by Dr. U » July 29th, 2008, 3:50 pm
Well, thanks, Rus-M!
I don't think we're quite the "last defenders" of anything, though. I don't know about Russia, but I travel a lot in Latin America, I collaborate in small ways with national Christians in a variety of countries, and I have had numerous undergraduate and graduate students from Africa and Asia over the years. Among the Christians I have met, of many ages, from Latin America, Africa and Asia, almost without any exception, all strongly believe the "pro-gay" churches in the U.S. have lost their minds to the prevailing American pop culture. It's just harder to see that from within our own culture, as it is within any culture in any time. I wish all those liberal-leaning churches that have said so much over the years about "listening to the Third World Church", would seriously listen now!
In the final analysis though, we all fall short oF God's glory in one way or another, we all compromise somewhere with our sinful selves and culture and hide it from ourselves. But Jesus promised the Holy Spirit that He was sending would convict the world of sin and righteousness and the judgment to come. And He's still on the job, we're just permitted to be small and imperfect collaborators. Bless God that we're not responsible for being the "last defenders"!
Sadly, if certain American churches continue down a sensual and narcissistic path, Scripture seems clear that God isn't checkmated, He will just pour out His blessing elsewhere, and those churches embracing unrepentant sexual sin (of any kind) will gradually find themselves merely religious institutions, no longer in a powerful relationship with Jesus Christ the vine. Or God in his mercy may allow a cleansing judgment of some kind, as seems to be happening with the Roman Catholic Church in the U.S., with the many cases of covered-up child molestation finally forced into the light, or as happened with exposure of adultery or embezzlement among several of the high-living Protestant televangelists a few years back.
I keeping hearing from a variety of confidential sources, some of them eye-witnesses, about historically unprecedented numbers of conversions of people to Christ across the Muslim world, not uncommonly under miraculous circumstances. Something really big seems to be going on in God's economy, completely under the radar of the secular press. I suspect that as this new wing of the church gradually emerges from a context of persecution even to death, it will have a zeal for Jesus and purity that is going to offend a lot of the morally compromised churches of "the West" - and maybe some in "the East", too. Regretfully, those churches may not even realize any longer what they're missing....