Writing is on the Wall

Now God has not given me any divine understandings of the future but there are clear signs of what may come. I believe the writing is on the wall - the church of God is soon (my use of soon is relative) to become more similar to the early church than we ever wanted.

1. The Early Church was set in a time of pervasive sexual promiscuity. From temple prostitutes to homosexuality - it was all there and in the midst was the church who stood against such things. Can you imagine that they were not too popular. They were persecuted, tempted and often martyred. Today's church is entering a culture that is not altogether dissimilar.

It is becoming increasingly dangerous to commit yourself wholly to Christ. Persecution comes in many forms. Loosing your job because you tell others about Christ, ridicule and defaming because you won't accept the worlds standards and mentality. I have seen it and know people who have gone through it and this is only the tip of what persecution looks like. Beyond persecution, it is becoming increasingly hard to live out biblical values in the face of blatant temptations to gratify the desire of your flesh. For those who seek to live out biblical principles the fight to do so will become hard to the point of agony. Yet God promises that those who persevere to the end will get their reward. 

The Apostle Paul constantly was writing to the early churches warning them to avoid sexual impurity and not to follow the ways and mentalities of the culture around them. Today, homosexuality, pornography and marital unfaithfulness is common place and taught in the schools. My own kids do not blink an eye when their friends talk about their two mommies, or they see a sexually explicit advertisement on youtube, or they see a commercial about housewives who champion adultery. Let's be real - Americans are going to get what they want and what they want is to gratify the desires of their flesh without hindrance or guilt. I didn't mention other issues of morality such as murdering unborn babies and so forth but all of this leads to further degradation of society and a persecuted church (that is if the church upholds biblical doctrine).

2. The Early church faced an incredible battle against false doctrine. Today's church is entering a battlefield where no one even believes in absolute truth. If there is no absolute truth then not even the statement "there is no absolute truth" is absolutely true. This doesn't matter though and increasingly people are distorting the Bible and it's truth to proclaim what everyone really wants to hear. The Christian voice will become the ignored voice and in many cases it already is.  

3. The visible church will be controlled by authorities who have anything but a true commitment to Christ and his agenda in mind. In the early church religious institutions were controlled by governments and men of power and influence, not pastor's who desire to lead their people toward God's agenda. 

The church today will more and more be forced to bend to the laws and culture of the land making it harder and harder to meet together in a building purposed specifically for "church functions." Out of necessity the church of Christ will increasingly become less visible as they give up buildings and begin meeting in homes and other central places. The visible churches that exist will likely be places of religious activity but not places of Christian worship.

So what are the positives about the future of the church?

1. I believe because of the increased unpopularity of Christianity that religious people will decrease leaving those truly committed to Christ to stand. In one sense the church will see a cleansing as is already happening. The statistics tells us that hundreds of churches are closed each day in America. While there will always be wolves in sheep clothing, it will become increasingly unpopular to associate with Christians and thus only those committed to Christ will seek do so. The church will shrink in width but will become much deeper.

2. The center of Christianity will and has already shifted from America to China or Africa. Statistics tell us that America is the third largest missions field in the world. In other words, churches in other nations are sending more and more missionaries to the United States while we are sending less and less missionaries elsewhere. How is this positive - well the church is thriving in areas that have been vastly closed to the gospel. In fact the church in Africa and China is actually growing faster than the church in America is declining. 

Again let me just say that I am not a seer and God has not given me a divine understanding of the future. What I wrote is what I see though none of us knows when Christ will return. In all things, Christians should not be worried or lack peace. God is and always will be in control. Even if we have to suffer this is not a bad thing. The Apostles rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for Christ - if it comes to that may we do the same.