When I was growing up, the biggest church in America was the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. W.A. Criswell was the longtime pastor and this church was the model of orthodox faith. Everyone speculated about who would be the pastor to follow Criswell and many upheld this church as a model of service and faith. Now in 2013, this church has become the focus of sharp-worded attacks on her character. Because of this pressure, Tim Tebow decided to cancel a speaking engagement he had scheduled at the church due to the pressure from certain media outlets. The church has been branded controversial and hateful. So I went to their web site to see what their core beliefs were. Here are their core beliefs: The authority of Scripture, humanity was created to worship God, prayer is a privilege/responsibility of Christians, the family is God's foundation for the human family, Jesus transforms His followers lives, every member is a minister, every person needs to hear the message of salvation and followers of Christ are to be stewards. I would say those things are pretty much orthodox theology for the Church over the centuries. So I figured people must be upset over the things they value. Once again, I checked out their values: Worship God, equip the saints, serve the community and have a Christian influence in the world. Once again, there was nothing which was contrary to the orthodox teaching of Jesus and His disciples. It appears that the church is in hot water because of the things the pastor has said over the years: Islam is not a religion of peace, homosexual acts are sinful, Jesus is the only means of salvation and Mormonism is a cult. Maybe people are upset over his choice of words, but these topics are Biblical and quite orthodox for the Church founded by Jesus.
Orthodox is defined as the authorized or generally accepted doctrine. I hear people in the church claim to be evangelicals or liberals or other titles. I guess I would have to be labeled as orthodox because I simple try to follow that which Christ laid as the foundation, the Apostles taught and the Church has tried (Imperfectly) to follow for the past two thousand years. I'm fairly skeptical of those who have suddenly found something that was missing for centuries and massage the Bible to reinforce this great insight. I figure if it was good enough for Jesus, the Apostles and the early church, it's good enough to the church today.
I grew up in North Carolina during a much simpler time when the Bible belt was more like the Bible belt. Though not all were Christians, the culture reinforced the values of the church. Stores were closed on Sundays and nothing happened on Sundays until after noon. On Sunday mornings, the only things going on were at the church. There were no kids ball games or tournaments, there were no family parties or other gatherings to take you away from church. To my young mind, it seemed like everyone went to church (Although that was far from true). It took minimal effort to act like a Christian because everyone was expected to honor the values of the Church. Schools reinforced those values and if you didn't follow those values, you would be sent to the principal or even worse, your parents would be called. I remember when God began calling me into the ministry, I tried to strike up some bargains with Him. One of my bargains was that I would do anything He wanted me to do, I just didn't want to stay in the South. I wanted to minister in a place where Christianity wasn't the dominant cultural motivator. I wanted to live in a place where going to church would make you different. A place where following Christ was out of the ordinary and would be going against the flow. I had seen way too many people who went to church on Sunday because it was culturally expected, but live like the devil during the week. I wanted to be in a place where it was costly to be a Christian. I had grown weary of lukewarm faith which seemed to be of little value. So God answered by prayers and sent me to Hawaii and then California. Two wonderful places with incredible people and some of the most beautiful geography in America. But the lightest traffic on the roads in both of those states is on Sunday morning. In the Bay Area, less than 4% of the population will go to any church during the week.
To anyone who is perceptive, it is obvious that all of America has become a place where the values of the church are no longer the values of the whole. Even in the church, orthdoxy has fallen and is being replaced by a more relative and Biblically light Christianity. The bashing of FBC Dallas is a reminder than orthodox beliefs will no longer be tolerated in America. John 14:6 and Acts 4:12 will now be regarded as hate speech. To claim that only through Jesus a person may receive the gift of eternal life elevates the claimant to the level of hater, ignorant and destructive. To hold to these orthodox views will now bring comparisons to Westboro Baptist Church or other misguided groups claiming to follow Jesus.
I don't say all this to wax poetically about the good ol' days or long for the way things used to be. Whether I like it or not, this was the answer to my prayer. We now live in a country where the vast majority of citizens reject orthodox Christianity. Rather than see this as a curse, I view it as a blessing. For the first time in my lifetime, being a Christian in America means being a radical, a rebel, a misunderstood villain, much like the first Apostles. What a great opportunity to live Christ with passion and joy because the greatest persecution of the orthodox church is coming from others claiming to be followers of Jesus. We are much like Esther, born for such a time as this. God is utilizing the cultural shift in America to prepare His Church. He is trying to help us build spiritual muscles that come from faith which is totally dependent on God. He wants us to have a weakness in our own strength, so we can see an outpouring of His Holy Spirit. He wants to see His Church repenting of lukewarmness and deciding to follow Jesus - Not into the political arena, but into everyday life. We don't need more politicians, we need more orthodox followers of Christ. The time is coming soon when the orthodox church in America will take a beating, publicly and politically. But the Church has always been purified by persecution. There will probably be much less people in orthodox churches on Sunday mornings, but there will be a deeper faith, worship and commitment than there has been in the past. Let's look forward with anticipation to what the future holds, rather than longing for how things used to be. Lets' thank God for the opportunity to walk in the footsteps of the Apostles and the early Church. Let's Praise Him for giving us this time to let our light so shine before men that they will see our good deeds and glorify our father in Heaven. Let's not move to political solutions, but towards prayer solutions. Some trust in chariots and others in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord! May you be refreshed to live out the orthodox faith handed down to us from the Apostles and dedicated followers of Jesus over the centuries.
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