ChuckLawless.com is a blog about Missions, Evangelism and Biblical Church Growth

George Barna has released “megathemes” of the American religious environment as discovered through his company’s research in 2010 (http://bit.ly/eBKWvG), summarized below in bold print. Any honest church leader in America would not be surprised by Barna’s findings. 

Alongside those themes, I have included some of Michael Green’s conclusions in his classic work, Evangelism in the Early Church.  A comparison of these viewpoints is enlightening. 

1. The Christian church is becoming less theologically literate. Basic Christian truths are increasingly foreign, even to believers.

Green: “Primitive evangelism . . . included able intellectual argument, skillful study of the Scriptures, careful, closely reasoned teaching and patient argument.  It was no doubt because of the careful teaching instruction they were giving that the authorities were worried about this new movement: ‘You have filled Jerusalem with your teaching.’”

2. Christians are becoming more ingrown and less outreach-oriented. Believers are increasingly likely to be isolated from non-believers.

Green: “The little man . . . was the primary agent in mission. . . . This must often have been not formal preaching, but the informal chattering to friends and chance acquaintances, in homes and wine shops, on walks, and around market stalls. They went everywhere gossiping the gospel.”

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In a recent edition of Christianity Today, Carolyn Arends addresses addiction, what she (and Gerald May before her) call “the spiritual disease of our time.” While the goal of the article is rightly to direct us to fulfillment in Jesus alone, it is the reflection given to addictive behaviors that first caught my attention. A few quotes capture the author’s thinking:

• “One of the hallmarks of addiction is ‘tolerance’—the experience of requiring an ever-increasing amount of a particular substance or behavior in order for it to satiate us.”
• “Yesterday’s thrill is today’s old news. We always need more.”
• “. . . we are obsessed by unworthy masters who can never truly satisfy.”

Even for those of us who might claim no addictions, these words sound hauntingly familiar. In fact, replace “addiction,” “thrill,” and “masters” with the word “sin” or “sins” in these sentences, and the powerful lure of the devil’s traps becomes obvious.  We drink from the well of sin, thinking that our choices will somehow bring fulfillment – only to discover that sin leaves us thirstier in the long run.     

There is also a spiritual warfare aspect here that we seldom recognize. For the sake of illustration, imagine a “sin line” that marks the place where we cross from obedience into disobedience.  On one side of that line, the Enemy is the enticer (1 Chron. 21:1) who seeks to draw us across the line. He makes sin look inviting, exciting, and satisfying, even as he ensnares us with his messages:  “Go ahead and do it, nobody will know.”  “Look at what you’re missing.” “Everybody else is doing it.” So alluring is the sin, and so loud are the messages, that we choose to cross the line.

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It has been widely publicized that Roman Catholics sponsored a conference on exorcism this past week.  Over 100 bishops and priests signed up to attend the conference, and pre-conference coverage included Associated Press and The New York Times articles. In having this conversation and this conference, Roman Catholics may well be ahead of evangelicals.  

That is not to say, though, that I see a place for exorcism training.  To begin, many “exorcists” assert that demons can possess believers.  Those taking this position must find biblical texts to try to prove that (1) a possessed non-believer is really a believer (e.g., Luke 13:10-17) or (2) that a genuine believer is really possessed (e.g., Matt. 16:21-23).  Both of these conclusions are, in my judgment, biblically indefensible.  What the Scriptures do teach is that believers are indwelt by and sealed by the Spirit of God (2 Cor. 1:22, Eph. 1:14), and the One in us is more powerful than the one that rules the world (1 John 4:4).   

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