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exploded. Bible societies were founded. Ministries to the
nation's social concerns were raised up. "The Second
Great Awakening brought massive and permanent changes to this
country and the world," including fueling the abolitionist
movement.
Power in the
Pulpit
Just as Finney was pounding Rochester
with scathing pulpit power, the Frenchman, Alexis de Tocqueville,
came to America to study what had made America great. Since
de Tocqueville came to these shores, 170 years have passed.
Yet his perspective, recorded in Democracy in America,
is worth our prayerful observation today.
 I
sought for the greatness and genius of America inher commodious
harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there; in her
fertile fields and boundless prairies, and it was not there;
in her rich mines and her vast world commerce, and it was
not there. Not until I went into the churches of America
and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand
the secret of her genius and power.
"The best way to revive the church is to build a fire
in the pulpit," declared Dwight L. Moody. Yet many of
those most resistant to true revival have been pastors who
fear losing power, perks and position if they rock the boat.
We need a "Shaking in the Pulpit," writes Pastor
Ken Hutchinson. "We are afraid to upset our congregations
or our substantial givers. What we excuse as diplomacy has
actually become compromise." "There are hot potato
issues," he says, that we know will cause difficulty
in our ministries, "so we avoid them like the plague."
"The greatest problems in the church lie in the fearful
hearts of those who stand in the pulpits."
"Fearless preaching is all the more necessary in dangerous
times, "exhorts John MacArthur. "When people will
not tolerate the truth, that's when courageous, outspoken
preachers are most desperately needed to speak it." "Sound
preaching," he says, "confronts and rebukes sin,
and people in love with sinful lifestyles will not tolerate
such teaching. They want to have their ears tickled."
We have become men pleasers rather than God pleasers.
As de Tocqueville observed, our national destiny may well
be determined by rekindled fire in America's preachers whose
flame will ignite the people. But power requires purity.
Power Requires
Purity
"Religion is increasing,
morality is decreasing," laments George Gallup. We Americans
are amazingly religious: 96% believe in God, 85% claim to
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"Christian"
and 45% claim to be "born again." With such widespread
belief in Jesus, how can we as a nation be in the advanced
steps of moral decline? James Russell in Awakening the Giant,
says "This is the most persistent, perplexing, demanding
question of all."
What happens when an undiscipled people do not possess what
they profess? Hypocrisy devolves into decadence. Consider...
• 91% of us lie regularly. Lying is now called "a
cultural trait in America."
• Only 13% of us believe in all of the Ten Commandments.
• 33% of all our children are born illegitimate.
• 80% of our children in our larger cities are illegitimate.
Those of us who claim to believe the Scriptures from cover
to cover have literally taken the lead in tearing down the
American family. Protestations to the contrary, the facts
speak for themselves.
• The divorce rate among "born-again" Christians
exceeds the nation as a whole by 4%.
• The divorce rate in the Bible Belt of America now exceeds
the nation as a whole by 50%.
Since the Scriptures we purport to believe clearly declare
that God "hates" divorce, considering it "treachery,"
the dramatic spiritual drift for those who claim to be the
nation's lighthouse reveals how unbelievers justify their
unrighteousness. This is not a "Culture War" but
a spiritual war.
Pastors now have joined their flocks in the moral and spiritual
slide. A Hartford Seminary study confirmed pastors now divorce
their covenant partners as often as their parishioners, the
second highest divorce rate of all professions. It is "cause
for alarm," warned an editorial in Charisma. Veteran
pastor, Jack Hayford declared, "We are at a point of
crisis." Like ancient Israel just before God's judgment
was poured out, it is now "like people, like priest"
in modern America. A spirit of lawlessness prevails from pulpit
to pew. The God who "hath made and preserved us a nation"
declared, "Be ye holy" which we have redefined as,
"be ye happy," and now we are neither happy nor
holy. Indeed, "If the light that is in us be darkness,
how great is that darkness!"
What Must We
Do?
What should we do? What can bring
us back to our senses?
We Must Admit
Drift
A dying patient that denies the
disease that consumes him will not seek a physician to heal
him. We must individually and collectively, confess the prevailing
absence of God's purity in our own lives.
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