NOTES ON THE HARLOTRY OF THE AMERICAN CHURCH: LAMPSTANDS TO COME CRASHING DOWN IN THE DAYS AHEAD (WITH VIDEO)

THEOLOGY

SCRIPTURE. “I wrote you in my [previous] letter not to associate with [sexually] immoral people—not meaning the immoral people of this world, or the greedy ones and swindlers, or idolaters, for then you would have to get out of the world and human society altogether! But actually, I have written to you not to associate with any so-called [Christian] brother if he is sexually immoral or greedy, or is an idolater [devoted to anything that takes the place of God], or is a reviler [who insults or slanders or otherwise verbally abuses others], or is a drunkard or a swindler—you must not so much as eat with such a person.

For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders (non-believers)? Do you not judge those who are within the church [to protect the church as the situation requires]? God alone sits in judgment on those who are outside [the faith]. REMOVE THE WICKED ONE from among you [EXPEL HIM from your church]!” – 1 CORINTHIANS 5:9-13, AMP

KEY TERM. “REMOVE THE WICKED!” ‘Exairó’ [ἐξάρατε]: “From a root term meaning, ‘To take from a place or point of origin; to put away the corrupt from [the true Church].’ NOTE: “Strong’s Greek 1808 depicts the decisive action of lifting out, driving away, or removing something that has no rightful place inside a defined sphere. The verb portrays purposeful extraction, not mere relocation, and carries moral weight when applied to persons or practices. Paul cites the Septuagint formula for covenant discipline: ‘God will judge those outside. EXPEL the wicked man from among you.’

The imperative ἐξάρατε COMMANDS the Corinthian Church to remove an unrepentant offender whose flagrant immorality threatened the holiness and witness of the congregation. The Apostle anchors the directive in Old Testament Law, where Israel was repeatedly told, ‘PURGE the evil from among you!’ (Deuteronomy 17:7; 19:19; 22:21; 24:7).” – JAMES STRONG, Concordance, 1890; edited

QUOTATION. “‘Fake friends;’ those who only drill holes under your boat to get it leaking; those who discredit your ambitions and those who pretend they love you, but behind their backs they know they are in to destroy your legacies.” ― ISREALMORE AYIVOR, Shaping the Dream, 2014; edited

COMMENTARY. “‘Christians are to avoid familiar converse with all who disgrace the Christian name.’ Suchare only fit companions for their brethren in sin, and to such company they should be left, whenever it is possible to do so. ‘Alas, that there are many called Christians, whose conversation is more dangerous than that of Heathens!’” – MATTHEW HENRY, Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, 6 vols., 1708-1710; edited

II. TEACHING

“But I have this [one charge to make] against you: that you have LEFT (ABANDONED) the love that you had at first [you have deserted Me, your first love].So remember the heights from which you have fallen, and REPENT [change your inner self—your old way of thinking, your sinful behavior—seek God’s will] and do the works you did at first [when you first knew Me]; otherwise, I will visit you and REMOVE YOUR LAMPSTAND (the church, its impact) from its place—unless you repent.” – CHRIST’S LETTER TO EPHESUS, Revelation 2:4-5, Amplified

LAMPSTAND. ‘Luchnia’ [λυχνίαν]: From a Greek root word meaning, ‘A portable Lamp or Illuminator, a Candlelight or Lantern.’” STRONGS (1895): “In First-Century homes a small oil lamp gave only limited illumination, so a dedicated stand lifted the flame to disperse light throughout the room. ‘Because the STAND existed solely to Magnify the Lamp’s radiance, the image became an Ideal Metaphor for public, unhindered testimony to GOD’S TRUTH.’”

IMPLICATION. The unmistakable point here is that Jesus Christ holds one criterion above all the rest for the Integrity or Corruption of His Church: TRUTH! That is to say it in an Axiom: The worth of His Holy House shall rest upon the presence or absence of: “SOUND DOCTRINE and the Shepherd’s Faithfulness to it”(cf. Titus 1:9; 2 Timothy 4:2-4; 1 John 4:1; Romans 16:17; Jude 2:3, etc.).

THE WARNING. It was around early 2023 when I had occasion to send a note to my former associate pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, about the direction the church was heading. Specifically, the senior pastor then, BRADY BOYD, was very nearly mocking any Orthodox approach to Eschatology, preaching around Christmastime that year:

“You don’t have to worry about the Book of Revelation. Nobody understands it anyhow!’

He once told me when I personally reviewed the contents of my first book on Political Eschatology, “Oh, I don’t believe any of that stuff.” Sometime after that, perhaps a year or so later, I penned a brief note to the now senior pastor, DANIEL GROTHE, the following message (paraphrased):

“Brother, if your church does not turn away from a number of teachings that emphasize prosperity and neutrality about Last Things, the Lord is going to REMOVE YOUR LAMPSTAND.”

THE TAKEDOWN. To be clear, I am no prophet and had no impact on what you are about to read, but I was a messenger. Nothing more, nothing less. Here is the AI SUMMARY REPORT (ret. Nov. 17, 2025; edited) of what took place earlier this year with respect to Pastor Boyd two years after The Warning was issued.

“Brady Boyd, the former senior pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, was asked to resign by the church’s Board of Elders in June 2025, not explicitly ‘fired.’ The request for his resignation came after the elders determined he was dishonest with the congregation and leadership about his prior knowledge of a child sex abuse scandal involving his former mentor, PASTOR ROBERT NORRIS of Gateway Church in South Lake, Texas, near Fort Worth.

CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS:

BACKGROUND. Before joining New Life Church in 2007, Boyd worked at Gateway Church in Texas, which was founded by ROBERT MORRIS. In 2024, allegations surfaced that Morris had sexually abused a minor, CINDY CLEMENSHIRE, in the 1980s.

CLAIMS. Boyd publicly stated that he was unaware until 2024 that the victim was a child at the time of the abuse. He also denied having knowledge of the full extent of the facts when he recommended Morris as an overseer for New Life Church. Selah.

FINDINGS. The New Life Church Board of Elders reviewed the information, including court documents from a related Texas lawsuit and extensive emails, and concluded that Boyd’s claims were inaccurate. They found that Boyd and a previous board at Gateway Church were aware of the abuse as early as 2005.

ACTION. The Elders determined that Boyd’s misstatements broke the trust essential for leadership. Consequently, they asked for his resignation, which he submitted on June 18 or 19, 2025.

FALLOUT. Two other staff members, Brian Coles and Lance Newberg, were also asked to resign because they too had knowledge of the situation in 2007 but did not bring their concerns to the Board of Elders.

STATUS. Boyd is not facing any criminal charges related to the incident; the disciplinary action was due to his ‘Dishonesty and failure to Disclose information’ to church leadership and the congregation. Daniel Grothe has since been named the interim senior pastor. Boyd has since started a new ministry called Psalm 68 Ministries, but not succeeding.

BACKSTORY. Beginning around 2020 or a bit later, I began warning a close family friend and Godparent to our children we shall just call “Steve” for now about Pastor Morris since he was a prominent lifetime attendee and leader in the Gateway community. I had led this outstanding then young man to Christ while serving as professor at University of the Pacific in 1981.

I remember a visit to Steve’s house in Colleyville, Texas about a year before to interview for another Christian university position, when his wife said, uncharacteristically: “Well Cliff, this is Trump Country!” A slightly veiled criticism that I would have no chance unless I too supported the first term president. DK: You will note that Pastor Morris had served on Trump’s first spiritual advisory board and even invited him to speak at Gateway.

THE BIBICAL PROMISE. “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked [He will not allow Himself to be ridiculed, nor treated with contempt nor allow His precepts to be scornfully set aside]; for whatever a man sows, this and this only is what he will reap. For the one who sows to his flesh [his sinful capacity, his worldliness, his disgraceful impulses] will reap from the flesh ruin and destruction, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” – GALATIANS 6:7-8, AMP

Selah. Selah.

III. CONSEQUENCES OF APOSTASY

REVOLUTION. Inarguably, America is in the midst of the most ‘Tumultuous Revolt’ since at least the Vietnam War Era of the 1960s, since the “Roaring 20s” of four decades before, and some would argue, since the American Civil War of 1860-1865 over the issue of Slavery.

But I’ll see those three and raise you one more, a very Big One More: The War for American War for Independence of 1776 [cf. KEN BURNS’ The American Revolution, November 2025, PBS] . As we approach our Semiquincentennial (250^th) Anniversary on what is sizing up as a Super-Fourth of July Celebration in 2026, ‘Revolution is in the air’once again. More palpably, more seismic, and more dangerous than at any other period in our century and a half, checkerboard past.

I will propose here that TWO REVOLUTIONS are going on among us that can be defined theologically as (1) “Rebellion” against the Laws of God and Man, while the other is best labeled a (2) “Reformation” of Christians who wish to Return to Orthodoxy and True Faith.

ONE: NEGATIVE APOSTASY. Though the vast majority of the American Evangelical Church does not believe that she is in Rebellion, the evidence that we have fielded over the past five years reaches the level of prima facie. I shall therefore not visit that argument again, though the Rejection of such ‘Self-Evident Truth’ isastonishing, yet, Prophesied.

“Many false prophets will appear and mislead MANY. Because lawlessness is increased, the love of MOST people will grow cold’ … [And] the [Holy] Spirit explicitly and unmistakably declares that in later times SOME will turn away from the faith, paying attention instead to deceitful and seductive spirits and doctrines of demons, [misled] by the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared as with a branding iron [leaving them incapable of ethical functioning].” – MATTHEW 24:11-12; 1 TIMOTHY 4:1-2, AMP

Having dispatched all reasonable debate to the contrary, we move into the Deeps concerning the American (White) Church’s Rebellion. Defined most accurately by the Greek term, ‘Apostasia’ [ἀποστασία]. It is derived from a root word meaning, “That which is Separative as with a Divorcement.” ALSO: “Defection from the Truth, a great Forsaking or Falling Away from the Faith.”

The drastic need to REMAIN TRUE TO CHRIST during the present hour is not lost upon a small but significant minority of Christian believers that we shall again refer to as ‘The Remnant’ consisting of about 5-10% of the Conventional Church.

For a deeply encouraging and wise specification of FOUR SIMPLE WAYS to accomplish that existential objective, I turn to Senior Pastor TREVOR DAVIS of the Great Commission Church in little known Olive Branch, Missouri. His sermon article is titled, appropriately: “How to Stay Faithful in a Time of Apostasy” (Great Commission Church, Feb. 25, 2025; edited).

OPEN. “Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, ‘Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints,to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are UNGODLY [ἀσεβειῶν ‘asebeia’ – impious, wicked, lawless, depraved of heart] among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.’

These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ:how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.” – JUDE 1:14-19, NKJV

Take God’s Warnings Seriously! “He has always held the Ungodly accountable, and He will again. Stay alert. Watch your own heart and don’t let grumbling, pride, or selfish desires take root.” DK: The Church is about as vigilant as the Three Blind Mice these days. ‘We cannot be!’ Be with Jesus 24/7, talking to Him often, reading and thinking about His Word.

Guard Your Words. “What comes out of your mouth reflects what’s in your heart. Speak life, not Deception. Encourage, don’t Manipulate.” DK: We shall be judged on the words we speak – Words of Life, or Words of Death. And this is not related to the “positive confession” heresy, but more than anything else, Speaking Truth.

Expect the Truth to be Mocked. “It’s been happening for centuries. Instead of getting discouraged, stand firm. ‘Live with Conviction.’” DK: As with the Church at Ephesus, the Ungodly don’t really love Christ as much as they love the World. ‘We cannot!’ Nurture that “Magnificent Obsession” with Jesus by swimming in His Words and again thinking and talking to Him all day.

Walk By the Spirit. “Division and Destruction follow those who Reject God, but love, peace, and faithfulness follow those who belong to Him. Choose to live in step with His Spirit today.” DK: I ask the Lord every single morning to “Fill me with Fresh Fire,” and I strongly suggest you do the same. For those who speak in tongues, do so privately, also uttering prayers in our natural language with deep Sincerity and Honesty.

TWO: POSITIVE APOSTASY. In a wonderful find while doing research for this essay, I happened upon an unusual piece by REV. DR. JARED STACY (PhD, University of Aberdeen), a theologian and ethicist whose work centers on Political Extremism and Evangelical Theology in America. Once again, I find the European View of the American Crisis enormously helpful to our grasping the measure of it.

His article’s title is a taste of his unique approach: “Apostasy, Now! A Call to Revolt in an Age of Crisis” (Center for Barth Studies, May 12, 2025; edited). So here we go.

FOOTNOTE ON KARL BARTH. “Karl Barth (10 May 1886 – 10 December 1968) was a Swiss Reformed theologian. Barth is best known for his commentary The Epistle to the Romans, his involvement in the Confessing Church, including his authorship (except for a single phrase) of the Barmen Declaration, and especially his unfinished multi-volume theological summa the Church Dogmatics (published between 1932 and 1967). Barth’s influence expanded well beyond the academic realm to mainstream culture, leading him to be featured on the cover of Time on 20 April 1962” (Wikipedia, Sept. 25, 2025; edited).

OPEN. “Barth’s Theology of Crisis was fit for a time of Radical Upheaval. Pressed from without and within, the Church of his time was tempted to ally itself with political saviors or evacuate into affluence and automation. Are not these the very same Temptations standing before us now? To trust promises of aspiring Authoritarians or evacuate into Bourgeois Enclaves?”

CHOICES. “Churches in America can opt for Survival Strategies, to be sure. We can endeavor to present ourselves as the [1]‘ Right Kind’ of Christian, or we can sanction and support [2] State-Policed ‘Anti-Christian’ Bias. We can hide ourselves, too, retreating to [3] Institutional Security, and denying the fact that the Sanctuary of Christian Community exists, in the words of Pope Leo XIV, as a ‘Bridge to the World.’”

OBEDIENCE. “‘And in these Crises, WE MUST BECOME APOSTATES! In every Crisis, a Choice—again and always—confronts the Churches. [1] The Idolatry of Political Power allures the Church of every age with hard security. [2] the Idolatry of Mammon numbs the Church of every Age. Mammon is the Soft Persecution of Luxury experienced through automation and affluence.’”

ACCOMMODATION. [To Dr. Francis Schaeffer’s “World Spirit,” 1984]. “‘Authoritarianism takes root in the Churches through Greed just as easily as it does Hard Power.’ Both promote Fear. Both trade in Scarcity.’ Both demand a Vigilance that contains a Militancy which betrays Faith. And when Faith allies itself with these Temptations, it cancels itself. ‘Renewal requires Apostasy!’”

REVOLUTION. “For the Church under God’s call, there can only be what Barth calls ‘Revolt.’ We might think of Revolt more dynamically and radically. ‘This Revolt is Apostasy.’ This is not Apostasy from the Faith, but the Apostasy of the Faith. ‘The Faith of Jesus Christ is a Faith of Dynamic Disturbance of our settled securities.’”

TOTALITY. “‘In The Christian Life, Barth depicts Revolt emerging from the Precedence of the WORD over and beyond all other factors which give shape to our lives. He locates this Revolt in the practice of PRAYER.’ It is distinct from Activisms and Causes in the name of human progress without denying the possibility of common participation in human history. In essence, in Prayer, we participated in a Revolt, an Apostasy, symbolized by Baptism, an initiation into The Life shaped by and in anticipation of its preeminent expectation: ‘Hallowed be thy Name!’ It is a Revolt of the Reverent Life, the Word which esteems the Name of God above all rogue words.”

LOGOS. “The Word reveals them to be part and parcel of what Barth calls the ‘Regime of Vacillation,’ a ‘Twilight’ marked by ‘the confusion and distress of the division which desecrates God’s Name and which consists in the fact that the one, true, and living God is both known and [simultaneously] unknown. This ‘Regime of Vacillation’—which consists in God’s Name being both known and unknown—was revealed in all its Ugly Contradiction during a recent worship gathering at the White House. Clergy gathered to pray in Jesus’ name and ‘influence’ the Government, but did so only after posting photo shoots in front of Teslas. This Regime of Vacillation [Schaeffer’s Accommodation to the World Spirit] is as a ‘Regime of Paranoia,’ a split mind, divided between the Name of God and lesser lords.”

RISK. “‘And so it is not enough to “Pray” or to “Worship.’” The Spectacles of Religious Acts have never once distracted God’s attention away from the poor, the marginalized, and the vulnerable. These Spectacles have the ‘appearance of godliness but deny its power’ (2 Tim. 3:5). Believing this as we do, with a ‘Desire for Revolt and Apostasy,’ we must admit this Revolt is not without Peril for Jesus’ disciples. ‘This Peril, this Danger, is visible in the Distinction between Initiation and Imitation.’”

INTEGRITY. “‘The Revolt of Christian Faith in our time must Apostatize from Christianities that take the Name in vain. We must become Apostates!’ We must become particular kinds of ‘Atheists,’in order to preserve the Faith once for all delivered to the Saints. As Dr. J. Kameron Carter [Professor of African American Studies, UC Irvine] observes, ‘I’m calling for a Christianity that no longer provides Religious Sanction or the cloak of Righteousness to the Political Project of U.S. Sovereignty and its Vision of who is Normal (and in the right place) and who is Abnormal (and thus out of place).’”

CLOSE. “‘Revolt’which emerges from Esteem for the Name will invariably make an Apostasy from this Vain Christianity, as an Act of Obedient, Faithful Repentance—the kind which reflects the ongoing Spirit-borne work of ‘Re-Cognizing’ our mind as how ROMANS 12:1-2 envisions. ‘This is not merely a “Turning Away” but a “Turning Towards.” A Re-Cognizing of our minds which also binds up the wounds of those who are downtrodden by this Vain Christianity.’”

IV. LAST THOUGHTS: CRASHING LAMPSTANDS

I shall close where my Subtitle began, with a consideration of the Terror of a Pastor and his Church having their Lampstand torn down by Jesus Christ. To put this in proper context, think of this passage from the ‘Lord’s Outrage’ against the Moneylenders at Temple.

“And Jesus entered the temple [grounds] and drove out [with force] all who were buying and selling [birds and animals for sacrifice] in the temple area, and He turned over the tables of the moneychangers [who made a profit exchanging foreign money for temple coinage] and the chairs of those who were selling doves [for sacrifice]. Jesus said to them, ‘It is written [in Scripture] “My house shall be called a house of prayer;” but you are making it a robbers’ den!’” – MATTHEW 21:12-13

THE ZEAL OF GOD. The American White Evangelical Church has for generations been teaching a passionless, quite safe and polite little Jesus, suitable for our soft bellies and fatuous rituals in what I shall derisively call our ‘First Church of Religious Vacillation,’ that “Vain Christianity” defined so well by Karl Barth.

That is not the Christ that will be Striking our Recalcitrant Houses of Worship in the days immediately ahead. Oh no.

‘Because we have for at least ten years running, chosen both Political Power and Mammon, we have conjured a Coup d’etat by which we Replaced The True Christ with a False Christ.’ This constituting a Spiritual Trifecta forged in the Rejection of a Rebellion Against Hypocrisy in favor of both corrupt Political Power and a voracious lust for Mammon and Patriotism.’

Of all this French-Canadian author and Bible scholar SIMON DESJARDINS posted an essay titled, “The Removal of the Lampstand” (Blog, Aug. 16, 2025; edited). Here is his Summary Conclusion of what that means.

“‘The Church at Ephesus was the Lampstand because its office was to manifest the Light of God.’ But here Jesus was THREATENING to take that office away from them if they didn’t REPENT.’ If this were to happen, the Church at Ephesus would have continued to exist but without a Lampstand.

‘I suggest that this is precisely the state of some [no, many or most!] Evangelical Churches nowadays.’ They exist, but they no longer shine forth the Lit Lamp of God, that is, they don’t expose anything and don’t bother anyone’s conscience. Consequently, everybody likes them—even those who work evil—and persecution is avoided altogether.’

For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be EXPOSED” (JOHN 3:20) … [as with Messrs. Morris, Boyd, Falwell, Jakes, – and Haggard, Evans, Swaggart, Hybels, Lentz, Zacharias, Popoff, MacDonald, Gothard, Alamo, Tilton, Driscoll, Angley, – and those on The Bubble – Copeland, Duplantis, Graham, Osteen, Jeffress, Hagee, Robertson, Dobson, et al. ‘With many more to come in the days ahead].

Decades ago, A.W. TOZER wrote: ‘If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the Church today, 95 percent of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference.’ The words of Tozer can be accepted or rejected, but surely they should prompt some reflection.

“Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and REMOVE YOUR LAMPSTAND from its place—unless you REPENT!” (REVELATION 2:5).

Selah.

MEDIA

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/jQepjlfWLh0