When Will the Church Wake Up?

 “Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you.” Ephesians 5:14 (NASB)

When will the church wake up? No, I am not talking about becoming “woke.” When will the church wake up and realize that sinful teachings and traditions have been accepted and treated as biblical doctrine? What’s that, you say? Your church is a biblical church! Well, let me ask you a few questions. Does your church celebrate Christmas? How about Good Friday and Easter? Does your church teach that Jesus was buried on Friday and raised on Sunday? Oh! And let me guess – your church worships on Sunday too…right? Guess what, the Bible DOES NOT TEACH ANY of these pagan traditions as biblical doctrine. If you will stay with me, in the coming days and weeks, I will unfold what the Scriptures actually teach and what we should be celebrating as Christians.

            The core of the problem is found with those who fill the sanctuary each week. The average Christian has poor study habits when it comes to the Scriptures. By-and-large, Christians show up for Sunday worship without even bringing a Bible. The big screen, concert style of worship has made it far too easy for Christians to simply sit back, relax and read the passage on a screen – sadly some are unable to even open the Bible and find the passage for themselves! Instead, they sit passively and listen to a sermon that is designed to offer encouragement and make them feel good about themselves without ever challenging them to grow to maturity or drawing them into God’s word.

            We have a problem in our churches, and it is not going away any time soon and it will not go away on its own. The people in the pews need a hunger and thirst that only God’s word – His true word preached as it is written – can satisfy! Some of you may be angry right now and I get that. Some of you may be asking what makes me such an expert? Let me tell you something straight from my heart – I can say these things because I used to preach these same things!! In my eleventh year of ministry, I began to question everything I knew. I gelt like something was missing and no matter what I did, I still felt an emptiness inside. That was in 2018, at the start of my thirteenth year of ministry the pandemic that would become the coronavirus began and everything changed.

            While I still prepared a devotional type of message for our family worship, I had time to study the Scriptures differently and for myself. Now I could begin to seek answers for the questions my wife and I had both been struggling with and what I discovered angered me because NONE OF WHAT I FOUND IN THE SCRIPTURES was taught at Bible College or in Seminary (and trust me I went to two of the highest rated Christian schools available). What was taught are the things that are widely accepted in the church today – Christmas as the birth of Jesus; Jesus was buried on Friday and raised on Sunday; Sunday is the day of worship but NONE OF THESE ARE TAUGHT IN THE BIBLE!!

            Which brings me back to my original question, “When will the church wake up?” In the coming days and weeks, I am going to address each of these points, giving adequate time between to digest and research if you choose, before moving to the next point. I will share with you what I have found, not in the hopes that you will believe me but that you will be challenged to do your own reading and research and believe your Bible. I think we can all agree that time is growing short, and the church needs to be at its strongest NOW! So I hope you will stay with me and prayerfully read each point as they come and then do your own reading and research, trusting the guidance of the Holy Spirit to lead you into the truth of God’s word.

Coming soon – The Theory of the Rapture of the Church.