As Go the Seminaries: Sign #1 Your Christianity is Too Political

I believe the Church needs another Reformation. Now.

If the first Reformation had to do with Church playing internal politics, enriching, empowering, and protecting Church elites, and the issuance of indulgences, this new Reformation also will need to address that same precarious intersection of faith and culture. It’s still politics. It’s still promoting an elite group but instead of a hierarchical elite, it’s a culturally-sanctioned mindset, and instead of indulgences, political correctness. Suddenly what one believes politically (red or blue) is what makes someone moral. That is being preached in churches all over America.

That mess is precisely why among Martin Luther’s theses (#54 in his day) was “Injury is done to the Word of God when, in the same sermon, an equal or larger amount of time is devoted to indulgences than to the Word.“

I might argue that a single word change modernizes it: “Injury is done to the Word of God when, in the same sermon, an equal or larger amount of time is devoted to politics than to the Word.“ Or a few words,

Injury is done to Christianity when, in the same life, an equal or larger amount of time is devoted to secular than to the Savior.“

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What sent me over the edge to write about this was the feeling of incredible grief I’ve had at what Christ must think of what’s become accepted by, and lauded in, the seminaries and in the pastorate.

After all, God told us: Deuteronomy 6: 18 Do what is right and good in the LORD’s sight, so that it may go well with you.” The Israelites failed miserably, and we do too. We need to think in purple, knowing that the King of Kings died because we failed to do right and needed a Savior.

How Christ must grieve over a Presbyterian minister shouting: “We welcome everyone!” And in the same rant at our President who came in order to honor the dead at the Tree of Life Synagogue where 11 people lost their lives, she cried out in rage, “This is our neighborhood…you are not welcome here!” (begins at the 6:32 mark) Imagine how the world would view it if this pastor had shouted that same rage at “migrants.”

She probably didn’t come out of the womb with such insults to others made in the likeness of Christ. She was trained into blatant unforgiveness. “Surely not!” you say. Surely yes. What began as a coddling of social justice in the seminaries is now bearing fruit as injury to the TRUE Gospel in our day.

As go the seminaries…so goes the Church and so goes the culture.

It’s not just women in the pastorate and it’s not just Presbyterians…(to be continued)

Think about it:

Does the sermon you hear each week focus solely on the Word of God, is it a lecture as a mix of politics and history, or an exposition of the pastor’s opinion on world events?
How much time do you get in God’s Word each week versus how much do you find news/social media in which to become immersed?

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Lord Jesus, please forgive us for dishonest Christianity that doesn’t revere You as Lord, as King, and the only Righteous One. Forgive us for minimizing Your sovereignty and ignoring Your will. Forgive us for seeking gods of news sources, voting outcomes we want, and political figures we like to satisfy our ears instead of prayerfully seeking You, the One True God, the Desired of Nations, and the Living One who satisfies our souls.