HAS THE CHURCH FAILED CHRIST? PART 2 - LIGHTHOUSE OR UNDER A BUSHEL?

 BRAND NEW PEW SURVEY - 

NUMBER OF CHRISTIANS IN AMERICA PLUMMET TO 70% 

NON-BELIEVERS ZOOM UP TO ALMOST 23%

"and know His will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,  corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth". (Romans 2:18-20)

Reading this passage of Scripture in context (above), leads one to the obvious self-examination type of question: "are we, as the Body of Christ", all those things. Do we, in order of what is written here from Romans 2:

-  Know His Will

-  Approve things that are essential
- Remain confident in our solid knowledge of God's statutes

- Consider ourselves a guide

- Consider ourselves a light to those who are in darkness

- Consider ourselves a "corrector of the foolish"

- Consider ourselves a "teacher of the immature"

- Understand the Law fully (AND The fulfillment of that Law- Jesus Christ) in order to proclaim Truth?

Continuing on from Part 1, we see ample evidence that the modern church thinks that "Discipleship" has more to do with the naval travel and not what the Risen Christ gave as the main command in the Great Commission. Just released(this week) surveys from the Pew Research Center reveal stunning truths. While the population of the United States is inching past 320 million in 2015, the percentage of Christians in the United States has plummeted from 78.4%  in 2007 to 70.6% in 2015! To make it even worse, Americans who have NO FAITH and thus, believe in nothing has skyrocketed to 22.8% of the population!

So how in the world could this be, in the Land of "Freedom of Religion" which gave us the Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th Century? How could the land which produced Jonathan Edwards; D.L. Moody; Mordecai Ham; Billy Sunday; Billy Graham; Franklin Graham and Francis Schaefer fail so horribly? 

We have the best seminaries, four bibles in every home and a Bible app on every phone. We have the richest mega-churches with the highest paid celebrity preachers. 

We have prosperity proponents with dozens of books in the Christian books store with their faces on every cover of every book. 

We have best light shows on Sunday morning with rock star "worship singers" and screaming vatos jamming $4000 Gibsons and Taylors at their rock concerts. 

We have pastors streaming himself live to 5 or 6 other "campuses" with the "message" on the jumbo TV screen while streaming in High Def around the world.

The smaller churches should not be left out either. We have the average church in America actually in the 65-85 person range, despite the more publicized mega-churches. Still these smaller churches are producing a sifted generation, most of whom are twice as much as future citizen of hell, as they are. While the larger churches stand out for obvious reason, many smaller and medium sized houses of worship major in hiding the Light of Christ under bushels, in violation of this verse. The words of Christ also exhorts us to "let your (our) light so shine before men that they will see your good works and glorify". Well something happened to this little light of yours and mine! 

Instead of being a Lighthouse to warn of the Judgment which is to come, the flickering little lights with little or no oil (the Holy Spirit), stay inside four walls on Sunday and live like the pagan brights of the culture the next 6 1/2 days.

Instead of "considering ourselves the corrector of the unwise and foolish" by teaching others about the Master and His Word, we, ourselves, have become the foolish.

Instead of being "the teacher of the immature", we play games with the Gospel and act irreverently in the House of the Lord. How can we teach immature Christians when we ourselves have no knowledge of the Attributes and Statutes of God, but can recite the batting average of the Chicago Cubs first baseman or how many passes Tom Brady threw in the Super Bowl?

Instead of attempting to understand the Laws of God and WHY He gave them (as a road map to keep us out of danger and trouble), we violate them to see how much we can get away with.

Is it any wonder then, as we violate almost everything which was written in these verses above - Romans 2: 18-20,  that less and less people want to be like us? The thing is, the goal is not to attempt to get people ACT, look, think, feel like us as fellow human beings. The goals for the lost and the world to see the Transformation which God has done in our lives through Christ, and want to emulate HIM, not us.  From the just revealed concrete evidence and statistics, we have failed our Father, Who art in Heaven.