Lately I’ve been reading Isaiah from Chapter 46 through 53 and troubling thoughts have come to me that I would like to share. Thoughts that Western Christianity has become a mockery of God’s design for man and his salvation were brought to my mind. It started with Isaiah 64:5; “To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?” As I read of the “Prosperity Gospel” being spread throughout Africa and Mexico, of Churches preaching that sin is to be condoned because Christ forgives all sin, and of the message that Faith does not require relinquishing our sinful nature, I fear that we have slipped into a new paganism that rejects the Gospel and the teachings of Jesus for something that is contemptuous to God. I even found a reputable Calvinist Pastor stating that the gospel was not “to follow Jesus’ example or to transform your heart.”
Isaiah 46:8-9 says; “Do not forget this, you guilty ones. And do not forget the things I have done throughout history. For I am GOD, I alone, and there is no one else like Me!” Yet we in the West treat Him like a magical slave, a Genni who is at our beck and call. One whom we command and who must do our bidding even while we sin and rebuke His Teachings. To these people He still says, “Listen to me you stubborn and evil people! I am ready to set things right, not in the distant future, but right now!” (Isaiah 46:12-13). The problem today is that we still think like the wayward Children of Israel before the captivity. Our idols are different, our theology is warped by legalisms or liberal-isms. We tend to justify our faults and contend that God doesn’t really care how we live, he still gives us rewards when we deserve chastisements. Many are taught to reign with the pleasure of the world and to regard worldly riches as spiritual gifts from God. God says to the people, “You did not care at all about my people or think about the consequences of your actions.” (Isaiah 47:7).
As lazy and wicked children we have fallen into the same mind-set as the sons of Israel. We need to be told as they did, “Listen to me, …who are called by the name of Israel and born into the family of Jacob. Listen, you who take oaths in the Name of the LORD and call on the God of Israel. YOU DON’T FOLLOW THROUGH ON ANY OF YOUR PROMISES. Even though you call yourself the holy city and talk about depending on the God of Israel.” (Isaiah 48:1-2). When we came to Christ we promised to change our ways, to turn our lives over to Him and yet we seek to twist His Word to fit our desires and we use His word to promote our uselessness before Him.
Because we still live with the desires of the flesh and seek to control God rather than letting Christ control us, we still remain a “Stubborn and evil people.” Yet with great love, God redeems us. He sets aside our gift of contempt of His ways and rescues us from damnation. But we who were once Gentiles and now are called the sons of Abraham, act as if we are the ones who rejected the Redeemer and the Holy One of Israel. To us He says, “You will do more than restore the people of Israel to me. I will make you a light unto the Gentiles, and you will bring My Salvation to the ends of the Earth.” (Isaiah 49:6) While the prophet is testifying about the coming of Christ Jesus, he is also testifying of our involvement as messengers of Reconciliation. As Paul, Peter, Andrew and Thomas brought the Gospel to Europe, Asia and Africa, we are still spreading the Word and the Way across the world.
Yet today, Asia and Africa are growing in leaps and bounds in the way of the Gospel while we are falling farther and deeper into the sins of the world. We have not grown in the Spirit as they have. Korea is sending out Christian Missionaries to the Middle East with every opportunity they have. India, while suffering many persecutions over the last few years is changing how the Nation deals with its people because of the Good News. China can not stem the tide of conversions to Christ as daily thousands come to the Word. These are the “New Gentiles.”
To them, God is saying, “Through you I am saying to the prisoners of darkness, ‘Come out! I am giving you freedom.’” (Isaiah 49:9). “Listen to Me, you who know right from wrong and cherish My Law in your hearts. Do not be afraid of people’s scorn or their slanderous talk. … I, even I, am the One who comforts you. So why are you afraid of mere humans, who wither like the grass and disappear? …I have put My Words in your mouth and hidden you safely within My Hand…” (Isaiah 51:7, 12, 16) These New Gentiles, once strangers to the Grace of God are clinging to the Good News as we sit on our hands. The Power of the Holy Spirit is moving in ways that have not been seen since the early days of the Church when miracles happened all the time.
It may be because we have never know the suffering they face. It may be that we are blessed in the ways of the World that we forget the blessing of the Suffering of Christ. I only know that we close our churches on the day we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus, we skip worship and prayer and sing songs that please us, listen to a short lesson (many times without Scripture support), sometimes give an offering, once in awhile share the Lord’s supper and then go home to return to the desires of the world. While in China, India, Laos, Kenya and many other places in the Eastern World, to dare to fellowship with the Word, to even have a Bible is a crime. Children in Burma are hunted down to turn into slaves. Young Christian girls in Egypt and Pakistan are forced into marriage or turned into prostitutes because they claim Christ. And here in America, we water down the Gospel, add fallacies and human philosophies to our “Faith” to justify man’s ideal rather than God’s Will.
We as the Children of Faith, the New Israel, must return to the message of the Prophet Isaiah, “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. BUT HE WAS WOUNDED FOR OUR TRANSGRESSIONS; HE WAS CRUSHED FOR OUR INIQUITIES; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned – every one- to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah53:4-6 ESV [All caps are mine]). It is time for the Western Churches to return to the Word. Now is the right time to repent and to reconcile ourselves to the way of God. We are to follow Jesus by His example, to regard sin as despicable to God and therefore, unwanted in our lives. We are to return to the heart of the Law and to serve and obey in everything we do.
If we fail to do these things, we will be lost sheep again, wandering in the wilderness of darkness. And God will send the New Gentiles from the East to witness to the West. I ask the true men and women of Faith to stand up and protest the weak and false teachings that plague our churches today. Every generation has true leaders of God’s word and very quickly it is distorted and confused to justify wrongness in our lives or to make us feel supreme over others. Paul warned us of this, as did all the great Religious thinkers throughout history. From Augustine to Wesley, from Francis to Luther and from Jacob Arminius to Mother Teresa we have been shown the way to follow Jesus yet we twist and distort the Word to “tickle our imaginations.” It is time to stop the nonsense and to return to the Word and the Way of God. Just this morning I was reminded of The verse from 2 Corinthians 7:1, “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear (reverence) of God.” Let us purify ourselves for Christ in all things, dear friends, and return to righteous worship of the LORD Most High.
