The root of America’s problem is not politics or economics, it is sin. “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34). Racism isn’t the problem. The Bible is color blind. According to the Bible, all men are children of Adam. There is only one race, and that is the human race. Skin colors are simple variations in genetic pigmentation (melanin). Skin color is skin color, but only the heart has moral and spiritual significance, and man’s heart is universally corrupt. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). That is the white man’s heart, the black man’s heart, the brown man’s heart, et al. The Bible doesn’t specify a sin called “racism.” It describes, rather, idolatry, hate, pride, envy, covetousness, theft, kidnapping, murder, malignity, boasting, disobedience to parents, blasphemy, fornication, lying, false witness, and other such things. Jesus said that these come from man’s heart and defile him (Matthew 15:18). All colors of men are made by God, all live and move and have their being in God, and all are accountable to God. The only thing that can change hearts is the gospel of Jesus Christ, and this is the business of the New Testament church, which is the only institution on earth that is called “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). The thing that made America strong once upon a time was New Testament churches, and the only thing that can help America today at the most fundamental level is strong New Testament churches. Yet even the churches that consider themselves to be staunch Bible-believing “fundamentalist,” “Baptist,” etc., are as weak as water, for the most part. They are party churches, not power churches, not prayer churches. They are entertaining the saints, not discipling them, coddling them, not reproving them. They are so eager for members and pew sitters and tithers that they care almost nothing for maintaining a regenerate membership, though that is the first mark of a true New Testament church (Acts 2:41-42). The fathers aren’t the spiritual leaders of the homes. The mothers aren’t the keepers of the home. The children aren’t properly disciplined. The families are worldly. The youth are worldly. Even the elderly are worldly. The members aren’t true pilgrims; they are settled down in the world, flowing along comfortably with the world. Just look at their social media. The pastors are so backslidden and cowardly that they accept this as the status quo, yet still consider their churches to be true churches. The only thing that can really help America is for Bible-believing churches to take the eternal Word of God seriously, stop playing games, stop partying, stop focusing on politics, shut down the gym and open up the prayer rooms, stop the feasting and start the fasting, start rebuking and disciplining sin, start building godly homes, start requiring serious Christianity of anyone who serves in any ministry, get serious about the requirements of church membership, get really zealous about getting the gospel to every soul as far afield as possible, training leaders, starting new churches, emphasizing the imminent return of Christ, preaching the judgment seat of Christ, caring more about God’s feelings than man’s, fearing God more than man. I’m very glad that I know of churches that are doing exactly this, and they are prospering, but they are in the very extreme minority.
(Friday Church News Notes, June 12, 2020, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)