Why Is American Christendom in Such a Mess?
God has a plan called His gospel, which includes a detailed blueprint called the Bible, a workforce designed to implement His plan called His church and a CEO called the Holy Spirit who is everywhere at once, writes Dennis Peacocke in Doing Business God’s Way.
“The major problem is the workforce—the believers,” Peacocke continues. “They don’t understand the work project because they have focused on their retirement benefits in the future and in Heaven. Clearly, they should focus on the work project God has given them to do on Earth.” That work project would be Jesus’ “ekklesia” kingdom assignment in Matthew 16:18 against which the gates of Hades shall not prevail.
“Let me ask those of you who manage or hire people what you would think about the character and motivation of a prospective employee whose primary focus was on the benefits and retirement plans of your organization. Would you really want to hire such a self-oriented person? Can you now see why so much of Christendom is in such an apathetic mess? We’ve focused on the retirement plan.”
The American Founding Fathers operated with a different eschatological viewpoint in mind. Harvard College was established in 1636, and its founding document reads, “Every one shall consider as the main End of his life and studies, to know God and Jesus Christ, which is Eternal life.” (John 17:3). With its motto “Christ and Church,” Harvard was founded primarily to train clergymen, for the founders were unwavering regarding the significance of religious education.
“The New England Primer” was America’s textbook up until 1790. Each letter of the alphabet was associated with a Biblical character or a scriptural lesson, with a corresponding doctrinal truth anchored in the mind with a rhyme. “A” was for Adam, and there was a woodcut of Adam and Eve: “In Adam’s Fall, we sinned all.” “C” was for Christ, with the rhyme “Christ crucify’d for sinners dy’d.”
The English Puritan lawyer John Winthrop [(588-1649) emigrated with his family in 1630 and would serve many terms as governor of Massachusetts. The problems with education of his day strongly resembled what is currently commonplace in America: “The fountains of learning and religion are so corrupted most children [even the best wits and fairest hopes] are perverted, corrupted, and utterly overthrown by the multitude of evil examples and the licentious government of those seminaries, where men strain at gnats and swallow camels … but suffer all Ruffian-like fashion and disorder in manners to pass uncontrolled.”
The retirement plan adopted by 20th-century American Christendom and the surrender of both public education and public square have enabled Satan to hammer yet another nail in the coffin of our once biblically based culture.
The struggle by two distinct religions vying for control of ideological supremacy and control of culture will likely define whether Western civilization will endure. For example, the collusion exposed by the COVID scam[demic] by Big Government, Big Tech, Big Media, Big Pharma and the deep state should have loud alarm bells ringing, and yet the Church won’t wake from its slumber.
In plain language, America is on the verge of a totalitarian government telling us what we are permitted to think or say by implementing its politically correct rules.
On July 29, 2023, police in Watertown, Wisconsin, arrested Marcus Schroeder, a Christian youth minister, as he peacefully protested a “Drag Queen Story Hour” event at a local park. The youth group first attempted to get its message across inside the park by praying and talking to attendees, but members were arrested and let off with a warning if they promised to stay beyond the fence.
Complying, Schroeder from the public sidewalk began using a microphone to ensure everyone could still hear him as he read from Galatians. Meanwhile, men in female costumes danced provocatively for children. Schroeder was arrested and handcuffed as officers converged on him. In violation of his First Amendment rights, he was arrested for amplifying his message from a public sidewalk.
On August 2, Schroeder presented an Apostle Paul-type rebuttal to the city council.
Charles H. Spurgeon’s (1834-1892) magnum opus, “The Treasury of David,” provides one of the most comprehensive commentaries on the Psalms ever written. It took him 20 years to complete. His commentary on Psalm 1:1, KJV—”Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful”—articulates the progression of sin and America’s problem:
“Let others make a mock of sin, of eternity, of hell and heaven, and of the Eternal God; this man has learned better philosophy than that of the infidel, and has too much sense of God’s presence to endure to hear His name blasphemed.
“When men are living in sin they go from bad to worse. At first they merely walk in the counsel of the careless and ungodly, who forget God—the evil is rather practical than habitual—but after that, they become habituated to evil, and they stand in the way of open sinners who willfully violate God’s commandments; and if let alone, they go one step further, and become themselves pestilent teachers and tempters of others, and thus they sit in the seat of the scornful.
“They have taken their degree in vice, and as true Doctors of Damnation they are installed, and are looked up to by others as Masters in Belial. But the blessed man, the man to whom all the blessings of God belong, can hold no communion with such characters as these. He keeps himself pure from these lepers; he puts away evil things from him as garments spotted by the flesh; he comes out from among the wicked, and goes without the camp, bearing the reproach of Christ. Oh, for grace to be thus separate from sinners.”
Young Marcus Schroeder and others are beginning to stand, mirroring a type of Old Testament prophet who have seen visions and heard His voice from the throne. It is not the raw recruit, as A.W. Pink noted in his excellent “An Exposition of Hebrews,” but the scarred veteran who is being assigned to the front ranks in the battle.
The Gideons and Rahabs who are beginning to stand will demonstrate a love of Christ and the souls of men to the point of willingness to die for the glory of the one and the salvation of the other.
To use Tozer’s words: They will fear nothing that breathes with mortal breath.
Tap into the power of the Holy Spirit. Find out how by reading Stephen Strang’s book, Spirit-Led Living in an Upside Down World. {eoa}
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David Lane is the founder of The American Renewal Project.
