PRÉCIS ON THE GREAT FALLING AWAY: FROM ORTHODOXY TO BACKSLIDING TO APOSTASY – (WITH VIDEO)

1. THE TEACHING

SCRIPTURE. “It was for this freedom that Christ set us free [completely liberating us]; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery [which you once removed].” – GALATIANS 5:1, AMP

KEY TERM: “STAND FIRM!” ‘Stékó’ [στήκω]: “‘To be stationary; to persevere, stand fast!’ To abide by one’s appointment or covenant; to establish or confirm; to persist [and keep on standing no matter what]; to stand erect [as with the saying, ‘stand tall’]; ‘to remain’ [immovable in one’s commitment to Christ and Canon unto life or unto death].”

QUOTATION. “‘Boldness in the course of a noble fight is worth the risk’ … If you stand on Truth, you’ll only regret your timidity later, but you’ll never regret being bold.” ― CHARLES R. SWINDOLL, Author & Pastor, The Grace Awakening, 2003; edited

COMMENTARY. “‘Stand fast, therefore’ – Be firm and unwavering! … The sense is that they were to be firm and unyielding in maintaining the great Principles of Christian Liberty. They had been freed from the bondage of rites and ceremonies; and they should by no means, and in no form, yield to them again.

‘In the liberty’ – Compare John 8:32, John 8:36; Romans 6:18; Notes, Galatians 4:3-5. ‘And be not entangled again!’ –Tyndale renders this, ‘And wrap not yourselves again.’ The sense is, do not again allow such a yoke to be put on you; do not again become slaves to any rites, and customs, and habits. The yoke of bondage – Of servitude to the Jewish [or any cultural customs or] laws; see Acts 15:10.” – ALBERT BARNES, Notes on the Old and New Testament, 1834, 1884; edited

THESIS. I argue from the Biblical Canon that there are THREE CONDITIONS of a follower of Jesus Christ, by the Canon: (1)‘Orthodoxy’ – Or, the state of  faithfulness and obedience; (2) ‘Backsliding’ – Or the state of temporary departure from the Faith; (3) ‘Apostasy’ – Or the state of full Rebellion from Christ, as with a return to Paganism. NOTE: Theologians debate whether or not that person is redeemable; Hebrews 6:4-6 gives me serious pause and doubt.

II. AN AMERICAN CHURCH ADRIFT

The American Church is currently in the grip of an ‘Historic Falling Away’ from the Truth, though I quickly add – hardly any Church leaders will acknowledge it.  I could cite dozens of studies here (and will again a bit later), but the claim is irrefutable at this point, in my view.

CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM. The most serious threat to the Biblical Canon and by extension, the American Order is this new-old threat. It has clearly usurped the Orthodoxy of the Christian Canon in recent years and replaced it with a Syncretistic Mush of Quasi-Biblical ideas, Nation worship, steeped in a newly warped sense of Super-Patriotism.

The Impact has been deadly.

The meaning of the American flag, fealty to the US Constitution and “Conservative values” have been twisted, contorted and virtually ripped horribly from their original meanings into something, frankly, hideous and even Antichrist in spirit. I know of many who will no longer fly Old Glory for example, for fear of being presumptively Pro-Donald Trump, or QAnon, or worse!

TIM ALBERTA. Inarguably one of the most eloquent (and Orthodox!) Christian voices for sanity and clarity about all this spiritual betrayal is this courageous writer. Tim Alberta is an award-winning journalist, best-selling author, and staff writer for The Atlantic

Magazine. In 2023, he published the best-selling work, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism.

The following BULLET POINT REVIEW is taken from that latest book and a condensation of it in an article appearing in The Atlantic on December 25, 2023, entitled, “The Only Thing More Dangerous than Authoritarianism.”

• THE WARNING. “Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, ‘All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.’ And Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’” – LUKE 4:5-8, NKJV

• THE PREFACE. “This Christmas season, I have been reflecting on the words of my favorite author, C. S. LEWIS, who once observed: ‘I have learned now that while those who speak about one’s miseries usually hurt, those who keep silence hurt more.’ Speaking about American Evangelicalism was never my intention. Having grown up steeped in Christianity’s Right-Wing subculture—the son of a Megachurch minister, a follower of Jesus, someone who self-identified as ‘Evangelical’ since childhood—I was a reliable defender of the Faith.”

• THE DOWNFALL. ‘The Corruption of American Christianity is nothing new:’ Modern-day pharisees from JERRY FALWELL SR. to PAULA WHITE have spent 50 years weaponizing the Gospel to win elections and dominate the country, exploiting the cultural insecurities of their unwitting brethren for political, professional, and financial gain, all while reducing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a caricature in the eyes of unbelievers. The resulting Collapse of the Church’s reputation in this country—with Sunday attendance, positive perceptions of organized religion, and the number of self-identified Christians all at historic lows—leaves Evangelicals estranged from their Secular neighbors like never before.”

• THE REBELLION. ‘The Crisis at hand is not simply that Christ’s message has been corroded, but that His Church has been radicalized.’ The State-ordered closings of sanctuaries during COVID-19, the Conspiracy-fueled objections to JOE BIDEN’S victory in 2020, the misinformation around vaccines and educational curricula—these and other Culture-War flash points have accelerated notions of imminent Armageddon inside American Christendom. A community that has always felt misunderstood now feels marginalized, ostracized, even persecuted. This feeling is not relegated to the fringes of Evangelicalism. In fact, this fear—that ‘Christianity is in the crosshairs of the Government, that an Evil Plot to topple America’s Judeo-Christian heritage’ hinges on silencing believers and subjugating the Church—now animates the Religious Right in ways that threaten the very foundations of our Democracy.”

• THE LIE. “‘You sound like a hysterical maniac if you say the government’s coming after us. But I believe they are,’ ROBERT JEFFRESS, the Dallas pastor and longtime Trump loyalist, told me in the book. ‘It happened in Nazi Germany. They didn’t put six million Jews in the crematorium immediately … It was a slow process of marginalization, isolation, and then the “Final Solution.” I think you’re seeing that happen in America. I believe there’s evidence that the Biden Administration has weaponized the Internal Revenue Service to come after churches.’ (The evidence Jeffress cited in making this leap—bureaucratic regulations clearing the way for concentration camps—‘was nonexistent!’ When pushed, he mentioned a single court case that was ultimately decided in favor of religious liberty).”

• CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM. “Mobilizing in response to this perceived threat, the forces of Christian Nationalism—‘Those who seek to demolish the wall between Church and State, asserting Far-Right religious dominion over the government as well as the country’s core institutions’—are now ascendant both inside the Church and inside the Republican Party. It is no coincidence that, just recently, DONALD TRUMP began suggesting that he would ban any migrant from entering the United States unless they are Christian. Those who don’t share ‘our religion,’ the famously impious ex-president pronounced, won’t be welcome here if he’s elected again. Many of the people poised to hold high-ranking posts in a second Trump Administration don’t view today’s societal disputes through the lens of Republican versus Democrat or of Conservative versus Progressive, but rather of Good versus Evil.”

• THE DANGER. “Perhaps the only thing more dangerous than Authoritarianism is ‘Authoritarianism infused with religious justification.’ It hardly matters whether the would-be tyrant is personally devout; VLADIMIR PUTIN’S lack of theology didn’t stop him from partnering with the Russian Orthodox Church to frame the bloody invasion of Ukraine as God’s ordained conquest of a Satanic stronghold. To believe that it couldn’t happen here—’Mass conflict rooted in Identitarian conviction and driven by Religious Zeal’—is to ignore both 20th-century precedent and the escalating Holy-War Rhetoric inside the Evangelical Church.”

• THE SOLUTION. “I am a follower of Jesus Christ. I believe that God took on flesh in order to model servanthood and self-sacrifice; I believe He commanded us to love our neighbor, to turn the other cheek toward those who wish us harm, to show grace toward outsiders and let our light shine so they might glorify our heavenly Father. Not all professing Christians bother adhering to these Biblical Precepts, but many millions of American believers still do. ‘It is incumbent upon them to stand up to this Extremism in the Church.’ Yet the responsibility is not theirs alone. No matter your personal belief system, the reality is, we have no viable path forward as a pluralistic society—none—without confronting the deterioration of the Evangelical Movement and repairing the relationship between Christians and the broader Culture.”

STATE OF THE CHURCH. Beloved, my own assessment over the last seven to eight years is that the American, primarily White Evangelical Community has largely either: (1) Turned a blind eye to the current Existential Crisis taking place inside the walls of God’s House; or (2) Joined forces with the Christian Nationalists toward the effort to turn America from a Constitutional Republic to a Christian Theocracy.

Both alternatives, if that is what you can call them, are neither Biblical nor viable. My conclusions will offer hard evidence of just where the American Church has decided to land just before the momentous Presidential Election of November 2024.

III. AMERICA’S LAST MILE

In a recent stunning report by the Pew Research Center published on March 15, 2024, by its Associate Director of Research, GREGORY A. SMITH. The study discovered, as its title specifies: “FIVE FACTS About Religion and America’s Views of Donald Trump.”

1. Among religious groups, White Evangelical Protestants continue to have the most positive opinion of Trump. Overall, two-thirds of White Evangelical Protestants [94m] say they have a favorable view of the former president, including 30% [46.2m] who have a very favorable opinion of him.
2. Trump’s favorability rating is similar among Christians who attend church regularly and those who don’t. Some observers have pointed out that Trump’s political base consists largely of people who call themselves Christians but don’t go to church. However, our survey shows that Christians who regularly go to church express equally favorable views of Trump as those who don’t often attend religious services.
3. Many of the people who view Trump favorably don’t go to religious services regularly – but very few are nonreligious. Overall, 64% [93.4m] of respondents who have a favorable view of Trump say they attend religious services a few times a year or less often, while 35% [51.5m] say they go to services at least once or twice a month. (Among all respondents, 69% say they attend religious services a few times a year or less, while 30% go at least monthly).
4. Most people who view Trump positively don’t think he is especially religious himself. But many think he stands up for people with religious beliefs like theirs. Just 8% of people who have a positive view of Trump think he is very religious, while 51% think he is somewhat religious and 38% say he is not too or not at all religious.
5. Religious “Nones” who are culturally Christian view Trump a bit more positively than Religious “Nones” who aren’t. One way to measure for differences between “Cultural” and “Practicing” Christians is to compare Christians who do and don’t do go to church regularly, as we did above. Another is to look at religiously unaffiliated respondents, or “Nones” – people who describe themselves, religiously, as atheist, agnostic, or “Nothing in particular.”

CODA. My Purpose in all this remonstrance against the Donald Trump Version of Christian Nationalism is to WARN AMERICANS that both their Nation and their Salvation are in Terrifying Peril. That is correct! If a so-called Christian embraces this New Christian Americanism as one’s First Allegiance, this is ‘Idolatry,’ and that person shall very probably forfeit Heaven – no matter what they call themselves.

• EXODUS 20:2-3. “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.”

•  MATTHEW 10:37-39. “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.”

These are clearly the sternest words this old teacher has ever dared to write and speak. And yes, beloved, I could be wrong. But consider: What if this is substantially the very ‘Mind of God’ toward America and her Church. What then?

Repentance, or Judgment. It is that simple. And it is that terrifying.

CODICIL. The reason I chose the graphic for this Commentary was because it strategically displays ‘The American Flag’ more prominently than ‘The Cross of Christ.’ An accurate depiction of America’s Current Condition. Selah.

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/cCk2rTSy9YA