Catastrophe & Renewal

By John Hendryx

To what do we owe our current state of affairs? Disunity, relativistic interpretations of Scripture and an unhealthy individualistic spirit today plague the glorious church of our Lord Jesus Christ. Without attempting to be sensationalistic, we must all admit that much grace is needed if we are to both avert a Church-wide disaster as well as bring about the right conditions for renewal. Many evangelicals, unfortunately, dig in their heels where church traditions and unaided philosophy have deeply influenced their beliefs which they read into Scripture. D.A. Carson, when addressing this widespread problem, has said:

"Many local Bible teachers and preachers have never been forced to confront alternative interpretations at full strength; and because they would lose a certain psychological security if they permitted their own questions, aroused by their own reading of Scripture, to come into full play, they are unlikely to throw over received traditions."

But we know God has a purpose in allowing for the current whirlwind of chaos in the church, so we must be faithful and vigilant in the midst of it all to call people back to the simplicity of the gospel, to a reaffirmation of the covenant freely given to us in Christ. This biblical covenant is central to our entire worldview, the basis of all our relationships with one another, and the mechanism for defining and allocating authority, and the foundation of the biblical ecclesiastical teaching. It is the basis for establishing, cultivating, and conserving the rightful worship of God and unity in religious life among us.

If we are to begin recovering the gospel we need to grasp the full extent of the crisis which we find ourselves and not make the error of trifling with the problem as if it could be resolved by making a few cosmetic changes through moralistic platitudes or superficial adjustments to church growth techniques. This will only ensure that our disaster becomes certain. But we also must not give in to the error (of those fixated on the end times) that our crisis is hopeless and therefore we should not put any effort into a sinking ship. But realize we must do that every aspect of the church’s life and organization is in a rare crisis, its body, from head to foot, its mind and soul are anemic in which hardly a part on us is not bruised, nor any un-frazzled nerve amongst us.

When one part of the body is affected we all are, so these are not small matters. It is to our interest that we engage wrong thinking about God head-on and yet with the understanding that God doesn’t save any of us due to any perfect understanding of theology. Humility is, therefore, the order of the day, like beggars leading other beggars to where they can find bread. The glory of the passing era still vaguely illumines the way before us, but the light is indeed fading into shadows making it difficult to see, causing disorientation in the dim of evening. But while we enter and grope around for something solid in the blind mists we remind ourselves that God is faithful and has made a covenant with us in His historically climactic redemptive act for us in Jesus Christ. In this He has both secured and promised the dawn of a new era and He is acting through His people to rescue His creation and bring about restoration from the cosmic dislocation between Creator and created. He is, in fact bringing about the end for which the world was made.

What is our Crisis and What Steps Can We Take to Avert Collapse?

The church is imperiled by its own failure to teach and believe essential doctrines as well as live them out. This is not only true of others, but is a serious problem among us evangelicals. Even with our hundreds of Bible tools and translations, Biblical literacy is at a low. What past generations would have given to have the vast resources we have. From most accounts is appears that the church is succumbing to the culture’s pressures to view everything through relativistic glasses making good and evil difficult to differentiate. Many of us are highly interested in “spirituality” but real discernment in the truth of the gospel is at an all time low. There are those who would believe that people could be redeemed apart from Christ, since God is loving and would not ignore those nice people in other religions. If there were good people anywhere, perhaps there would be no need for a unique Christ to deliver us, but the Lord searches across the whole earth with His eyes to find a holy man who keeps and loves his law but has found only one man who fits that description: Jesus Christ. That is why we need him for he has done for us what we could not do for ourselves. To believe for a moment that God will spare those who are relatively good is to misapprehend the holiness and justice of God. All religions are religions of self-effort and Jesus receives only those who have ceased from all self-effort and looked to Him alone for mercy.

There is a real possibility that Christianity in America will lose is saltiness and light, if it has not already begun to do so. How can we reverse the trend? By getting to know God through his word until we can all explain, defend, proclaim, and apply the Gospel of Christ. This is what he has called us to. Jesus has entrusted to us the only reasonable, ethical, and objective worldview in the midst of the chaos of our culture. We have what people need, and in great abundance, but do most of us believe this? Jesus, in his resurrection from the dead, was given all authority in heaven and earth and set us apart to make disciples of all nations calling them to repentance and faith in Him, so they might find forgiveness, being justified in Christ before a holy God. Christ has promised to gather his elect through the means of prayer and preaching of the gospel. But we are in great danger of not even knowing the gospel ourselves, let alone tell it to a perishing world. If you cannot articulate the great gift of revelation that Christ has given His church then drop everything and get to know your Lord as He has revealed Himself to you in His word. While it may not seem so, the time is ripe for renewal and a great outpouring of God’s Spirit. Historically He has done so at times we least expected it. Maintain hope and be fervent in prayer that He would awaken our churches.