He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.– Jesus in Revelation 2:7
The Church of Jesus Christ is founded on His work on the cross. The Church has been established by the Gospel and its preachers, largely through letters. Author Eric Metaxas recently published a Letter to the American Church warning that the Church is in dangerous territory, headed for the same end the German Church in the 1930s.
Metaxas has studied the German church of the 1930s
Certainly, striking parallels are there. The god of this world blinded the minds of Germans and Americans “lest the glorious light of the Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” 2. Corinthians 4:4.
The devil hates people and is the Enemy of faith, truth, and love. He fights faith with doubt, truth with lies, and love with hate. That light of the Gospel of Christ was blocked by the same source, the higher criticism of Protestant theologians.
The role of higher criticism
Spawned in doubt, denying the truth, and hating the incarnation of love, these critics rejected the truth of the Bible and could no longer believe in miracles or the atonement of Jesus for our sins. Instead, they substituted a social gospel for their churches and denied the power of Jesus to be personally present in our lives. Without Jesus, things corrupt quickly.
This became evident first in Germany, home of the top Protestant Universities/Seminaries where the “documentary hypothesis” and its accompanying theology was taught. As the new theology prevailed, its professors found themselves unable to prepare their theology students to be Protestant ministers. Some resigned, like Julius Wellhausen*, who observed,
that a professor of theology also has the practical task of preparing the students for service in the Protestant Church, and that I am not adequate to this practical task, but that instead despite all caution on my own part I make my hearers unfit for their office.
*indicates that person is featured in SPIRITUAL LIVES
Others remained in the Protestant Churches substituting higher criticism and the social gospel for the Word of God and the substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Germany stepped away from the power of faith, truth, and love that Luther had preached and into the realm of the god of this world who led them into the Great War, the Weimar Republic, and National Socialism.
Metaxas warns that we are on the same path.
It was delayed for a generation or two but used the same higher criticism and social gospel to oust the Bible from America’s churches funded by John D. Rockefeller.
Rockefeller funded the distribution of 130,000 copies of the famous “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?” sermon of 1922 by Harry Emerson Fosdick* to every Protestant minister in the USA. He also built the liberal Riverside Church in New York City, where the Fosdick preached and broadcast on the radio.
This modernist gospel soundly rejected belief in a series of traditional Christian doctrines including Christ’s virgin birth, the inerrancy of Scripture, the wrath of God and the literal return of Jesus Christ.
Fosdick averred: I am a heretic if conventional orthodoxy is the standard. I should be ashamed to live in this generation and not be a heretic.
And modernism began to rise in the mainline churches, soon becoming the dominant view. But conservative Presbyterian professor J. Gresham Machen* 1881—1937 asked,
“The question is not whether Mr. Fosdick is winning men, but whether the thing to which he is winning them is Christianity.”
It is not. The modernists replaced the Gospel of the Bible with the social gospel but retained the language of the Bible and traditional prayer books and hymns while subscribing to these decidedly non-Christian teachings:
Evolution
Freudian psychology
Birth Control
Abortion
State control of education
State regulation of churches
This followed the same route as Germany’s abandonment of the Bible and adoption of Nazism. By 1970, mainline churches in the United States claimed most Protestants and more than 30 percent of the American population as members. ( as of 2009 they are a minority among American Protestants, claiming approximately 15 percent of American adults.)
The path to apostasy in the United States parallels that of 1930s Germany in the growth of wealth, military and industrial power, and the corruption of morality.
What saved us from Germany’s headlong plunge to discretion was the strength of Bible-believing people and the Christian faith of our presidents and other leaders vs the atheism of Germany.
Sadly, in the United States, our government is moving away from our Christian heritage, when the first Continental Congress of 1787 passed the Northwest Ordinance showed the importance that Congress attached to religion and religious freedom.
Article Three declared, “Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.” In those days, schools were most often run by churches.”
Although the United States has never had a State Church, it has always been a predominantly Christian nation. (the Supreme court referred to it so as late as 1892). Even through most of the 20th century Christian faith, truth, and love prevailed in our country.
That began to change when the Supreme Court outlawed classroom prayer and Bible reading in public schools. Today, public schools are thoroughly secular and protective of homosexuality, abortion, and transgendering. The “wokeism” promoted by the schools and the government alarm all Christians and we are right to be alarmed by it.
Metaxas’ diagnosis
How did this come about in a country where the majority are Bible-believing Christians? Metaxas speaks about “religionless Christianity,” and sees us as silently acquiescing to the corruption around us, too timid to stand up for Jesus. He is right.
Surpassing the hostility to Christianity of the 20th century, the American government has now gone to war with God, shutting down churches, declaring scriptures as “hate speech,” promoting Transgender & Queer Theory, and Marxist “critical theory” which is steadily infecting even Evangelical churches. And this culture change attacking Christian culture and God’s reality is being funded with our tax dollars.
Horrible as all these things are, they are the direct result of modernism. Not the ideas themselves, godless as they are, but their rejection of Jesus*, the Son of God. In addition to stepping away from the eternal life and salvation He offers, modernism steps away from the Person of Jesus, from His love, compassion, and grace.
Without Him, the god of this world rushes in with horrible corruption and grotesque perversions. Love, Love Incarnate, is driven out and hatred pours in.
This is what the god of this world brings in when Jesus is driven out. It happened in Nazi Germany in the 1930s, and it is happening in the United States today. Is there a way out? Of course, that’s why Jesus came.
And it’s simple, 2-steps;
1) Only believe, and
2) Come unto Me.
Both invitations are directly from Him.
But salvation is individual, as the Bible teaches, not national or universal as some teach. Salvation isn’t going to come to the USA or any other group except via individual repentance as John the Baptist and Jesus preached.
The message He preached after disaster struck some Galileans was, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”
Or as He sent out His disciples to preach, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” Mark 16:16.
This was true in Judea, and everywhere else, including Germany and the United States.
The first step we in the American Church must take is to give our lives to Jesus 100%. As He lives in us, the power of the Holy Spirit will change us and others to be like Him. This is foundational in giving a wake-up call to the American church.
Metaxas assumes this of his readers
and wants us to re-ignite our first love for Him. We have grown lukewarm towards Him like the church of Laodicea, and He warns us He will spew us out of His mouth if we do not repent.
When we have so recommitted ourselves to Him, cast the beam out of our own eye, we shall see clearly to work with our brothers and sisters to waken our churches and lead them out of the worldliness that is crushing so many.
We need to renounce what Metaxas calls “religionless Christianity” and stand up for our faith as St. Peter commands the churches dealing with the hostile Roman government:
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear 1 Peter 3:15.
Notice the order the apostle presents. First, get our own hearts sanctified, i.e., occupied by the Holy Spirit. Second, be ready to speak up when asked about our hope, and third reason with humility and seriousness of purpose.
We have been taught that this applies to salvation and sharing the Gospel, and it does. But sharing our faith and the Gospel often comes from first discussions on other topics, like evolution, war, the sanctity of life, and truth.
As we stand up for Jesus and God’s Word, the age-old standards of the Bible will come to the fore. As we speak His Word we have His assurance that it will accomplish His purpose, so we need to speak the Truth whenever we can.
God has called us to preach the Gospel and stand up for what is right in His eyes wherever He has called us.
Metaxas’ book is concerned with the danger to our churches in America, and rightly so.
He asks if God may be calling us to:
Run for office,
Homeschool our children,
Give to some vital, neglected cause,
Vote and support champions of God’s purpose,
Speak up for those being denounced by the mob,
Risk social disfavor and endure discomfort for righteousness' sake.
Metaxas reminds us that God has not called us to safety or timidity but to boldness and courage. God calls us to war, not against people He came to save, but
against the wicked spiritual forces in the heavenly world, the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this dark age. St. Paul in Ephesians 6:12
Paul’s admonition to put on the whole armor of God is in the same spirit as Metaxas’s book, with the same goal, to use our faith to put out all the all the fiery darts of the wicked. – Ephesians 6:16
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