The Shame of the Church
Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you. (Isaiah 54:10)
This week will be one of those departures from “regular programming” that I sometimes do. Even though the fight with Iran is raging, I have a different subject on my heart.
I saw some polling data this week that claims only four percent of Americans have a biblical worldview. Sounds scary.
And I’m surprised it’s that high.
The vast majority of our problems in this country stem from this one fact. And guess what, the Church is complicit.
As you know by now, I am referring to the Church Visible. The public, gross, sloppy, embarrassing celebrity Church. The real Bible churches are still out there. Overall though, there is a sense of helplessness and dread. This week on X, the actor James Woods wrote:
“I’ve lived through some terribly turbulent times in our nation and in the world. Vietnam almost tore this country apart. Watergate was a severe wound. The Manson murders shredded the fabric of our culture. 9/11 was shocking. The COVID pandemic and ensuing political madness were bitter and disgraceful. I now feel, however, that the disturbing malaise poisoning our current world is in many ways worse than all of these other events. It is literally as if the world has spun off its axis, never to find balance again. I’ve never been more concerned about the future of the human race. And the worst part of all of it, is that it’s predictable, and therefore preventable. Everything that’s wrong is staring us right in the face, and half this country simply will not join us in fighting and fixing it. It’s infuriating and depressing and maddening.”
I remember reading Bob DeWaay’s fantastic book, The Emergent Church. He talked about the despair that young people today feel and rightly laid much of the blame at the feet of the “Emergent” (liberal/leftwing) Church. After more than a century of hacking away at biblical accounts, claiming much of the Bible is myth, the infamous “Scopes Monkey Trial” in Dayton, Tennessee opened the door to wholesale teaching of Darwinian philosophy in our public schools. That was followed by the diabolical Supreme Court ruling banning prayer in schools. All because one hate-filled woman brought a lawsuit.
It’s interesting to note though that Madalyn Murray O’Hair’s lawsuit happened at a time when cultural forces were just waiting for an excuse to embrace atheism. A hundred years prior, when Darwin’s poison was exported across the Atlantic, what group do you imagine was just waiting to embrace these attacks on the Bible?
The clergy!
The hard truth is, the visible American Church has almost always failed our Lord, and the millions of lost people out there. Right now, the point of failure is the erosion of support for Israel.
Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The Lord of hosts is his name:
If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever.
Thus saith the Lord; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord.
It’s impossible to misread the crystal-clear meaning of Jeremiah 31:35-37. God Himself is telling us that He will never permanently put away the Jewish people. He chose them. He chose Zion as His dwelling place. The Son is returning to reign from Jerusalem. Scripture also tells us that one day, gentiles will take hold of a Jew and ask to be taken to worship the Lord.
Listen though to celebrity pastors and ministries today and you’ll hear a different picture. They teach that God has abandoned the Jews. He has transferred His promises to them to the Church!!
Madness.
I’ll say a hard thing. Two generations ago, solid denominations loved Israel. Today, the Assemblies of God has slipped in this regard. Infiltration of Pentecostal circles by men like Paul Alexander (Jesus was a Palestinian) did the damage. In the Southern Baptist Church, Reformed theology, with its love of Martin Luther and John Calvin (an equally aggressive anti-Semite), has compromised the SBC when it comes to Israel support. Men who loved Scripture (such as Noah Hutchings at Southwest Radio Church) have passed from the scene and their places were taken by subversives like Russell Moore and Ed Stetzer. Those men do not love Israel or the Jewish people.
All of us who do love Zion are dismayed to have lived to see such apostasy. It’s tough watching what’s going on with regard to American views of Israel. We are now seeing the classic propaganda that the “Jews are controlling things.” People are impatient with Trump’s heroic efforts to defang Iran’s mullahs, thus making all of us safer. People say that we are doing Netanyahu’s bidding. Et cetera.
If you wonder why so many are turning against Israel, I’ve outlined some of the key reasons.
We eagerly anticipate the Rapture and the return of the Lord Jesus to Earth.
Maranatha!
(My two newest books, The God That Answers and Zechariah 2 are available on Amazon. For those you are trying to reach with the truth of Zionism and Bible prophecy, these books are uniquely written just for that purpose.)