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The Daily Word of Righteousness
Divine Intervention and Human Activation, #8
Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. (Revelation 2:5—NIV)
Divine judgment is on the way, and not just toward the United States of America. The problem is found in the Christian churches everywhere that are not teaching iron righteousness, fiery holiness, and stern obedience to God.
The Christian churches often are silly, jumping up and down next to their pews in preparation for an unscriptural "rapture."
Such behavior is meaningless to the world that is looking for the good works, the only true Christian light that the nations can see. Will the problems of immorality in the governments of the world be corrected when the political leaders behold Christ's disciples foolishly jumping up and down next to their pews?
The nations sink ever deeper into the quagmire of sin and corruption, and there is no moral light to say: "This is the way. Walk ye in it."
The lampstands of the churches are growing dim because of sin, while the ministry is assuring the people that God loves them, they can never be lost, and they are about to fly away in a rapture. It is a miserable state of affairs.
There are cries for repentance, at least in some American churches. The young people may be stepping out in this direction.
But then the youth, who desire to serve God, are taught, taught, taught by their elders, who themselves do not know the iron of Christ, that they are saved by grace and not by works, without an accompanying explanation of the complexity of this statement. What then shall these idealistic but inexperienced warriors do when the demonic pressures of sexual lust are afflicting them?
Paul is presented as meaning it doesn't really matter how we behave. Imagine! The Apostle Paul, the foremost advocate of righteous behavior!
Truly, the older generation of American Christians, to a certain extent, have failed God. We are foolish, silly, self-serving, sometimes effete and foppish. Perhaps the youth will march forward with the Lord. Let us hope so, and let us try to hold up the banner of iron righteousness, fiery holiness, and stern obedience to God so the younger warriors will have a standard to follow.
Where are the old Baptist and Pentecostal warriors? What has happened to us?
Thank God for the churches where repentance is being preached. But until the current Christian viewpoint, that we are saved by a Divine intervention whether or not we appropriate the work of the Holy Spirit in producing a new creation, is brought back to the text of the New Testament and corrected, the present impetus for repentance and godly behavior will dissipate, just as it has after the remarkable revivals that occurred in America in the early part of the twentieth century.
We must get back to the Bible. We must read again the New Testament. We must discard the destructive philosophy of dispensationalism, the unscriptural notion of a "state of grace" whereby God does not see the behavior of Christian Gentiles. The idea of a magical "state of grace" is so obviously contrary to much of what Paul wrote that it is a wonder it has gained the foothold it has among devout Christian scholars.
Perhaps God now is enabling us to perceive what actually is stated in the New Testament. Perhaps it would help to have more expository teaching and preaching where the traditional parameters are discarded and a fresh, new look is taken of the verses that have always been in the Book.
Let's get back to the Bible! (from Divine Intervention and Human Activation)