Something is very wrong with the church today. On the surface, everything appears fine. Large and ornate church buildings are omnipresent. More people verbalize Christian beliefs. Money for televangelists keeps pouring in. Sports celebrities, movie stars, and even politicians claim Christianity as a core conviction. So, why do I say something is very wrong with the church today?
I say something is very wrong because the definition and central purpose of the church have become something counter to that of the church's historicity.
In the first place, instead of proclaiming the traditional message of redemption through Christ alone, today's church basks in a new doctrine of inclusiveness. One can be identified as a Christian while believing and practicing virtually anything. Most professing Christians today seem to believe that tolerance is the Godliest virtue of all. One must wonder why God even bothered to create Hell, because it seems hardly anyone will ever go there.
In the second place, it seems today's church believes that God has had a second incarnation. He now resides in government. Today's Christians seem to define The Trinity as Father, Son, and Holy Republican Party. One gets the impression that modern Christians believe G.W. Bush has already ushered in the Kingdom of Heaven. Surely, somewhere lambs and lions are sleeping together.
The church's preoccupation with tolerance and its infatuation with government put it at odds with scripture and with U.S. history. In effect, it has rendered to Caesar what belongs to God.
It is disconcerting and downright scary to see how gullible today's Christians have become. It is also becoming clear how the nations of antiquity fell into tyranny and oppression. Their own churches led them into the devil's den.
That Christians have traded faith in Biblical and constitutional principles for faith in partisan politics is what's wrong, and until the church repents of this idolatry, it will never be made right.
© Chuck Baldwin
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