Christianity

The other week my husband and I were on the way home when suddenly he pointed to a group of dead trees. “All ash,” he said. What a sad sight. He then went on to point to other dead trees and mentioned that almost all the ash trees in our area were gone now. There was hardly one healthy ash tree left standing in our area.

In 2002 a small beetle called the “emerald ash borer” was spotted for the first time in America. It had hitched a ride from somewhere in Asia and thus began its invasion. Within 20 years it was in 35 states and it was killing off what would become tens of millions of ash trees (according to the USDA website). Whole forests of Ash Trees would disappear.

How was this accomplished exactly?

Here’s how this USDA website explains it–

According to scientists, the adult beetle causes little damage aside from minor leaf feeding from late May through September. It is the larva that does the real damage by feeding on the inner bark of the ash trees disrupting water and nutrients from moving through the tree resulting in its death. Typically, trees die within three to five years of infestation and trees may be infested for a couple years before exhibiting any signs or symptoms.

So the tree actually looks fairly healthy for a few years even though, inside, it is dying. But, eventually, it perishes–all due to what looks like a small, harmless beetle.

This is a striking picture of what used to be biblical churches across America. Strong and solid, they stood tall among the many churches no longer preaching the Gospel. Churches that had fallen much earlier to liberal theology or bad doctrine.

But a tiny seed of false teaching started to make its way through the churches almost unnoticed. I believe it was the seed of worldliness. It came in all shapes and sizes and attractive packages. Here are just a few ways it entered the church–

Witnessing— how will anyone listen to you if you look and act so different from the world? And so we rationalized and reasoned and came up with the man-created idea that we must be “like the world to win the world”. We lost sight of who God is and of His power and began to believe that people coming to Christ was reliant upon us and our methods. Nothing could be further from the truth, as scripture says it is God who draws us to Himself (John 6:44; Ephesians 1:17-18). But this man-made philosophy convinced us that we could have Jesus and the world, too. And, in fact, that we were doing valuable work for God’s Kingdom by embracing the world. Despite scripture’s clear teaching to the contrary (James 4:4; I John 2:15).

Running a Church— Bringing in the business model to the church, it began to be run by pragmatism, which is the practice of basing what we do on “what works”. If the church wasn’t growing, then we were told that we had to make certain sacrifices to make sure it was growing. We are talking about numbers here. No one seemed to care even one bit about growing the believers in holiness or spiritual depth. This brought in a revolution of changes in music, changes in sermon style and length, changes in clothing, and a variety of other ways. But, again, we forgot that a church is not a business. It is God’s house. It is the bride of Christ. It’s not a corporation that can be manipulated to get the results that someone out there tells us we must have in order to be viewed as “successful”. The biblical purpose of the Church all but disappeared in this influx of business idealogy.

Church Focus— As our view became horizontal, rather than vertical, our focus turned from worshiping God and growing more like Christ together as a church body to meeting the needs of the world and fixing societal problems. And, while, of course, helping the poor or standing against abortion (as examples) aren’t wrong in and of themselves, they should never be the core focus of any church–or any Christian, for that matter.

Legitimizing (and Even Promoting) Worldly Entertainment–As a whole generation became obsessed with entertainment and much less enamored with the Word of God, this became a powerful way that Satan bore into the hearts of church-goers and put their eyes on the world. Much of this was done through the avenue of the church, where pastors were told that they would get more attenders if they’d think outside the box a bit.

I remember as a teen having a youth pastor that began to use Hollywood movies to entertain us. Movies I’d never watch as a more mature believer at this point in my life. Why weren’t the more mature believers protecting their teens? It’s a question I’ve always wondered. Now I can see that for what it was but back then it seemed fun and oh, so cool. And, while I doubt every youth pastor knows what he is doing when he points teens to entertainment rather than teaching them the Bible, the damage is substantial. These future church members leave youth group with little knowledge of scripture and an increased appetite for the world. Of course, some churches do try to do both. But that’s a bit like trying to put out a fire while feeding it. Again, scripture makes it clear you just can’t have both (James 4:4).

These changes within the conservative churches began decades ago. It took much longer than the two years it takes the ash borer to kill an ash tree. But the result is the same. Churches that look the same on the outside are spiritually fruitless on the inside. The worldliness has done it’s damage and, for those of us who desire a biblically sound church, the dearth of them is simply astounding.

And it just keeps growing worse and worse. A few weeks ago, I was absolutely shocked to see someone viewed as a “biblical pastor” post something that would encourage people that listening to Taylor Swift falls under that catch-all banner of Christian liberty. One has to wonder if this pastor had taken any time to read the lyrics of any of her songs or to watch any clips of her concerts? For no biblical pastor would ever point his people in her direction. Unless he’s been bitten by the “ash borer” of worldliness.

I find it quite interesting that to even talk about worldliness as a problem in the church is to submit yourself to severe censure, even among what I would consider sincere believers. Years ago, a few raised alarms about the “ash borer” that looked so small. They warned of its deadliness. But their alarms were met with scorn and ridicule. As the damage became more and more evident, those sounding the alarm grew more and more censured, until most just shut up. If they didn’t, they would be ridiculed, labeled, and often times asked to leave their churches. So most just grew silent. And, like the frog in the pot, the church at large became immersed in worldliness.

It’s hard to imagine what a biblical pastor coming from the 1800s or even the mid-1900s would say about their visit to a “biblical church” today. I even wonder what my grandfather, a pastor in the 70s and 80s, would have to say. For it’s hardly recognizable when compared to what church used to be.

What we are seeing is not unexpected if we understand the future of the world, according to the Word of God. The killing of biblical churches is no accident but, rather, a vital part of Satan’s scheme. There has to be few (maybe none?) left in order to make his final plan successful.

SO what to do? Jude, a book that talks about the church of the last days, gives us some guidance. We are to build ourselves up in the faith. We are to pray in the Spirit and keep ourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of the Lord (for He will continue to shed His mercy on His own in the midst of all the turmoil and wickedness); And as we do these things we are to have compassion and seek to make a difference– saving some from the fires of false doctrine and worldliness, as God gives opportunity.

And then we have the blessed reminder that God is able to keep us from falling. He is able to present us faultless before His presence with exceeding joy! We are His and greater is He that is in us that He that is in the world! (I John 4:4)

So may we keep on keeping on, faithfully serving the Lord in the midst of it all. Running with endurance the race that is set before us (not quite the race we expected, is it?) and looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. (Hebrews 12:1-2)

But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference:And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.
(Jude 21-25)