There is only one absolute necessity for the survival of the church. It isn’t bloated budgets, fancy buildings, plush pews, flawless praise and worship teams, relatable preachers with sacks full of anecdotes, or conveniently placed coffee stations in the foyer. The one necessity is the one thing the church has been incrementally straying from for the better part of a generation: Scripture.
Scripture points to Jesus. Scripture lights the way.
Scripture insists upon the importance of obedience and faithfulness. Scripture
demands repentance of heart and the humbling of oneself. Scripture reveals the
Lordship of Christ, the plan of salvation, and leads you to the foot of the cross.
Scripture rightly balances the goodness and the severity of God. Scripture
confronts sin, as any mirror would, shows a man his true nature, warped,
twisted, and offputting as it might be, with the promise of a new nature, a new
man, clothed in righteousness.
You can have the best of everything, to the point of the
cringy opulence TBN was once known for, with the gilded thrones, golden
chalices, and crystal chandeliers, but if you do not have the gospel, if it is
not the focus and foundation, the indispensable, obligatory, ever-present
essential in all we do and pursue, it’s all for naught.
A church isn’t a church just because it calls itself a
church. A church is a church if it meets the guidelines of Scripture. The Word
defines what a church is, not individuals or denominations. Much of what calls
itself the church nowadays simply isn’t—not because I say so, but because the
Bible does.
What has become incontrovertible is that what calls itself
the church will not survive in its current iteration. It may attempt to rebrand
or go the way of universalism, but the shaking and the sifting have already
commenced, and the judgment of God’s house is at the door.
When the dust settles, there will still be a church, but it
will be very different from the current iteration. Humility and true
brotherhood will replace pomp and opulence, and godliness will replace vanity.
The focus on the things above will replace the focus on the things of this
earth, and those who remain after the sifting and the shaking will be well-equipped
to endure and overcome.
A Christless, scriptureless church cannot survive in the long
term. Either it stops calling itself a church, or the pressure brought to bear
by external forces demanding that it comply with the new cultural norms becomes
so overwhelming that they capitulate. The gospel is the standard, the ideal,
and the light unto our path. Without it, without the truth of God’s word
residing in our hearts, taking root, and producing good fruit, we are but
clanging cymbals parroting what others are doing, hoping for something that
cannot be attained without genuine faith and obedience.
So what’s the fix? Collectively, there is no fix.
Individually, we must do as the Word of God instructs and continue in truth, in
the things we have learned, and in the pursuit of sanctification. We must do as
Jesus commanded and daily deny ourselves, pick up our crosses and follow Him,
for only in Him is there life and truth.
2 Timothy 3:14-15, “But you must continue in the things which
you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them,
and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to
make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”
It’s not the starting or the learning that many have a
problem with; it’s the continuing in the things which they have learned. Many a
soul starts out in truth and ends up in a world of fables because they did not
remain and continue in the truth. Whether they lend their ear to those
insisting that daily working out your salvation with fear and trembling is too
plain Jane and they need to spice up their spiritual understanding by soul
casting, or delving into astrology, discovering the hidden connection between
aliens and the divine, or denouncing Paul the apostle, the goal is to keep you
from continuing in the things you’ve learned.
It’s not so much denial of truth or scripture, just a seed of
doubt that’s planted, which, if left unattended, takes root and begins to eat
away at one’s conviction, motivation, and pursuit of holiness.
Well, you know, if you pray to Jesus and not a specific name
I tell you to pray to, He’ll never hear you. If either of my daughters called
out to me, I wouldn’t ignore them if they didn’t precede their cry with the word
father, nor would I allow them their heart cry only to point out that they did
not address me by my proper name. Call me father first; not dad, not daddy, but
father, in a proper English accent, and then I will address your despair!
As I recall, Jesus already settled this particular argument
when He said, “In this manner therefore pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be
Your name.”
What matters is that you are His. What matters is that He
knows you as a son or daughter when you cry out to Him, not if you do so,
speaking a certain, specific name with the requisite accent and cadence.
Understand that you will be called to account for making the
way burdensome when it ought not to be. The fate of those who would cause a
little one to stumble is so dire that it would be better if they tied a
millstone around their neck and took a long walk off a short pier. Let that
sink in before you make a doctrine out of an opinion or demand that everyone
who doesn’t agree is automatically Ichabod and given over. You do not establish
the standard; God does. God established the standard in His word, and anyone
who says differently is a liar.
Men have taken the simplicity of walking with Jesus and
complicated it to the uttermost, not because scripture demanded it but to feed
their own egos and insist they have some extra-biblical knowledge that you, too,
can partake in if you become a member of some group or ministry. It’s these
selfsame individuals who ignore large swaths of the Bible, especially those
passages dealing with those who creep within the household of faith, making
captives of the gullible.
Galatians 1:6-9, “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.”
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea, Jr.
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