Evangelical Apostasy

“Behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD; so what wisdom do they have? (Jeremiah 8:9)

You do not have to look long or see far to observe the cold and clammy hand of apostasy in the body of Christ today. Theological professors who deny the value of the blood of Jesus, feminist church leaders who encourage us to worship Sophia, and liberal clergymen like Bishop Spong who calls the doctrine of Jesus’ death on the cross for the remission of our sins “barbaric,” give ample witness to the present day activity of that malicious spirit whose favorite line has always been, “Yea, hath God said…?” (Genesis 3:1)

While these various forms of hard-core apostasy are appalling and should be grievous to every redeemed child of God, there is an even more dangerous form of apostasy in the church today. I call it “Evangelical Apostasy.”

Can such a thing be? How can evangelicals be apostate? Is it not the very nature of an evangelical to uphold a belief in the Scriptures as the word of God and to hold forth the gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost world?

On paper these evangelicals would pass a theology test with flying colors. The triune nature of God, justification by faith, the deity of Jesus Christ, and the enabling power of the Holy Spirit would all be acknowledged and even insisted on.

So what’s the problem? The apostasy I refer to has less to do with doctrine than with emphasis. While believing all, or at least most of the right things, they have somehow drifted from an unwavering commitment to the teachings of Scripture and the proclamation of the Savior. Evangelical apostasy blunts the church’s message and dilutes her power, all the while professing to believe “the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.”

HYPER-SEEKERISM

I believe that much of this apostasy has its roots in an overreaction to the legalistic stance that gripped much of the church a couple of generations ago. In the past, born-again Christians have been harsh, judgmental, and even “anti-fun.” Such a stern, no-nonsense, “God is holy, so you’d better not mess up!” version of Christianity was not particularly attractive, and pastors and churches have often found the going was hard in trying to build up a church. People with a religious bent might come and visit, but most folks were turned off by our insistence that when you come into the kingdom, you check your sense of fun in at the door.

That was then; this is now. In our enthusiasm for making the seekers comfortable, and proving that Christians can have as much fun as everybody else, we have erred in the other direction. We have run so far from a God of judgment and holiness, that our God today has a hysterical sense of humor, and has forgotten what sin is. To drive off a potential seeker by being too negative is the ultimate offense in churches today. Holiness is out; happiness is in. Heaven is ignored, hell is never mentioned, and fulfilling one’s potential is the new reward offered to those who will diligently hearken to the pastor’s painfully non-offensive pep talk.

THE ART OF PLEADING

One of the major forms of evangelical apostasy is the growing tendency among preachers to refuse to challenge sinners to come to Christ. Their neglect is in some ways understandable. Many churches have maintained an “altar call” but lost the life and the power thereof. The invitation has become a ritual without expectation or even meaning. The preacher gives the invitation professionally and perfunctorily. Nobody ever comes forward, nor are they expected to.

Sadly, rather than seek God on ways to bring life to tired, mechanical invitations, many churches have decided that they are not needed. After all, it is embarrassing to the sinner to be told he needs to change. Even worse is the thought that he needs to make that change right now! Many churches are dropping any and all forms of invitation for ministry. Seekers are told that they can contact the pastor or elders later on, and they would be happy to talk with them. The service closes with a prayer, a joke, or a positive affirmation, and the congregation is sent home.

The concept of inviting (sometimes challenging) sinners to come to Christ goes all the way back to the New Testament. John the Baptist and Jesus challenged their hearers to repent and be baptized. On the day of Pentecost Peter did the same. “Seekers” were never left to merely hang around the Christians until they eventually absorbed some of what they had. They were fervently urged to come to Christ by faith, and then to demonstrate that faith through baptism.

All the great revivalists and evangelists preached with an aim for the conversion of their hearers. The incomparable Charles Spurgeon told his students: “Impressed with a sense of their danger, give the ungodly no rest in their sins; knock again and again at the door of their hearts, and knock as for life and death.” Another time he urged them, “Learn the art of pleading with men.” In our modern determination not to offend the seeker, we sometimes forget that it is their salvation, not their comfort that we must seek.

ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVE

Another dimension of this evangelical apostasy is the selective use of truth. Normally speaking people tend to prefer positive things over negative ones. Many church leaders have decided that the best way for their church to grow is to present God’s positive truths and ignore the negative ones. “God is love” gets top billing; “Holy, Holy, Holy” almost none at all. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” is heard continually; “You are My friends if you do those things I have commanded you” almost never. God’s blessings are exalted, His discipline ignored.

To be fair, many ministers do this with the best of intentions. They believe that by making God look good, they will attract far more people to Him. They are partly right. People may initially be more enthusiastic about a God who wants only to bless them, and pays no attentions to any of their sins.

The only problem with this is that God just doesn’t happen to be that way. To describe God only in the terms of His desire to bless, while neglecting His hatred for sin is to describe a false god. Jesus said that the true worshipers were those who worship God in Spirit and in truth (John 4:24). To give prospective believers the idea that God never responds negatively to sin is to set them up for an enormous disillusionment. Too often today’s Christians have become like little children whose entire diet consists of Trix cereal. The beautiful colors and sugary taste make for an exciting meal, but a poor steady diet. The fruits and vegetables of sound doctrine and the “whole counsel of God” are vital if we are to outgrow the follies of childishness and enter into the maturity of fruitful service in the kingdom of Christ.

God doesn’t need our help in making Him attractive by hiding His holiness. He is quite able to draw men and women to Himself by a full disclosure of Himself. Let us never suppose that we are doing the Lord a favor when we neglect to teach the whole truth. Paul tells us that all truth is profitable… (2 Timothy 3:16)

Some may argue, yes, but the body of Christ needs lots of grace preaching to overcome all the harsh, legalistic preaching that people have heard in the past.

My answer to that is twofold: Firstly I would say amen, we definitely need lots of preaching about the grace of God. Grace through Jesus Christ is at the heart of the New Testament revelation. But the grace of God that we read of is never given to us as a license for living as we please. Paul declares “sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace” (Romans 6:14). Those who believe you are preaching grace when you suggest that God really doesn’t expect much morality out of you don’t have a clue as to what grace is.

Secondly, as far as needing to hear lots of preaching to serve as an antidote to overly stern preaching of the past, I would have to wonder when today’s youth have ever heard any such thing. True, I can remember that sort of “hellfire and brimstone” style of preaching from my boyhood, but anyone under the age of thirty has probably never heard a sermon like that in their life. Most younger Americans have grown up in such milk and pabulum churches that they could only imagine what that type of sermon would be like.

FORSAKING THE SCRIPTURES

Evangelicals normally assume that when someone stands behind a pulpit and speaks to a congregation, he is going to be basing his message upon the Bible. Ministers have occasionally abused this trust, but among conservative churches, most pastors feel this pressure to the point that they either base their messages on the Bible, or at least pretend to. With the liberal churches this wouldn’t be necessary of course. Keeping their distance from the Scriptures has become a part of their heritage; their liberal sensibilities would be shocked if their ministers ever taught a thoroughly Scriptural lesson.

I am not going to suggest that the entire evangelical church has forsaken the Scriptures today. Indeed there are some pretty positive signs. In the last thirty years there has been somewhat of a resurgence of expository preaching. A number of our nation’s largest churches are pastored by men who simply preach through various books of the Bible verse by verse, week by week. While that is not the only way to preach, it certainly insures a thorough measure of Scriptural teaching, and many evangelicals are experiencing great spiritual health and growth in such churches.

Sadly the opposite is also taking place. Some of the most popular speakers among evangelical circles barely give lip service to the sacred Scriptures. I sat in a Sunday school that dealt with family issues. The Bible was never opened. We viewed videotapes each week that featured a popular teacher. This man was everything you could want in a speaker. He was insightful, intelligent, very funny, likable, and could hold our attention for as long as he wanted to speak. The problem was that there was no Scripture in what he had to say. His message would have fit just as comfortably among a group of secular businessmen as it would a Sunday school class of born-again Christians.

I am seeing this more and more. Many Christians today are being charmed by high-powered motivational speakers with winning personalities and funny stories. These men and women may be interesting to listen to, but fail to give God’s people the bread of life. I would far rather hear a man of lesser speaking ability (and even a cheaper suit) teach a Bible lesson straight from the Scriptures, than a brilliant speaker amuse and fascinate me for 40 minutes, but fail to give me the word that brings life. Man shall not live by humorous anecdotes alone, but by the divinely energized words that proceed from the mouth of our awesome God.

THAT WHICH IS BORN OF FLESH IS FLESH

The worst part of this deception is that it does work, to all outward appearances. You can build a church on a man-centered foundation. Put forward your best speakers, accentuate the positive, eliminate the holiness. Hone your humor, offend nobody, and carefully hide about half of God’s attributes, and you may well end up with a growing church. Jesus never said that flesh couldn’t produce anything – He declared that it could only produce flesh.

The result of evangelical apostasy will be a church with an extraordinarily high percentage of unconverted members. Those who are truly Christians are usually in various stages of spiritual anemia. I fear this is the case in many of America’s churches.

The sad thing about all of this is that it isn’t necessary. There is another way to build a church. The gospel of Jesus Christ really does work. The Scriptures have divine energy within them. I’ll never forget hearing Billy Graham addressing other evangelists and telling why it was that he was so confident of conversions every time he preached. He told them, “If I preach the gospel, and quote the Scriptures, I know that there will be people who will come to Christ that night.” Billy believes in the potency of the gospel.

Lest I sound too cranky, let me assure you that I am not against all attempts to keep things interesting in a church service. Humor has its place. The Bible is an incredibly positive book and we need to let people know this. God’s heart truly is to bless all that will come to Him through repentance and faith. There is certainly nothing wrong with telling people about the goodness of God.

To the pastors I offer this advice: Be as seeker sensitive as the Lord leads you to be. Let the sinner know that he is loved by his Creator and by you. Make your sermons as interesting as you possibly can. (It’s hard for sinners to be converted by a sermon that has put them to sleep). But in all your efforts to reach the seekers, make sure your messages are solidly Biblical, that you tell them the whole truth about God, and that somewhere in your sermons, the sinner learns the answer to that ancient question: “What must I do to be saved?”