Gracie

I know this is long, but this article fascinated me.  I hope you enjoy it too.

~GG

Why Are Christians Losing America?
Sep 14th, 2007 A Discussion Outline with John Noe, Ph.D.

(This topical question was discussed in numerous small groups of Christians in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the summer of 2007.)

Two suppositions are contained in this discussion question:
1) America is being lost.
2) Christians are responsible.

Or are we since . . .
· “Four out of five Americans describe themselves as Christians?
· 45% of us attend worship services on any given weekend?
· The popularity of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ and Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose-Driven Life?
· America appears to be bursting its seams with vibrant Christianity.”

And yet . . .
“America’s popular culture, its laws, public education system, news media, entertainment industry, and other major institutions have become progressively un-Christian – even anti-Christian.”

The reason Christians are losing America is . . .
“Christians have been seduced . . . hoodwinked . . . sold a bill of goods . . . are operating under a misguided and simplistic interpretation of scripture . . . . Christianity – the deepest, most meaningful and awe-inspiring religion ever – has been dumbed down . . .”

Consequently . . .
· “only 9% of Christians have a biblical worldview.”
· “‘born-again’ Christian adults in the U.S. think and act virtually the same as non-believers . . . almost no difference.” (recent George Barna study cited)

Whistleblower’s answer to how we’ve been “dumbed down” and how “to turn America around – to take it back – ” is . . .
“Take back your churches . . . [as] the springboard to taking back the culture.” They call for laymen to lead a “new pulpit revolution . . . . Think about it. When was the last time you heard a sermon on:
· A great social issue of our time?
· The last time your church engaged in the political debate?
· How many churches are active in the cultural war?
· How many pastors are leading prayers for . . . our nation’s soul?”

Perhaps, Tony Evans best captured this dilemma thusly:

“Let me put the problem to you in the form of a question. How can we have all these churches on all these street corners, filled with all these members, led by all these preachers, elders, and deacons . . . and yet still have all this mess in America? Something is wrong somewhere!”
– Tony Evans, What a Way to Live! (Nashville, TN.: Word Publishing, 1997), 294.

June 2, 2004 – Fox News commentator, Bill O’Reilly, had this to say:

“The harsh truth is that many American Christians don’t care about what is happening . . . . Talking Points wants you to know that we are rapidly losing freedom in America. Judges are overruling the will of the people and fascist organizations like the ACLU are imposing their secular will. And, when was the last time you heard a priest, minister, or rabbi talk about this? For me, the answer is simple. . . . Never! And that’s a memo.”

What do you think?

3 Major ‘Dumbed-Down’ Areas

In this section we will discuss three major areas greatly dumbed-down (i.e., diluted, devalued, diminished) by many church leaders and which have dramatically and negatively conditioned Christians into inaction and against cultural involvement.


#1 – Gospel Reductionism –

Question: “What is the gospel?” For the majority of evangelicals the answer is, “the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

But this is not the gospel Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming, nor that of his central teaching.

Jesus did not come preaching Jesus, or his death so that when we die we could go to Heaven.

Jesus preached and taught the gospel of the kingdom (Mark 1:15).

· Dallas Willard terms this kingdom deficiency, "the great omission" in his recent book by this title and the primary reason "why . . . today's church [is] so weak" in his book, The Divine Conspiracy (San Francisco, CA.: HarperSanFrancisco, 1997), 40f.
· Darrell Guder calls it "reductionism of the gospel" in his book, The Continuing Conversion of the Church (Grand Rapids, MI.: Eerdmans, 2000), xiiif.
· Robert Lynn laments that “the gospel we proclaim has been shrunk” in his article “Far as the curse is found” in Chuck Colson’s Breakpoint Worldview magazine, Oct. ’06, 14.

My working definition of the greater and whole biblical gospel is:

The establishment of the everlasting and final form of God’s kingdom on earth and his salvation . . .
(And in this order, because that is how Jesus both proclaimed and accomplished these two distinct but interrelated realities. Also see: Acts 28:31; 19:8; 20:25)
. . . As well as, how we enter into each, receive its blessings, and become obedient to our responsibilities therein.

Problem is, most modern-day Christians are ignorant of or confused as to the timing, nature, and scope of the kingdom.

· We’re basically kingdom illiterate.
· Haven’t been raised in a kingdom-oriented tradition.
· Most Christian colleges and seminaries don’t teach it.
· They also lack an effective and sound theology of the kingdom.
· It is foreign territory and, therefore, frightening.

What do you think?

#2 – Fatalistic, False Views of the Future –

The current and dominant worldview in American evangelical-ism is that the world will, and is supposed to, get “worse and worse.”

Produces a “why fight, we’re on the next flight” mentality.

But how does this fatalistic view match up with Isaiah 9:6-7’s description of the future of the messianic kingdom? (It doesn’t.)

“This faulty religious teaching, says John Chalfant, is the only way to explain why so many well-meaning Christians are paralyzed into inaction.” (WB, 17):

“It comprises what is left today of the militant, power-filled, full-dimensional Christian faith of America’s Founders after decades of erosion, watering down and trivializing of God’s action mandates by America’s Abandonment Clergy.”

“Much of the clergy, along with their millions of victimized American Christians following their pastors’ lead, have retreated from the battlefront to the social, non-confrontational, non-controversial reservation [i.e., their church]. They say that Christians should confine their religious activities to politically non-controversial roles and keep their Bibles out of the political process. They also say that based on prophecy these are the ‘last days,’ and any efforts we make to restore righteousness to this nation will be in vain and need not even be undertaken.”
– John W. Chalfant, Abandonment Theology (Winter Park, FL.: America – A Call to Greatness, Inc., 1996, 1999), 5 and 117-118.

“For this type of ‘Christian,’ there’s no need to stand up to evil, because they’re ‘saved by grace, not works’ (despite repeated biblical admonitions that ‘faith without works is dead’). . . . No need to try to help make it a better world, because they’re going to be ‘raptured’ soon and those who remain behind can sort out the mess. Is it any wonder the church–and America–are in such trouble?” (WB, 27)

Why the Moral Majority failed after only twenty years.

Founder, Jerry Falwell, summarized the demise of this activist organization in this manner:

“I see things getting worse and worse and worse. All we’re doing—all we’ve ever been able to do—is to have the church put its thumb in the dike, but it’s inevitable that it’s going to come out. We are supposed to keep it plugged up as long as we can, be a restraining influence. We prevent spoilage . . . . But we’re kidding ourselves if we think there’s any program, any third party . . . or anything we can do to straighten things out right now . . . . these things that we have in the country are beyond repair.”
– From Cal Thomas, Ed Dobson, Blinded by Might (Grand Rapids, MI.: Zondervan, 1999), 276.

Perhaps, the Moral Majority did not have a sound or strong enough theological foundation that would support the level of activism to which it aspired (see 1 Cor. 14:8)?

What do you think?

#3 – Life in Heaven

Rarely, if ever, is the doctrine of eternal rewards, loss, and punishments for believers taught or preached. Therefore, “there are countless ‘Christians’ who believe they have a ticket to Heaven, and nothing else really matters.” (WB, 22)

Brian McLaren speaks frankly and directly to this area of dumbed-downedness:

“What could be more serious than standing in front of your Creator—the Creator of the universe—and finding out that you had wasted your life, squandered your inheritance, caused others pain and sorrow, worked against the good plans and desires of God? What could be more serious than that? To have to face the real, eternal, unavoidable, absolute, naked truth about yourself, what you’ve done, what you’ve become? . . . . Nothing could be more serious than that . . . . We cannot select out comfortable passages and ignore those that make us uneasy.”
– Brian D. McLaren, The Last Word and the Word after That (Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA.: 2005), 79, 80, 96.

What do you think?

So Here We Are . . .

“The compartmentalization and trivialization of Christianity . . . has ushered in a generation of shallow, ineffectual, and invisible Christians . . . . America’s churches have been subverted” (WB, 29)

Consequently, thousands of American evangelical churches are:

· presenting a kingdom-deficient gospel
· comfortable and content in marketing mediocrity
· laboring in lukewarmness
· culturally neutralized and impotent

In short, Christianity has been “tamed” and “culture has triumphed.” (Alan Wolfe, The Transformation of American Religion (New York: Free Press, 2003), inside flap, 3.)

As a result, Christians are not only losing America but we are also losing our kids in droves. And many Christians and churches don’t even want to talk about it.

Once again, the traditions of men have nullified the Word of God (Mark 7:13; Matt. 15:6).

What Can We Do?

1) Nothing . . . business as usual?

2) Brow beat – moral exhortation?

3) Call for more prayer – al a 2 Chron. 7:14? – But it takes more than prayer to meet God’s requirements for national blessing here!

Big problems call for big solutions.

Only one practical and effective way out of this cultural, moral, and spiritual morass.

4) Transformational Imagination – an educational and missional process of enticing, following the model of Jesus’ central teaching and the heart of his earthly ministry.


FIVE STEPS FOR RESTORING . . .
the preaching, teaching, and practice of the kingdom-of-God worldview (in its fullness) to the Church and to the world.

Step #1 – Unlearning popular misconceptions.

Step #2 – Grounding the kingdom theologically—the timing, nature, and scope of its everlasting form.

Step #3 – Applying the kingdom to today’s world—i.e., the transformation of both self and society.

Step #4 – Confirming why it is so important for every believer to be active and fully involved in advancing God’s kingdom, here and now, on this earth.

Step #5 – Prioritizing this calling as the Church’s TOP, No. #1 agenda, because . . .
· It was for Jesus (Mark 1:15; Matt. 6:33)
· It’s why the Church and Christians are here on this earth

But what do you think?

Editor’s Note: John Noe, Ph.D., is president of the Prophecy Reformation Institute. For more on his restoration and unification ministry and his speaking, teaching, and writing topics, please visit: www.prophecyrefi.org. For the amplified discussion outline of this topic, contract him at jnoe@prophecyrefi.org.