This is from Glenn Beck, not someone I pay any attention to. But the poll was done by Barna, and the results are interesting.
Excerpt:
An prominent Christian pollster joined Glenn on his T.V. program Tuesday night to unveil the findings from a new poll, which sought to identify the top issues church-goers want to hear about from their pastors. The findings fascinated Glenn, who has been saying for a long time the way to wake our country up should be through our churches.
Joined by historian David Barton, pollster George Barna from the American Cultural & Faith Institute presented his research in which nearly 3,000 active church-goers were surveyed about the issues they want to hear about most in church.
Top 12 Issues the Church Wants to Hear:
1. Abortion: Beginning of life, right to life, contraception, adoption, unwed mothers. 91%
2. Religious persecution/liberty: Personal duty, government duty, church response, global conditions. 86%
3. Poverty: Personal duty, government role, church role, homelessness, hunger, dependency. 85%
4. Cultural restoration: Appropriate morals, law and order, defensible values and norms, self-government. 83%
5. Sexual identity: Same-sex marriage, transgenderism, marriage, LGBT. 82%
6. Israel: Its role in the world, Christian responsibility to Israel, US foreign policy toward Israel and its enemies. 80%
7. Christian Heritage: role of Christian faith in American history, church role in US development, moder-day relevance. 79%
8. Role of Government: Biblical view, church-state relationship, personal responsibility, limitations. 76%
9. Bioethics: Cloning, euthanasia, genetic engineering, cryogenics, organ donation, surrogacy. 76%
10. Self-governance: Biblical support, personal conduct, impact on freedom, national sovereignty. 75%
11. Church in politics/government: Separation of church and state, legal boundaries, church resistance to government. 73%
12. Islam: Core beliefs, response to Islamic aggression, threat to US peace and domestic stability. 72%
David Barton went on to present several Action Steps that church-goers can do right now, to help get their churches off the sidelines and their pastors preaching about these important issues.
Well, I certainly found these poll results interesting, and that’s why I try to have a variety of topics on this blog.
The first thing I thought when I read that list is that pastors would have to be reading about things outside the Bible in order to know how to speak about them. For example, to talk about abortion, it helps to read books by Scott Klusendorf, Frank Beckwith, Robert George and Christopher Kaczor. Now, I’ve talked to some friends who have been through seminary, and it sounds to me that they read very little on the substance of these kinds of issues, and a lot about spiritual fluff. Maybe, instead of focusing so much on the packaging, they can focus more on the content. The list is pretty clearly a list of serious controversial issues. But in church I feel that the emphasis is always on feelings and agreement.
So, let’s see. How should we go about getting the churches to speak about these issues? I really have no idea, and I’m not holding my breath waiting for them to start to talk about how the Bible is supported by evidence, or about what anti-Christians skeptics say, or about how the Bible applies to issues in the real world. The pastors just seem to be not interested in all the most interesting things in the world, for some crazy reason. I love the list – I wish I heard these things discussed in church.
WINTERY KNIGHT 
Unfortunately, Christian culture for a long time has had the idea that church is for spiritual things and should not be degraded or contaminated by talking about “worldly” things. This is a huge contributor to the divide so many people have between their faith and the way they live. They’ve been taught (directly or indirectly) to keep spiritual things in a separate compartment from the rest of their life.
This is not only unbiblical, but dangerous. One of the main reasons Christians are losing the culture and the next generation is that they only apply the Bible to “spiritual” things like prayer or Bible reading. They don’t apply the principles of the Bible to every day life.
This inability to apply the Bible to every area of life is a major reason why so many Christians vote democrat, support abortion, agree with same-sex marriage, have sex outside marriage, favor socialism, and fail to reach their children. When we don’t take the time to connect the Bible to cultural issues, we not only fail in our duty to reach the culture for Christ, but we fail to make disciples within the church as well.
And yet the renewing of our minds to think Biblically in every area is a major purpose of Bible reading and development of spiritual discipline. A faith that is separated from everyday life and relegated only to the realm of the “spiritual” is an empty and lifeless faith. Christians with this kind of faith are not effective for the Kingdom of God.
One of the things our churches desperately need is to connect the principles of Christianity to the actual real life situations and issues of our day. People need to learn to apply the church’s teaching to every facet of their lives and to use the Bible as a lens for understanding and interacting with the culture and making a difference in our society.
Hearing teaching in the church on the issues mentioned in this article would go a long way toward fixing the disconnect between the spiritual and all the rest of life. It isn’t all that needs to be done, but it would be a good start.
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I laughed out loud when I read this. What were the metrics of this poll? Which churches were asked? What kind of church-goer was asked? Which denominations?
I find it funny because I belong to a “conservative” church, and even there most people want to hear about how “Jesus loves them” and that only.
These polls WK you have to be careful with. I remember about a decade and a half ago all we heard in the USA that “men will come to church if we just have rock music, smoke machines, light shows, and entertainment”
Well, we threw out traditional hymns. We have “contemporary praise” music. Headset microphones, and the dreaded 7/11 praise music now. Seven lines repeated eleven times. I am sorry, but the chorus to loud rock / pop music “You are worthy” repeated ten times followed with “And I will worship you” doesn’t seem to be packing them in.
Then we were told because “all the polls said it” that we have to make church less “stuffy” and traditional and the men are gonna come. “Come as you are” was thrown about (well, except if you stink, smell, are homeless, and have dirty, tattered clothing). “Come as you are” meant dress anyway you like…but as usual women took this to mean to wear flip-flops and pajama bottoms to church, plenty of mid-riff too. Coffee and lattes were allowed during service in the Holy place……yeah, that sure is packing in all the men.
It has only made church more casual, and God less Holy in corporate worship.
So WK, I really don’t listen to these “polls” anymore. If any pastor tried to actually dig into these above topics……..most people would leave.
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“If any pastor tried to actually dig into these above topics……..most people would leave.”
I think that is the point WK was making. Most people WOULD leave, but not most authentic Christian men and women. (The men who follow the jesus is a hippie saying “peace, love, man” would be right out the door, clinging to their feminist wives’ purses, no less.) The churches would be MUCH smaller, but filled with sheep, not wolves. And, they might not be as small as we might at first think, since folks like me would not be sitting at home typing their comments in right now – we would have a REAL church to attend where there is something presented that does not require us to put our intellects on the back burners.
But, I agree with you 100% that I would LOVE to know who these folks polled are – because they are identified as “church-goers,” but how could that be so? They sound more like the mass of Christians who have no place to go to churches because churches don’t preach these 12 topics. So, there is surely something very relevant to your point here. When I first read the article, I skipped over that part. I assumed that the polled demographic was “men sitting at home studying apologetics and watching debates and Marching for Life yesterday into the darkness of Hell in front of abortuaries all over the country.”
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St. Paul told us that the time would come when people would not put up with sound doctrine but only allow what they wanted to hear. This poll, if at all accurate, would certainly support that. However, the very definition of church, Greek word eklesia, is “called out”. Jessus himself said that his kingdom is not of this world. Surely, as a Christian (and political blogger), I am intensely interested in the above-mentioned issues. But it is not the church’s job to speak public policy. In fact, in the USA, it is expressly forbidden. Instead, it is the church’s job to educate its people on God’s view of right and wrong via his revelation, his handbook of life, if you will. From that knowledge of the Bible comes spiritual discernment. From that discernment comes the Christian’s answer to every question of life. Unfortunately, too many people in Christian seats seem to think that God must meet their agenda instead of the other way around.
We also, by the way, learn about sin and forgiveness. We learn that all have sinned and fall short of God’s standard. We learn that God provided Jesus’ standard in our place and punished him for our shortcomings. And we learn that his righteousness is appropriated to us by believing in him. What we don’t learn is that sin is not sin. What we don’t learn is that faith does not cause a desire to stop sinning and to resist evil. What we don’t learn is that we are free now to do whatever we want with no consequences. As St. Paul said of such thinking, “Their condemnation is deserved!”
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I agree with most of what you say here, but I think you are treading dangerously close to a Gospel-only theology. (Or, perhaps I am mistaken?) I have seen a lot of that lately used as an excuse for cowardice and laziness, even though, in your case, I am sure it is not true.
“But it is not the church’s job to speak public policy. In fact, in the USA, it is expressly forbidden.”
Completely false. The Church is not to endorse specific candidates, but, of course, the Church should speak public policy. Public policy has led to the murder of 58 million innocent Americans, and that is a Holocaust that makes what happened in Nazi Germany look saintly by comparison. (Even Hitler outlawed abortion, but not for the Jews. Never for the Jews. ) Speaking out (from the pulpit too!) for public policy that would protect those innocent lives is not only recommended, it is required of us, if we are going to satisfy the numerous instances in which Jesus spoke of His love for the little ones, not to mention His Greatest and Second Commandments.
I am not pointing fingers at you at all, Sir, but the folks I hear this argument the most from are pastors who think they can put together a feel-good sermon with kewl worship songs, and then stand before God and collect their crowns. What a shock they will be in for!
I agree with everything else you wrote and beautifully expressed, and I apologize for my harshness and any mis-understanding I have expressed based on your sentiments. It is only the two sentences I wanted to take issue with, as I have been around the horn lately with a number of Gospel-only sorts, and I find that extraordinarily unBiblical, downright scandalous. Gospel-First, sure, but not Gospel-Only. Gospel-AND.
Yes, His Kingdom is not of this world, but He also left us here for a reason – to be salt and light in an ever-darkening world. How can we do this, if pastors and priests have no courage?!?
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I don’t really disagree with you. My point is that, if we ground our people in the Bible, then we don’t have to pick political battles. Yes, we can take a stand in moral issues, and we should teach our people to judge rightly about such things. But I become apprehensive when we turn everything into bible study on “topics” that are trending. I think we are much better served to lead people to study the Bible deeply and systematically and let the Spirit lead them to understand where they should stand on these issues. After all, isn’t that the same Spirit that gave us discernment? Pastors are not called to led social charges, but to preach the Word. We must equip our people for works of service, including duty to God and country.
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I agree 100% that the Spirit gives us discernment and that no born-again believer would ever come down on the side of abortion or gay “marriage.” And, I agree with your other post about welfare and preaching the Word and everything.
The only point that I would make is this: our churches are probably 50% filled with unbelievers – on average across all churches in America. (That is arguably a kind estimate.) These 50% have no discernment, because they have never been born again nor received the Holy Spirit. Yet, they are really nice people, they show up every Sunday, they vote for Obama (twice!), and when their teenage daughter gets pregnant, they take them right down to the abortion clinic without a second thought.
I know this because I am a sidewalk counselor in front of an abortion mill. You would simply not believe what you see there – Christian, pagan, wiccan, etc. But, we also have the stories of the post-abortive women whose Moms were such strong “Christians” but forced their daughters to have abortions as teens. There is something pathologically wrong with this. I believe that the Church has remained silent far too long.
Unless you are in a rural church in Texas or Alabama, or that type of situation, you can assume that half of your church is made up of unbelievers – atheists for all practical purposes. (But, not New Atheists, thank God. :-)) Many of these unbelievers grew up in church, they have heard it all, and it is just a fairy tale to them, one like Santa Claus, but worse since it requires them to do things once a week instead of once a year.
So, I think that it is a fair question to ask in most churches: “how many of you are onboard with abortion or gay “marriage?”” (I agree with you that there are some issues that are not black and white, but those two certainly are – Biblically and morally and in terms of devastating destructive sin.) Then, you might want to go through the dozens of spiritual things that God does to an unbeliever in that born again moment (and refined though sanctification, of course) when He makes them into a new creature – indwelling of the Holy Spirit, etc, which lead to discernment.
At this point, it might be interesting to provide the Gospel to your congregation in some unique ways. “God won’t force you into Heaven against your will,” that sort of thing. I think too that many of the philosophical arguments for the existence of God do shed some interesting light on the nature of God. “Did you know that the God we serve spoke 100 billion galaxies into existence out of nothing?” (Kalam) “Did you know that God designed our universe on such a razor’s edge that no life at all could have existed if just one of his design features varied by a tiny percentage?” (Fine-tuning) “Did you know that if God stops thinking about us and the universe for even a tiny fraction of a second, we cease to exist?” (Unconditioned Reality) That last one should bring some fear and trembling – it sure does with me!
Keep in mind that even in solid evangelical churches, 2/3 of the youth will fall away from Christian theism by their early 20’s. Why is this? I think that it is because they cannot handle some pretty easy secular questions about their faith. That is why I think we need some good apologetics in the churches. Good apologetics are 100% consistent with the Bible, just like good science and philosophy are.
Those are just my thoughts after studying this for a long time. Keep in mind that I was an atheist for 42 years, and that might give me some special insight, but I have only been a Christian for 12 years, so that might counter things a bit. But, I want you to know that I have been a hard-studying Christian – in love with God’s Word and trying to devour it. But, in my case, it was apologetics that brought me to the foot of the Cross, not the Bible or a church. So, my experience may be a bit unusual, not sure.
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Valid points. Again, we agree for the most part. Having led many Bible studies, yes, I believe that many in the pews are clueless. Whether they are Atheist, agnostic or just careless is God’s call. But the church needs to immerse them in Bible study to fix that. Perhaps you hook them with something secular to accomplish that purpose. And I’m sure I’m not going to entice outsiders into church with a rousing discussion of the hypostatic union. But, we are not talking about the outsiders in this article. When the pastor announced that I would be leading a study on angels, the room was packed. Once we got past the fluff, though, and got down to talking about how little role angels play in the relationship between God and humans, the class thinned out immediately. I wasn’t talking about what their itching ears wanted to hear. As far as people voting for Obama, we have a dillema. The pastor must focus on the Word. So, just as the Apostles elected 7 to care for the needs of widows and orphans, it’s entirely appropriate to have those who analyze candidates to see if they observe moral principles. However, Obama, like most others, was good at avoiding his real agenda while campaigning. His voting record was also fairly non-existent, and few had ever heard of him nor was his past documented. So, what could have really been said about him? Since his agenda has become obvious, it’s a little easier. Now, about abortion, I liked how Kurt Cameron’s partner approahced people on the street and was able to get them to commit on the moral sanctity of life using the Nazi atrocities and then was able to bend that to abortion and change people’s minds. However, this was still a matter of law and conscience (which he did try to bend to talk of the Gospel), and it still was dealing with outsiders. But, perhaps you are correct that this is the approach we need inside the church as well. There is the story of Nathan and David as precedent.
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Thanks for your reply – very much appreciated and mostly agreed on! Just going to address a couple of points you made, sorry for the shortness:
“However, Obama, like most others, was good at avoiding his real agenda while campaigning. His voting record was also fairly non-existent, and few had ever heard of him nor was his past documented. ”
Only if one’s head was in the sand. Obama’s liberation theology background was well-illuminated, his voting 3 times against the Illinois’ equivalent of the Born Alive Act as Illinois senator was extremely well-documented for anyone who even stumbled upon ANY pro-life page in their lifetime, etc. (A subscriber to WK knew right out of the gate that Obama was an anti-Christian, not a Christian.) So, a person would have had to be willfully ignorant and / or lack the discernment skills of the Holy Spirit to have not seen through Obama. And I am not aware of any even marginally informed pro-life Christian who did not see through Obama on day one of his presidential campaign. This shows why knowing pro-life apologetics is so important.
“I liked how Kurt Cameron’s partner approahced people on the street and was able to get them to commit on the moral sanctity of life using the Nazi atrocities and then was able to bend that to abortion and change people’s minds.”
Thank you – I will look that up!
“However, this was still a matter of law and conscience (which he did try to bend to talk of the Gospel), and it still was dealing with outsiders.”
Well, I believe that the Gospel of Life and the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ cannot be separated since Jesus IS Life. (John 14:6) (That does not mean that a person who is pro-life is necessarily Christian, but it would be extraordinarily rare, IMO, for a person who is a Christian to NOT be pro-life. I realize that there are lots of folks who call themselves “Christian” who are pro-abortion, but that means nothing to me.)
So, I think that you are probably dealing with a lot of outsiders inside the church walls. There is very little discomfort associated with attending a church in the West. A person who attends church in South Asia (more so, the Middle East) often makes serious sacrifices in order to do so, and their lives can be at risk. I think we need to make it a bit more risky to attend church in the US. I think that people need to be squirming in their pews, and if they are not, I must wonder what ‘gospel’ is being presented? I think that if a person walks out of a church and thinks they can work at, or be a customer to, an abortion clinic, then the church has failed in its silence. There seems to be no good orthopraxy flowing out of the orthodoxy in churches in the West. That is a sign of poor orthodoxy in some cases and zero apologetics in most. God did not put us here merely to sign songs and attend Bible studies.
“If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large.” ― William Wilberforce
“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies. At the end all his disciples deserted him. On the Cross he was utterly alone, surrounded by evildoers and mockers. For this cause he had come, to bring peace to the enemies of God. So the Christian, too, belongs not in the seclusion of a cloistered life but in the thick of foes.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness and pride of power and with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to make these points clear rather than too much. Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power. Christians should give more offense, shock the world far more, than they are doing now. Christians should take a stronger stand in favor of the weak rather than considering first the possible right of the strong.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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OK, first of all, the people he was getting to see that pro-life was the right choice were NOT avowed Christians. That is what I meant when I said that he was in the law realm. But, from there, he did get into Sin and Grace. Secondly, before I started blogging, I had not knowledge of how intense was the conservative/Christian blogosphere. So, no, I did not hear anything about Obama, given that my only resource at the time was tv crapola journalism. But, of course, all kinds of red flags still flew. So, don’t always assume that even well-educated Christians are plugged in. And this I can say of myself even though I learned the Social Security scam 25 years ago. Also, I abhored Facebook for many years, which is where I am not bombarded with every little piece of Obama info. But, then, most of my friends are pastors, Christian teachers, or family and friends of the same. However I do also get the counterpoint from my Democrat friends. I believe most of the are actually anti-establishment Democrats. They have yet to see that Democrats talk like they are for the working man but their actions belie that. What I can’t get is how they support anyone who is behind abortion?
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I have a friend, really a hero, who grew up in Nazi Germany, spoke up for the Jews, and was sent to labor and concentration camps because of it. She now speaks up for the child in the womb, despite her advanced age. Here is a quote of hers:
“America is far worse than Nazi Germany. In Germany, we lost our rights and liberties when speaking up for the Jews. In America, we merely lose friends and family when speaking up for babies in the womb. Yet, we remain silent.” — Gisela Dyer
The reason that “Christians” can get away with voting Obama, or any Democrat for that matter, much less be pro-aborts, is because of the Church’s deafening silence. God chose our time and place and very lifespan in this world for a reason, but like the overwhelming majority of churches in Nazi Germany, we remain silent – yet we will lose little of importance in America for speaking up about the Abortion Holocaust. God parachuted us down behind enemy lines, and we have dug a trench and refuse to leave it, or worse yet, we are collaborating with the enemy.
Think about it: every single pro-abort friend of ours is an enemy of God’s – a direct enemy, doing Satan’s will. Someone who is advocating destroying in their earliest stages the lives that God creates cannot be a child of His. These folks are in complete spiritual darkness, and must be reached with the Gospel, yes, but must demonstrate the fruits in order to be considered our Brothers and Sisters.
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I hope you don’t mind, but I posted your reply to my Facebook page. I believe that my pastor makes it pretty clear where he stands of such things. Should we be more militant? Yes. And, you are right, voting is where we can put our foot down. So, yes, the church at large is falling down on the job. But I also feel that the church is about as Christian, overall, as Israel was a God-fearing nation at the time of Jeremiah or Isaiah. A lot of false prophets running around. Those of the prosperity Gospel don’t want to put any chinks in their fake smiles that might lead their flock to believe it ain’t all just about positive thinking and do right and God will do right by your, by which I mean believe you will be rich (have lots of filthy lucre) and popular and all your troubles will magically melt away. There is a huge confusion between the church militant and the church triumphant. And the second one isn’t here yet.
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I am honored you would post it, and yes, I agree. Prosperity teachers are really preaching a false gospel for sure. I see no evidence of it in the Gospel, Acts, etc. I like your comment about the Church triumphant!
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Point taken. Still, if we were to expound the Bible truths well to our people, God’s views on abortion, homosexual issues, drugs, etc. would be understood. These things are not, as you said, just “public policy”, but are, in fact moral and spiritual issues that can only have one Christian understanding. On the other hand, there are other public policy issues that tend more toward adiaphora which are harder to define with a single Biblical directive. — Welfare, for instance. It’s possible to see two sides of that issue, based upon what you know or perceive about the underlying facts. I, for one, know that most people on welfare are dead beats. Yet, there are still many who are caught in a poverty cycle, and getting them out of it is not so cut and dried. So, while I feel I’m enlightened enough from experience with the welfare crowd to have my opinion that the whole system is broken and needs to be scrapped, I can’t condemn someone else who sees those who genuinely need it and vote with a heart instead of a head.
As a pastor, I do well to listen to St. Paul when he said, “I resolved to know nothing except Jesus Christ.” ( 1 Corinthians 2:2) Now, of course Paul wasn’t saying that pastors should have no clue about what’s going on the the world around them. But the pastor must be very careful to let Scripture speak and not insert his own opinions “5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.”
If there is one thing I have learned from Five years of reading some 30,000 pages of history, political science and economics, it’s that there is much in this world that is so shrouded by lies and misunderstanding that, even if one is sure one knows what’s going on, there is probably still a different truth masked by lies. The only sure foundation I have is the Holy Word. On that solid rock I can stand without hesitation. And it is to this rock alone that I would ground the flock. “20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?”
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Where did you get the “List of 12 Sermons You Will Never Hear in Church”?!? :-)
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WK,
I understand and agree with your assessment of Beck and required skepticism necessary to compare scripture to anything he says. I would also advise that same degree of skepticism to David Barton who has like Beck created a financial dynasty by promoting the research and documentation of others as though his own. eg. I have my own copy of CHRISTIAN LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE CIVIL INSTITUTIONS OF THE UNITED STATES by Benjamin F. Morris – who first complied in book form all the documents – his son worked as Assistant Librarian at the Congressional Library — at the turn of the Civil War as he saw the beginnings of Secular Humanism replacing our nation’s Christian founding and heritage. Barton somewhat over represents himself as a “discoverer” and “historian”….he’s more in line with a plagiarist.
So, look to that List of what Barton/Barna submit as “suitable” topics for sermons…just as you would say the “Science Guy” – Bill Nye – understanding of science and compare the “recommendations” to actual scripture and to the Declaration and Constitution.
As an over 20 year bonafide – with papers – thought criminal – sent to the gulag for daring to think that teaching a 15 year old emotionally disturbed young man NOT to pay attention to those feelings of guilt and need for atonement for having done something really horrifying to me – a teacher he REALLY admired….I can attest that in EVERY INCIDENCE of Persecution in this nation —-I’ll show you self-professing Christians either doing the persecution or at least doing the Saul thing of holding the other persecutor’s robes while they do the “dirty work”.
So, is there a serious problem in the church?? No doubt about it.
What is the ROOT of the problem….and even every item on the Barton/Barna list of “necessary” sermons to attract men???
Our PASTORS don’t preach the SOVEREIGNTY of GOD which is the foundation of our Declaration and Constitution…our entire Rule of Law System. If there is no FIXED Laws that define righteousness and justice…then we get the exact chaos and cultural meltdown we see happening around us.
Can man legislate authority over gravity??? But, yet our Pastors and self-professing Christians believe a mere man….whether in a black robe…or the vote of the idiot on the street can “create” a previously UNKNOWN RIGHT, or PRIVILEGE, or PROVIDENCE to himself or to others. Likewise, if the purpose of government is to secure and protect the inviolable nature of EVERYONE’s CERTAIN….i.e. KNOWN, FIXED…Creator-endowed rights, then Islam would be immediately recognized as a death cult because it IS the total annihilation of EVERYONE’s Certain Creator-endowed rights. Likewise, Providence – charity – is NOT an enumerated power for government – as Providence is between GOD and the individual. So, the whole State Church collection plate —to do “good” and spread “prosperity” —-is a little above mere Man’s pay grade.
Understand that every “necessary to attract men” list of sermons is equally a stranger to nature’s law and Nature’s God. But, what should Christians expect when they accept at face value the “instruction” of men with dubious Christian character such as Beck and Barton? The only means to recognize a false teacher is by actually knowing the God of scripture.
Our Pastors…as well as our self-professing Christian conservative Republican Elected magistrates – from school board member, to city council, to District Judge, to State and Federal Representatives — do what they do….because according to 1John, they either deceived or they DON”T KNOW God. Maybe THAT’s the true root cause of why our American Church is so ineffective standing against the powers of darkness….we are being taught by those that still have yet to see The LIGHT. Until you’ve experienced the “privilege” of being talked to by a self-professing Christian civil magistrate in the same manner God talked to Job…you don’t really understand the political reality of what exactly identifies a nation that fears God. That such civil magistrates profess the name of Christ is an indicator as to the current situation in the American Church.
Too many Christians of the Jesus Whatever Persuasion have totally forgotten, Jesus had a DADDY!….Time for a reality check…because all this nonsense teaching has the vast majority of American Christendom TRESPASSING iNTO GOD’s PRIVATE PROPERTY AS Sovereign Ruler over all creation.
Incidentally, yesterday’s sermon as we continue through Matthew was Jesus prophesying His Return and our Pastor’s words were so TRUE as to the GLORY that was going to occur as LAWLESSNESS was CONQUERED that I didn’t even realize I had shouted out in exultation until I heard my voice. I clamped my hand over my mouth…grin…but hey, if the JOY of lawlessness getting decimated doesn’t make you want to shout…right??? And I think, “Why is our small church struggling…when there are local mega churches preaching all that TRESPASSING grace lie as if it were perfectly acceptable to God to have some kind of squatter shanties erected within HIS SOVEREIGNTY???
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I guess I’m part of the problem. When I go to church I want to hear the Gospel. I can learn about these other issues in many places. I can only hear the Gospel preached in one place once a week.
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