What Keeps Me Up at Night: A Pastor’s Warning for the 21st Century Church
While I’m very concerned about what is and what isn’t happening regarding Iran, what keeps me up at night, and often on my face before the Lord, is the apostasy within the visible church. I ache for the souls of those who hear the Word of God but don’t intend to obey it.
We are sickened and appalled at the depth of sexual deviancy, Satanic worship, and unspeakable, alleged acts of child abuse reported in the Epstein files. However, what ought to bring us to our knees is the deliberate deconstruction of the Christian faith and reports of sexual immorality among those who not only claim to be Christians, but have led thousands to participate in their false worship of a holy God.
Beloved, we are witnessing a movement within Christianity today that has weaponized confusion, replaced the gospel with pop psychology, and the Word of God with personal opinions and feelings. What bothers me even more than the actions themselves is the permission to go along with a false gospel given by pastors and parents who no longer stand for truth. We have arrived at the very point in our culture that William Booth, founder of The Salvation Army, famously warned us about in 1890. He said the chief danger for the 20th century would be:
“religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell."
This prophetic quote warns against a hollow, nominal, or socially driven faith devoid of true spiritual power and transformation. Today, Booth’s warning has become reality.
The gospel preached in the majority of pulpits today lacks the power of God to deliver a sinner from hell. The carnal, sensual “worship” events professionally crafted in most churches today focus on a Jesus they have distorted, made in their own image, who died for nothing, demands nothing from His followers, and says nothing to the disobedient. As Marva Dawn said in the title of her book, much of what we call worship today is “A royal waste of time.”
In these last days of the Church Age, having a God-given spirit of discernment is our most valuable asset. The only way to receive it and exercise it is to pray for wisdom, remain anchored in the Word of God, never surrender our allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ, and forever commit ourselves to the essential doctrines of the Christian faith. We must be equipped with the Lord’s wisdom to discern what “is” real from that which “looks” real in our churches and the world.
What keeps you up at night? Do you rely on God’s Word and His gift of discernment? Do you recognize what is of God and what is not? If so, pray with me for God to call His people to repentance, for the Church to have the courage to call out apostasy when revealed, and to walk in the light of His glory and grace.
