Mapping the Terrain—The Church in Decline
Because the combined power of “the world, the flesh, and the devil” is so strong, the Church must strive always to maintain her integrity and vitality. If she fails to love, to worship in Spirit and truth, to preach the Word, to honor the moral teaching of Scripture, to practice church discipline, to shun materialism, and to take up her cross in service to mankind, she becomes a shell and worse, a harm to society. If the clergy are compromised, they become traitors to the Kingdom. And since they occupy positions of influence, their wrong teachings poison society.
Church history is littered with examples of ministers, congregations, and denominations who have failed spiritually. Ignoring the “foundation of the apostles and prophets,”1 men and women bearing Christ’s name have been seduced by the world’s siren song, captivated by the counsel of their fears, or surrendered to their lower natures.2 The outcome is as inevitable as it is dreadful.
God graciously sends revivals and even great awakenings to the Church and society,3 but He does not do so in a vacuum. Rather, diagnosis precedes cure. He acts in response to the heart cry of His people who are shaken by the wreckage they see before them. Once God’s people recognize and repent of that decline, the Church emerges from the ruins renewed and restored.