Jesus, seeing all His friends asleep and all His enemies wakeful...
- Blaise Pascal
Given the enormity of the hopes and fears inherent in both temporal and eternal life, the necessity to think well could hardly be greater. Yet with the plethora of amusements (a: not - muse: think) growing exponentially, billions have come to rely on corporate media and entertainment to educate and placate the mind and senses.
Others turn to humanism and religion for guidance, settling for situational ethics and/or declining disciplines. From atheism to Churchianity modern levels of worldliness and Meism are pandemic, leaving less and less place for thoughtful and studious consideration of life's ultimate questions. We, particularly genuine Christians, can do better. We must do better. The following, while far from clinical research, does differ in kind from my non fiction and Biblical faction library of books comprised of modern articles, psalms and proverbs. My "research" is meant to drill deeper in hopes of filling in the gaps within and between past works in the hopes of engendering new questions and insights.
The motivation for my continuing research is twofold.
First and foremost, modern Christianity is broken. Rather than lifting mankind or at least it's participants heavenward, Churchianity is plummeting towards Earth in an ever deepening and widening downward spiral.
Secondly, I too am broken, in ways both good and bad. Having suffered my share of heartache, I've spent many a year shell shocked and wondering the wilderness. Feeling like the Prodigal son’s older brother, I’ve lost and/or seem to be in the process of losing much for which I've spent a lifetime praying and working.
Making matters worse, it appears the global stage is being readied for the final act of the Apocalypse. This at the very time when the average Christian is anything but. With adherence to Biblical Christianity at an all time low during a time of relative, if not unprecedented prosperity, our current lack of character and spiritual resolve is as apparent as it should be troubling.
As illustrated by the "boneless chicken ranch" one of the infamous cartoons by Gary Larson, one can easily imagine that should temptation and deception much less persecution or tribulation continue to increase, there simply seems little or no hope for the whole unprofitable lot of us.
Equally vexing is the problematic fact that few of today's millions if not billions of church attending Christians, endorsing at least seven different gospels, grasp the spiritual context of Scripture, not to mention it's more subtle yet nevertheless crucial tenets. Thus , if not billions of believers, remain blissfully unaware of the times and seasons in which we live. Modern Me-ism, an unfortunate outgrowth of the phenomenal blessing of technology, is all but negating the true Biblical worldview not to mention the need for radical discipleship once commonly understood and excepted.
Simply put, when it comes to a vibrant connection with God in real time as measured by understanding and obedience to Scripture, walking in the fruit and gifts of the Spirit, ongoing sanctification and answered prayer, it would appeared we are all but off-line.
While only the tip of the growing iceberg of challenges facing the developed world during this the age of information and enlightenment, even these points present an untenable turn of events. Yet with too few exceptions, the battle for reasonable faith is being lost unfought. And while I hardly possess the revelation or resource to turn the tide, I find myself both unable and unwilling to stand idly by as much of the Church, the best and only hope for mankind, continues making mistakes of such Titanic proportions.
Therefore should most or all the above propositions prove true, wisdom would dictate the following steps:
1. Identify any and all deception in order of importance.
2. Clarify the teaching of Scripture on areas of misunderstanding.
3. Explain and reinforce the reasonableness of actual Biblical faith.
4. Pinpoint current and future challenges to genuine Christian understanding and behavior.
5. Create and implement strategic lifestyle choices leading to true repentance and revival.
6. Evaluate nature of and reasons for successes and failures.
7. Reemploy steps 1-6.
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