Conformity,
Compromise and Crisis in Worship
By
Stephen Terry
“Since they didn't bother to acknowledge God, God quit
bothering them and let them run loose. And then all hell broke loose: rampant
evil, grabbing and grasping, vicious backstabbing. They made life hell on earth
with their envy, wanton killing, bickering, and cheating. Look at them:
mean-spirited, venomous, fork-tongued God-bashers. Bullies, swaggerers,
insufferable windbags! They keep inventing new ways of wrecking lives. They
ditch their parents when they get in the way. Stupid, slimy, cruel,
cold-blooded. And it's not as if they don't know better. They know perfectly
well they're spitting in God's face. And they don't care—worse, they hand out
prizes to those who do the worst things best!” Romans 1:28-32, The Message Bible
From the Garden of Eden to the present day,
with few exceptions the course of mankind has been to embrace the temptations
offered by Satan. Bad enough in itself, we have even offered up those who have
given themselves over to depravity as paragons to emulate. In previous ages,
individuals like the Marquis de Sade were the exception rather than the rule
and were ostracized by society. Today, not only do those followers of his who
practice Sadism continue to torture one another in ever more inventive ways,
but hundreds of thousands more flock to movies like the “Jackass” series,
“Borat,” or the Rob Zombie movies. Their
dollars make millionaires of those who promote these aberrant activities, and
are de facto votes approving of more of the same.
What society calls entertainment today is often
no more than a competition to see who can parade the most depravity before
people’s eyes. And what is the
result? Things that would have once made
us flinch and avert our eyes, we now take as a matter of course. Allowing
ourselves to be exposed to such things without protest has made us indifferent
to the very things that should alarm us.
We should not be surprised when insensitivity to these things in the
media results in insensitivity to real-life atrocities.
The news reports show us children soldiers
marching off to war with dirty, teddy-bear backpacks and AK-47s. Participants
in genocides, mutilations, and gang rape as a weapon of war, these guerilla
armies cut their paths of destruction through towns and cities in Africa with
little concern for a world that is well able to reign them in but doesn’t. They
know a horrendous secret: the rest of the world has become so desensitized to
what they are doing that some would even eagerly join in. What Nietzsche called moving “beyond good and
evil” has really become a safe haven beyond accountability.
So what about Christians? Aren’t they supposed
to be a force for moral accountability? Unfortunately, Christians have
willingly ceded the moral high ground to the opposition. Holed up in church
citadels of safety, they have refused to engage the enemy on the open
battlefield. Hoping in vain that the walls of their church buildings would keep
the evil at bay, they waited for the darkness to come to them. In the end, they
found their hope was vain. Willing to let the world go to Hell and doing little
to prevent it, they find that Hell has now come to them as war has broken out
within their congregations over the very issues they neglected in the world
around them.
Our churches were never intended to be castle
fortresses to protect the saints from the world around them. The saints were to
be “in the world,” not hiding from it. As Jesus said “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” John 17:18, NIV Jesus knew
that we must confront evil to be strong against it. However, after many generations of
sequestering ourselves and our children behind church walls, we have become
weak and unable to resist the blandishments of Satan when offered. Unwilling to
admit to this hereditary weakness, we ignore its symptoms and allow our own
children to become the vehicles for disseminating depravity among the saints.
Are the children then the enemy? No. We are,
for we have failed to prepare them to confront evil. We have felt that as long
as they are safe behind church walls, in parochial school, church and even
denominational employment, they are safe and the environment is adequate protection. But how then can a child who is raised thus
fail to be utterly naïve when faced with subtle evil?
We are in a war, often called “The Great
Controversy between Christ and Satan.” This war is not only mortal but immortal
as the consequences go far beyond mere physical life and death. Faced with war,
what nation will feel comfortable defended by military forces that have never
left the barracks? The armed forces of most countries improve their skills
through mock warfare that attempts to simulate the conditions of battle as much
as possible without casualties. The soldier may be thrust into the noisy chaos
of the battlefield with explosions, gunfire, and physical exhaustion to weaken
him. As he learns to make right decisions during the insanity of war, his
chances of survival and those of his companions improve markedly.
Every good soldier seeks out opportunities to
test himself to prepare for the real battle that he knows will one day come.
God never told us to avoid conflict by fleeing to our safe havens, hoping that
the Devil will not find us. He said instead, “…Resist the devil, and he
will flee from you.” James 4:7, NIV We should not be fleeing the Devil. He should be fleeing us. But how
can this happen if we are hiding from him?
Churches are to be command posts, not protected
recreation areas for the saints. The saints are to be engaged in warfare on the
front lines. When there are casualties,
they are taken to the rear where the battalion aid station can patch them up
and they can heal before returning to the battle. But they should not expect to
spend their career lounging in the aid tent. In the desperate battle for
Regularly, God brings people into his army who
have been on the other side. This is a gift and a blessing to the saints who
may have grown complacent in the face of danger. These individuals understand
well what the Devil has been doing to destroy the saints for they have been
part of that effort. Most commanders
would be pleased to have a prisoner to interrogate about the enemy’s plans. And
if that prisoner was willing to switch sides and fight against the Devil, what
an effective soldier he could be. Such a soldier can often see the danger in a
situation that others may overlook.
After so many generations of avoiding the
conflict, the conflict has now come to us. The church has become the
battlefield with warfare over every issue except how to get the battle back where
it belongs – on the Devil’s turf. Historically when in desperate struggles
against superior numbers, heroic commanders who turned the tide of battle
often did so with a simple one word command: “Charge!” Expecting the defeat of his adversary, the enemy
was surprised by the counter attack and fled in disorder in the face of such
determination.
Maybe it is time for God’s people to take the
battle to the Devil. He has many tools to destroy people. Drugs, alcohol,
violence, “special effects” distractions, and even some of his favorite
arguments like, “It doesn’t matter,” and “Everybody else is doing it, and you
want to fit in, don’t you?” But we have
powerful tools also: Love, Faith and Hope.
What are the issues in this battle? We can find
the answer in the Bible: “Then the dragon
was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her
offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about
Jesus.” Revelation 12:17, NIV God’s people are not only obedient to
His authority, they have a story to tell about Jesus, a story of hope. That
story is also in the Bible.
“The
Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has
anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind
up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from
darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of
vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who
grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of
despair.” Isaiah 61:1-3, NIV
I think it is time we counter attack and take this story to the world. Don’t you?
This Commentary is a Service of Still
Waters Ministry
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