In 2nd Chronicles in chapter 15 and in
verse 8 we read Does
anyone have any convictions today in a society
that has blurred the lines of right and
wrong and good and evil?
In the times of England, when Elizabeth ascended
the throne in 1558, the religion of England
was mixed, as the people were sometimes Protestant,
sometimes Catholic, and sometimes a mixture of half
and half, depending on the prevailing wind of
government dictated religion.
It was a time when compromise was everywhere.
In the year 1559, Parliament passed an act
for the uniformity of common prayer and the
service of the church and administration of the
sacraments.
Queen Elizabeth resolved that all should conform to
her worship or suffer the severest penalty of
the law, and in 1662 the act of
uniformity forced 2,000 of England's best ministers
out of their pulpits as they refused to
take an oath that would compromise their convictions
and beliefs, and they were suspended from their
livings, deposed, fined, imprisoned, and their families and
interests ruined for refusing to conform to the
established ritual.
The Puritans held firm to their convictions and
took courage and refused to conform or compromise,
and it cost them dearly.
We live in a day in our churches
of blurred lines where a compromise to the
gospel is common and conformity to the world
is normal.
If a state religion was imposed on us,
we would merely step over another blurred line
and conform to it, as our religion today
would make the Puritans blush with embarrassment.
Gone is the spirit of the martyrs in
the American church today, we're too focused on
self-preservation to consider any sacrifice that would
cost us something personal for the sake of
Christ and the gospel, but in the land
today, the bane of the church is self
-preservation and self-indulgence, compromise, and conformity.
The gospel message is all about us, served
on a man-centered platter at a sumptuous
banquet table laden with delicacies.
Other generations knew the price of discipleship and
the cost of following a crucified Christ.
John the Baptist had a platter with his
head upon it, Stephen was baptized with stones
as he saw Jesus rise from his throne,
Paul finished his ministry, not with accolades or
applause, but with a falling axe.
The blood of the martyrs cries out against
the self-absorbed church of this generation.
I think one of the best things that
could happen in America right now is for
a state-imposed religion upon the churches that
would consider it a crime to anyone who
refused to conform to its rituals and dictates,
it would create a refining fire in the
American church that would produce a host of
preachers on fire for God and the sake
of the gospel who would live as firebrands,
ready to be consumed for the glory of
God, and who were more willing to be
jailed and fined for their beliefs and risk
losing all they have rather than compromise themselves
and conform to a brand of Christianity other
than the one that is found in the
Bible.
As in the days of the early church
where Christians were put to death for refusing
to say Caesar is Lord, perhaps God in
his mercy will send a winnowing time of
hot persecution to the church in America and
separate some chaff from the wheat before Antichrist
appears and the churchens welcome him with open
arms.
Sadly, one can't distinguish the church from the
world today.
Compromise is everywhere, from the pulpits to the
pew.
Compromise will sink a church as surely as
sin will sink a nation.
Heaven help us all.