THE WAR THAT RAGES
Books are coming on the market that declare we, here in America, are involved in a cultural war. Some call it a spiritual war,, while others declare it is a war of ideas. Whatever name we use it is evident that there is a war that is raging all around us. Moral values are challenged while men search for answers in every place but in the Word of God. The cry is heard that we must do something to turn our nation around and bring it back to what our forefathers intended it to be. I have no argument against such words being used. What I would like to do, however, is go back a little ways and find some causes which appear to be overlooked.
I am not speaking about our nation, but rather about the church of our Lord. It was God’s intent that the gospel would go into all the world (Mark 16:15). As it would spread into all the world, then the lives of those who accepted it would be changed. Paul affirmed that this took place. The gospel of Jesus Christ went into all the world (Colossians 1:23). Yet, even as the gospel did spread throughout the whole of the world, it was still a world where the majority rejected the Savior and refused to change their lives. Even though the culture of that day had no room for Jesus in its heart, it did not change the efforts of those who had obeyed the Lord, to change the world.
The brethren in Thessalonica received what Paul and others had taught as the Word of God and not as the word of men (1 Thessalonians 2:13). The only thing that could change the culture in which they were living was to impart to their fellow citizens the truth of God. We have an element within the Lord’s body today that have long ago given up on that principle. The Word of God was discarded as, more and more, they involved themselves with “new translations” which were foreign to the truths of past generations. The new Bibles brought on a new religion. We were told the “old religion” no longer worked and that we needed to change.
Gyms were built and we took our youth to places all over the country. It was weekends of excitement, theme parks and sometimes mountain top seclusion. We were training our youth to be more involved in church. We expanded our greatness and began to feed the hungry of the world. Homes that were established to take care of children who had no one to care for them, likewise, expanded to homes for unwed mothers and many such like things. Here is the problem. With all of these efforts to expand our greatness, somewhere along the line, we sacrificed the task of preaching the truth to a lost world. Why then should we be surprised that the appearance is that we losing the cultural war?
The traditional worship was just not getting the job done so we needed to change it to a more contemporary worship. The sales pitch was that by so doing we would attract younger audiences and, thereby, be able to reach more souls. The change in worship was ushered in because the Word of God that regulates proper worship was abandoned. I am sure this would come as a surprise to some, but what if we had kept teaching the Word of God and stayed with proper worship? There is ample evidence that in many places the church has lost its identity and, therefore, is not a force in the cultural war which is raging.
The psalmist asked an important question regarding youth. The question was, “…wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? (Psalm 119:9). Since we have built gyms for youth and made every effort to entertain them, is this not a good question? We have changed worship to attract the youth. I wonder how David answered this important question? He tells the youth to take heed to the Word of God. This war that rages all about us, both morally and spiritually, needs good warriors.
Those warriors are parents, Bible schoolteachers, elders, preachers and godly members who refuse to give up on the Word of God as the weapon we use to wage the war (Ephesians 6:17). We do need a change. A change from the hyped up shallow thinking spineless cowards who want to blend in so as to not be noticed to God fearing, truth respecting ardent soldiers of the cross. Militant Christians so living will always have the right to wield the sword of the Spirit in any raging war.