In the mid 1960s, pastors were replaced as moral authorities in the community and new-age gurus began to arise in their stead. I particularly remember Dr. Timothy Leary, who had earned his doctorate at Berkeley. Leary founded the League of Spiritual Discovery (LSD) and challenged the youth to “Turn on, tune in and drop out!”
People everywhere immediately began to praise these guru types, and almost overnight the Christian world was turned upside down. Age-old values were stood on their heads. Ancient biblical foundations of our society were washed away or severely damaged.
Soon, over 63 million unborn babies were murdered, and another 40 million plus were washed away in the tide of HIV and AIDS, mostly due to the new morality and illicit sex. Many Christian homes, parents and children were also severely damaged as we entered into a new and frightening anything goes world.
The biblical understanding of sin began to disappear from our society, from the church and even from our consciences replaced with self-help programs, positive thinking, therapy, meditation or counseling. Even in the church we have learned to coddle sin or else deny its existence. And when we deny sin there becomes no need for repentance – it has become a casualty of the tsunami wave of evil.
The Church is fading from our culture because it has replaced the gospel with worldly knowledge and wisdom with a false perverted gospel. The pastors tell jokes and personal stories to push a politically correct and socially irrelevant sermon. They stand in the pulpit and offer either a falsified or watered-down version of the Word, totaling ignoring their role as shepherd of God’s flock, and they do so at their own peril.
Most forget, or no longer care, that they will be judged by God for their lack of faithful proclamation of the Word. “Preach the Word…. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.” (II Tim. 4:2-5)
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1John 1:7-9
source: Whatever Happened to the Christian Church? Word of God Today; Yawning at the Word by Mark Galli, Christianity Today
