This article was condensed and published as a supplement titled “Discipleship in the Assemblies of God: The Crisis, The Cause, and The Cure.”[2] This was an abridgement of a message delivered the previous August at a weekly chapel service for the headquarters employees of the General Council of the Assemblies of God.

In 2007, Dr. Crabtree wrote of the crisis he saw in the Assemblies of God with regard to the three-fold purpose laid down by the fellowship’s founders.

Evangelism – 2007

Crabtree said that the state of evangelism in the Assemblies was “unremarkable.” In support of his conclusion he stated that for the period 1995-2005, the Assemblies had 5.3 million stated decisions for Christ but the growth from those conversions was just under 222,000 over ten years (4.2% conversion growth rate). Crabtree responded to those who would minimize the importance of Sunday morning attendance because it is not proof of salvation. He said, “I tell you that if a baby is not in the care of the home, that baby is either dead, lost, or in deep trouble.”[3]

Discipleship – 2007

Crabtree also saw a crisis in discipleship in the Assemblies which he called “ineffective.” He stated that within the fellowship in 2005, only one in four who decided for Christ followed up with water baptism and only one in five received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. “If we continue this trend, I project that in ten years (2017) we will have a small minority of Pentecostals in the Assemblies of God.”[4] [emphasis added]

Worship – 2007

“I believe the state of worship in the Assemblies of God has become incidental rather than pervasive.” Crabtree explained that worship is a life style. It is not a Sunday morning “incident” but “a constant, humble obedience to the Lord in all areas of life” that must occur in the life of a disciple seven days a week.[5]

Like a skilled surgeon, Dr. Crabtree cut to the heart of the crisis within the Assemblies of God in accomplishing its three-fold purpose. Next, he identified the causes.

Preaching another gospel

The reason for ineffective evangelism and discipleship in the American Protestant church including the Assemblies of God “…is the preaching of another gospel—good news for the ego. The Cross is not the central focus in a great deal of preaching.”[6]

It seems the American church says to those who pass through the doors, “You’re a good person, and the church can give you added value to the temporal life.” And it will. But this is not the primary reason the church exists. The church exists to get people ready for eternity, not for tomorrow. It is not a temporal gospel; it is an eternal gospel, and at the heart of that gospel is the Cross and true repentance.

What we have is a culture that says, “If you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, that is all we are going to ask. We are not asking for a behavioral change; we want a doctrinal change. We want you to believe the way we believe, but how you act is up to you. And when you come to this church, we promise we will not confront you with sin. We will not make you feel the least bit convicted.”

I see this more and more. It is the philosophy of universalism: Confess Jesus, God will take care of the rest. Everybody is eventually going to heaven anyway. So, do not get excited. All you need to do is to be a nice person, not a new person.[7]

Failure to count the cost of discipleship

Christ said, “And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” [Luke 14:27. NIV] Crabtree described what carrying one’s cross was and was not. He wrote, “Your cross is living in a hostile world and standing up to the filth, rottenness, and sin in homes, families, and workplaces, and say, ‘No sir, I am a Christian; I am a follower of Christ.’” He states that if the church soft-soaps the gospel and attempts to get by with lackadaisical discipleship, young people are not going to be drawn to something that is not challenging and worthwhile. Crabtree argues that if the church’s message presents the high cost of serving Christ, millions will respond because they are looking for something far more important that their own temporal lives.[8]

Crabtree attributes the anemic condition of the church to its work is being done by professionals and “not spirit-filled portable temples” between Sundays. “It is time for the church to gird itself on Sunday night to rise up Monday morning, and say, ‘We are going to be a strong, healthy church, and we are going to change this world through our faithfulness to God and our obedience to the Lord.’” Crabtree believes the answer to the church’s dilemma is revival which means “bringing the church back to healthy productivity” and not just being blessed.[9] [emphasis added]

Failure to continue in the word

Even though people may be saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, they never become productive Christians by which is meant they never reproduce themselves in the kingdom. According to Crabtree, this is result of a failure to continue in the word, the third cause of the crisis in discipleship within the church.

Crabtree outlined what the church must do to cure the crisis of discipleship. He states that the cure must rest on being prepared for discipleship. This is not meant to be a one-size-fits-all for individual churches will prepare for and conduct discipleship in many different ways and will be effective when the church “takes babes in Christ and disciple them into productive spiritual adults.”[10] Crabtree states that small groups should be one element of the cure.

We will set up model churches around the country that are doing small groups within the guidelines of a Pentecostal church. We will promote our own small-group models…Sunday School will continue to be the fundamental discipleship ministry in the Assemblies of God. I am a fervent believer that Sunday School, when used properly, is the most effective discipleship tool in the American culture. Small groups and Sunday School will feed off each other.[11] [emphasis added]

Crabtree concludes by stating that the heart of the cure for the crisis in discipleship must always be love…“every convert loved by somebody, not just everybody.”[12]
______

To properly assess the direction of the Assemblies of God in the United States since Charles Crabtree’s article in 2007, statistics for the period 1996-2005 has been compared with the period 2006-2015.[13}

Growth from Conversions declined from an annual average of 495,509 to 454,208 or a 41,301 decline compared to the previous ten years, a decline of 8.34%.

Sunday Morning Attendance increased from an annual average of 1,664,079 to 1,860,691 or a 196,613 increase compared to the previous ten years, an increase of 11.82%.

Water Baptisms increased from an annual average of 122,84l to125,325, an increase of 2,484 compared to the previous ten years. This represents an increase of 2.02%.

Holy Spirit Baptisms declined from an annual average of 93,097 to 84,747, a decline of 8,921 compared to the previous ten years, a decline of 8.9%.

A brief examination reveals that the Assemblies of God has not resolved their crisis of discipleship. Growth from conversions and Holy Spirit Baptisms have declined between 8% and 9% for the 2006-2015 period compared with the 1996-2005 period. And the Water Baptisms category is just barely in the black. Ten years have passed since Dr. Crabtree’s prediction that Pentecostals will be a small minority in the Assemblies of God in ten years. That decline has continued, and in 2017 it appears that in many Assemblies of God churches the Pentecostals have become the small minority.

Even though there are concerns about the direction of the Assemblies of God in recent years as identified by Charles Crabtree, its record is far superior to the great majority of evangelical denominations in the United States. A report published in March 2015 compared long-term growth of various denominations from the mid-1960s to 2012 and 2013. Of the eight primary mainline denominations, all had declining memberships, and the loss of membership in seven of the eight denominations ranged from 27% to 67%. Six of the seven primary non-mainline denominations had increases in membership ranging from the Southern Baptist Convention at 46% growth to the Church of God in Christ with 1,194%. The Assemblies of God grew from 572,000 adherents in 1965 to 3,031,000 in 2013, an increase of 430%. The report stated that although the growth of the more conservative non-mainline churches was slowing, the liberal mainline denominations were on a path to inevitable demise because of their progressive departure from biblical Christianity.[14] This observation should be a wake-up call for the non-mainline denominations with slowing growth.

In Part II, Dr. Crabtree’s causes for the crisis in discipleship in the Assemblies of God will be examined in light of the disturbing trends in all evangelical churches in the United States.

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:

[1] Dr. Charles Crabtree, “The Crisis of Discipleship in the American Church,” Enrichment Journal, Winter 2007. http://enrichmentjournal.ag.org/200801/200801_022_Discipleship.cfm (accessed February 22, 2017).
[2] Dr. Charles Crabtree, “Discipleship in the Assemblies of God: The Crisis, The Cause, and The Cure,” Supplement to the Enrichment Journal, Winter 2007.
[3] Ibid., pp. 1-2.
[4] Ibid., p. 2.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid., p. 3.
[9] Ibid., p. 4.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Ibid.
[13]The data presented was derived from statistical reports published by the Assemblies of God on its website. See: “Statistics of the Assemblies of God (USA) 2015 Reports,” General Council of the Assemblies of God.
Table: AG USA Conversions 1978-2015
Table: AG USA Major Worship Service Attendance 1978-2015
Table: AG USA Baptisms 1979-2015
http://ag.org/top/About/statistics/index.cfm (accessed February 22, 2017).
[14] Joe Carter, “Fact Checker: Are all Christian Denominations in Decline?” The Gospel Coalition, March 17, 2015. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/factchecker-are-all-christian-denominations-in-decline (accessed February 22, 2017).