I am taking time out of a very busy day (like you all have) to put down some thoughts. A recent piece I wrote, “Love To You All,” garnered a good deal of response; it must have struck a chord, and it seems like many of us are having identical thoughts about our present circumstances.
I spent a chunk of the morning mediating two disputes between four Christian brothers and may I say (tipping my hat to Dr. McGee), both disputes are stupid. Unnecessary. Counter-productive.
And an attack of the enemy.
I am now, seven days a week, watching virtual chaos among friends and family. The friends and family, of course, include you, dear readers. It is almost to the point that it is all so common that all I can do is pull up a chair and open a box of Cracker Jacks and take it all in, like some weird foreign film.
But I don’t want to take it in, anymore.
Having just read another insightful piece by Ron Graham (“They Call Us Haters”), I am reminded of the state of the Visible Church, against the Invisible Church.
The Visible Church is not terribly buffeted by the world, due to mutual love.
For example, Andy Stanley can drop a bombshell message (April 15), doing everything but mouth the words, “Homosexuality is acceptable to me, as a lifestyle, for those who choose it,” and then sit back and not be held accountable. Notice the virtual silence from major Christian leaders about Stanley’s message, “When Gracie Met Truthie.”
Stanley won’t clarify his comments from that message, which was a superbly crafted and cleverly worded wink-and-a-nod to the so-called “LGBT” crowd. Stanley’s popularity will grow.
By contrast, those small discernment ministries and brave Christian leaders who do question Stanley’s intentions will be labeled “haters” and further marginalized.
Get ready for it.
Mega-ministries and churches, headed by people like Rick Warren and Mark Driscoll, will continue to denigrate and marginalize Bible prophecy teaching, and they will get away with it.
This follows closely the growing acceptance of the Palestinian narrative in churches and seminaries around America, so much so that those change-agents responsible for it are hugely advancing their agenda…well, to use a sports analogy, they are “winning going away.” They are bringing folks into their fold on a massive scale.
I believe it is the apostasy of the Church that has so many of us perplexed and—may I be truthful—anxious. Where did our world go?
It has gone the way of the Dodo Bird and the Victorian Era and the Edsel. It has passed from the scene and in its place is what the Germans called the Zeitgeist—the spirit of the age.
The spirit of the age is against us.
Ephesians 5:15,16 tell us, “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”
There is an interesting corollary to that thought, in Proverbs 15:15, “All the days of the afflicted are evil: but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast.”
We must, through this fog of war currently raging in the spirit world, each keep a merry heart, to the best of our abilities. This requires diligent prayer and Bible study.
I heard yesterday of a woman not far from where I live who was found wandering, barefoot. Her caregiver daughter had turned her head for just a moment, and her mother—now in hospice care—left the house. Police found her. She is dying of brain cancer and a ghastly surgery scar mars her once-beautiful head of hair. She saw her family members and though she cannot remember basic things now, she cried with joy at the sight of them.
They will not put her out of the home because she’d be afraid. I applaud them for that, such tender love and loyalty in this cesspool of a world.
But I am just about at the point that I can’t stand this stuff anymore. At least that’s how I “feel.”
Please, God, give me a merry heart.
If my desire to see Jesus come back makes me embrace, in Brian McLaren’s gauzy world, “An eschatology of abandonment,” then, brother, get out of my way as I race out of this burning building.
I want nothing of McLaren’s parallel world, that shadow-land where a different Jesus is pretty much happy just to have playful, go-nowhere conversations, take another hit, and play the bongos. While evil flourishes.
Let me out of here.
The teen suicides, the adult suicides, the senior suicides, the vapidness of Hollywood, the stench from Washington, the child abuse, the blown-apart marriages, the sadness, the bizarre and murderous weather, the African warlords who rape and steal, the cancer, the mental problems, the despair of youth, the friendliness with lying, the ease with which some steal, the narcissism—I hate it all.
I honestly believe the Church Invisible, as it were, is made up of folks who actually believe Bible prophecy is true, and can discern the times in which we live. They see physical, emotional, and spiritual sewage rising rapidly to our knees, our hips…and they want no more part of it.
Read John’s three letters in the New Testament. Read Paul’s and Peter’s stark, cold warnings about the time of the end.
In Luke 18:8, Jesus asked a really important question: When He returns, will He find faith on the earth?
Wow.
But that’s not Purpose-Driven! That doesn’t fit the P.E.A.C.E. plan, man!
So who’s right? Is the whole big enchilada winding-down, ugly, or are we all going to an Omega Point, spiritual enlightenment for mankind, created by mankind?
I know what I believe. Specifically, I know Whom I have believed, and am persuaded that nothing at all can keep Him from keeping me.
The American church is being engulfed by the Emergent Movement. It is so dark and systemic, you have no idea. Rapid alliances are being made in an…ecumenical way within the evangelical community. People who would have had serious doctrinal differences two years ago—six months ago—are now grinning at each other and hugging at “leadership” conferences.
It’s truly mind-boggling. The weakness of the American evangelical leadership is sinking the ship. Heresy has been brought in, and it is turning into apostasy.
If I’m an alarmist, then let me exhaust myself ringing the bell. If I’m crazy, I am at peace when I stand one day before my Judge.
I am not going down without a fight. I am not going to do it. If I had been in those Don Knotts movies of the 60s, I would have been the…Don Knotts characters. I’m a worm. But I will not wave the white flag and surrender to the change agents in the Church Visible, in order to stay a few minutes longer in my comfortable bed.
How sad that they don’t understand that evil is coming for them, too.
A friend just now in correspondence said simply, “It’s underway.”
What a perfect description! The end-game is literally underway. As insanity and instability engulf our society, I believe it is clear that the biblical setting for the end of history is underway.
I am convinced the day is coming when we won’t be able to use present communications to talk to each other anymore. Someone will shut down the Internet, or worse. We will have to rely on prayer even more, and the knowledge that God is sure. Most of us will meet on the other side.
When that day comes, remember that I do love you all and I know it’s mutual, and better days are coming. Days of wonder and joy everlasting.
Let’s keep these things in the forefront of our thoughts.
And can I make a suggestion, or, better yet, ask, something of you? From this point forward, will you show as much kindness and mercy as you possibly can to anyone who crosses your path? Will you take under your wing especially those who are alone and afraid? Turn your spare bedroom into a dorm, and cut back on your own food intake if you have to, but let’s try and make the way easier for the less fortunate.
We might be the less fortunate tomorrow.
We must do these things because it is underway.
Sure, the critics crow by saying we were saying that 400 years ago. Yet Israel was not born then, and if others were making embarrassing predictions of Christ’s return, I wasn’t. More importantly, the Bible wasn’t. Its message has always been sure and steady and pretty clear.
What Paul and Peter and John warned about is here.
Pray for yourself, frankly. Pray for wisdom, steadiness, discernment, humility, love, patience. Pray then for your families and friends.
Pray for a merry heart.