Rev. David Holwick J
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
March 29, 2009
Revelation 13:5-8
WILL THE CHURCH CRUMBLE?
I. THE IMPENDING COLLAPSE.
A. A dire prediction from The Christian Science Monitor.
In a much-discussed piece published March 10, Michael Spencer
predicts a "major collapse of evangelical Christianity"
within 10 years.
He says it "will fundamentally alter the religious and cultural
environment in the West."
Spencer is a graduate of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
He warns that this evangelical collapse "will herald the arrival
of an anti-Christian chapter of the post-Christian West.
Intolerance of Christianity will rise to levels many of us have
not believed possible in our lifetimes.
Public policy will become hostile toward evangelical Christianity,
seeing it as the opponent of the common good.
According to Spencer, millions of evangelicals will quit.
Thousands of ministries will end.
Christian media will be reduced, if not eliminated.
Many Christian schools will go into rapid decline.
He concludes, "I'm convinced the grace and mission of God will
reach to the ends of the earth.
But the end of evangelicalism as we know it is close."
#35221
B. Disturbing religious trends in America from recent surveys:
1) The fast-growing group is those who profess no faith.
2) Mainline Protestant churches - Episcopalians, Methodists,
Presbyterians, Lutherans - are evaporating.
3) Conservative churches like ours are holding our own (barely),
but our growth is not keeping up with population growth.
a) Southern Baptists have seen their growth rate fall
steadily over the last 50 years, to where it is now
in negative territory.
b) Their baptism numbers have stagnated.
C. Will the Church fail? Can it?
1) The question goes to the root of what it means to be a
believer today.
2) We will see the reality with our own eyes....
II. THE SOCIAL INFLUENCES BEHIND THE TRENDS.
A. People are more isolated and feel less need to join.
1) The unchurched are growing rapidly, but few of them are
atheists.
2) They just don't practice it any more. And they don't care.
a) They have not gone bankrupt as a result.
b) The sky hasn't fallen.
c) They are pretty satisfied with their lives.
B. We are losing the young.
1) They don't like our image.
Researcher Ed Stetzer writes, "We live in a world that is
losing respect for Christianity.
People don't like Christians all that much, but they do like
Jesus - at least the Jesus they have created in their
own image.
Here are some sobering facts from surveys of people who had
not attended a religious service in the past six months.
The following statements were agreed to 'somewhat or
strongly':
62 percent -- 'The God of the Bible is no different from
the gods or spiritual beings depicted by world religions
such as Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc.'
86 percent -- 'I believe I can have a good relationship
with God without being involved in a church.'
79 percent -- 'I think Christianity today is more about
organized religion than about loving God and loving
people.'
Perhaps the most sobering statistic is that 44 percent of
people agreed with this statement, 'Christians get on
my nerves.'”
#10128
2) There is less social need for the young to return.
a) Traditionally, teenagers left the church, only to return
when they started a family.
b) Today, marriage is delayed so much that some people won't
feel like returning until they are in their 30's.
c) And fewer of them will follow through with it.
3) Each generation has been dwindling in commitment:
The GI or Builder Generation (born before 1945) is 9.7% of
the U.S. population.
Some 60% are members of a church.
Boomers (born between 1946 and 1966) are 29% of the U.S.
population.
About 40% are affiliated with a church.
GenXers (born between 1967 and 1981) comprise 27.5% of the
population.
Only 18% are affiliated with a church.
Millennials (born 1982 and after) are 21.4% of the
population.
Less than 10% affiliate with a church.
If nothing changes the current trends...
By 2020 - just 11 years from now - most of the Builder
Generation will be gone.
By 2020 church membership will drop from 42% [2002] to 15%
or lower.
That is a decline of 65% in just 18 years!
#29532
Less than 15% of U.S. churches are growing, and less than
1 percent are growing because of evangelism.
#35019
C. Christianity is associated with conservative politics.
1) Progressive Americans see Christians as the enemy.
a) In the past, they just ignored us.
b) Movie "Milk" treats church-goers with disdain.
1> We are anti-love and anti-civil rights and anti-nice.
c) Christians cannot shrink from their worldview because
it is based on God's principles of morality.
1> However, by being tied to only political positions,
many Christians have painted themselves into a
corner.
2> Outsiders will reject our message before we can
even share it.
2) As government rapidly expands, our role in society shrinks.
a) More and more limits will be put on church social work.
b) Anti-discrimination laws will be directed at churches.
c) In England, private Christian schools are being sued
for not hiring Muslim teachers.
d) In Canada and Sweden, preachers have been arrested or
sued for preaching against homosexuality.
III. CHURCHES CAN DIE.
A. We tend to think, the church will be here forever.
1) Especially if you put a cemetery outside.
2) This is no longer true. Actually, it's never been true.
B. Some national churches have been extinguished.
1) Augustine's north African church used to be a world leader.
a) Islam extinguished it within 100 years.
2) Iraq church and Palestinian may be in their last generation.
3) In these cases the church did not die of indifference.
It was killed by persecution.
#35028
IV. THE BIBLE DOESN'T TEACH WHAT YOU MIGHT EXPECT.
A. Revelation's warning to seven churches. Rev 2, 3
1) John warns them that if they don't change their ways,
God will remove their lampstand.
a) In other words, they will cease to exist.
2) None of the seven churches exist today.
B. There will be a Satanic war against the church. Rev 13:7
1) The Antichrist makes war on the church, and conquers.
a) Ironically, "he was given power" really means God
gives the Antichrist the power.
b) I take "conquer" to mean the visible church will be
erased.
1> The world will think the Antichrist has won.
2> The church will still exist, but in a wilderness
mode.
2) This takes place in what interpreters call the Tribulation.
a) Some believe it will be a future seven-year period.
b) Others think it represents the entire church age.
1> We have been in tribulation from the beginning.
2> But sometime in the future it will become much
more intense, what scholars call the Great
Tribulation.
c) Perhaps the current travails of the church are the
predicted signs of worse things to come.
1> Harold Camping is one who believes we are already
there, and that the church age has ended.
2> I believe we have more time to work for God.
V. WILL THE GATES OF HELL PREVAIL?
A. Jesus made a promise to Peter. Matt 16:18
1) The church is built on a rock, not sand.
a) (the rock is probably his confession, not Peter himself)
2) Although the church can be outwardly defeated, it will
still survive, and last through eternity.
3) But "church" means different things to different people.
B. Perhaps we should not be too wed to a particular image.
1) The quaint "white church in the wildwood” is a relic.
2) Real churches take many forms, with or without stained glass.
a) We are in a period of incredible flux in styles and
innovations.
b) Some are good, some will fall flat.
c) But change is our future.
C. Revival is still possible.
1) There have been many times in the past when people thought
the church would crumble.
a) During the French Revolution, hundreds of priests were
executed.
b) They even changed to a ten-day week to break the
Sunday habits of the people.
c) Enlightenment ideals were expected to replace
Christianity.
d) Even in America, there was little expectation that the
church would be a strong force.
2) Then revival came. (at least in America and England)
a) The Great Awakening(s) turned the situation around.
b) One hundred years ago, few would have expected the
church to be as strong as it is today.
c) Yet Evangelicalism is one of the strongest influences
in the country.
3) Never discount what God can do in dark times!
D. While we can, do work for Christ.
1) Evangelize your community and your own families.
The guy who wrote the Christian Science Monitor article,
talks about one self-inflicted wound that could kill
the church.
He says we evangelicals have failed to pass on to our young
people an orthodox form of faith that can survive the
secular onslaught.
We have spent billions of dollars on youth ministers,
Christian music, publishing and media.
But we have produced a culture of young Christians who know
next to nothing about their own faith except how they
feel about it.
Our young people do not know why they should obey the Bible,
the essentials of theology or the experience of
spiritual discipline and community.
Coming generations of Christians are going to be monumentally
ignorant and unprepared for culture-wide pressures....
#35221
2) Those who love Christ will build up his people.
The February 2009 National Geographic did an article on North Korea,
one of the most impoverished and repressive nations on earth.
There is no visible church there.
They can only worship Kim Il Sung.
Nevertheless, thousands of its citizens have crossed its northern
rivers into China.
One of those defectors is a man a National Geographic reporter
called Black.
Black said he had escaped across the frozen Tumen River two years
earlier.
During his days as a security guard in the North Korean capital,
Pyongyang, he'd grown disillusioned with the corruption and
bribery that he said pervaded the "workers' paradise."
For years he'd planned his escape with his girlfriend.
They walked through the North Korean mountains to the crossing
point in China.
The seven-hour ordeal permanently damaged the nerves in his toes.
In China, Black heeded the advice whispered among defectors:
"Head for a cross."
Thirty or more churches around Yanji, China, offer temporary
refuge to North Koreans, along with food and clothing.
As soon as Black found shelter at a church, he took Bible lessons
and became a star convert, attracting Pastor Chun's notice.
Some defectors adopt a shallow faith, a means of survival.
Pastor Chun says for them "it isn't that different from believing
in Kim Il Sung to believing in God.
They change in head, not heart."
But Black's faith seems genuine.
At one point during a meal with the reporter, Black pulled a small
wooden cross from under his shirt and held it as if it were a
warm, breathing thing.
"My dream," he said, "is to attend a seminary in South Korea and
then to return to my home village to preach the Gospel."
When the reporter mentioned that if he were caught in North Korea
carrying a Bible, he could be shot, Black said, "I am following
God's plan."
#35705
3) Are you following his plan?
4) When times get even tougher, will you stand up for Christ?
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
#10128 "Christians Get On My Nerves," by Ed Stetzer, Preaching Now newsletter,
www.preaching.com, May 27, 2008.
#29532 "Decline in Church Attendance By Generation," by Dr. Aidsand F.
Wright-Riggins 3rd, American Baptist One Great Hour Of Sharing Letter,
June 2005.
#35019 "Why So Few Churches Grow," Preaching Now magazine, www.preaching.com,
March 9, 2009; original source is Associated Baptist Press,
February 13, 2009.
#35028 "A Theology Of Church Extinction," by Stan Guthrie with Philip Jenkins,
Christianity Today, March 2009;
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/march/24.52.htm.
Philip Jenkins is the author of THE LOST HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY: THE
THOUSAND-YEAR GOLDEN AGE OF THE CHURCH IN THE MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA, AND
ASIA — AND HOW IT DIED (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2008).
#35221 "The Coming Evangelical Collapse," by Michael Spencer, Christian Science
Monitor, March 10, 2009.
#35705 "Head For A Cross," by Tom O'Neill (edited By David Holwick), National
Geographic Magazine; Article: “Escape From North Korea”,
February 2009.
These and 30,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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