Most American Church-goers will refer to themselves as Christians, and profess faith in Jesus Christ, yet only two percent of them ever share their faith with anyone, and one in professing Christians murder their children by abortion. Yet I would bet that all of them believe they are going to Heaven because they believe in God and Jesus.
A large percentage of them are not truly born-again as they think they are, and the Church is to blame. Why? Because they have not truly repented, and departed from their sin. Most modern day Christian look, act, and talk just like the rest of the world, and there is no real difference between them except that they go to Church once or twice a week.
A person who has departed from their sin, or have separated from evil, should live as though they have separated from evil (wickedness). The world should see a radical difference when they look at the Church, but what they see is a whole lot of hypocrisy coming from those who claim to know Christ. Therefore, the American Church has lost an incredible amount of credibility, and society views the Christianity as something bad that needs to be wiped out.
A section of the Church is trying to reclaim as much of the culture as they possibly can while the other parts of the Church ridicule, and demean them for trying. Another section is just lukewarm and spiritually dead, and I don't know if it's even possible to revive them or not. The Church in America is on life support, drawing its last breath. as its salt and light is pretty much done for.
The Church preached a false gospel message, a modernized gospel that has produced countless numbers of false converts, which in turn have filled the pews of many evangelical Churches. Preaching a message that Jesus Christ will bring joy and happiness into your life is a false message. Becoming a true follower of Jesus means trials and tribulations, persecution and the loss of people who once claimed to be your friend, now have become your adversaries.
Following Jesus in America has meant affluence, luxury, the pursuit of the American dream. All these things distracted Christians from doing the work God called them to do. Attending Church here is easy enough, and, for the most part, safe, while in other parts of the world they may be slaughtered at any moment for naming the name of Jesus Christ.
We've had it so nice and comfy but now things are starting to heat up, and we soon we will start seeing a separation occur between the false converts and the real ones. Persecution is the great divider as those who are false converts will become disillusioned, and embittered concerning Christianity, and walk away from the faith. This is because they were promised joy, peace, happiness, and fulfillment in Jesus Christ, and what they got was the opposite.
In other places around the globe accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior is the same as signing your death warrant, and as we have all seen this past year, they go to their deaths like sheep to the slaughter. All down through history those who named the name of Christ were paraded into Roman coliseums to be eaten alive by hungry lions. Impaled, crucified, burned to death at the stake, beheaded, etc. Their sacrifice, however, did not pave the way for us to become lukewarm, and spiritually dead, but to use every method we can get our hands on to spread the Gospel throughout the entire earth.
Exactly what terrible fate have we in North American suffered for the cause of Christ?
Truthfully, American Christians don't have a clue about what it truly means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Sure most go to Church religiously, pray regularly, and read their Bibles, but seem to lack true obedience the Word of God. The failure to evangelize the lost has now caught up with the Church and is about to backfire in its face. The younger generation is all but hostile to Church, Christianity, and the Gospel, and it's the Churches fault for failing to change its methodology to meet the culture, without compromising its message.
Jesus said that every follower of His must first deny himself, that means to die to self, pick up their cross, whatever God has given them to do in life, and follow him (Jesus Christ). I am afraid however that most professing Christian have not even scratched the surface of what it means to die to self and carry their cross. Without the first two points, it is impossible to truly follow Jesus Christ.
The modern Church whether traditional or contemporary are both in the same boat, however, there is a remnant of True Biblical Christianity that has managed to do the Word of the Lord, and not listen to it week to week. There are some great preachers out there that are not afraid to stomp of some toes, to say what needs to be said, and lead believers to obey God, and live our their faith.
David Platt, John Piper, Paul Washer, Ray Comfort, and my own Pastor Gary Petersen. All of these men preach with the Power of the Holy Spirit, and make me think about my walk with God, and cause me to search to be sure I am in the faith. They teach me, train me, and challenge me to do what the Word of God says to do and to live a Grace-filled life.
Preachers need to tell people the truth, that accepting Christ will make your life worse that it was before, in the sense that the Devil will now come against you with everything he has to mess you up, and you need to be well grounded in God's Word to stand against him. Following Jesus might even cost you your life on this earth, but He promises a greater life in the hereafter.
We have a duty to share the Gospel with the lost, and to do it often. We must engage this lost culture even if it means we incur injury or even death. If the Church had not fallen into such apostasy and preached such a watered down Gospel, we would have abolished abortion long ago, and gay marriage would not be such an issue today. Those within the Church would have truly departed from their iniquities, and the true Chruch would be much larger than it is today.
Matt 7:21-27 - It is not everyone that says to me, 'My Lord, my Lord'', who enters the Kingdom of Heaven, but whoever does the will of my Father who is in Heaven. 22Many will say to me in that day, 'My Lord, my Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, and in your name have cast out demons, and have done many mighty works in your name?' 23And then I will confess to them, 'I have never known you, remove yourselves far from me, you workers of evil.' 24Everyone therefore who hears these my words, and does them, will be likened to the wise man who built his house on solid rock. 25And the rain descended and the floods came and the wind blew, and they rushed against the house and it did not fall, for its foundation was laid on solid rock. 26And everyone who hears these my words, but does not practice them, will be likened to the foolish man who built his house on sand. 27And the rain descended and the floods came, and the wind blew, and they rushed against that house, and it fell, and its fall was great."
