Who Will Switch the Lights Back on in America’s Churches?
“Imagine a stained glass window of Jesus that has faded over centuries, so His face no longer appears. But the window still paints the room in rosy, pastel colors. So you decide that the real purpose of the window was decorative all along. It’s just that your generation is now advanced enough to see it. Christianity is just a superior mode of living. It helped us out compete other tribes, like the Muslims and the Buddhists. It made us … fitter to survive. So things seemed to Westerners in 1900, whose colonial empires ruled most of the world.” (John Zmirak, ‘Human Zoos’ Exhibits the Racist Toll of Darwinism; The Stream, Nov. 19, 2018.)
In examining the same theme of devalued religious input, Dr. Peter J. Leithart observes: “The remnants of Christendom within our political order (the president’s hand on the Bible—not the Qur’an—during the inauguration) are brittle remnants and provide neither standards of conduct nor accountability to those standards. O’Donovan writes that ‘the political doctrine that emerged from Christendom is characterized by a notion that government is responsible.'” Peter J. Leithart, “1 & 2 Kings” (Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible).
At some point, the light must be switched back on in America’s churches, illuminating the fact that Christians are the living body of the church, commissioned to play a role in the marketplace: “‘I will build you, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against you.’ The point of inception cannot be the organized church; it has to be the marketplace. And that’s why our movement, our pastors (must) equip their people and release them to be ministers in the marketplace (if America is to survive).” (Ed Silvoso, in a prophetic dialogue with Lance Wallnau; posted on facebook.com/EdSilvoso.)
This paradigm shift, now taking place in American Christendom, will revive the founders’ mission as expressed by Reverend Robert Hunt in his public thanksgiving and prayer on April 29, 1607, when the settlers erected a cross at Cape Henry, Virginia:
We do hereby Dedicate this Land, and ourselves, to reach the People within these shores with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to raise up Godly generations after us, and with these generations take the Kingdom of God to all the earth. May this Covenant of Dedication remain to all generations, as long as this earth remains, and may this Land, along with England, be Evangelist to the World.
The Mayflower Compact of November 1620 displayed the same intent: “Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and advancements of the Christian faith …”
Contemporary American political leadership stands in stark contrast to the constitutional leadership of the original 13 colonies and the 18th-century Confederation Congress. The latter, in 1787, chartered a government for the Northwest Territory and a method of admittance for new states to the Union. One of the requirements was that “Religion, morality and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged” (The Northwest Ordinance).
Contemporary America lost its bearings in the last 100 years and turned into a secular culture. It all began with advancing the false religion of secularism, followed by the erosion of character of America’s youth through public education and the breakdown of the family. Soon thereafter, the collapse and now absence of character in national leadership took place.
The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) provide a clear but sad example of the decline. The organization is on the verge of bankruptcy amid sexual abuse lawsuits and declining membership. Compromise led BSA to admit openly gay members, followed by allowing transgender boys to be members and most recently accepting girls as Boy Scouts. All this at a premier organization that at one time trained boys for manhood! Tradition turned topsy-turvy.
The problem of an upside-down culture, as the byproduct of public education, is intensified by the lack of integrity and principle in the political/legislative arena.
In January 2017, Speaker Paul Ryan vowed “that Republicans will move to strip all federal funding for Planned Parenthood as part of the process they are using early this year to dismantle Obamacare.”
… subsequently wasting all of 2017-2018, demonstrating governmental incompetence, and forgetting about Obamacare, Immigration, and Planned Parenthood.
Pew Research reported that evangelical turnout in 2018 was at 2014 and 2010 levels, in other words, anemic and impotent. (Pew Research Center, Nov. 7, 2018; How religious groups voted in the midterm elections.)
Why would we expect it to be any different? Speaker Ryan and House Republican leadership proved to be just the party of seat-warmers. “When the left wins, they’re in power; when the right wins, they’re in office, and that’s all,” Mark Steyn commented.
Making matters even worse, here comes Speaker Nancy Pelosi in 2019, chosen by evangelical and pro-life Catholic Christians who stayed home on Election Day.
With astonishing speed, Christians seem to have erased from living memory such things as Fast and Furious, deepening deficits, gays praying at the Inauguration, transgender bathrooms, transgender military, voter bullying by ACORN, racism exploited by Black Lives Matter, insurrection fueled by leftist totalitarians in major U.S. cities, violence and IRS investigations of Christian conservative organizations.
America is America when “fixed” in the foundation laid down by her founders. But when America departs from Jehovah God, America becomes a fundamentally different America.
Gideons and Rahabs need to come forward.
