TRUTH MATTERS
As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us; yet we have not made our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand Your truth. [Daniel 9:13]
Imagine if we somehow eliminated all error, falsehoods, and deception—and, therefore, were able to enjoy one hundred percent unity when it came to knowing and living the truth. How different would our society be?
In other words, if just one thing changed—if everyone somehow fully unified and agreed upon, believed in, and lived by one thing, the truth—how many personal and societal problems would be eradicated and replaced with incredible blessings?
Some? Most? All? One thing is sure: if we all unified with the truth, life would be infinitely better for every single human being.
Of course, this will never happen in our sinful, fallen world. However, our make-believe scenario wonderfully illustrates how invaluable the truth is, and how necessary truth is to true love, to the right kind of unity, and to life itself. It also teaches us how error and deception are causing so much of the darkness, division, and destruction we see today. This, along with Daniel’s prayer recorded in the ninth chapter of the book of Daniel, instructs us as to what we can and must do regarding today’s societal “disaster.”
If we truly care about overcoming these maladies—if we are deeply concerned about the Church, our world, where things are headed, and the damage already done—if we desire to see others spared profound harm that comes from deception, and long to see them blessed beyond measure, then we must passionately care about the truth (e.g., Ps 1:1-3; 1 Kgs 3:9; Zech 8:19; Eph 4:14-15; Phil 1:9-11; 1 Jn 3:16).
To care about truth—and to have true love, while avoiding counterfeit love—we must detect and expose error and replace it with the truth. Therefore, to move us in the right direction we must understand the recent history of the Church and the deadly errors that have been allowed in and assimilated by the body of Christ—particularly this one thing: “the wisdom of the world.”
Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? [1 Corinthians 1:20]
IDEAS HAVE CONSEQUENCES
I remember a time, mainly in the 70’s and 80’s, when it was just considered Christianity 101 to avoid “the world” (yes, I’m old). Back then, it was an obvious and ominous error to embrace any aspect of the world, its ways, or its “wisdom.” Few questioned this. But then something changed …
Christians have always had a weakness for the world. However, at some point in the 80’s and 90’s, there were believers, including many Church leaders, who started to intentionally embrace and mimic the world. This may have started as a common fleshly struggle, but, somehow, that which was clearly bad, unbiblical, and harmful was twisted into something “good.”
Making this more troubling—and perhaps sealing their fate—these same people mocked and shamed other Christians when the latter warned of “worldliness” and the world’s wisdom (e.g., “You’re so judgmental!” “Ha! You’re such a Pharisee!” “Don’t be such an uptight fundamentalist fuddy-duddy!” “Don’t limit God.” “Don’t put God in a box. There’s lots of wonderful things out there!”).
There are many reasons why God expressly and repeatedly warns us about the world and its wisdom—and to never compromise His Word, or compromise with the world. Ideas have consequences. The world’s ideas always have dreadful consequences. Furthermore, compromising biblical principles and compromising with the world is a bottomless pit—one compromise leads to another … to another … and so on. Therefore, this flagrant folly not only worsened (as we will see), but morphed into, and coincided with a bizarre justification and need to become like the world.
How so? The general rationalization goes like this: “We want to shape the culture for Jesus and reach the world for Christ, but the world doesn’t like Christians, Christianity, or the Bible. So, the less we talk about the Bible—and the more Christians become like the world—the more the world will like us, and want to become like us!”
If that seems to be unbiblical and absurd reasoning, that’s because it is. Predictably, this backward rationale backfired, and the exact opposite outcome happened. Why? Because embracing the world and its wisdom is not only the height of folly, not only considered to be committing “adultery” with the enemies of God (Jas 4:4), it is the polar opposite of what God teaches (cp. Lev 18:1-5; Deut 4:5-8; 1 Cor 2:12-16).
So, not only has the Church lost its saltiness and influence on the world, much of the Church has become like the world. Even worse, now many who claim Christ are actively opposed to the teachings of Christ, all in the name of Christ. And, consequently, all of this is doing great damage to the world, including every single non-believer.
I believe that one reason why the church of God at this present moment has so little influence over the world is because the world has so much influence over the church. [C.H. Spurgeon]
WHAT DO WE DO?
What a monstrous problem it is that the world has so much power over the Church, and that the Church has so little impact on the world. However, perhaps the bigger issue is that much of the Church is willingly embracing the world and its “wisdom.” Even so, herein lies much of the solution.
A great deal of our future depends on this: If we can get the Church (i.e., church leaders, and many others) to openly and truly repent of this catastrophic sin, there would be a night-and-day difference in the Church and the world (e.g., Deut 30; 2 Kgs 22; 2 Chron 6:36-39; 7:14; Ezra 9; Neh 1, 8, 9; cp. Jer 5:3).
However, try as we might—investing our time and energy in this or that—nothing will improve, and everything will continue to get worse and worse, until this one thing changes through wholehearted repentance. Nevertheless, very few Christians are addressing this elephant in the sanctuary.
Yet, if you love God, love people, and are painfully aware of the ever-growing darkness, delusion, and destruction all around us—and if you long to see revival, to see this turned around—then you can and must address this one thing. How much more if you are a church leader? All of us need to cry out to God in prayer, and confront the egregious sin and error, as we turn to God and His Word of truth. This is always the answer, just as it was in the time of Israel’s great sufferings, sufferings which were due to their compromises and disobedience of God’s written Word:
Go, inquire of the Lord for me, for the people and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found; for great is the wrath of the Lord that is aroused against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us. [1 Kings 22:13]
There is encouraging news. Even though the minds and hearts of many have been darkened, the eyes of many more are being opened. There are Christians who are acutely aware of how bad things are, even as there is a purging and refining going on in the Church.
DANGER WITHIN
Yet, when it comes to the utter madness of accepting and espousing unbiblical and anti-Christ teachings, most believers have no idea how bad things are in the Church. Instead, many think the problems are mainly “out there.” And, yes, it is exceedingly dark outside the Church, and hostile toward biblical Christians. However, it is common for Christians to fail to see the numerous deadly dangers “in here” (and, therefore, miss the solution), especially with many church leaders “among you” (cp. Acts 20:28-30; Jude 4ff).
But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. [2 Peter 2:1-2]
We can’t say that God didn’t warn us. He told us this would happen, and the passage above perfectly describes today’s Church and society. Every single day we all see “the way of truth” being “blasphemed” (reviled; spoken evil of), both outside and inside the Church. Nothing is off limits. And tomorrow it will be worse. Tragically, many Christ-followers and Church leaders are the ones leading the way. Therefore, this evil is not going to lessen until drastic changes are made within the Church.
Thankfully, there are many believers who are deeply grieved over this, and are crying out for answers, for revival. We need more of this. The good news is, we do have the answers. However, we will not solve anything without applying the solution, which is: repenting and getting rid of—from within the Church—that which zealously opposes Christ, His Word, and true Christianity, and going back to God’s Word of truth.
Therefore, our focus here will not be on how the world increasingly hates the Bible and biblical Christians. That is a given (Jn 15:18-19; 17:14). Rather, we will examine how many who claim Christ are—in profound folly—gladly conforming to the world, and, as a natural result, are joining the world in actively subverting biblical Christianity and attacking biblical Christians, all while proclaiming to be the real “Christ-followers.”
DEADLY DECEIT
Something so convoluted requires a thorough understanding. So, in what follows, we will expound on the seven deadly errors that have been actively embraced by, and, therefore, have infiltrated the Church over the past seventy years or so. We will also focus on one main deadly folly: that of Christians increasingly compromising with and conforming to the world, its ways, and its wisdom—and doing so over the Word of God.
Of course, this ongoing sin has lethal consequences. Not only has it greatly deceived and harmed billions of people, it has produced, as we will see, an inverted reality for innumerable individuals in the world, including those who claim Christ. This, in turn, always results in great personal and societal disaster. And this is precisely where we find ourselves today.
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! [Isaiah 5:20]
Everything in life hinges on how well we understand, trust, and live according to God’s Word (e.g., Deut 4:40; 2 Kgs 22; Jer 7:23; Ps 1:1-3; 2 Pet 1:3-4). Therefore, our Enemy always has (Gen 3:1ff) and always will attack God’s Word (Matt 4:1ff; 2 Tim 4:3-4; 2 Pet 3:16). So, as you read, keep in mind that all these errors are attacks on God’s written Word, and, therefore, attacks on Jesus Himself (Jn 1:1; Rev 19:13) and on His true followers.
In other words, these are not mere mistakes, misunderstandings, or unfortunate deviations from the truth. They all intentionally undermine, dilute, pervert, and seek to displace and replace God’s Word of life with malevolent counterfeits. That is precisely what all seven errors have most in common—yet it also reveals the solution.
What follows is sure to offend many people. But this is absolutely necessary if we are to solve this deadly dilemma. If we are serious about helping others and improving society and the Church, then we need to be dead serious about the problems outside of the Church that are now inside the Church. We need to understand what they are, how they got in, who let them in, and how to get back to the powerful and precise Word of God.
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