The true man of God is heartsick, grieved at the worldliness of the Church, grieved at the toleration of sin in the Church, grieved at the prayerlessness in the Church.
- Leonard Ravenhill
by Robert R. Pennington
Hundreds of millions living in the First World today have some kind of faith in Christ. Many acknowledge Jesus as the only begotten Son of God. Unfortunately, with temptation and deception, entitlement and sin rampant, many adjust only small portions of their lives to adhere to some of the Bible's more radical, albeit crucial teachings.
Tragically, fewer and fewer invest the time studying Scripture to the point of understanding the nature of God's requirements of those who call themselves Christians. Rather than being alarmed by such a trend, much of the modern Church is watering down the Scripture and the true faith, gradually transforming Christianity into a worldly hybrid that might be called Churchianity.
Churchianity
Upon close inspection things are rarely, if ever, as they seem. For example, with all the blessings the modern world's been given it's as if we've received the answers to the prayers of all past generations. Such unprecedented wealth and technology strongly suggests these are the best of times. Yet from a spiritual stand point, the opposite is more likely. Levels of temptation, and those falling prey to them, are way off the charts. Such a dichotomy begs the question, is it the best or worst of times?
The answer is both, but unfortunately not in a good way. In the last generation or two mankind has made such strides that technology provides billions of us lifestyles that in many ways rival and excel the capabilities of ancient kings. Yet at the same time we allow billions to starve, live in poverty and be ravished by war. Such suffering continues not because we haven't the resource to end the misery, but because we lavish the wealth on ourselves in a hundred different ways. Even destructive ones, like spending nearly half a trillion dollars annually on illegal drugs. Such funds alone could turn Earthly purgatories into paradise. As for Churchianity, America spends more on Christmas wrapping paper than we do in evangelizing the world for Christ.
Jesus once told a seeker "the time is coming, indeed it's here now, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship Him that way. For God is a Spirit, so those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." To hope to accurately access our current situation, much less worship God, one must learn to handle the truth. Not just bits and pieces we like or agree with but the whole truth and nothing but. Doing so means stretching and developing our minds as suggested by the famous author T.S. Elliot, "the test of a first rate intelligence is the ability to function while keeping two opposing thoughts in mind." What's needed today is the ability and willingness to grasp the big picture, even when it's complicated. A kind of quantum thinking or Quantum Christianity. The tenants of Quantum Christianity allow for the existence of complexities while providing the necessary tools to investigate further.
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