Taking the Edge Off
by Laurence Windham

I don't know about you but I hope this Y2K thing is big. We are in need of something apocalyptic to shake the church of Jesus Christ to its core. I weary of our present nominal, shallow, and pretentious version of Christianity. What is required is a cause, or disaster, or persecution from God to awaken the congregation from sleeping with the enemy and to forge leaders with some backbone and guts to rise to the occasion of taking the church back to purity. By purity I mean obedience the application of Scripture to all spheres of life. Not some pseudo-employment of the Bible that acquiesces to cultural interpretation, but courageous men and women who would stand out as the judges of Israel did when everyone else was doing what was right in their own eyes.

The only prevalent distinctive we have left before the world are the outrageous and ridiculous hairstyles of the televangelists, the legalistic rhetoric of the ill-educated, and the warm fuzzies of the seeker friendly. That last one

really gets me. At least everyone can see that the first two are weird, but the latter tries to reach out to the world the same way the church girl does by praying for her "lost" boyfriend, but is still making-out with him. This is the strategy of the majority of churches that are "engaging the world." The problem is they are trying to win a bloodless war. They have taken the edge off the gospel. The message they preach no longer cuts men deep to their soul. Converts come smilingly and/or matter-of-factly to profess salvation rather than Jesus.

The church is in desperate need of more heroes in the pulpits, sessions and congregations. People who will not compromise and will not allow compromise to go unchallenged. This may mean standing alone. This takes courage, a virtue in short supply today. Especially since the front line is no longer outside the church but is now formed between pews, pastors and congregations, and down the middle of session and presbytery meetings.

Raw, unadulterated obedience to the word of God is what the church needs to be called back to. You doubt me? Even now, I know of an a man holding a lawsuit over the heads of an entire presbytery that refuses to discipline him. I have been privy to the knowledge of churches that have refused to excommunicate unrepentant individuals who are accompanied with their lawyers. There are leaders of large, influential, and worse-popular ministries who have made outlandish statements regarding God and His word who habitually go unchecked by the men of their church or their peers who know better and should publicly act on it. From the church to the music industry to the pew to the para-church ministry, from the publishing companies to the mission agencies a clarion call for the righteous living out of the Scriptures should sound by not only voices like mine out here crying in the wilderness but in sessions, board rooms, and congregational meetings, from pulpits, and publications, and correspondence. The prophets must speak.

It no longer amazes me that the church of the 21st century still thinks that knowledge is obedience, attendance is sanctification, and tithing is sacrifice. Things are just too easy for us today. Our foes are ideas and prosperity and paradigms. Within and without the church. just recently, I have witnessed Christians follow Roberts Rules of Order in passing motions that were blatantly in violation of the Scriptures that all the assembled confess to believe in. The Bible was supplanted by an adopted idea of decision making that superseded God's guide to matters concerning His church. All discussion and calls for reconsideration were halted by procedures that belong more in secular business than among the people of God.

But I speak concerning the church. The Church, this representation of God's kingdom, this light designed to shine from mountain tops, this conquering army whose orders are to recruit all, taking no prisoners, at least in the West, is losing the intestinal fortitude found by following the footsteps of her Commander-in-chief.

The storm is coming. Perhaps not in my lifetime, but soon it will once again cost something to believe and practice the gospel. The relativists will tire of our apologetic victories, the advocates of tolerance will tolerate us no longer, the PC police will arrest all the plain speaking lovers of-language, charging them with using the King's English. All we have endured so far are only the guss of zephyrs that are carrying the tempest toward us. Then the charlatans, false prophets, and apostates will join forces with their pagan brothers against the Lord's people. Let Christians of rank and means as well as the lowliest among us take courage and encourage one another. Begin now brothers and sisters to move into harm's way, calling the church to repentance and back to obedience. The soil of reformation is destitute of the tears of petition, the tilling of bent knees, and the fertile blood of martyrs. Why should we keep the peace in order to deliver to our children only vestiges of worship, faith, and community? Paul's illustration of the inseparability of the members of the body of Christ as feet, hands, eyes and ears, as well the commendation he gave to the investigative Bereans, gives us all the right to question, challenge and correct each other.

All battles that we wage should be holy wars. We are being assimilated every moment that we remain passive. War is hell. Especially this one where misunderstanding, emotional wounds and division among friends and family are probable fallouts. Draw your swords in love, be sure your prophetic theater is on the mark, lift up your voices like trumpets. Engage!

Rise up o men of God!
The church for you doth wait,
Her strength unequal to her task;
Rise up and make her great!