"Where Has It Gone Wrong?"

Where Has It Gone Wrong?

 

 

Jason Bryant

 

 

 

 

Robert Jason Bryant

 It is of no great surprise to the Biblical Christian, that the current situation of Western Christendom, is not too similar in what is gleaned from the pages in New Testament scriptures. Looking at non-scriptural instances of church history, in such books as "Foxes Book of Martyrs" the individual sacrifices that a Christian in the Western world, America especially is willing to offer, the cost willing to pay, is far, far, away from that of Saints in the Bible, Christians of history, and Believers around the world today. What has happened?

"17 Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, (which is the sect of the Sadducees,) and were filled with indignation, 18 And laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison. 19 But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said, 20 Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life. 21 And when they heard that, they entered into the temple early in the morning, and taught. But the high priest came, and they that were with him, and called the council together, and all the senate of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. 22 But when the officers came, and found them not in the prison, they returned and told, 23 Saying, The prison truly found we shut with all safety, and the keepers standing without before the doors: but when we had opened, we found no man within. 24 Now when the high priest and the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these things, they doubted of them whereunto this would grow.

25 Then came one and told them, saying, Behold, the men whom ye put in prison are standing in the temple, and teaching the people. 26 Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them without violence: for they feared the people, lest they should have been stoned. 27 And when they had brought them, they set them before the council: and the high priest asked them, 28 Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. 29 Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men." (Acts 5:17-29 KJV)

What a contrast in God's Word, in comparison to American Christianity, for the most part in what is seen in this text. Boldness, loyalty to Christ, loyalty to God the Father, and the placement of self last! The common lay person with any scriptural knowledge is aware that Peter, spoken of in Acts 5, is the same Peter who denied the Lord three times, yet here he is sold out for Christ, no matter the cost. "We ought to obey God rather than men." A profound statement of eight words, located in the last part of Acts 5:29, full of underlying truth of what has happened in many American Christians and churches. Mankind is the problem. God is placed last at the priority of many a Christian life, and church mission. It is easily seen in the passage in Acts 5, that when God is obeyed above self, above man, then the Believer is empowered and the witness, testimony, and preaching of the Gospel is not hindered! God is glorified and lost people are saved. The Great Commission is fulfilled. What has happened?

Typically reader, it can be asserted to priorities. Priorities such as the following examples: "I have a family."; "I am just too busy."; "It's the preacher's job to preach and share the Gospel." Sad, yet in many cases, these are the typical responses that heard in regards to not sharing the Gospel. Answers to justify disobedience to the last command Jesus gave before He ascended to the right hand of the Father. Horrendous excuses when souls are perishing minute by minute, day in, and day out. Perishing and spending eternity in pain, in suffering, and in hell! Woe unto those who blatantly make a lifestyle of not sharing the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Another root issue in what has and is happening would be unbiblical churches. Yes, unbiblical churches. Can they even be called churches in the same sense and meaning of the very word that Jesus purposefully chose to use? No they can't beloved, not and maintain any integrity in the statement. The following quote in "Ten Indictments Against The Modern Church" sums it up concisely.

"A Denial of the Sufficiency of Scripture “And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”—2 Timothy 3:15- 17Over the last several decades, there has been a mighty battle with regard to the inspiration of Scripture. Now some of you have not been a part of that battle, but many in more liberal denominations most certainly have seen this battle for the Bible. But there is a problem. When you come to believe as a people that the Bible is inspired, you have only fought half the battle, because the question is not merely “is the Bible inspired?” i.e., is it inerrant? Is the Bible sufficient,[13] Or do we have to bring in every so- called social science and cultural study in order to know how to run a church? That is the major question! Social sciences, in my opinion, have taken precedent over the Word of God in such a way that most of us can’t even see it. It has so crept into our church, our evangelism, and our missiology that you barely can call what we are doing “Christian” anymore. The majority opinion of the time is that a man of God can deal in certain tiny areas in the life of the Church; but when it really gets tough, we need to go to the social experts. That is an absolute lie! It says here that the Scriptures are given “that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2Ti 3:17). Our missionary activity, our church activity, and everything we do ought to flow from the theologian and the exegete—the man who opens up his Bible and has only one question: What is Thy will, Oh God? We are not to send out questionnaires to carnal people to discover what kind of church they would attend! A church ought to be seeker friendly, but the church ought to recognize there is only one Seeker. His name is God!— and if you want to be friendly to someone, if you want to accommodate someone, accommodate Him and His glory, even if it is rejected by everyone else. We are not called to build empires. We are not called to be excessive. We are called to glorify God. And if you want the Church to be something other than a peculiar people[14](Ti 2:14;1Pe 2:9), then you want something God does not want." ( Washer 96 )

What has happened? It is clearly seen in the feeble constraints of this paper, that what is happened is a unbiblical humanized approach to "churchianity." In most cases there appears to be no zeal for doing things God's way collectively, and that begins with a lack of individual accountability for the Christian, lack of commitment, and ultimately a lack of obedience personally that drags down the whole of the body, from winning the race that has been set before us. That in itself, is horrendous enough. What is worse than that, it is that individual souls are going to hell, and perishing collectively in hell. That is the tragedy of what has happened.