Where Has the Holiness of the Church Gone?
On Saturday 11 August 2018, I found myself in one of the major cities in the United Kingdom. I did not know why God had sent me there but out of obedience to the Holy Spirit I obeyed God. I saw a scene which I never dreamed I would ever see in my lifetime. They call it gay pride. Notice the emphasis on the word ‘pride’. Was this not the thing that brought Satan himself down? I personally would not call it gay pride. I would call it gay shame as a friend of mine said.
The word of God is very clear on this subject. In the Old Testament, if you were a Jew, it was unacceptable behaviour. In the New Testament in Romans 1, the apostle Paul calls it an abomination. So as readers of this column, can you tell me why much of the church of Jesus Christ in the United Kingdom has capitulated on this subject? There is only one conclusion I can come to. They have moved from the true gospel of Jesus Christ to a false gospel. Where have all the true men and women of God gone? Are they living in a state of fear? I thank God for people such as the McArthurs who refused to bake a cake even though it could have cost them their livelihood.
I was appalled to see only a handful of Christians who have faithfully served the Lord and have stood outside St Peter’s Church for more than 40 years. I also know there is a pastor David Carr who has faithfully preached the gospel for many years in Chester and has been threatened with imprisonment many times. May God bless this man. Another preacher who is faithful and many would have seen him, his name is Themba. But this small witness is more or less all that is left in the great city of Chester. The church leaders are more like social workers. I believe personally, as I lived in this city, they have compromised the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. My prayer is that they get on their knees and repent and turn back to the true gospel.
But this is not just Chester, this is many cities across the United Kingdom. The church of Jesus Christ has either compromised, liberalised or become entertainment centres. I hear cries of revival, but when I see the revivals of the past I see men and women who were passionate for Christ. When I read of the revivals of old such as John Wesley the founder of the Methodist movement, I see passionate Christians. Today, much of what I see resembles business and circus. God is warning the church, but like in the past the church is deaf.
If this article offends you then I for one am glad, as many of you are sitting in dead, fossilised entertainment centres and it is time as individuals you got on your knees and asked God what you should be doing. I believe there is a revolution coming in the church and I do not believe the leaders of the church today will like it or even understand it. They could turn into the Pharisees and Sadducees of old. When I read the history of the pentecostal movement I see that the established church were not friends with the pentecostal movement. So I for one pray to our heavenly Father that He will shake the church out of their complacency with their radio stations, TV stations that are more like the BBC, ITV and the normal media with a little bit of Christianity on top.
It is time, church, we sought our God. Jesus said, Will I find faith on the earth when I return? He was not talking about the prosperity gospel. He was not talking about the American charlatans, such as Andrew Wommack, Kenneth Copeland, Jesse Duplantis, Morris Cerullo, Joyce Meyer or Joel Osteen, and the list goes on. And He was not talking about a candy-coated gospel. I believe that Lucifer himself has neutralised the church as it now does not preach repentance. Most churches in the United Kingdom and the western world preach ‘come to Jesus and everything will be OK,’ but when I look at what happened to Jesus on that cross, after 30-odd years I still look at my sin with tears in my eyes and I see my fallen state. I thank God for the grace that saved my soul.
My brothers and sisters, I am not looking at the speck of dust in your eyes as I probably have a plank in mine, but I weep and cry over what the church has become. If it was not for the symbolism and the cross on the wall we would not even know that these places represent the Man of Sorrows who died upon the cross. I once asked a church of which I was a pastor, would you take a bullet for Jesus, and I was saddened at the result. I remember when I was in Bible college a godly man called George Canty, whom some of you may remember, told the college if they wanted to see true healing they would have to weep as Jesus did over the sick and the dying before they saw such miracles. This dear, godly man asked for a vote and only two students out of 120 agreed with him. I will put out a challenge to you pastors and leaders of so-called churches: when was the last time you saw anybody saved, baptised in the Holy Spirit or healed, or miracles operating in your buildings? I again would like to challenge you under the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and plead with you to get outside your buildings and outside your comfort zones, and I believe we shall see revival and restoration of our nation. When you stop preaching a message of compromise and saying anything goes, I believe God the Holy Spirit will pour out a blessing that the church will not be able to contain. Jesus Himself said He did not come for the 99 that were in the flock; He came for the one that was lost. While the church is asleep and playing in the shallows, the devil is busy at work destroying mankind. The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are so few.
I hope and pray that this article does offend you (as the gospel is an offence to those who are perishing) and some of you pastors and leaders will stop acting as managing directors and CEOs of companies. Get out into the streets and the towns and the cities and challenge evil. That is the work of the body of Christ.
Please do not shoot me. I am just the messenger. In 2015 I died and by the grace of God He brought me back again. Much of what I am telling you is the message He gave me to give to the body of Christ. As He said Himself, there will be those who are ever listening but never hearing and those ever looking but never seeing. There will always be a remnant of those on this earth who truly believe, but judgment day is coming and then it will be too late.
Rev Ross Rennie
Now that is surely a word from God to our complacent church. God help all of us to take it to heart and return to him again with repentance, so that we might experience another visitation from heaven.
Jim
This word is a timely word. It is so refreshing to hear the truth that isn’t sugar coated, or beating around the bush. This isn’t just across the United Kingdom where this is happening, but also in the United States of America where I’m from. We need to preach a true gospel that does not compromise. The bible says in the last days people will have itching ears, only wanting to hear a feel good message, but what they need to hear is that they need to repent while they still can, the call to repentance will not be available tomorrow. Just like an incredible one day sale.
Lourdes
I pray this clarion call will be heeded and the church will get on there knees and repent,time is short and we must be about our Fathers business.
Jesus told His disciples, “You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its flavour, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled on by people.” (Matthew 5: 13)
As Dr Patrick Sookhdeo points out in his book The Death of Western Christianity, “Today, the church is scarcely distinguishable from society…. This has left the church facing a fatal crisis of identity. Desperate to survive and remain relevant, it has struck a Faustian bargain with postmodern Western ideals, tolerating and taking on unorthodox beliefs and behaviours. This has, in fact, produced the opposite effect, alienating even more people and making the church an object of ridicule.”
The western church needs not more political correctness but a greater radical distinctiveness. Instead of seeking to accommodate itself to the world, it should take a look at its persecuted but growing sisters in Asia and see what happens when the church makes an uncompromising stand for the gospel.
In past times the Lord used an acute awareness of the prospect of millions on their way to a lost eternity in nations that had not yet been reached by the gospel to call many men and women into cross-cultural mission. May He do something similar in our day to raise up a grassroots movement of radical, committed disciple-making disciples, who will not be content to sit in an auditorium being entertained and having their ears tickled, but aware of the shortness of the time available and conscious of the desperate need of the lost and perishing on their doorstep will seize every opportunity to go and announce the message that Jesus Himself preached: “The kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”