A Burden of Divine Chastisement against the American Evangelical Church

Church in the Twenty-first Century

“Then Micaiah said, I saw the LORD sitting upon HIs throne, Therefore hear the words of the LORD: And all the host of heaven standing, one His right hand, and on His left. And the LORD said, “Who will persuade Ahab to to go up, that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?” So one spoke in this manner, and another spoke in that manner. Then a spirit came forward, and stood before the LORD and said, “I will persuade him.” The LORD to him, “in what way?” So he said, I will go and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.” And the LORD said, “You shall persuade and also prevail. Go out and do so.” Therefore, look! The LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the LORD has declared disaster against you.” II Kings 22:19-23

When I created this blog in 2013, one specific purpose governed my thinking regarding its existence.  Nonetheless, I did not share my entire perspective immediately because I needed time to test if in fact my primary reason could be validated by both Scripture and God’s providential government of all earthly events.  Seven years was required to complete that test, but the events of this year, 2020, have provided the final vindication of a burden that was placed upon my heart over eight years ago.

Throughout 2012 and 2013, God began to impress my heart with a deeply troubling and at times utterly overwhelming burden concerning the spiritual condition of the Evangelical Christian church in the United States of America.  It was a burden that virtually paralleled the events described in the Scripture cited above.  Over the course of those two years, the Spirit slowly united in my mind a collection of historical observations and interpretations, theological truths, and clear Biblical passages that would ultimately explode a “spiritual bomb” in my soul in the first half of 2013.  That “spiritual explosion”, or if I dare call it an “illumination” (not on par with the supernatural revelation of Scripture or and assuredly not some special new divine revelation) was so overwhelming I wanted to flee from its terrifying reality.  But with a force equal only to the days when the Spirit of God brought me truly to repentance from my sin and to faith in Jesus Christ as my only Savior and sovereign Lord, the Spirit pressed upon my soul this burden and COMMANDED me, not invited, not urged, not suggested, but commanded me to proclaim this illuminating and yet terrifying truth from His Word as it applies to the great events of our day.   Such was the force this burden upon my conscience that I was more terrified of the consequences of ignoring Spirit’s command than any earthly trauma I had experienced or could still experience in this earthly life.  What was this “spiritual bombshell” that exploded in my mind? I can summarize it in two statements:

First, the great Protestant Reformation of the 16^th century-the greatest spiritual revival the Christian church had experienced since the days of Pentecost-had now run its course and its spiritual blessings upon western civilization were now waning like the setting sun upon western horizon.

Second, now that this great revival had run its divinely appointed course, God would now remove His gracious restraining presence against sin, and instead permit a lying spirit to animate all the institutions of our western world, but particularly those of the United States, and thus begin a process of divine chastisement that would ultimately lead the world back to the spiritual darkness of the Pre-Protestant Era of the Christian church.

Volumes would have to written in order to express in any semi-complete form all that the Spirit pressed upon my soul in those two years.  But even if I wrote pages upon pages (and I have actually done so over the last seven years), I still do not believe I could fully express all that was pressed upon my soul in those days as well as in the years since then.  In September, 2013, I summarized the burden as best as I could in an open letter delivered to several other Christian brothers.  This letter was designed as a test to determine whether other believers could observe a similar pattern.  These were the words I wrote in that letter dated the 21^st of September, 2013:

“The burden itself may be expressed in two statements-one negative and the other positive-with a most pointed and personal application for myself.

The negative statement could be expressed in this form:

When this year began [2013], I received a distinct impression in my spirit that with the start of this year and possibly for many more months and years to come, prevented only by a great Spirit-led revival or the return of our Lord Jesus, this land shall experience two dreadful realities:

First, we shall witness a removing of the hand and grace of God against the spiritual hosts of wickedness.  As a result, I believe we shall see a greater manifestation of evil, unbelief, and apostasy with great sin and apostasy the likes of which ten or twenty years ago we would not have believed possible to witness in both the nation and in the church.

Second, we shall experience a more fearful reality than the previous statement, and that is we shall witness a dulling and deadening of the souls of those who profess to belong to Christ.  Much like the account in I Kings 22:22, I fear that God is sending forth a lying spirit among His professed church in our day and permitting the hearts of those who say they belong to Christ to grow cold, dim, and darkened towards the truth of God.  The reason I believe that God sends such moments of spiritual darkness among His people is recorded in Jeremiah 5:30-31 and Deuteronomy 13:3.  I shall not expound these texts in this letter, but simply commend them to you for your own meditation.

The positive element of the burden could be best expressed with two passages from the epistle to the Hebrews: 12:4 and 13:13.  Like before I shall expound these two passages in this letter, but I would urge you, my brethren, to meditate upon the words of those texts carefully.  I would like to offer one summary statement regarding both passages:

In days to come, I believe those who truly know and love Christ, His Word, His doctrine, and His commands will find that it will become harder to strive against the sin and unbelief around us, and that we may soon find that those who will heap the most shame upon us will be those who declare they love Christ, but disregard His Word, His doctrine, and His commands.

I believe that I must use with greater zeal what limited gifts and knowledge I have to proclaim the truth of God’s Word regarding the spiritual deception and declension in our own time to all those whom God has currently placed in my life.

I am an historian by training-being “afflicted” with two degrees in that discipline.  One of the few gifts God has given to me is the ability to see the past not simply in little snippets, but the ability to comprehend deeply the vast panorama of centuries of historical data-both the great as well as the seemingly insignificant events of the past-while relating it all to the larger arcs or movements which stream through the ages.  When I view the world today, I do not see it only in the context of the last few years or even the last thirty or forty years.  No, I see what is happening in 2020 through two distinct lenses:

One, I see today’s events as consequences from events that occurred one to five to even twenty centuries ago, if not longer. And yes, I do believe in causation in history in opposition to some of the more modern and even postmodern schools of historical interpretation.  But that is an essay for another time.

Two, I interpret every single historical event through the epistemological framework of the divine declarations of the Word of God.  Furthermore, I believe that the best systematic expression by the Christian church of that epistemological as well as theological framework is the theological principles affirmed in the Westminster Confession of Faith and its subordinate catechisms (American edition-1789).

To summarize, I believe the record of human history is nothing more than the reactions of men and women to God’s eternal decree to glorify Himself by accomplishing the salvation of His church through the redemptive work of His own appointed mediator-Jesus Christ-the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God who became man two millennia ago to live, die, and rise again as the representative of His own people-both Jews and Gentiles.  But I must provide some vital clarification.  I do not simply affirm this doctrine as true.  In my mind’s eye I can see many of the various historical details like pieces in a giant puzzle fitting together in a synergistic form as they pass from one generation to another.  Furthermore I can sense in my soul the spirit of each age as it passes from one generation to another, feeling the strength of that which is from the Spirit of God as well as the oppressive evil cascading from the spirit of Antichrist which was already active in the days of the Apostle John (See I John 4).  If you and I were speaking together in person I could with ease walk you through some of the various ages from the last two thousand years and show you the mechanics of divine providence to illustrate how the seemingly secular events of men and nations were actually the tools of God in accomplishing a far greater work-the building of His church.

So how does my historically conscience perspective relate to the burden that was pressed upon my soul?

That question is best answered by considering the passage at the beginning of this post as well as the entire context of I Kings 22.  In fact, if you have not read that part of the Old Testament in some time, read the entire chapter upon finishing this brief essay.  At some point I may expound this passage on my blog, but for now, simply let the force of those words from Scripture press into your mind and soul.  Through the prophet Micaiah God declared that He had determined to punish Israel and in particular King Ahab for their sins of embracing idolatry and rejecting the law (word) of God.  But note carefully these three singular observations:

First, earthly events-both present and past-are reactions to events in heaven.  To be more precise, historical events are reactions to God’s declarations in heaven.  This doctrine is the primary reason I believe in causation in history.  In short, all of human history revolves around the spoken as well as the written Word of God.  God never reacts to the actions of people on earth.  Quite the contrary, events on earth are always reactions to that which is happening in heaven.

Second, God reveals His method for destroying civil rulers as well as nations who rebel against His Word (or law).  What is that method?  He directs a lying spirit to enter the hearts of the prophets (or if I may use another term, preachers) to animate the people to believe lies and reject the truth.  Other passages in Scripture clearly teach that God’s greatest judgement upon any people is to give them over to lies and to permit them to follow those lies to their total destruction.

Third, consider that it was not just any Gentile nation that God had chosen to punish, but it was His own chosen people-Israel-against whom He had declared disaster.  It was to Israel that God sent a lying spirit designed to lead His own people into calamity.  This truth reveals that God’s judgement upon the wickedness in the world always begins with the people of God.  Indeed, one might argue from Scripture that God always judges His own people before He judges the wicked and unbelieving.  The apostle Peter affirms this truth in his first epistle when he writes, “For the time has come for judgement to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (I Peter 4:17).  God will punish the wicked for the multitude of their sins, but His judgement always starts with the spiritual condition of His people.  This doctrine teaches an essential truth: when God blesses His people with spiritual blessings, even the ungodly will prosper in an earthly sense.  But when God’s people experience a spiritual declension and divine judgement, the wicked are emboldened to pursue their evil designs and lawless conduct.

These three observations provide the theological foundation for the burden of divine judgement against the church of Jesus Christ in the United States.  Yet even these simple statements hardly express all that fills my heart.  Furthermore, I would not have any reader accept my testimony alone.  Thus in my next post, I intend to share a series of passages from the Scripture with little comment from myself so that all may consider these things carefully from the Word of God.

This is the burden that I have borne since 2013.

And what is the forceful command?

God the Holy Spirit commanded me that I must spend the rest of my earthly days bearing witness of this spiritual reality.  While I believe God has appointed diverse means for how I shall bear witness of this burden, my primary duty in this calling is to write of these things and proclaim to any and all who will listen and heed.  And that is this reason I created this blog.