The American Church Has Been Given Four Years of a Respite from the Progressive Onslaught. We Must Capitalize on the Moment with Bold Action and Agency.
Wow! Insightful. Instructional. Deeply discerning the issue at hand. Like I said - you are a seasonal man. Given to us to at this season in Church history to address the ills of the Church and provide the cure. Inspirational.
A great diagnosis of the times. I love the characterization of the elder brother. It will be tempting to generalize, yet it’s helpful to start conversations. I love the specifics that follow about third way ism and the passive cultures. More concrete ways to identify that and drawing that out will be helpful in the book.
This is why we started Christ the King . build in Stillwater Minnesota. Finding out that your church was named the same just sealed the deal for us. ;-) Godspeed! Let’s go build!
The last couple of years it's become increasingly clear to me that pietistic loser theology is a good impulse that's gone rotten. I've got lots of examples and hopefully the book will provide the needed nuance and clarification.
I'm excited for your new church plant. Praise God! And great name, too!
Good piece, Michael. I've felt much like a lone voice in the wilderness over this, unable to put my finger on the whole loathsome entirety of what exactly the cultural issue is, but I think you've done an admirable job of framing it here.
For my own part, much of the trouble I see and have been commenting on is in the symptoms of loser theology: the sheer reluctance to speak up and speak out, with many Christians seemingly subscribing to what I've termed 'Golden Bus Ticket' theology. The is the notion that they're saved, so it's OK to sin, hide Jesus and seek shelter in the world and totally forget about picking up the cross; it's too troublesome and you'll fail anyway, so let's just wait till we get called home.
I've written about this odd sense of milquetoast Christianity fairly recently in a piece, "Triggering your plastic Jesus" on my own Substack ( https://pastormike.substack.com/p/triggering-your-plastic-jesus ) as the result of being accosted by one whom I respected.
This subject is something that God has had me focusing on for the last several months from the pulpit - are we at the threshold of revival? One can only hope & pray.
If recent history has proven anything, it’s that destructive progressive ideologies never stop, or even slow down.
The devil never sleeps.
It’s individual spiritual obedience starting on our knees; and not respite, that is the composition for spiritual growth and victory.
Donald Trump’s first term(2016)was the breathing space from a horrific Obama “hope and change”.
But how effective was the Church in curbing sin during Trumps first four years?
America ended up getting Biden, LGBTQ+, transgenders, murder babies, teenage body parts multilated, men participating in women’s bathrooms, and sports.
The key is… MAGA is being led by a man who currently does not profess Jesus as Savior(Pray).
And Trump is determined to end all wars.
But the Apostle Paul warns Believers to be alert and ready in all seasons.
“For when they will say peace and safety; then sudden destruction comes upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they will not escape.
Therefore, let us not sleep as do others; but let us watch and be sober”(I Thessalonians 5:3,6).
Christ is King! That means He should rule in culture and society, through His visible Church on earth, and not just in “the secret hearts of His people.”
In the ages of Christendom, there were two distinct authorities that ran kingdoms — the Church and the temporal state. Since the spiritual should have authority over the temporal, the Church had authority to some limited extent over governmental rulers, because the bishops or pope could excommunicate them, and in some instances they could use their own armies against an egregiously criminal ruler. It was a not perfect system by any means, it was run by sinners just as we are sinners, and the Church was developing & deepening its spiritual and social doctrines along the way, but it was at least Christendom, where Jesus Christ ruled, which developed into the heights of Christian society, and it was not the re-paganizing horrors of today.
The Catholic Church has a real, serious problem with “soft, nice” Christianity, and with a kind of bad opposite of Pietism … leftist / communist / secularized, baptized but totally dissident so-called “Catholics” (even lots of communists / occultists infiltrated into the high leadership of the Catholic Church), who are **very loud** in trying to shape society into the culture of death (abortion, globalism, homosexuality, etc.)! Conservative & traditionalist Catholics are fighting back hard against these folks.
But we Catholics don’t have as much of a problem with the severe Pietist heresy that has come upon the Evangelical & other Protestant communities, or the terrible idea that’s prevalent in current Evangelicalism and Protestantism that it’s wrong even to dispute or graciously argue (i.e., have a philosophical debate) about Church teachings, because it’s “mean.”
We have too many saints through the millennia who stood up against their societies and even eventually went to their deaths for supporting Church teaching on marriage, against homosexuality, against pagan child sacrifice, for the right of the Church to worship and practice their religion in society (ex: the 1920s Cristero movement against the terrible communist Mexican government that was severely persecuting the Catholic Church), against slavery (Catholics wiped out pagan slavery in Europe until the horrific, revived slave trade of Africans), against various heresies, etc.
Fighting heresies like Pietism always involves holding fast in the virtuous middle between two incorrect extremes (e.g., the 1800s-1900s Protestant “social gospel only” heresy versus the current Pietist heresy). The devil always offers you a choice of two wrong roads, each veering off the good road in opposite directions.
Protestant / Evangelical communities have swung from “social gospel only” heresy in the 1800s-1900s to the Pietist heresy rejecting virtually all social-cultural activity in modern times.
I highly, highly recommend these articles by the razor-sharp investigative reporter James Perloff. The first is on the swing to the Christian “social gospel” and how it was purposely orchestrated, manufactured, really, by the powers that be (and WHY), and the second article is on what happened next. They may be hard to hear, but if you’re open-minded, please give Perloff a chance.
Good stuff Michael!! The time is now for the church.
Wow! Insightful. Instructional. Deeply discerning the issue at hand. Like I said - you are a seasonal man. Given to us to at this season in Church history to address the ills of the Church and provide the cure. Inspirational.
A great diagnosis of the times. I love the characterization of the elder brother. It will be tempting to generalize, yet it’s helpful to start conversations. I love the specifics that follow about third way ism and the passive cultures. More concrete ways to identify that and drawing that out will be helpful in the book.
This is why we started Christ the King . build in Stillwater Minnesota. Finding out that your church was named the same just sealed the deal for us. ;-) Godspeed! Let’s go build!
The last couple of years it's become increasingly clear to me that pietistic loser theology is a good impulse that's gone rotten. I've got lots of examples and hopefully the book will provide the needed nuance and clarification.
I'm excited for your new church plant. Praise God! And great name, too!
Good piece, Michael. I've felt much like a lone voice in the wilderness over this, unable to put my finger on the whole loathsome entirety of what exactly the cultural issue is, but I think you've done an admirable job of framing it here.
For my own part, much of the trouble I see and have been commenting on is in the symptoms of loser theology: the sheer reluctance to speak up and speak out, with many Christians seemingly subscribing to what I've termed 'Golden Bus Ticket' theology. The is the notion that they're saved, so it's OK to sin, hide Jesus and seek shelter in the world and totally forget about picking up the cross; it's too troublesome and you'll fail anyway, so let's just wait till we get called home.
I've written about this odd sense of milquetoast Christianity fairly recently in a piece, "Triggering your plastic Jesus" on my own Substack ( https://pastormike.substack.com/p/triggering-your-plastic-jesus ) as the result of being accosted by one whom I respected.
This subject is something that God has had me focusing on for the last several months from the pulpit - are we at the threshold of revival? One can only hope & pray.
Evil never takes a holiday.
If recent history has proven anything, it’s that destructive progressive ideologies never stop, or even slow down.
The devil never sleeps.
It’s individual spiritual obedience starting on our knees; and not respite, that is the composition for spiritual growth and victory.
Donald Trump’s first term(2016)was the breathing space from a horrific Obama “hope and change”.
But how effective was the Church in curbing sin during Trumps first four years?
America ended up getting Biden, LGBTQ+, transgenders, murder babies, teenage body parts multilated, men participating in women’s bathrooms, and sports.
The key is… MAGA is being led by a man who currently does not profess Jesus as Savior(Pray).
And Trump is determined to end all wars.
But the Apostle Paul warns Believers to be alert and ready in all seasons.
“For when they will say peace and safety; then sudden destruction comes upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they will not escape.
Therefore, let us not sleep as do others; but let us watch and be sober”(I Thessalonians 5:3,6).
Christ is King! That means He should rule in culture and society, through His visible Church on earth, and not just in “the secret hearts of His people.”
In the ages of Christendom, there were two distinct authorities that ran kingdoms — the Church and the temporal state. Since the spiritual should have authority over the temporal, the Church had authority to some limited extent over governmental rulers, because the bishops or pope could excommunicate them, and in some instances they could use their own armies against an egregiously criminal ruler. It was a not perfect system by any means, it was run by sinners just as we are sinners, and the Church was developing & deepening its spiritual and social doctrines along the way, but it was at least Christendom, where Jesus Christ ruled, which developed into the heights of Christian society, and it was not the re-paganizing horrors of today.
The Catholic Church has a real, serious problem with “soft, nice” Christianity, and with a kind of bad opposite of Pietism … leftist / communist / secularized, baptized but totally dissident so-called “Catholics” (even lots of communists / occultists infiltrated into the high leadership of the Catholic Church), who are **very loud** in trying to shape society into the culture of death (abortion, globalism, homosexuality, etc.)! Conservative & traditionalist Catholics are fighting back hard against these folks.
But we Catholics don’t have as much of a problem with the severe Pietist heresy that has come upon the Evangelical & other Protestant communities, or the terrible idea that’s prevalent in current Evangelicalism and Protestantism that it’s wrong even to dispute or graciously argue (i.e., have a philosophical debate) about Church teachings, because it’s “mean.”
We have too many saints through the millennia who stood up against their societies and even eventually went to their deaths for supporting Church teaching on marriage, against homosexuality, against pagan child sacrifice, for the right of the Church to worship and practice their religion in society (ex: the 1920s Cristero movement against the terrible communist Mexican government that was severely persecuting the Catholic Church), against slavery (Catholics wiped out pagan slavery in Europe until the horrific, revived slave trade of Africans), against various heresies, etc.
Fighting heresies like Pietism always involves holding fast in the virtuous middle between two incorrect extremes (e.g., the 1800s-1900s Protestant “social gospel only” heresy versus the current Pietist heresy). The devil always offers you a choice of two wrong roads, each veering off the good road in opposite directions.
See the long list highlighting just the MAJOR heresies the Catholic Church has fought against throughout her two thousand year history, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_heresies_in_the_Catholic_Church#Medieval_heresies
Protestant / Evangelical communities have swung from “social gospel only” heresy in the 1800s-1900s to the Pietist heresy rejecting virtually all social-cultural activity in modern times.
I highly, highly recommend these articles by the razor-sharp investigative reporter James Perloff. The first is on the swing to the Christian “social gospel” and how it was purposely orchestrated, manufactured, really, by the powers that be (and WHY), and the second article is on what happened next. They may be hard to hear, but if you’re open-minded, please give Perloff a chance.
1) The War on Christianity, Part I https://jamesperloff.net/war-on-christianity-part-1/
2) The War on Christianity, Part II https://jamesperloff.net/war-on-christianity-part-2/