Our Perception Of God And The Church
O God, my heart is empty because I can find nothing to adequately fill it. I need Thee to fill me with all the fullness of Thy perfection. Lead me, O God, in the path of righteous¬ness that I might discover Thee and the truth of Thy character and nature. Amen.
Anyone who has been even a casual observer of the evangelical Christian church over the last generation or two would agree when I say there has been significant growth, which has been affected by the overall perception of God in our midst.
I am often accused of being negative, and I struggle with it, but I also like to put forth the true picture. Some wonderful advancement in the Christian church has been a blessing, of which I am grateful to God.
It all boils down to what a man believes about God. His perception of God becomes the foundation upon which he builds his whole life, and out of that flows the spirit of worship, and out of his worship flow service and ministry.
Read and Learn More Things That Delight The Heart Of God
I need to lay down something rather important—that is, the church’s witness, if it is going to be valid, has to be related to its times. A sermon to be preached, a book to be published—if they are to mean anything—have to relate to the day in which they are given.
Nothing of any value has ever come out of a vacuum. Therefore, what I have to say will be in the context of the current religious situation. If we are going to know anything about a spiritual situation, we need to take a very close and honest look at the whole situation at hand.
I want to look at the evangelical situation for the moment. I am not interested in anything but the situation of the evangelical church, that is, I have nothing to say about liberal or modernistic churches.
If we’re going to know where we are and where we are going, we need to know how we got here and what kind of spiritual situation we are in. We are going to have to appraise ourselves in light of our gains and our losses.
Allow me to outline some of the gains I see in the evangelical church of today.
The Religious Spirit
The first I will mention is the fact that in the last generation, there has been an amazing resurgence of the religious spirit. Religion has become quite popular in our time, and it is always easier to evangelize when you are in friendly territory. Everybody seems to know something about Christianity and God and Christ and the j gospel. It gives us a platform to do our work.
Many have been greatly fooled by this. They believe because there is more religion in the world the world is better. We forget that there is simply a mighty resurgence of the religious spirit, and it has affected every religion in the whole wide world: Shintoism, Buddhism, Islam, and all the various “isms” and fringe cults, virtually all the religions of the world.
In this upsurge of the religious spirit, evangelical Christianity has also felt a resurgence of religious feeling and has made quite a bit of gain.
I can remember back when my hair was black—and I had some—you had to be a doubter or an agnostic or an outright unbeliever to be respectable intellectually. Now we have witnessed quite a change, for you can believe in God and still not blush, and keep your respectability.
Churches
One thing we need to rejoice in is the growth of the evangelical church in our generation. Gospel churches are starting and growing and maintaining a significant presence in our culture. This can only be a good thing.
I am not sure if our Bible colleges and seminaries are keeping up with the need for pastors, ministers, and workers in these congregations. All of this represents a wonderful accomplishment, and I would be the last person to criticize the resurgence of evangelicalism in our country today. I celebrate progress if it is truly progress and pray for it to increase until Jesus comes.
Christian Education
Never before in the history of the church have we had more institutions to educate and train Christian workers than we do today. It is important that we have such institutions.
It seems that hardly a day goes by but somebody is starting some new Christian college, seminary, or Bible institute.
By this, we have the means by which we can train people for the work of the ministry and fill these growing churches. I do not think the church has ever had a better-trained group of ministers and workers to guide the church than it does today.
I want to go on record as saying that I fully believe in Christian education. I believe a person should get as much education as they possibly can. I am never against that
Christian Publishing
Today more books are being published than ever since the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1440. I am most grateful for the invention of the printing press and its development down through the years, making it possible for gospel literature to be published.
We are blessed with an increasing flood of periodicals and tracts, along with an increase and improvement in the methods of communication like never before.
Stop and think time of the busy, nonstop presses that are pouring out these days tons of religious literature. Everything that you could imagine, we have; you name it, and somebody is publishing it or will publish it. The evangelical church is certainly getting its message out.
Communications
Communication is an area that is rather fascinating. During my lifetime, communications have literally exploded. It seems that there are no limits to the development of communications technology.
As’ churches take advantage of modern technology and communications, they are able to spread the gospel throughout the world. In thinking about that, I wonder if there is a place anywhere in the world that cannot be touched with the gospel message.
Is there a limitation to our communication of the gospel in our generation? And along with communications comes trans-portation. We are able to get to places quicker than ever before. Out on the mission field in years past, it took missionaries weeks to get from one place to a village they wanted to evangelize.
Today, with the advancement of communications and transportation, they can get to that place in a matter of hours.
Christian Missions
There are also more mission missionary activities and world evangelism than ever before. It would be impossible for anyone to count how many organizations there are along this line, and they are growing each year.
We have more missions now than we know what to do with, and evangelism is riding very high. It is popular and gaining great momentum in our culture. The funding for these mission endeavors is growing every year. Evan¬gelicals are contributing financially to the work of the ministry and missions.
We have evangelistic organizations to reach everyone: organizations for the evangelization of children, young people, housewives, Native Americans, railroad men, artists, and just about anybody. You name it, and I probably can find an organization that is busy evangelizing that particular group of people. No one has an excuse for not hearing the gospel today.
I would challenge you to find a group anywhere in the world, or a language anywhere in the world, to which somebody is not taking the gospel. We have so fine-tuned the gospel message to reach every tribe tongue and nation. This, of course, is the focus of the Great Commission.
We are successful in evangelizing people, which is why we have greater numbers and why we have to have more committees and more schools. Much good is coming out of this.
I must say that I am all in favor of using the latest means and methods as long as they do not in any way compromise the message. Whatever makes the message secondary should be eliminated. We are obligated to God to get the message out to the world by any and all means at our disposal.
Our sacred obligation is to make sure the message is delivered unaltered, uncompromised, or “improved upon.”
All of this, as I said, is much in our favor, and I want to acknowledge as much as I can. I pray daily for those who are involved in reaching the unsaved for Christ. This is a priority in our evangelical ministry.
When we talk about gains, we need to have a time of evaluation. A businessman learns at the end of the year how his business stands by balancing his losses against his gains. If he has more gains than losses, he has had a successful year, and he stands to increase his business the following year.
If, however, he experiences too many losses, he probably will be out of business by the next year. Gains and losses need to be under control and evaluated. This is the rule of business.
The church, however, is not a business. Let me be clear on that point. But just as everything needs to be evaluated, the good and the bad duly noted, so in the church we need to have peri¬odic evaluations as well.
If we are going in the right direction, then we need to continue to go in the right direction and thank God for His leadership. If there are some problems and difficulties, then corrections need to be made to bring us back to where we need to be.
As an editor, I know a manuscript needs to be reworked quite a few times before it is publishable. A good editor needs to edit out all unnecessary words and phrases so that the piece can be strengthened. I believe the same needs to be done in the church.
We need to look at what we are doing and evaluate those things that are unnecessary and that are weighing down the church. I believe we need some very serious editing in the evangelical church today.
We need to evaluate where we are and what we are doing, by some measure. What is that measure? How do we know if what we are doing is correct or not?
Moses was instructed to make sure that the Tabernacle was “according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount” (Hebrews 8:5). Moses did not have the authority to improve upon God’s design.
The pattern God gave Moses was not a suggestion, and then Moses could take artistic license, as we say. The tabernacle, in order to be approved by God, had to be according to the pattern shown to Moses.
The pattern was a revelation to Moses, and Moses was faithful to that pattern.
This is where we need to get back to in the church. We need to understand what the pattern is, and that God has given us a pattern. Everything we do must be in complete harmony with that pattern. To improve upon the pattern, to compromise the pattern is to incur God’s displeasure.
I am sure Moses could have assembled a group of talented, artistic people to examine the pattern and then develop something far more elaborate than what God had in mind. I wonder if that is what is happening today. I wonder if we are not going beyond the pattern God has given us in the New Testament church.
In our evaluating the great advances and victories in the Christian church, we need to compare it to the New Testament pattern. This involves some painstaking evaluation and going back to the original drawings.
The Church’s One Foundation
The Church’s one foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lordy
She is His new creation
By water and the Word.
From heaven he came and sought her
To be His holy bride;
With His own blood, he bought her
And for her life, He died.
‘Mid toil and tribulation,
And tumult of her war;
She waits for the consummation
Of peace forevermore;
Stilly with the vision glorious,
Her longing eyes are blest,
And the great Church victorious
Shall be the Church at rest.
Yet she on earth hath union
With God the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion
With those whose rest is won.
With all her sons and daughters
Who, by the Master’s hand
Led through the deathly waters,
Repose in Eden land.
O happy ones and holy!
Lord, give us grace that we
Like them, the meek and lowly,
On high may dwell with Thee:
There, past the border mountains,
Where in Sweet Vales the Bride
With Thee by living fountains
Forever shall abide! –Samuel J. Stone(1839-1900)