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restoring our biblical and constitutional foundations
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Let the Reformation Begin!
It is time to amend our ways. Some things are not to be accepted but challenged and changed.
The problem with our generation is that we fail to get to the root of our troubles. We spread talcum powder on cancer and use a feather duster to get rid of deeply-ingrained unbiblical traditions.
It is time to forsake all such temporary palliatives. No longer can we remain silent about a church that has become cluttered with superficial “believers” who refuse to sell all and follow Jesus.
These troubling times find our generation intoxicated – not necessarily with wine from a bottle but with all the stimulants of our over-programmed and superficial Christianity.
- We bring our Sunday School lesson books to church but not our Bibles.
- We refuse to open our hymnals let alone sing joyfully unto the Lord as we are commanded to do.
- We fall for religious fads – our “Rickshaw Rallies” – that work up mere positive thinking that only further deceive the sinner.
- We prefer peaceful coexistence with the state to the kingdom of heaven.
- We exalt human leaders (our “senior” pastors) over the one Head of the Church.
- We substitute activity – a farce without force – for Christian living.
- We shunt our children off to church and school yet fail in our parental responsibility to teach them the Word of God at home.
- We emphasize the new birth and fail to give corresponding emphasis to the new life.
- We preach “seeker-sensitive” drivel while our people perish for lack of knowledge.
- We gather multitudes of professed believers but few disciples.
- We sacrifice quality to quantity and the novices never mature.
Our churches are filled with spoiled children who need to grow up, milk feeders who should be on meat.
We must avoid rashness and impatience, but it is just as wrong to slip into an unoffensive acceptance of things that can and ought to be changed. God is not a Benevolent Butler, awaiting our bidding. He is not a Big Buddy, winking at our childishness. The church is not a civic club!
The brave General Armistead, at the Emmitsburg Road, asked, “Who will come with me?” In a day when the secular press mocks our inflated membership statistics, it is time for the follower of Christ to say “I will rise to the challenge!”
Let us return to the solas of the Reformation. Let us believe the Word of God and receive it for what it is, letting God be true and every man a liar. Let us refuse to soothe the unsaved with a false peace or stir them with an artificial joy. Let us stand – and stand alone if necessary – for conviction and principle. Instead of dodging issues, let us meet them head-on as Paul did at Corinth.
Above all, let us weep for our sins that put Christ on the cross, our iniquities that made Calvary necessary, and our godless traditions that led to Good Friday.
God is ready to work in us to will and do that which He expects. To be satisfied with anything less is to doubt and disobey God. This year, let us raise the horizons of our expectations and believe God for the “above and beyond” (Eph. 3:20).
The Great Awakener of the church, of whom it is said “He stirreth up the people” (Luke 23:5), is sounding the reveille. Every Christian ought to be a co-agitator, working with God to awaken a church stupefied with the spirit of deep sleep.
Let the reformation begin!
January 3, 2005
David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com. He is the author of Why I Stopped Listening to Rush and numerous other books.