David Virtue Commentary, Virtue Online, 8/24
The church has always suffered from a few bad apples. The apostle Paul faced down conmen in his time, and throughout history the Church has had to face and expel men who claimed the name of Christ, but were Christians in name only.
History is replete with them. Phygelus and Hermogenes betrayed Paul and followed untrue doctrines. The Ebionites rejected Paul as an apostate from the law, using only a version of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, known as the Gospel of the Ebionites. Alexander the coppersmith did significant harm to Paul’s ministry.
Today it is no different, except perhaps the shamelessness with which preachers operate and the tens of millions of dollars they con from their followers. It is not just bad doctrine that is being preached by the likes of Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormons, or the heresies of a John Shelby Spong or Katharine Jefferts Schori; it is so called evangelical preachers masquerading as teachers of the word.
The health and wealth prosperity preachers are a subset of their own, preaching a gospel that is totally alien to the New Testament and the life and ministry of Jesus, mocking everything that Jesus taught and believed. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
The mega church preachers preach their entertainment “gospel” with a schmear of Jesus, rank as the worst of the worst. True believers cringe listening to this garbage.
Anglican theologian J. I. Packer got it exactly right when he said Christianity in America is 3000 miles and half an inch deep.
Of course, not only is liberalism theologically bankrupt, dead orthodoxy isn’t much better. Millions are still walking away from churches, following the Covid pandemic. Covid might have been the tipping point, but Barna research says Christians are still dropping out of churches like flies. 4500 churches will close this year and 2.7 million people will walk away from their churches. Why?
Persecution is not keeping people from churches. Is it laziness, is it too many other things to do? The need for more sleep perhaps, or is it something else?
Perhaps it is the uncertain sound from the pulpit. Why go to church to listen to rants on a variety of woke issues; or told that you are basically a good person and that your LGBTQI+ behaviors get God’s approval. The New York Times and a Starbucks coffee is preferable.
What about the Good News, the ‘unsearchable riches of Christ,’ the command to follow Christ through thick and thin, perhaps even to die for what you believe? Heaven forbid!
Cultural Christianity won’t cut it. Mere Christianity does. But who’s listening? DEI isn’t cutting it, but DIE might if the cause is worth dying for.
Francis Schaeffer was prophetic when he said that this generation if not grounded in the faith would live on the memory of the faith. He probably never thought that millions would walk away from the faith. But they have, and the rot is still not over. He saw through the smoke and mirrors of American Christianity.
It is heartbreaking to watch the exodus. There are some saying that a reconquering of mainline Protestantism is on the way and mainline churches are to be restored to orthodox faith. But this is pure fantasy.
Most of the mainline churches have split and will not reunite with the branches that have been cut off from the dead vine. These denominations with their aging congregants will be gone in a generation and they are not being replaced. Nones will have none of it. It will be left to the Global South to keep the flames of the faith alive, but as some sociologists fear, they have yet to feel the full impact of modernity, and it is anybody’s guess how that will play out. Counting one’s chickens…
A new report says that 900 Church of England churches no longer use the word church to distance themselves from the deadness, but one doubts that will resolve anything. It’s the message stupid. If you offer an uncertain sound from the pulpit then don’t blame people if they are not attracted by free coffee and cake and a trendy priest offering raves in the nave to attract more pew sitters.
CONMEN FOR THE LORD
The truly sad thing is the number of men and women masquerading as leaders of the church who turn out to be conmen.
One thinks of Ravi Zacharias with his smooth-talking light weight apologetics owning massage parlors and demanding sex from employees. He kept it all going for years till it all came crashing down.
The Church of England is not without its conmen. Think John Smyth, Jonathan Fletcher, Bishop Peter Ball, and the Rev. Canon Mike Pilavachi who fronted the Soul Survivor Watford church and its yearly summer festivals, which attracted over 30,000 young people from around the world each year.
In the U.S. new evangelical conmen seem to erupt almost weekly.
The list is long: Bill Hybels founder of Willow Creek Community Church in the Chicago area resigned after The Chicago Tribune published allegations that he made lewd comments and touched female congregants. Jim Bakker, the televangelist and co-founder of PTL was convicted of defrauding thousands of followers in a time-sharing scheme and spent 4.5 years in prison.
Other evangelical leaders who have been involved in scandals include: James MacDonald, Bruxy Cavey, Carl Lentz, Brian Houston, Mike Bickle, Ted Haggard, Kent Hovind, Robert Tilton, Billy James Hargis, Peter Popoff, George Alan Rekers, Doug Phillips, Gilbert Deya, Mike Warnke, Tony Alamo, Bill Gothard and Bishop Eddy Long, to name but a few.
More recently two renowned evangelists including the black megachurch pastor Tony Evans stepped down from his congregation after nearly 50 years while confessing to committing a mystery “sin.” Robert Morris confessed to “inappropriate sexual behavior” after a woman accused him of molesting her when she was 12. This got the ire up of Pastor Rick Warren, one of America’s foremost evangelical preachers who roared, “It’s a crime. Sexual child abuse is an evil punishable by law. One can’t just confess when caught & move on with no consequences.” To ease the pain, Morris went out and bought himself a $17.5 million plane, his third.
As a result, whole churches have crashed and burned leaving tens of thousands of disillusioned believers asking what the hell went wrong. They seemed to have missed that verse in Psalm 146: 3-5 which reads, “put not your trust in princes”. Just flip the word to preachers and there you have it. Lack of accountability, surrounding yourself with toadies that do your will; no questions asked. Pride in one’s accomplishments; God owes me a little something on the side for all I have done for Him, is an argument I have personally heard.
One can hardly be blamed if the spirit of Antichrist has taken over most mainline Protestant denominations and their preachers using a Christian vocabulary. Revisionists and progressives drove out orthodoxy and the orthodox preceded with calls for “generous orthodoxy,” “dialogue,” “holy listening,” and “reconciliation.” Toxic ideologies such as cultural Marxism and Marxism’s incestuous children, particularly Liberation Theology and Critical Race Theory, were imported under the guise of “liberation,” “loving your neighbor,” and “justice.”
They were just another brand of conmen.
Preachers hid their behavior behind closed doors, and then emerged gushing platitudes for Jesus, with expensive suits and hairdos and wonder why they were famously mocked by comedians like Robin Williams.
But evil just cannot help itself. Sooner or later, it casts off restraint and fully reveals itself, usually at the point when it thinks it can get away with it. I think we are upon such a moment now, said one commentator recently.
The one word you don’t hear is “repent.”