Soon the Church and American Culture Will Not Coexist
In spite of church growth-ism in America … in spite of the greatest number of megachurches in our history … in spite of many seemingly successful Christian enterprises…in spite of pastors boasting of their supposed impact … we are experiencing the most rapid moral decline in America’s history.
Atheism and heathenism have accelerated. Our public school system and universities are mass producing socialists, communists and those with an aggressive anti-Christ agenda. Nearly half of all Millennial Christians now believe evangelism is wrong.
Driven by a lust for popularity, position and power, many church pastors and leaders have wantonly turned a deaf ear to this national disaster that has dismantled faith and morality in America. It is a terrible thing to think that much of what we call “Christianity” in our land has become a system void of the reality and power that marked its earliest beginnings. In a majority of our churches, tradition, formality, entertainment and social justice have actually made this thing called “Christianity” perhaps the greatest enemy of the cause of Christ—a bastion of order, technique, form and philosophy that has ironically served to immunize us against the real Christ and the real gospel. Probably the worst of it is that we’ve become a consumer-driven enterprise that has left off the real demands of Christ and the call to genuine discipleship that makes us all fishers of men.
Listen to the words of Eugene Peterson:
A huge religious marketplace has been set up in North America to meet the needs and fantasies of people just like us. There are conferences and gatherings custom-designed to give us what we need. Books and videos and seminars promise to let us in on the Christian “secret” of whatever we feel is lacking in our life: Financial security, well-behaved children, weight loss, exotic sex, travel to holy sites, exciting worship and celebrity teachers. The people who promote these goods and services all smile a lot and are good looking.
We have become consumers of packaged spiritualities. This is idolatry. We never think of using this term for it, since everything we are buying or paying for is defined by the adjective “Christian.” But idolatry it is nevertheless: God packaged as a product; God depersonalized and made available as a technique or program. The Christian market in idols has never been more brisk or lucrative.
Here’s the Good News
As men are becoming more and more dissatisfied with the systems of this world and of Christianity, we are now seeing a remnant of true God seekers and passionate lovers of Jesus who will not compromise the gospel and resort to slick marketing to draw the attention of society. They will return to preaching the offense of the cross of Christ. They will preach the gospel, not with enticing words of man’s speech but in demonstration of the Spirit and power of God. They will trust the Holy Spirit to direct and build the church. We are now seeing a growing number of these messengers and God-men on the scene, and more are coming. It is a countercultural Christianity that will be contagious and spread like wildfire among those who long for real meaning and purpose in life.
This will result in a collision with consumerism Christianity that’s based on compromise and flows with the culture. There will be a mass exodus from “seeker-friendly” churches, and a great harvest of prodigals and false converts who will be restored and genuinely converted. It will upset the religious crowd and much of our humanistic American culture. The two shall no longer coexist. There will be uprisings. There will be riots. There will be increased persecution of the righteous. But there will also be revivals and explosions of zeal witnessed in fiery new converts.
Everything that can be shaken will be shaken. It’s not too late. In fact, it’s just beginning.
Bert Farias‘ books, The Real Gospel, The Real Jesus and The Real Salvation combat the departure from the faith and the turning away from the truth we are seeing in our day and reveal The Real Spirit of Revival that is coming.
