Christians Wake Up!
Do you know that Christ came to save the world (John 3:16 and 17) and, because He always completes everything He sets out to do, the world will, in time, be saved? That said, we must also appreciate that Christ has delegated this work of saving the world to His followers, the members of His Body, all true Christians. They, the salt of the earth and the light of the world, have been charged with the task of teaching the nations to obey all His commandments (Matt. 28:18-20). This, for good reason, is known as the “Great Commission;” it calls for nothing less than the salvation of the entire world and you, dear brother in Christ, are the one commissioned! It is your assignment to do whatever you can toward this end. Jesus said that this is to be your highest priority, even above your concern for the basic necessities of life (see Matt. 6:33).
When the nations of the world obey all Christ’s commandments we will have accomplished the task set for us. He, as the second Person of the Holy Trinity, knows full well that one day an obedient generation will arise and the task will be accomplished. What He will not do though is take the task away from those to whom He has assigned it. He will not do for us what He has commanded us to do!
The early church made good progress toward this goal. In three hundred years they so influenced Rome that the Emperor Constantine declared Christianity to be its official religion. This did not accomplish all, but considering its tiny beginning, it went a long way toward fulfilling that goal. Christianity continued to grow as nation after nation declared for Christ. Europe came to be known as Christendom and America was solidly Christian well into the 19th century.
The Christian faith saw 18-19 centuries of progress toward our Lord’s commission. It is still growing around the world but now, in the once solidly Christian West, it is in decline. Today, in America, once the strongest of all the Christian nations, the goal of realizing a Christian world has been virtually abandoned. Pastors don’t preach it and Christians don’t speak of it. For the great majority of evangelical Christians, the goal now is to tell as many people as possible about Jesus and His salvation message. “Let’s get as many saved as we can before the end comes,” is the cry. “The world around us is lost and cannot be reclaimed,” they say. This, of course, is an abdication of the task Christ set for His followers. The nations of the world, instead of being taught to obey Christ, have been left to grow more and more corrupt. America’s churches are full but the nation itself (its laws and its culture) can hardly be called Christian. How did this great reversal come about? It happened slowly, so slowly that hardly anybody noticed:
The 19th century, while still Christian in character, was also a time of spiritual decline, one that saw the birth of several new theologies. The earlier Postmillennialism, which presented an optimistic view of the end times was replaced by theologies that were pessimistic regarding the likelihood of Christian victory prior to Christ’s return. These doctrines, which have to do with the future, may at first seem to be unrelated to the present but this could not be further from the truth. Future goals determine the priorities of the present and under-gird the objectives we strive for today. The pessimistic outlook of these new theologies has brought the effort now being expended on the Great Commission to a virtual halt.
This goal of an ever growing, ever more godly world may seem strange and far-fetched to our ears today. If so, it is because almost all today’s evangelical church leaders have bought into the pessimistic theologies of the 19th century. They, having been brainwashed in their seminaries and Bible schools, have been teaching this ungodly hogwash for decades; they have led America’s Christians down a primrose path to a place they never wanted to go, into open disobedience to their Lord and Savior. They try to justify this action by twisting Scripture to make it say that there is no hope for this age. I’m sure that many of these false teachers are sincere and believe that they are preaching God’s truth. They need to be made aware of their grave error and repent for all the damage they have done. We, as their foolish dupes, must also repent for having permitted such men (and some women as well) to remain in their positions of authority as long as they have.
We need to act now, while we can still act freely. The enemy grew much stronger as we grew weaker and may soon have, indeed already has, the ability to penalize pro-Christian action. The tide must be turned while it is still possible to do so without great pain and sacrifice. God will reward our efforts.