TOUGH NOTES ON TOUGH LOVE: THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT OF AMERICA’S “HAPPY CHURCH OF NICE”

SCRIPTURE. “This description is true. So rebuke them sharply so that they will be sound in the faith and free from doctrinal error.” – TITUS 1:13, AMP

KEY TERMS. Rebuke; Sharply; Sound.

QUOTATION. “An acquaintance merely enjoys your company, a fair-weather companion flatters when all is well, ‘a true friend’ has your best interests at heart and the pluck to tell you what you need to hear.” ― E.A. BUCCIANERI, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly, 2011; edited

I.  FIRST THOUGHTS

At risk of compromising my deep detestation of clichés since the American Church is rife with them up to their very gunnels, as my World War II Navy submariner Dad would have termed it, you will please forgive this strategic lapse:

“Desperate Times require desperate measures!” 

Actually, this particular cliché has its roots in some pretty deep Western philosophy. The expression ‘Desperate times call for desperate measures’ is believed to have originated with a saying coined by the ancient Greek physician, HIPPOCRATES. In his work Amorphisms, he wrote: “For extreme diseases, extreme methods of cure, as to restriction, are most suitable” (c. 400 BC).

While the great Greek physician intended it as a medical directive that was used to train doctors for centuries after that, we may quite properly, even acutely, apply it to Today’s American Crisis: America is unquestionably moving through its greatest existential test possibly in all of her history, desperately indeed, that will require equally desperate measures to help her overcome them.

Unless of course it’s too late.

TWO SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT. There are currently at least Two Major Approaches being rolled out in various intensities to solve our present instability. I review them briefly below as they occurred to me as I did the research for this piece.

• POLITICAL POWER. Whether or not the participants are Religious or Secular, this is clearly the prevailing approach to critical problem solving in the world today and has been for as long as humans have been on the earth. We could be speaking here of Machiavelli’s Prince (1532) or the American Founders’ Declaration of Independence (1776) and the United States Constitution (1789). The point is, ‘Political Ordering’ is the best means, they argue, for the accomplishment of successful outcomes in any social or governmental system. Today, the American Church is the leading edge of this approach, having combined her Religious Ordinances with Political and Legislative Prowess to arrest America’s Decline and make her, to quote a popular phrase, “Great Again.”

• SPIRITUAL INGEGRITY. Here I turn sharply to what I will call for now, ‘The Spirit of the Reformers.’ Synonymous with God’s Faithful Remnant’ throughout history, these are those who have consistently eschewed the First View whenever it attempted to impose itself upon the Christian Canon or the Gospel. They would not allow the State nor a Corrupt Church to replace or otherwise usurp the moral positioning of The True Church as the heartbeat of that particular social order, believing that ‘Virtue’ is the First Requisite to sustaining that order. They would suffer even unto torturous death before they would compromise what God had commanded them to honor in resistance to religious or political despots. You already know the names, but here are a few such Heroes to the Faith: Jesus Christ; John the Baptist; the Apostles; Stephen; Polycarp; Justin Martyr; Ignatius. And later: Waldo; Wycliffe; Hus; Luther; Melanchthon; Zwingli; Manz. And still later: Niemöller; Barth; Bonhoeffer; Wurmbrand.

DK. My position is well known to you all by now: I continue to forcefully argue that if the Second Approach does not very soon overtake the First Approach, the American Collapse will accelerate precipitously until she is destroyed primarily by what I call in my upcoming book, a self-willed, reckless and largely lawless National Suicide.

And that, my dear friends, is why I teach hard. I frankly have no choice.

II.  THE TEACHING

SCRIPTURE. “This description is true. So rebuke them sharply so that they will be sound in the faith and free from doctrinal error.” – TITUS 1:13, AMP

KEY TERMS. Rebuke; Sharply; Sound.

• REBUKE. ‘Elegchó’ [ἐλέγχω]: “To expose, convict; reprove, rebuke, discipline; show to be guilty or be in the wrong; to reprehend severely, chide [re: doctrine or conduct]; to admonish, convict or convince (persuade by Scriptural reason); to tell a fault, to shame or disgrace [if necessary]; to correct [privately or publicly, per Mt. 18:15-17].” 

• SHARPLY. ‘Apotomós’ [ἀποτόμως]: “From the root word, ‘to cut;’ thus, abruptly, peremptorily; severely or curtly; with a keen edge or a fine point; rigorously; roughly; [spiritually] violently, vehemently; acutely, precisely (accurately); with a sudden, piercing physical sensation or effect; intensely; in an aggressive manner.”

• SOUND. ‘Hugiainó’ [ὑγιαίνω]: “To be in good health, to be well; to be incorrupt (true in doctrine); metaphorically, to be strong in the faith, pure with respect to one’s understanding and life; to be right, reasonable; similar to the English term, ‘hygiene’ (to be clean and free from disease, debilitation, incapacity, handicap); entire; unbroken; not shaky, split or defective; as sound timber; undecayed; whole; perfect, or not defective.”

COMMENTARY. I have decided that this issue is of such immediate and urgent importance that I shall offer TWO SOURCES for desperately needed clarity and emphasis.

• HENRY. “‘False teachers are described.’ Faithful ministers must oppose such in good time, that their folly being made manifest, they may go no further. They had a base end in what they did; serving a worldly interest under pretence of Religion: For the love of money is the root of all evil. Such should be resisted, and put to shame, by ‘Sound Doctrine’ from the Scriptures. Shameful actions, the reproach of Heathens, should be far from Christians; falsehood and lying, envious craft and cruelty, brutal and sensual practices, and idleness and sloth, are sins condemned even by the light of nature. But ‘Christian meekness’ is as far from cowardly passing over sin and error, as from anger and impatience. And though there may be national differences of character, yet the heart of man in every age and place is deceitful and desperately wicked. But the sharpest reproofs must aim at the good of the reproved; and soundness in the faith is most desirable and necessary.” – Matthew Henry, Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, 6 vols. 1708-1710; edited

• ELLICOTT. “‘Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith.’ — Some render, ‘wherefore confute,’ that is to say, ‘set them right, sharply’ (apotomōs). The substantive apotomia, translated in the English version ‘severity,’ is used in the passage about the ‘Wild Olive Tree’ (Romans 11:22). As a surgeon’s knife cuts away the diseased and mortifying flesh, so must the words and discipline of Titus, the Apostle’s representative in Crete, sharply rebuke, and, if need be, punish the sinning members of the congregation. Not merely the false teachers—‘the deceivers’—are referred to here, but also ‘the deceived,’ those whole households mentioned in Titus 1:11; and the object of this severity in words and acts was that the lapsed, the doctrinally and morally sick, among the Cretan Christians, should be restored to health again.” – Charles Ellicott, An Old and New Testament Commentary for English Readers, 1878, 1897; edited

DK. In the cold hard light of these two strenuous Commentaries, we see the great distance between the American Church of Today and of Yesteryear. Between ‘Easy Discipling’ that lingers along the lines of Divine benefits versus its true cost as DIETRICH BONHOEFFER eloquently and forcefully defined it. It is what I shall refer to hereafter, borrowing a phrase from former colleague, DR. ROBERT NORTON:

“Soft Magic,” leading to Death – Both the First and Second Death – if left so nakedly and grotesquely uncorrected. Let’s now turn to why this dangerous state of Church Unsoundness remains the case.

III.  WHY THE CHURCH WILL NOT REPENT

Rather than conduct another thorough review of the survey literature to address this vital issue, I thought it much more appropriate to take a Case Study approach of what we might well consider a modern-day Reformer or even a Martyr to the Cause of Christ and Canon.

THE CASE OF RUSSELL MOORE. If ever there were a present-day American Harbinger of what is taking place down in the Catacombs of the American Church, it is found in the person of Dr. Russell Moore. American theologian, ethicist, preacher and currently editor-in-chief of Christianity Today, he is indeed a Microcosm of why the tragically corrupted American Church has become an impotent, destructive force in the very center of the Trump-fueled American Crisis.

What follows is taken from an excellent NPR analysis published on August 8, 2023, by journalists SCOTT DETROW, GABRIEL J. SANCHEZ, and SARAH HANDEL. Their review is titled, “He Was a Top Church Official Who Criticized Trump: He Says Christianity is in Crisis.” But hardly anyone in the Church will say so.

Dr. Moore does. Oh, but he does indeed.

• He criticized Donald Trump and the Southern Baptist Convention’s response to a sexual abuse crisis. Then he found himself on the outside. Who is he? Russell Moore was one of the top officials in the Southern Baptist Convention.

• When Donald Trump came on the scene, Moore criticized him publicly and found himself ostracized by many other Evangelical leaders who embraced the former president.

• Moore also criticized the Southern Baptist Convention’s response to a sexual abuse crisis, as well as what he viewed as an increased tolerance for White Nationalism within the Church.

• Suddenly, in 2021, Moore found himself resigning from his post and on the outside of a denomination that had, up until that point, defined his life.

• Moore believes part of the problem is that “almost every part of American life is tribalized and factionalized,” and that has extended to the Church.

• “I think if we’re going to get past the blood and soil sorts of Nationalism or all of the other kinds of totalizing cultural identities, it’s going to require rethinking what the Church is,” he told NPR.

• In Aug. 2022, Church leaders confirmed the Department of Justice was investigating Southern Baptists following a sexual abuse crisis. In a statement, SBC leaders said: “Current leaders across the SBC have demonstrated a firm conviction to address those issues of the past and are implementing measures to ensure they are never repeated in the future.”

• In 2017, the Church voted to formally “denounce and repudiate” White Nationalism at its annual meeting.

On why he thinks Christianity is in crisis.

“It was the result of having multiple pastors tell me, essentially, the same story about quoting the Sermon on the Mount, parenthetically, in their preaching — ‘Turn the other cheek’ — [and] to have someone come up after to say, ‘Where did you get those Liberal talking points?’ And what was alarming to me is that in most of these scenarios, when the pastor would say, ‘I’m literally quoting Jesus Christ,’ the response would not be, ‘I apologize.’ The response would be, ‘Yes, but that doesn’t work anymore. That’s weak.’ And when we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we’re in a Crisis.”

On how he begins to address the issues he sees:

“I don’t think we fix it by fighting a war for the soul of Evangelicalism. I really don’t think we can fix it at the movement level. And that’s one of the reasons why, when I’m talking to Christians who are concerned about this, my counsel is always ‘Small and Local.’ I think we have to do something different and show a different way. And I see in history every time that something renewing and reviving has happened, it’s happened that way. It’s happened at a small level with people simply refusing to go with the stream of the Church culture at the time.”

On how much he thinks politics is part of the problem:

“I think that the roots of the political problem really come down to ‘disconnection, loneliness, sense of alienation.’ Even in churches that are still healthy and functioning, regular churchgoing is not what it was a generation ago, in which the entire structure of the week was defined by the community.”

DK. My very dear friends, I thank God for the courage and even the suffering of Dr. Moore, who, by his example, sets The Standard for how to deal with what is coming in the months and years just ahead. I tell you a Hard Truth: Jesus promised that in the Last Days these things shall increase, proliferate and come to our own doorsteps. Therefore, I restate my Prime Directive as a Digital Circuit Rider:

“Prepare My people for the Last Days, that they might glorify My name.”

IV.  LAST THOUGHTS

Permit me to recall an anecdotal illustration that I happened upon about a year ago on toward the Holiday Season of 2022. I was listening to a sermon by an internationally acclaimed Christian evangelist, pastor, and ostensible expert on the Book of Revelation. What he said that night struck me as nothing less than a lightning bolt of unexpected proportion.

The Paraphrase: ‘I realize that most people are confused by the Book of Revelation and believe it to be an overwhelmingly terrifying and negative message. But not to worry about any of it because ‘God is very happy,’ and no matter what it means, everything will work out just fine for us!’

Selah. Let that soak in for just a few moments as you ponder its massive theological presumption and rather terrifying eschatological ignorance. And this is a Church authority teaching at the largest mega-church in Colorado Springs to thousands of believers.

AMERICA’S ‘HAPPY JESUS.’ I also remember from the 1960s before I became a follower of Christ a popular picture of Him back then of a raucous, completely joyous Messiah in a fit of nearly uncontrolled laughter, the depiction that suited the ‘Flower Child Era’ of a patently False Christ. Yet I propose that this same “Happy Jesus” presented by our deluded international evangelical expert is pretty much what we get every Sunday in our larger churches especially.

‘But is God happy, beloved,’ with His Church today?

On June 5, 2023, JOYCE MEYER explained that she grew up under an angry Christian, earthly father. So for the rest of the sermon, she basically argued fervently that the God of Heaven is not angry with us. By implication, He is never mad at us, for any reason, because He is always, always loving to us, no matter what!

God is a Happy God!

THE BIBLICAL REALITY. “The Wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given; and the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course, when once it is let loose … Therefore, let anyone who does not now [truly, fully] know Christ awake and fly from the Wrath to Come. The Wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation. ‘Let everyone fly out of Sodom!!’ Run for your lives! Don’t look back! Escape to the mountain, lest ye be consumed!” – JONATHAN EDWARDS, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” Enfield, Connecticut, July 8, 1741; edited

Well now boys and girls, we’ve come a very long way from Mr. Edward’s preaching to today’s “Soft Magic” bandied about so amply in support of the Mythos of an ‘American Gospel’ that is literally, Antichrist in both its Origin and its Destination. Now let’s take a final, objective look at the likely Predisposition of The Almighty toward the American Church of 2023.

We now turn to a superbly balanced assessment in a short essay by DR. ROBER BARRIER, retired senior teaching pastor from Casas Church in Tucson, Arizona. In addition to being an author and sought-after conference speaker, Barrier has mentored or taught thousands of pastors, missionaries, and Christian leaders worldwide.

His Commentary: “Is America Experiencing the Wrath of God?” (Crosswalk, May 3, 2022; edited).

“THE EXAMPLE OF NOAH. God is not in a hurry to pour out His Wrath on anyone.

‘The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some men count slowness; but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance’ (2 Peter 3:9).

Why do you think that it took Noah 120 years to build the Ark? God was being patient. On one hand, if the people observing Noah hadn’t repented and turned their lives over to God in 120 years, why would another year do it! But on the other hand, God gave the people over a century to make their choice.

‘The Wrath of God is often wrapped up with the Patience of God.’ God is holding back most of His Wrath like water behind a dam, because of His incredible mercy. Unfortunately, sometimes the dam breaks when He determines its time.

Imagine the Wrath of God continually building up in response to human depravity. As long as there are enough Christians to salt a culture, the dam holds fast. But when the salt becomes dirty and ineffective, God’s Wrath will come (Matthew 5:13-16).

The Greek language has two basic words for ‘Wrath.’ ‘Thumos’ is a raging Word. It’s the picture of an individual emotionally exploding in anger when he or she gets seriously hurt by another. In the ensuing, cataclysmic explosion, everyone all around gets hurt. Think road rage.

However, this is not the Word used here by Paul. He uses ‘Orge,’ which describes consistent, rising ‘Indignation.’ It is like a piece of overripe fruit. The skin stretches and finally bursts. In His patience, God is not hurrying to pour out Wrath. ‘However, when The Time comes, serious destruction will be unleashed.’

The Wrath of God is functioning in our society right now. His Wrath is visible in any society where men and women are suppressing their God-consciousness and deliberately remaining in sin.”

CODA. So let me share just THREE IDEAS in rapid fire succession about what I have presented in this last section.

1. God gave Noah’s generation 120 years for him to complete the construction of the Ark, and to warn the people that imminent destruction was coming (Genesis 6:3).

• I have argued for the past year that I believe America was similarly given 120 Years beginning at the turn of the 20th century in 1900, and she reached the Terminus of that warning in the year 2020.

• It is clearly and strongly implied in both the powerful sermon by Mr. Edwards echoed in Dr. Barrier’s essay, that ‘God’s Anger intensifies toward the End of History,’ churning its way toward Unmitigated Wrath. That is what our Messiah clearly taught (cf. Matt. 24:8; Rom. 8:22; 1 Thess. 5:3 etc.).

I therefore conclude on the basis of the Biblical evidence, the historical record, contemporary events and ground level common sense that ‘God is not happy,’ beloved, but is very Angry at America and her Church. Further, that unprecedented, blistering Judgment is on its way and in some measure has already begun.

And don’t forget: “‘And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man:’ They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.  ^‘Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot:’ They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.” – JESUS OF NAZARETH, Luke 21:16-30, New King James Version

It’s coming, beloved, and already commenced. Christ’s Return. The Rapture. The Judgment. Therefore, make ready, you and all your house! While it is still Day, beloved.

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/gSz1rF33OXc