Spiritual Lethargy in America

 

The Oxford Dictionary of Current English defines lethargy as, “a lack of energy and enthusiasm.” It hails from the Greek, “lethargos,” which means, “forgetful.” I believe this term does an adequate job defining much of modern Christianity, or as the term is coined, Churchianity.

What is Churchianity? Having used this expression numerous times in previous writings, I will define it as it is used in my writing. I will add first, however, that the term is not mine, and has been used at least since the days of A. W. Tozer, whom I believe was the man I first heard use it. Churchianity, properly defined, would incorporate professing Christians whose lives do not conform to their confession. What do I mean by this? By this I mean a follower of Christ (by their confession) that does not actually obey any injunction given by the Lord, but still listens to every dictate of his own opinion or cultural norm.

 

The New Testament is utterly replete with commands of obedience from the faithful. James writes that a faith bereft of obedience demonstrable to fellow Christians is a dead one; i.e., that faith is not genuine or saving because it does not transform the confessor in any daily or practical way. James is actually a wonderful epistle for diagnosing confessors from genuine saints, who in faith obey the voice of their Lord. Jesus told us that His sheep would hear His voice and follow Him. What does that mean, exactly? In our day and age we can’t literally follow Him because He is in Heaven and we are on earth. What it does mean is that spiritually we follow. If He commands something, because we believe in Him and in turn believe His word, we obey it. All of it. That is, the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation.

 

Jesus asks, “But why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?” Luke 6:46. It is a valid question, and one that I have personally grappled with many times. In James 1:25 we read, “But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.” The spirit of lethargy exists in this verse: the forgetful hearer. We go to church, hear the sermon, sing some hymns, and return to wallowing in the sin Christ died to save us from. There is no transformation, no conformity, and no conscience toward wrongdoing. There is impenitence and hardness of heart in Christ’s professing body.

 

Twice Paul warns Timothy about professing believers departing from the faith. In 1 Timothy 4:1 we read that professing Christians will abandon their Lord for deceiving spirits that propagate doctrines of demons. Such persons speak lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared. In 2 Timothy the warning becomes more urgent. Believers, we are informed, will no longer endure sound doctrine, 2 Timothy 4:3. Led into sin by their own desires (see James 1:14, 15), their itching ears will heap up teachers like mountains to turn away from the truth to fables, or make believe. They will—these professing Christians—deliberately choose lies over truth because it makes them feel better. In short, it confirms them in their sin and does not ask them to change or abandon that which harms them.

 

The epistle to the Hebrews states that such persons are those who, being drawn by the Holy Spirit, “draw back to perdition,” Hebrews 10:39, rather than believe to the saving of their souls. John describes the nature of such people, by telling us that they will break from genuine saints because such were never one of us, 1 John 2:19. Those who advocate and follow lies aren’t interested in associating with genuine saints because our convictions clash. The Christian wants to mortify the flesh and serve the Lord. The unsaved Churchian wants to attend church and get those points without it costing them the vices they take pleasure in despite knowing it is wrong. Jesus told Peter of His church that, “the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it,” Matthew 16:18. When one sees a church building filled with people given over to unbiblical or anti-biblical teaching and practice, Hades has prevailed against them. Therefore we know they are, by and large, not part of the true church, whom Christ promised Hell would not prevail against. That “church” is peopled with the unsaved. Some believers may be among them, but their lampstand has long since been removed.

 

Paul poses a rhetorical question when considering if our salvation is license to indulge sin. He writes, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” His answer is an emphatic, “Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live in it any longer?” Romans 6:1, 2. But the Christian is to put away all of these: “all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking…with all malice,” Ephesians 4:31. His second list of “things to put off,” entails: “anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language coming out of your mouth…do not lie to one another,” Colossians 3:8, 9. Summarizing these passages, Paul tells us that we are to completely put off the old man—all of our former conduct BEFORE being saved—because it continues growing corrupt according to the lusts that deceived us into living such a way, Ephesians 4:22.

 

How many professing churches are no longer doctrinally sound? How many even bother maintaining doctrine at all? Is Jesus Christ still recognized as the preeminent One in His own body? He is alone the Savior, and through Him we have eternal life. But it is knowing Him, not knowing about Him, that saves. Demons have head knowledge and James tells us it avails them nothing, James 2:19. Jesus, when teaching about prayer, finished by asking another rhetorical question: “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:8.

 

The answer to that question is largely, “no.” Paul tells the Thessalonian church, “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first,” 2 Thessalonians 2:3. What is the “falling away”? An apostasy of epic proportion, in which the professing church, or Churchianity, is so removed from Biblical doctrine, which provides the safeguard against blatant heresy, that it doesn’t know the Lord it claims to follow and will instead embrace the Antichrist when he is made manifest, John 5:43.

 

Today in America we have mega churches that are big on numbers but small on sound doctrine or effectively preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have pride flags demonstrating an egregious acceptance of what God terms abomination in the Bible since it corrupts the marriage covenant and renders filling the earth via procreation void, Genesis 1:28. Errors abound across denominational boundaries, and the list is legion. But the solution is singular. “Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine…Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching,” 1 Timothy 4:13, 2 Timothy 4:2.

 

James tells us that, “the implanted word…is able to save your souls,” James 1:21. Paul contributes, relating that, “you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered,” Romans 6:17. Peter, joining their testimony, says, “you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit…having been born again…through the word of God which lives and abides forever,” 1 Peter 1:22, 23. A teacher has two tasks: to lead the unsaved to Christ, and to edify fellow believers through exhortation of the pure word. Failing this, you are disqualified as a teacher. Worse still are those that perpetuate heresies and blasphemy against the God they delude themselves into thinking they serve. For your own sakes, if you do not abide in Christ, listen to His very stern warning before it is too late, Matthew 7:23.

 

As our country continues to sink into spiritual madness and lethargy, with every individual vying at godhood by determining for themselves what is right, let every follower of the Lord be vigilant to preach the truth. Share the gospel with the lost, and our own lives at need as we are able so a lost world stumbling in darkness may see the better way. Doctrine must conform our lifestyle, because sometimes the disciple is the only gospel the unsaved will read. If we behave entirely worldly, the lost remain so, because they have judged that we’re just like them. Is Christ living inside of us to bring light that shines out, so a difference can be seen? I pray the Lord that for all professing saints this is true, and we may witness of His love for mankind to the end.