"HOUSTON" WE HAVE A PROBLEM!

We have a problem! Current statistics by the Barna Group demonstrate that the moral behaviours of church goes and the behaviours of non-church goers are statistically the same. In other words, no discernible difference can be found in the actions and attitudes of the two groups of people. In two areas the results are quite frightening. In the area of marriage and divorce it seems evangelical (bible believing Christians) church attendees have a slightly higher divorce rate that the rest of the population. In the viewing and usage of pornography both groups scored the same. In the practice of pre-marital sex there was no discernible difference in the scores.

Am I the only one who thinks that there is a real issue here? What are the long term effects of these behaviours on the Church, the Body of Christ? One of the questions we could ask is what will happen to the church when those inside are no different from those outside? What is our future when the body of Christ has been so assimilated into the behaviours of the current culture that no discernible differences can be seen in believers and non-believers? Have we been so blind sided and absorbed into the current culture that it has effectively smothered our light, put it under a bushel, and invited the darkness to reign…all with our permission. Has the doctrine of tolerance so taken over the church that we can no longer speak about what is pure, holy, moral or just? Or is it that our own behaviour is so corrupt we have lost the moral authority to speak out against the very corruption that threatens to destroy the society in which we live.

This type of worldly assimilation of the people of God into the culture in which they live is certainly nothing new. The children of Israel, Gods chosen people seemed to always be in a position of perpetual compromise with the cultures around them. Somebody else had a king so they wanted a king. The Egyptian women were hotter than their women so they defied Gods law and married into the foreign nation. Other people had gods they could see, so they made a golden calf to worship. Soon as Moses back was turned the party began. In the New Testament Paul was constantly on the Corinthians, Ephesians, the Romans and others about their sexual exploits that were outside the boundaries of Gods intended sexual behaviours.

And so we have this same pattern repeated again in modern culture and the modern church. Ok, I guess than means God gets to repeat the same corrective measures he took before to redeem and purify his people form worldly assimilation. Sodom and Gomorrah, destroyed by something akin to a nuclear blast; Israel, into captivity by a foreign power and slaves to a foreign government for a ‘few’ years; Agricultural devastation and a ruined economy due to famine, pestilence, giant grasshoppers…Israel again…they were very slow learners; Annanias and Saphira dead at the apostle’s feet for lying before God to the early Church. Well you get the idea.

God will always call his people to come out of the world. He will do it first by love and then when all else fails, he will do it by holy discipline. But he will do it! I’ll take the love part of that equation any day! Any body up for a round of obedience to The Book!