Why We Are Where We Are Part 19

The Wake-up Herald

And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof. Romans 13:11-14

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   Robert McCurry, Editor & Publisher
April 30, 2012
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Why We Are Where We Are
Part 19

by Robert McCurry

We are where we are because of an ever-increasing compromise and capitulation of the Christian faith by many, with a few exceptions, Protestant and Baptist pastors of all stripes who should be its guardians, have rather become complicit with the popular postmodern ‘Christianity’ philosophy that bears no resemblance to the biblical norm of faith and practice.

compromise n = A middle way between two extremes; accommodation, concession, adjustment, middle ground.

capitulation n = The act of surrendering or giving up.

surrender v = to yield, to give up, forsaking, renunciation, abandon.

It is impossible to give a time frame of the origin when this ‘new day’ of compromise and capitulation began in America or a sequential list of the varied paradigms that became a catalyst to introduce and advance this ‘new day.’ This much, however, I believe we can agree on—this is a new day

Pastors, with a few exceptions, who should be sounding the trumpet of biblical warning that ‘the enemy is not coming, the enemy is here’ are conspicuously silent and passive as Satan and those who work in concert with him are wreaking havoc to ‘steal, and to kill, and to destroy’ (John 10:10) marriages, families, and children via pornography, divorce, abortion, and infanticide in particular and America at large. 

Several years ago Evangelist Vance Havner preached a sermon entitled, ‘Getting Used to The Dark’ that is also needed for this day. Here are some excerpts:

We are living in the dark. The closing chapter of this age is dominated by the prince and powers of darkness. Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. The night is far spent; the blackness is more extensive and more excessive as it deepens just before the dawn. Mammoth Cave is not limited to Kentucky; it is universal!

Here is how it works. A secular journal says: “The desensitization of 20th-century man is more than a danger to the common safety....There are some things we have no right ever to get used to. One…is brutality. The other is sexual immorality. Both. . .have now come together and are moving towards a dominant pattern.” There was a time when sin shocked us. But as the brainwashing progresses, what once amazed us only amuses us. We laugh at the shady joke; tragedy becomes comedy; we learn to speak the language of Vanity Fair.

One of the signs of getting used to the dark is the way we excuse sin. We give it new names; adultery is free love; the drunkard is an alcoholic; sodomy is homosexuality; the murderer is temporarily insane. Church workers fall into grievous sin and move on to new positions without repentance or change of conduct. Parents let down in discipline, saying, “What’s the use?” Pastors give up preaching against sin, arguing that the world’s evils are here to stay and since church members are not going to be any better we might as well accept the status quo and live with it. We see this mixture of light and darkness in television programs that join worldliness with hymns. We see it in Hollywood portraying the Bible.

Today we half doubt our own Gospel and half believe the religion of this age. Light has no communion with darkness. We are not here to commune with it but to conquer it, and “this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” (I John 5:4).

Early Christianity set the world aglow because absolute Light was pitched against absolute darkness. The early Christians believed that the Gospel was the only hope of the world, that without it all men were lost and all religions false. The day came when the church and the world mixed light and darkness … The church got used to the dark.

Vance Havner, Why Not Just Be Christians, Fleming H. Revell Company

The Lord Jesus said, “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46); “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15); “And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23). 

Obviously, today’s popular postmodern ‘Christianity’ has ‘another Jesus, another spirit and another Gospel’ (II Cor 11:3, 4); despises and denies the Lord’s perfect law; moral relativism is its code of conduct; rejects denying self and identifying with the cross of Christ.

“Any spirit that permits compromise with the world is a false spirit. Any religious movement that imitates the world in any of its manifestations is false to the cross of Christ and on the side of the devil.” -A.W. Tozer

“We desperately need seers who can see through the mist--Pastors with prophetic vision. Unless they come soon it will be too late for this generation. And if they do come we will no doubt crucify a few of them in the name of our worldly orthodoxy.” -A.W. Tozer

Wake-up, Pastors! Wake-up, Christians!

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The Wake-Up Herald is published by Robert McCurry. The publication is designed to exalt the true God of the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ, and inform, inspire, and challenge its readers regarding biblical truth and real-life issues. The contents are the sole responsibility of Robert McCurry and do not represent or speak for or on behalf of any other person or group. There is no subscription charge. The publication is a ministry of faith dependent on the contributions of its readers. Contributions are not tax-deductible. Send all correspondence to: Robert McCurry,605 Moore Rd, Newnan, GA 30263 or herbap@aol.com Remove? Send reply with “remove” in Subject line