By Michael Craven at Christianity.com
Last week, an insightful reader shared some relevant and sobering insight into the state of our culture and the church here in America. She wrote:
“I have never been more discouraged with both the church and with the state of man. I am overwhelmed with a sense of hopelessness and the feeling that the tidal wave of cultural deception is ready to break over the landscape in a way that we have never seen before. Then I go to church and see how inept the body of Christ has become and leave feeling alone and hopeless about the state of God's Kingdom on earth.”
There is no question that such is the state of things. Even the most cursory examination of our culture reveals the fact that critical milestones on the road to every civilization's decline have come and gone. Our civilization appears to be racing toward self-destruction and the church—in almost every measurable category—appears indistinguishable and either ill-equipped or indifferent to arresting the demise of the very civilization it helped create. Whether or not this will be the case, only God knows…
The lament expressed by the reader above over both the church and culture is not without warrant and it is reminiscent of the prophets. Like the Israelites in Babylon, the church in America today—the Israel of God—finds itself carried away into captivity: cultural captivity. This is the bad news. However, the good news lies in the possibility that the church, in our generation, will by God's grace recover the full scope of its message and mission as revealed in the gospel of the kingdom. The first step will no doubt involve repentance of our individualism that separates us into voluntary members, followed by submission to Christ, the church, and each other.
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