Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities that may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts that may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Brothers, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. I think probably all of you know that there is more to our Gospel lesson for this past Sunday, what we read earlier was in many ways just the introduction. Our Lord continues his response to Nikodemus in verse 16 by telling him “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
You see, we serve a Lord who loves us each deeply, so much so that he was willing to suffer and die for us, that we might have eternal life. In the collect for this second Sunday in Lent we acknowledged out utter inability to save ourselves and asked for God’s mercy, his deliverance, against all the assaults of the body and of the soul. This speaks of a great trust in the Lord, one which carries us through any circumstance, and adversity. The world in which we live is riddled with adversity, both against the body and soul. The culture and society in which we live is peddling a message that sounds like love and acceptance for all, but in reality, it is nothing more than deceit designed to lead you away from Jesus as your Lord and ensnare you to the lordship of a thousand other false gods, ourselves as our own god being the chief temptation and the most inept choice of all. This is why we commit ourselves to obedience, to our rule of life, and our bishops. We recognize in our vows the reality expressed in this collect, that we truly are incapable of helping ourselves.
We cannot save ourselves, not by any great acts of heroism or accomplishment, not by a lifetime of service or sacrifice, not by earning more or by name recognition. We are saved only by the grace of God, through faith in our Lord. Our Lord who did not come into this world to condemn us or anyone else, but to offer each of us a means of salvation—of eternal life. But what does this mean to believe in Him? Is it simply to acknowledge he exists, the man Jesus of Nazareth walked the earth, is that enough? How about to acknowledge, as Nikodemus does, that God must be with Jesus in order for him to perform such impressive miracles and wonders, is that enough? What is this belief Jesus is talking about? This is an important question to consider; our salvation depends upon it.
Is it even enough to just acknowledge that Jesus is God? Is that belief enough? Satan and every demon acknowledges that, so then what is it? What does it mean to believe? Saint Paul tells us in his epistle to the Romans that Abraham believed God, and it was his belief that was counted as righteousness. Abraham did not just believe in God, he believed Him. He accepted what God told him, promised him. As Saint Paul says, Abraham had faith, and it was his faith that set him apart, it was his faith that was counted as righteousness. There are a lot of ways people can believe in God and still choose to remain lost in the darkness. We have agnostics and deists who believe in a creator, but don’t believe it is knowable. We have those who acknowledge the Father and even Jesus, but that is about the extent of it, acknowledgment. We even have those who call themselves Christians, who visit a church every once in a while, maybe even own a bible and some prayer beads, who maybe even at one point asked Jesus to be their Lord. None of that is enough. We must have faith in Him.
Our catechism in response to the question: What does it mean for you to have faith? Tells us: To have faith means that I believe the Gospel is the truth: that Jesus died for my sins, rose from the dead, and rules over my life. Therefore, I entrust myself to him as my Savior, and I obey him as my Lord. We entrust ourselves to Him as our Savior and obey Him as our Lord. Abraham left everything he knew. The Lord told him to “Go from your country, your kindred, and your father’s house.” That is pretty significant, especially in middle eastern culture. He left his peace, his comfort, his security, his safety-net, and followed the Lord in faith. It is that same faith that we must have. To be willing to walk away from things that are good, things and people we love, and radically follow Christ as our Lord. Even at the expense of our comfort, our security, our safety-net. In this, we can see the wisdom of our vow of simplicity, not to simply deny ourselves joy, quite the opposite, to instead prioritize the joy of God over all else, and to seek to avoid over-complications and unhealthy attachments that distract us from radically following Christ as Lord.
We entrust ourselves to Him as our Savior and obey Him as our Lord. To believe in Him, is to believe that He loves you, that He died for you, that He knows you inside and out and knows what is best for you. To believe in Him is to trust in Him. To accept not just the bits and pieces of the faith that you like, that are comfortable, that make sense, but all of it. The entire Gospel, for it truly is good news.
Almighty God, who loves you deeply, desires you. He wants to save you—he wants the best for you. We must each ask ourselves the question, will I receive Him as my Lord? That is not a once-in-your-lifetime question, it is a question we must answer every day, which every decision we make. Will we receive Him as our Lord? Will we allow Him to keep us both outwardly in our body and inwardly in our soul? Will we allow him to defend us from all adversities that may happen to the body and from all evil thoughts that may assault our soul? Will we allow him to feed and nourish us through His Church, with His Holy Word and Sacrament, with His Body and His Blood as he promised us he would? Will you receive Him as your Lord?
Let us pray, Almighty and gracious Lord, grant us the grace to believe, to accept, to trust in You fully, with all of our being. To receive you as our Lord completely and without hesitation or doubt, withholding nothing from You. To entrust ourselves to you fully and obey you in all things. We ask this in Your name, Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, who lives and reigns in unity with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and evermore. Amen. Blessings, Ab. Kenneth
The church is in decline. Of that there is little doubt. At least in the West—especially North America and Europe. By some estimates, as many as 90 percent of Americans identified as Christian in 1970. In 2020, that number was much closer to 60 percent. Lately, I have been reading many different commentators waxing eloquent on the changing social structures and mores of American Western society as one of the main reasons for this decline. However, I contend that these changes are the results and not the cause. Even as the Church declines, many (if not most) of her leaders would rather make excuses of external factors and causes rather than take a long, hard look at the many self-inflicted causes for this decline. In short, her leaders are often sitting around, admiring their problems, wringing their hands, and staring at their navels while spouting theological heresies.
I would like to offer five areas in which the leaders of the Church are failing their congregations, three calls to action for both the clergy and the laity, and one prediction of what the Church may go through if she is to regain her theological compass and moral authority.
Five Key Areas in Which Church Leaders are Failing the Church
Absolute Truth vs. Moral Relativism
First and foremost, we must come to understand Truth. Pontius Pilate, the Roman Prefect (or Governor) of Judea, asked the question that we all ought to be asking. Just prior to condemning Jesus to crucifixion, Pilate asks Jesus, “What is truth?” (John 18:38).[1]
What is truth? Great question. It is the question that each of us, the atheist, the seeker, the brand new and mature Christian, should constantly be asking. Our souls, our intellect, were designed to yearn for truth. Just prior to Pilate asking this question, Jesus had said (v. 37): “For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”
Earlier in John’s Gospel, Jesus is recorded as stating an even more bold and clear statement of truth. One of his disciples, Thomas, told Jesus that they did not know where he was going, so how would they be able follow. Jesus responded with, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
This is a bold, key statement made by Christ. When confronted with these statements, one has a choice to make. C. S. Lewis, in his book Mere Christianity, stated the following:
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. … Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God.[2]
What becomes clear is that we must first make a decision about the person of Christ. He is either who he claimed to be or he was not. Many will make the intellectual choice to not believe that Jesus is the Son of God, one with God, of the same substance, the second part of the Trinity. God gives us a choice and we are free to make that choice.
However, one of the reasons for the decline of the Church is that her leaders often claim the truth of Christ, but deny any level of Absolute Truth. Instead, they preach a moral relativism that muddies the waters, leading to the congregation having little to no understanding of Truth.
Why is this important? John 1:17 states: “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” Therefore, to discover truth we must work through faith in Jesus Christ. It is impossible to find the complete fulfillment of truth without the Person of Christ. Sure, one can find bits and pieces of truth through the created world order, through the reflection of the world made through God’s handiwork. But to find THE Absolute Truth, it will only come to us through the Person of Christ.
In the Apostle Paul’s letter to Colossians, he states “…that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasure of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments.” (Colossians 2:2-4)
Likewise, in Ephesians 1:17, the Apostle Paul writes, “…that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him.”
And finally, although by no means exhaustively, the Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 4:13-16, “…until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”
Dr. Eddie Bhawainie says the following about how the early Church Fathers defined truth:
“The early Church Fathers presented the substance of Christianity in the context of its rational content. They outlined and gave their defense of Christianity through the Logos doctrine—as being truth, and reason in human form. They valued the objective facts of revelation, such as the incarnation (the act whereby God became Man in the virgin birth of Christ), and the resurrection, as the truths, immutable truth as final reality. Final reality is what is so as declared in sacred Scripture.”[3]
Based on sacred Scripture, the testimony of the Early Church Fathers, and the historical and archaeological record, one must make a choice. Either believe in the absolute truth of these or reject them outright. There is no middle ground. Philosophically, the answer to this question will determine one’s worldview. To take this a step further (logically), there is no such thing as my truth or your truth. There is only truth—whether you and I believe it or not. At least an outright rejection of Absolute Truth has an element of honesty about it.
Unfortunately, many leaders of the church today play hard and fast with Absolute Truth. They say they believe in Truth, but then twist and squeeze the Truth until it is no longer recognizable. In the words of the Apostle Paul in II Timothy 3:5 they can be best described as “having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power…”
There are two primary categories in which this denial falls. The first is intentional. In other words, the leader knows the truth, but intentionally twists it or maims it for their own evil purposes or pleasures. The second, which I believe is more pervasive and dangerous, is the leader that does this with good intentions, but is either unaware that he is doing so, or firmly believes that he is doing so for the common good. The first is just evil. I will not spend much time here, other than to say a person that does this intentionally is not a follower of Christ. Romans 1:18 says “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” There will always be workers of iniquity that are fighting against the Truth.
However, it is the unintentional leaning from the truth that is eating the Church alive. Even though unintentional, it is still an incredibly harmful act rooted in sinful attitudes and actions. One of the primary reasons for this is the lack of solid instruction rooted deeply in sacred Scripture, holy tradition, and the teaching and examples of the Saints that have gone before us. (cf. II Timothy 3:14-17; II Thessalonians 2:13-15; Hebrews 11-12). We must return to teaching and establishing truth within the Church and amongst all generations of believers.
A perfect example of how this can play out is centered around the doctrine of sola scriptura. This is a concept that did not come about until the Protestant Reformation sometime in the 14th Century. For over 1400 years, sola scriptura was not a philosophy, belief, or practice anywhere in the Church. In fact, with the New Testament Canon of Scripture not even being established until sometime in the 4th Century, the Christ follower did NOT even have Scripture for over 400 years. This is significant.
Now, Sacred Scripture is a fantastic gift that God has given to His people and to the Church. It is “…breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (II Timothy 3:16-17) I praise God that he left us with this incredible gift.
But, it is not only. It is not solely. Scripture itself does not save. Sure, it has the salvation message laid out in its entirety, from Genesis 1 to the final Amen of Revelation.
Paganism is one of the fastest growing religious movements in the West today. Even though it has seen a renaissance, in a sense, there is nothing new about this worldview. All the way back in Deuteronomy 12:29-31, God warned Israel about this detestable and false religion. “When the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’ You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods…”
What does paganism have to do with solo scriptura? Glad you asked.
The worship of pagans is detestable before God. Of course, the 10 Commandments address this clearly in the first two:
You shall have no other god before me. (Exodus 20:3)
You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. (Exodus 20:4)
This is restated in Romans 1:24-25. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped andservedthe creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. (emphasis mine)
The same thing has often been done with Scripture. The Biblicist worships the sacred Scripture more than God. They have turned sacred Scripture into their idol. They can spend hours talking about Scripture, parsing this word and that phrase, and miss the entire point that Scripture is pointing us to God and not itself. The Church should hold a very high view of Scripture. The Church should recognize the Truth, the validity, the usefulness of Scripture. But it must not worship it! Only God, the entirety of the Holy and Blessed Trinity, deserves the worship of all of mankind.
In short, the Church must uphold Absolute Truth—it is the banner and theological anchor that holds all together. And that Absolute Truth is a person, Jesus Christ. When the Church refuses to hold to the absolute, eternal Truth, it ceases to be the Church. This is why so many mainline denominations are hemorrhaging members today. They have decided to discard the Truth for a politically correct, feel-good theology. This turns the Church into nothing more than a schizophrenic social club with theological language thrown in to give it an appearance of Christianity. (cf. II Timothy 3:5) These denominations will soon be on the trash heap of history, nothing more than a sordid footnote in man’s futile attempt to remake God in their own image.
But the Church, when it holds up the person of Absolute Truth, will be a beacon of Light to draw the lost and hurting into its community of believers. John 12:32 says “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” Our world is hurting. Our world is lost. Unfortunately, much of the Western world has dismissed the relevance of the Church because all they see is more of the world with a religious veneer. The True Church, however, is poised to shine the Light of Christ in an increasingly darkened land; to be a beacon of Hope, and Truth, and Grace, and Love to a lost and dying world.
John 1:4-5 says, in him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
The Church, the Bride of Christ, through the empowerment and indwelling of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 2), is the Light that fights against the power of darkness. The darkness will not defeat the Light, it has not overcome it. Yet, the Church has too often capitulated to the worldly darkness of deceit and emptiness. Taking her eyes off the glorious and resurrected Christ, she has been taken in by the shiny things of this world.
But the Church can and will continue to defeat the darkness if She will but return to the Absolute Truth of Jesus Christ as pointed to in Scripture, Holy Tradition, and the Teachings and Understanding of the Early Church Fathers in the unity of the Church. It is not too late—there is still a remnant of the One True Church, the Bride of Christ. The Church must hold fast to this Truth, regardless of the cost of being countercultural.
True Worship vs. Personal Preference/Entertainment
Before we can delve into this area, we must first understand what worship is and what worship is not. Outwardly correct worship is an abomination to God if one’s heart is not right with him. Isaiah 29:13 says: And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me…”
The Old Testament Prophet Amos gives an even much clearer exhortation against worship done without a right attitude, a clear heart. Chapter 5:21-23:
I hate, I despise your feasts,
And I take no delight in your solemn assemblies,
Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them;
And the peace offerings of your fattened animals,
I will not look upon them.
Take away from me the noise of your songs;
To the melody of your harps I will not listen.
First and foremost, it is clear that worship must involve more than just external actions, words, or offerings.
Many, if not most, Western Christians identify worship as the music and songs that a church plays. In fact, many modern churches now have a Worship Team, or a Worship Pastor. In most cases, this really means music director. (Sometimes, dance or drama or some other of the arts is included in this job description.) There is an incredible danger when man seeks to create worship, when man sees worship as an opportunity to manipulate emotion at best or produce entertainment at worst.
N.T. Wright says the following about worship: “Put it this way: if your idea of God, if your idea of the salvation offered in Christ, is vague or remote, your idea of worship will be fuzzy and ill-formed. The closer you get to the truth, the clearer becomes the beauty, and the more you will find worship welling up within you. That’s why theology and worship belong together. The one isn’t just a headtrip; the other isn’t just emotion.”[4]
Worship is NOT praise music. Worship is NOT hymns. Worship is NOT music…or dance…or drama…or dramatic readings. Worship is NOT things. Worship is NOT something that man can create or innovate. Worship is something that we step into, an offering of our very lives in the presence of God. Worship surrounds us. Worship is an overflowing thanksgiving of blessings from the very heart of God himself. Music and hymns and dance can be a part of an overflowing expression of true worship, but they are not worship in and of themselves. Worship is quiet and introspective and still. Worship is active and noisy and experiential.
Romans 12:1-2 offers the foundation of what worship is in the life of a Christ follower: I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Augustine of Hippo, from the late 4th Century, has this to say about worship: You never go away from us, yet we have difficulty in returning to You. Come, Lord, stir us up and call us back. Kindle and seize us. Be our fire and our sweetness. Let us love. Let us run.[5]
This is worship. This is what my heart, my soul desires moment by moment, not just for a few minutes on Sunday morning. This is not a Hollywood produced, emotion-filled mini-concert with Christianese and culturally current video clips liberally sprinkled throughout. This is a Holy Spirit infused surrender to God’s will for my life, for your life. This is not a punctiliar moment of feel-goodness until the next praise song that I like comes along, this a total identification with the presence of God, his saints and angels, right now. This is the Lord’s Prayer …thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
The moment I make worship about me, about what I like, or about what I enjoy, I turn worship of God into idolatry of self. (cf. Proverbs 16:5; Philippians 2; Genesis 3) In short, worship should never be something we create or innovate, it should be something that we step into—that we soak ourselves in. Something that we allow to permeate our entire body, mind, and spirit every moment of our life.
The church is (should be) counter cultural. This is not our home. We are not citizens of this world. So why, through what we call worship, do we try to bring this world into our heavenly world. The church will never be Hollywood or the latest rock concert. It should quit trying to be so.
John 17:16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
Hebrews 13:14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.
1 Peter 2:11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul.
Philippians 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Despite the clear testimony of Scripture, Christians too often live our lives as if we are citizens of this world trying to make our way to heaven in a different world. The truth is, as the Bride of Christ, we are already a citizen of heaven and are making our way through this foreign land.
If the Church is to regain its power and to be a light to the world, it must once again become counter cultural and engage in True Worship, not the watered-down worship of self-desire. Not the watered-down worship that reflects the ever-changing, relativistic values of this world with the name of Jesus and Christian jargon sprinkled in here and there.
True worship does not allow us to have citizenship in this world when it feels good and in the Kingdom of Heaven for a couple of hours on Sunday. It is time for citizens of the True Church to live as her citizens; to be exiles in this world. Then, the citizens of this world may just desire to move their citizenship to His World.
As we live a life of worship, may we never lose sight of the words of Ignatius of Antioch (c. 35 – 107): As for me, my charter is Jesus Christ, the inviable charter is His cross and His death and resurrection, and faith through Him.
Eucharistic Community vs. the Cult of Personality
From the earliest days of the Church, the eucharistic celebration has been the cornerstone of Worship. The altar took center stage, the celebration of the eucharist was the crescendo of the Christian gathering. Both Scripture and the testimony of the Early Church Fathers clearly show this. Below is a very small sampling from the Early Church Fathers.
St. Ignatius of Antioch (c. 110)
They [the Gnostics] abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they do not confess the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, flesh which suffered for our sins and which the Father, in his goodness, raised up again. [Letter to Smyrna 7:1]
I have no taste for corruptible food nor for the pleasures of this life. I desire the Bread of God, which is the blood of Jesus Christ, who was of the seed of David; and for drink I desire his blood, which is love incorruptible. (Letter to the Romans 7:3)
St. Justin Martyr (c. 100 – 165)
For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these; but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by Him, and by the change of which, our blood and flesh is nourished, is both the flesh and the blood of the incarnated Jesus. (First Apology, 66)
St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 140 – 202)
But what consistency is there in those who hold that the bread over which thanks have been given is the body of their Lord, and the cup his blood, if they do not acknowledge that He is the Son of the Creator… How can they say that the flesh which has been nourished by the body of the Lord and by his blood gives way to corruption and does not partake of life? For as the bread from the earth, receiving the invocation of God, is no longer common bread but the eucharist, consisting of two elements, earthly and heavenly (Against Heresies 4:18:4-5)
If the body be not saved, then, in fact, neither did the Lord redeem us with His blood; and neither is the cup of the eucharist the partaking of his blood, nor is the bread which we break the partaking of His body…He has declared the cup, a part of creation, to be His own blood, from which He causes our blood to flow; and the bread, a part of creation, he has established as His own body. (Against Heresies 5:2:2-3)
St. Athanasius (c. 295 – 373)
You shall see the Levites bringing loaves and a cup of wine, and placing them on the table. So long as the prayers of supplication and entreaties have not been made, there is only bread and wine. But after the great and wonderful prayers have been completed, then the bread is become the Body, and the wine the Blood, of our Lord Jesus Christ….Let us approach the celebration of the mysteries. This bread and this wine, so long as the prayers and supplications have not taken place, remain simply what they are. But after the great prayers and holy supplications have been sent forth, the Word comes down into the bread and wine — and thus is His Body confected. (Sermon to the Newly Baptized, from Eutyches)
And just a couple of Scripture passages (among many):
John 6:47-58 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”
John 6:66After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
I Corinthians 10:16-18 The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. Consider the people of Israel: are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar?
Let us look at the word participation. This is the Greek word koinonia. We have come to think of this word simply as a participation in or a communion with. In fact, koinonia is the root for the word communion. However, koinonia is much more intimate than that elementary understanding. Koinonia is the idea of consummation of marriage, or a coming together of a man and woman in sexual union. As scripture makes clear in other places, (cf. Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:5; Mark 10:8; Ephesians 5:31) the consummation of marriage between a man and woman results in two individuals becoming one flesh. Likewise, here, the participation (koinonia) in the blood and bread of Christ, is a mysterious union of our flesh (bodies—bride) becoming one with Christ (bridegroom). This is a powerful statement on the Eucharist. This level of intimacy is the deepest that a man or woman can ever experience in this life. It goes far beyond a recollection of friendship memories, much like thumbing through old photographs. Participation in the Eucharist is an intimate marriage ceremony of joining our flesh with His.
I Corinthians 11:27-30 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink oof the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. This is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.
This is a powerful statement by the Apostle Paul. If communion was nothing more than a symbol, this verse makes absolutely no sense. How can a symbol have such a deep effect on any person. Note that in verse 27, consuming in an unworthy manner will cause that individual to have guilt concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Not guilt against the symbolism, but against the body and blood.
For approximately 1500 years, the Eucharistic Feast, also known as Communion or the Lord’s Supper, was the primary focus of Worship by the Christian Church. It was not until Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531), one of the great Protestant Reformers, (great in the sense of major, well-known, etc.) came on the scene, did the whole belief around the Eucharist change. In 1523, Zwingli publicly declared that the Eucharist was nothing more than a commemorative exercise to remember what Christ did on the cross.[6]
In this one statement, Zwingli undid 1500 years of Church doctrine and belief on the Eucharist being a real participation in the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Zwingli further minimized the importance of the Eucharistic meal by literally moving the pulpit to the center of service. No longer was the Eucharistic celebration the crescendo, or high point, of the service, the pulpit, pastor, and sermon became the center of all that was done. Zwingli proposed Communion be celebrated no more than four times a year.[7]
Zwingli denied any authority of the Church Fathers or the Ecumenical Councils of the Church, and instead relied only on the authority of Scripture. However, he would use other extra-Scriptural resources when they bolstered his argument.[8]
Whether intentional or not, I firmly believe that this has created a personality cult amongst denominations, churches, and Pastors today. With the Pastor and the Sermon being the most important part of “worship”, the laity now have a tendency to align themselves with certain, individual, personality based, individuals.
Although there is nothing new about this (cf. Ecclesiastes 1:9), the Apostle Paul fought against this very concept in the opening chapter of I Corinthians (v. 10-15): I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name.
When the focus turns from the risen, incarnated Christ to any man, then division and heresy will surely follow. Zwingli set up a cult of personality when he removed the unifying, community of the Eucharistic celebration to a second tier symbol and replaced it with an identification of the man behind the pulpit.
This has created disunity, disharmony, and infighting within the Church. This is a large reason of why there are now over 40,000 “Christian” denominations in the world. You did not read that number wrong. 40,000! And we wonder why the world looks at the church and decides that they want no part of that. (More on this in part 5: Unity of the Church vs. Anthropomorphism.)
If the Church is to become counter-cultural once again, to stand against the darkness, agnosticism, and atheism of this world, it must return to the unifying celebration of a participation in the blood of Christ, a participation in the body of Christ.[9]This is the Bride of Christ, the Church, coming together in unity to be identified as his followers, as his disciples. Only then can we stand above the chaotic forces of this world and invite others to join us as HIS Bride.
Making Disciples vs. Filling the Pews
Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and said to them [disciples], “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Acts 1:6-8 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Some quotes from Early Church Fathers (and others) throughout Church History:
Ignatius of Antioch: Pray without ceasing on behalf of everyone. For in them there is hope of repentance so that they may attain to God. Permit them, then, to be instructed by your works, if in no other way. Be meek in response to their wrath, humble in opposition to their boasting; to their blasphemies return your prayers; in contrast to their errors be steadfast in the faith; and for their cruelty display your gentleness. While we take care not to imitate their conduct, let us be found their brothers in all true kindness.[10]
Clement of Alexandria: Let us haste, let us run, my fellow men—us, who are God-loving and God-like images of the Word—let us haste, let us run, let us take his yoke, let us receive, to conduct us to immorality, the good charioteer of men. Let us love Christ.[11]
E.M. Bounds: The evangelist who preaches for eternity is never great on numbers. He is not apt to count hundreds of converts where there is no restitution, no confession, and no glad cry which proclaims, “The lost is found, and the dead is made alive again!”
One of the biggest movements within Christianity over the past thirty years or so is the “Seeker Sensitive Movement.” Although the intentions of this movement was to bring men and women into the church, by almost any means necessary, the results were shallow believers with little to no biblical or Church knowledge, that would leave as soon as the “going got tough.”[12]
Listen to the words of Paul Carter, a Pastor who was sold out to the Seeker Sensitive movement early in his pastoral career:
The basic logic of the seeker sensitive movement was that we would get people in the door by playing contemporary music, singing contemporary songs, speaking contemporary jargon and addressing contemporary issues. Then at some unspecified point in the future we would transition into more meaty and substantial things. It was your basic bait and switch operation and as you might imagine it never really worked out in practice. The bottom line is that what you win people with is what you have to keep people with. If you market yourself as a church for people who don’t like church, then you can’t do churchy things without expecting significant pushback. This is why most seeker churches never managed to exit the theological merge lane.[13]
A watered-down Gospel will produce watered-down disciples. Disciples with no real conviction, no real understanding of what it means to be a Christ follower. Without depth, the Church will not produce true disciples. Sure, Seeker Sensitive is great for filling the pews, at least in the short term. People will come, have fun, laugh, sway to the emotional music that a wannabe band is playing, mimicking the top 40 on the Christian radio-station.
This leaves the world with a view of the Church as irrelevant, imitating culture, weak, feckless, and ineffectual. And the sad part is that this is a true reflection of much of the Church.
Much of the Church today has no formal (or even informal) catechism for her disciples. Of course, the self-help, feel-good, three-point sermon with an application has taken its place as the unofficial catechism of the Church. There is little depth. There is only a continual feeding of milk to the congregation, never (or almost never) any meat.
These words from J. I. Packer sum up the purpose and intent of a robust catechism: Within a century of Jesus’ earthly ministry, Christian congregations could be found throughout the Roman world, from Spain to Persia and from North Africa to Britain. By this time, the catechumenate for those wishing to become Christians had become established Christian practice. From the Greek katecheo (“instruct”), the catechumenate was a period of one-to-three years’ instruction (catechesis) leading to Baptism at Easter. This ancient pattern of Christian disciple-making continued from some centuries before falling into disuse as nominal Christianity increasingly became a universal aspect of Western culture. The Reformation era of the sixteenth century saw a vigorous renewal of catechesis for both adults and children among both Protestants and Catholics.[14]But catechesis has been in serious decline since the eighteenth century, and much of the discipline of discipling has been abandoned altogether in today’s churches.[15]
When a Church is more concerned with filling the pews (and thus its offering plates) than it is with producing disciples, it is doomed to become irrelevant. Sooner or later, that individual church will end up on the trash heap of history. It may sound good for a period. It may see incredible attendance numbers for a time. But it will be filled not with mature, theologically sound disciples that fulfill the Great Commission by making more disciples,[16] but with men, women, and children that will be enamored by feel-good theology and tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.[17]
As I recently heard a friend say concerning a particular church service,[18] I can get what they are peddling on YouTube anytime I want. The Church simply must return to the call to make disciples. She must instruct. She must make strong, well-informed disciples that will be able to stand against the deceitful schemes and shiny doctrines of the world. We must take heed of the words in John 17:17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.[19]
Without this solid catechesis, we are creating soldiers in the Army of Christ who are not equipped and not prepared to face the enemy. Instead, the enemy will and does pick them off one by one until the Church is nearly empty. And the door to another Church closes her doors for the last time.
Unity of the Church vs. Man-centered Theology
This last area is the glue that either holds the Bride of Christ together as the Church, or dissolves it into a free-for-all of selfish wants and desires.
Churches across the board are promoting “woke” agendas, celebrating abnormal sexual deviancies, embracing any and every “progressive” cause they can. I could go on and on of all the churches and denominations that have lost their orthodoxy, catholicism, and historical Christianity on the altar of humanism and progressivism. After all, it is estimated that there are now over 45,000 different Christian denominations in the world. A number that is growing every day.
These woke agendas all have one thing in common. They celebrate a theology that is based on man and not on God. I recently saw a video that showed a “Gospel” Preacher talking about how Jesus came to him and asked him for forgiveness. What a perversion of the Gospel. Yet, this is exactly what much of the Church has done today. We make the Gospel message, the theology of the day, all about us, all about me.
I have heard people say that they want to start their own denomination so that they can decide exactly what everyone else should believe. Why does the world look at the Church and turn away? There is little truth, little unity, that would draw someone in. Who is right? Which of the 40,000 plus denominations that litter the Christian landscape is the right denomination?
John 17:20-23, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”
Jude 3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.
Some quotes throughout history on the unity of the Church:
Ignatius of Antioch: It is fitting that you should glorify Jesus Christ, who has glorified you, in every way, so that by a unanimous obedience you may be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment and may all speak the same thing concerning the same thing, and so that, as you are subject to the bishop and the elders, you may be made holy in very way.[20]
Take heed to come together often to give thanks to God and show forth his praise. For when you assemble frequently in the same place, the powers of Satan are destroyed and the destruction at which he aims is prevented by the unity of your faith. Nothing is more precious than peace, by which all way, both in heaven and earth, is brought to an end.[21]
Come together in common and individually—through grace, in one faith of God the Father, and of Jesus Christ His only-begotten Son…Break one and the same bread…[22]
Avoid all divisions as the beginning of evils.[23]
The Didache (80-160 a.d.): You shall not long for division, but shall bring those who contend to peace.[24]
Irenaeus (c. 185 a.d.): The Church, having received this preaching and this faith, although scattered throughout the whole world, yet, as if occupying one house, carefully preserves it. She believes these things…and proclaims them, teaches them, and hands them down with perfect harmony, as if she possessed only one mouth.[25]
Cyprian (c. 250 a.d.): …there is one Church, divided by Christ throughout the whole world into many members, and also one episcopate diffused through a harmonious multitude of many bishops.[26]
Dionysius of Alexandria (251 a.d.): Dionysius to his brother Novatus,[27] greeting. If, as you say, you have been led on unwillingly, you will prove this if you retire willingly. It would be better to suffer everything than divide the Church of God. Even martyrdom for the sake of preventing division would not be less glorious than for refusing to worship idols.[28]
(I have included a number of quotes here, which just scratch the surface of the importance of unity amongst the Early Church Fathers. I recommend researching the Seven Ecumenical Councils for how the unified Church dealt with heresies and schisms in the early Church World. Keep in mind, that until the Great Schism in 1054, there was one unified, orthodox and catholic Church.)
Of course the world is confused. The Church has (largely) become a moving, theological hodgepodge of every feel-good doctrine or belief that society can throw her way. If, as in the words of Jude 3, the faith that was once for all is true, then why does the Church change to fit the times. Sin is sin. Always has been. Always will be. Christian Doctrine does not innovate or change. Must we really establish new Christian doctrine today as if God the Father has a moment of enlightenment that he got it wrong for the past 2,000 years?
Young people today look at the Church and see a milquetoast light of Christ barely flickering in the spiritual darkness of our land. They cannot grab ahold of the Truth because the Church does not hold the Truth. The Church offers them nothing that social media or Hollywood does not already fill. The Church and her clergy are more concerned with tickling the ears of their listeners than they are in preaching Truth and Christ. Charles Spurgeon famously said: “A time will come when instead of shepherds feeding the sheep, the church will have clowns entertaining the goats.” That time is here.
Jesus in his high priestly prayer as recorded in the Gospel of John (John 17) saw unity as key for the birth, growth, and sustainment of his Church. Jude, in verse three of his short epistle, recognized the validity and immutability of a faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. The Early Church Fathers recognized the importance of the unity of the faith. Yet, somehow, we seem to know better than the Apostles who wrote Scripture, the Early Church Fathers who lived out life as Christ followers during a time of intense persecution, and even Jesus Christ himself who prayed for, called for, unity amongst his disciples and followers. Ignatius, who died sometime in the early second Century, recognized division within the Church as the beginning of evils.
Over the past several months alone, I have heard multiple people say something along the lines of:
We need to reinvigorate…
We must innovate if we are to grow…
The problem is we need a new program…
Better music…
A drama department…
NO! I will scream this from the mountaintops. The Church does not need to innovate. The Church does not need to become Church 5.0! The Church must RETURN to the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.
As long as the Church focuses on man, on you, on me, IT WILL FAIL. The Church is the Bride of Christ, not the Social Club of Men. Please note closely the words of John 12:32 “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”
It is time for the Church to return to the ancient faith that will speak into the modern world as powerfully as it did nearly 2,000 years ago. It is time for man to get the focus off himself, to finally put to flight the man-centered theology that leads to a powerless Church with an ever fading Light of the World. (Not that the Light fades, but we refuse to let it shine because we are too concerned that the world sees ourselves and not Christ.)
These seem like harsh words. Sometimes (often), I have difficulty writing them. I do so because I see my own shortcomings, my own self-centeredness, in my journey with the Holy Trinity. I truly believe these five issues continue to diminish the power of the Church. We (I) seem to have forgotten the words of Christ as recorded in Matthew 16:18 “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
As Disciples of Christ, we are called to be part of His unified, holy, apostolic, orthodox, and catholic Church. It is not too late to reclaim this unity. There are three calls to action that must be heeded if we are to return to this call. And if America is now truly a post-Christian nation, then I am troubled by what it may take to return to a blessed land in Christ.
Three Calls to Action
Radical Obedience
My friend, Steve Peglow, once told me he thought some people were “common law Christians.” By that he meant they want the benefits of living with Jesus without making the commitment.[29]
The leaders of the Church, both ordained and lay, must have a radical obedience to following God. A great example is seen in the call of Isaiah. To be clear, this is not an indication that this is how God will call you. This is an example of a Prophet of God showing radical obedience to his call.
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
The whole earth is full of his glory!”
And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me,”[30]
Isaiah understood what it meant to follow God through radical obedience. He responded, without hesitation, without delay, to the call of God. Matthew 8:18-22 shows two individuals who were taught that there is a high cost in following Jesus.
The Bride of Christ must not only recognize that there is a high cost if she is to follow Jesus, but be willing to pay it. After all, as Paul writes in Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places…
The first step in radical obedience is to live a life fully surrendered to God. We must be willing to follow his call, his plan.
Luke 9:23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
John 4:34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.
Matthew 10:28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Radical obedience will put us squarely in the will of God. What we do matters.[31] Unfortunately, much of Christianity today says the right things, hears the right things, but does nothing. Not only is right belief important, but right action is equally important. If I believe, but refuse to act on that belief, then I really do not believe. It simply is not important enough.
A Church filled with nothing but statements of faith and Christian platitudes is weak and ineffective. It will produce weak and ineffective disciples. It will stand as just another social club in this world.
However, if the disciples of Christ will pursue a walk with Him soaked in radical obedience, then the world will be confronted with the Presence of Christ in her midst. Radical obedience is never easy. Radical obedience can often be painful or lonely or seemingly impossible. But it is always good. The reward is every spiritual blessing. The results is a world seeing a great Light in a dark and troubled land. Radical obedience will build the Church that lives in the mysterious presence of God in the Kingdom of heaven right now. Today. Radical obedience is following so closely after God that we are saturated in his will, his presence, his design for our lives. Radical obedience is rebuilding His unified Church to His glory, His worship, His majestic throne.
Reckless Abandon
The second call to action is to follow God with reckless abandon. Explore the following dialogue between Ignatius, Christian Bishop of Syrian Antioch, and the Emperor Trajan, as Ignatius is led to his death in Rome.[32]
Trajan: Who are you, wicked wretch, who transgress our commands and persuade others to do the same so that they should miserable perish like you will?
Ignatius: No one ought to call Theophorus a wicked wretch? All the evil spirits and demons you worship have departed from us who are the servants of the one God. But if because I am an enemy to these spirits, you call me wicked in respect to them, I quite agree with you. For because I have Christ the King of heaven within me, I destroy all the devices of these evil spirits.
Trajan: Theophorus. Theophorus. I see no Theophorus on this list. Why are you talking about Theophorus? Who is Theophorus?
Ignatius: I am Theophorus, the one who has Christ within his breast.
Trajan: I was told you were Ignatius. Well then, be whoever you want to be. But, a question. Do I, your emperor, not seem to you to have the gods in my mind, too? The very gods whose assistance we enjoy in fighting against our enemies…?
Ignatius: You are in error, emperor, when you call the demons of your nation gods. For there is but one God who made heaven, earth, the sea and that are in them. And one Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God.
Trajan: Jesus. Oh, yes, that Jesus. You mean the Jesus who was crucified under our Procurator Pontius Pilatus?
Ignatius: I mean the one who crucified sin along with its inventor, Emperor. And all the deceit and malice of the devil he has put under the feet of those who carry Him in their heart. That’s the Jesus I mean.
Trajan: Carry Him in their heart! So you are saying you carry within you that Jesus who was crucified. That’s not believable. How can you carry a god within you. I command the Ignatius who says that he carries about within him this Jesus who according to our Acta was crucified, dead and buried, I command that he be bound by soldiers, carried to the great Rome, and be there devoured by the beasts for the gratification of the people of Rome. Get him out of here!
Ignatius: I thank you, Lord, that You have honored me with a perfect love toward You and that I will be bound with these chains like your apostle Paul!
Trajan: These Christians are insane! He’s going to be torn to pieces by a lion and he’s happy. Who’s next on the list?
This lengthy dialogue is important and one of the most clear examples of the reckless abandon of a Christian. Ignatius called himself Theophorus, which means God-bearer. To really understand this reckless abandon, one more quote from Ignatius. Many Christians in Rome desired to intercede, to attempt to save the life of Ignatius. However, he wrote the following to them:
Permit me to be an imitator of the passion of my God. If any many has Him within himself, let him understand what I desire. If you will remain silent and leave me alone, I am a word of God. But if you save my flesh, then shall I be a mere cry.
Reckless abandon does not mean one will be martyred for their faith. But it does mean one will be willing to be martyred for life in Christ. The focus, however, is not on martyrdom, but on abandoning all for the sake of Christ.
Throughout Scripture, we see examples of reckless abandon.
Abram (Abraham) taking his son, Isaac, to be a sacrifice to God on the mountain (Genesis 22)
Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John all leaving their lives to follow Jesus (Matthew 4:18-22)
Elijah confronting the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18)
Simon Peter stepping out of the boat to walk on water (Matthew 14:22-33)
Mary pouring valuable perfume over Jesus as an act of worship (John 12:18)
Reckless abandon is not acting without thinking. A dictionary definition of reckless means to act without thinking or caring about the consequences. Within the Church, reckless abandon is an intentional willingness to follow Christ, to follow God’s call, regardless of the circumstances or consequences. It is a total and complete abandonment of my own rights, my own carefully crafted control of my own life. It is a dying to self (Galatians 2:20; 5:24; Luke 9:23; Matthew 10:38; 2 Timothy 2:11) and living the life that he has called me to live. Unless I die (reckless abandon) I cannot live in him.
This is important to the health and unity of the Church. Reckless abandon says I give up my own rights, my own beliefs. Reckless abandon will create unity within the Body of Christ. I no longer live for myself, but for him. The Church today is filled with “disciples” that do not understand this. It is filled with those who are more concerned with protecting their own beliefs, their own rights, their own personal preferences. This idolatry of self is a cancer that eats away at the unity of the Church, that dilutes the purity of the Body.
However, if her disciples are willing to follow him with reckless abandon, the Light of Christ will once again shine bright in a dark and troubled land. The world will see the Church as a place to find purpose, meaning, life, salvation! The Church will stand hard against the brokenness individualism that permeates our culture and be a Lighthouse for the lost, the broken, the wretch. It will be a place of Amazing Grace and Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty.
Radical obedience and reckless abandon. I go. I am his. My life is his life. It is no longer mine. I have no rights, other than the cross of Christ. Then, and only then, does the Church truly become the Bride of Christ.
Uncompromising Truth
The third call to action brings us full circle back to the first reason the Church is in decline today. Absolute truth versus moral relativism.
One of the most common phrases I hear amongst Christians today starts out with, “Well, I believe…” And yes, that comes out of my mouth as well way too often. This is hard for many in our culture to hear today: Truth is NOT dependent upon what you (or I) believe. In John 14:6, Jesus is recorded as saying “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Jesus is Truth. One of the most arrogant statements that a Christian can say is “Well, I believe…” when that statement is based on my desire for something to be true. Uncompromising truth says “I believe because this is what Scripture[33] and the Church[34] and the Early Church Fathers and Holy Tradition[35] says that the truth is.”
If the Church does not hold to the Truth of Christ, it stands on nothing. And as his disciples we must always hold to an uncompromising Truth. I remember in one Church I attended, one of the elders telling me that we could not confront “Fred”[36] with a particular sin because he was one of the biggest donors to the Church. What a shame that money wins out over Truth.
Hebrews 6:17-20 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
Uncompromising truth will lead to radical obedience which will nurture reckless abandon which grounds the faith into uncompromising truth. These calls to action, by no means exhaustive, or the key to reestablishing the Church as the anchor of faith, the unflinching Lighthouse for the lost, and for the true worship of the King of kings and Lord of lords. She will be the Kingdom of heaven in our midst, the mysterious presence of Christ that surrounds us, protects us, calls us forth.
This will revitalize the Bride of Christ to be who she was intended to be…
One Prediction
The Sacrifices of a New Martyrdom
Tertullian (c. 155-220 a.d.): …the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church.
As I stated earlier in this paper, if America (and large portions of the West) is truly a post-Christian nation, we can expect persecution and even martyrdom to be a strong possibility for those who believe in Christ. Throughout Church history, the Church has often grown the most (in depth if not pure numbers) during time of intense persecution. As Tertullian stated in the late second or early third Century, the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church.
The true disciples of Christ must be ready for this persecution to come. Radical obedience, reckless abandon, and uncompromising truth may lead us down this road. Martyrdom is not something I seek. But if it does come, I pray I might have the attitude of Ignatius, shortly before his own martyrdom:
Now I begin to be a disciple of Christ. I care for nothing, of visible or invisible things, so that I may but win Christ. Let fire and the cross, let the companies of wild beasts, let breaking of bones and tearing of limbs, let the grinding of the whole body, and all the malice of the devil, come upon me; be it so, only may I win Jesus Christ.
Is it too late for the Church? Never. For nothing is impossible if God be at the center.[37] But it is too late to innovate. It is too late for the man-made, self-centered church of the West. And that is a good thing.
[3] Dr. Eddie Bhawanie, The Early Apologists, and Their Defense of the Truth-Claims of the Christian Faith, Research Center for Apologetics, International, 2012.
[4] N.T. Wright, For All God’s Worth: True Worship and the Calling of the Church, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997.
[14] The Orthodox Church never lost its call for catechesis, at least not wide spread, like the Western Church has. (My note, not in J. I. Packer’s original text.)
[15] Packer, J. I., To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism. Crossway, 2020. p. 13.
