August 26, 2009. The cultural revolution of the 1960s spawned a number of very different movements. One of them was the Jesus Movement sometimes described as Jesus Freaks on the West Coast. Hippies were being baptized and some very legitimate churches had their beginning. Obviously, it came with its own music, Larry Norman being one of the first. Kris Kristofferson wrote a song called One Day At A Time that was recorded by a few country artists and eventually by Christian singer Christy Lane, whose album I bought in 1981 for the song. Amy Grant, Don Francisco, Dion and B. J. Thomas (yes, Dion and B. J. Thomas) and many other Christian artists came afterwards. It was a heady time, the early 1980s, for new Christians in America. There was a little bit of Jesus Freak in most of us. As the 1980s moved into the 90s, James Dobson stepped into the spotlight. Most Christians were concerned with secular humanism's intrusion into our schools. This all changed on September 11th, 2001. James Dobson contributed a lot, and continues to contribute, to families,and the patriot that evolved after 9/11 at least knows and proclaims that without God, we have no hope as a nation. One cannot go their whole Christian life only saying Jesus loves you and asking Brother, are you saved. We have to be able to explain in depth, if called upon. There was another movement parallel to the Jesus Movement. The time period is similar. David Martyn Lloyd-Jones was causing waves over liberal theology in the Anglican church in England, J. I. Packer's book Knowing God from 1973 became a classic and the emergence of Presbyterian pastor/teacher/theologian R. C. Sproul (born 1939 in Pittsburgh, www.ligonier.org ) brought the intellect back into its proper place in the Christian life. All of these people, in both movements, had an influence on me as did numerous others. This is not an attempt at an historical account, but only personal observations. The question of the hour is where are the churches of today headed. There are far more dubious signs than encouraging ones but the embers that remain are hot and the dangers of the day provide a very dry forest should God breathe on us once again.
Understanding the history of the church is important. Without it each new generation would consider itself the latest and the greatest to come on the scene. With even a cursory reading of what transpired previously one would becomed humbled...over the challenges that were already faced and met head on, over the ever-present difficulties the church will always face, over persecutions and over the obvious hand of God guiding a church that often tended to go astray. American Christianity 2012 did not appear out of a vacuum. It was forged in fire, at times rescued from a raging sea, at times severely chastised and at times used mightily by God. It is our race now, for the baton has been passed. Those gone on before watch and say, "Look at us...learn from our mistakes, rush to the fountains that we were refreshed in, take advantage of having our histories set before you." The following is but a short and very incomplete synopsis, from my eyes, as to how you and I came to run on the same team, brothers and sisters in Christ, weak but strong...not in numbers but in Him.
The frontier in America was slowly moving westward. Itinerant ministers serviced the small congregations with the Gospel of Jesus Christ but with only enough doctrine that fit into their saddlebags. Back East, the seminaries battled something more dangerous that Indians, a dead Christianity imported from Europe. The nation headed to Civil War. Christians on both sides fought for either the Union or their states in trying to leave it. The winning side would determine where the church would go and that bastion of liberalism in America resided in the land of the victors.
With the Civil War over, America was free to grow with full use of its bounteous resources. The church became very proper and the remnant of Biblical Christianity were now outsiders, whether on the prairies, in the mountains or in the few seminaries and churches of the east that remained true to the Gospel. Eventually, all kinds of mystical religions sprang up from false teachers who thought themselves directly indued with knowledge from on high. True Christians on the farms and in the towns beyond the big cities were labelled "fundamentalists," and "troublemakers" in the Eastern population centers.
Wars ravaged the world and Communism sought to put the final nail in the coffin of Christianity. Out of the chaos of agnosticism was born the "Evangelical." Refrigerators and television sets replaced tanks and jeeps on the assembly lines. Prosperity freed the imaginative preachers to pursue glorious doctrine founded in the mysticism of decades past. Liberalism built the American style cathedrals of beautiful stone, tall steeples and great red doors entered by large congregations of only the most respected of the community.
The youth had revolted as war returned. Both the new Evangelical and the liberal churchgoer languished as the plague of Beatles chewed at the potential of the young American mind but the remnant of true Christianity survived, as it always does. Great minds, part Puritan and part Geneva, trained a cohort that would one day, a decade later, work towards a reformation.
Out of the rabble came "freaks".....Jesus Freaks who would grow into a powerful force of their own. The Fundamentalist had returned and the Evangelical entered the halls of our Congress and the stage was set. The Reformation minded and the Evangelical waged war on ignorance from two fronts with the liberal who turned ultra aggressive in attempting to, once and for all, banish this God who would not keep His proper place in society.
And so here we are. What does tomorrow bring? Should the Lord of Glory tarry, future generations will either look back on us and learn from our mistakes, look to us and be encouraged, or ignore us altogether and navigate raging seas with no compass, no maps and no hope to arrive safely in harbor with, as the Puritan once wrote, "hull unbreached, cargo unspoiled."
The frontier in America was slowly moving westward. Itinerant ministers serviced the small congregations with the Gospel of Jesus Christ but with only enough doctrine that fit into their saddlebags. Back East, the seminaries battled something more dangerous that Indians, a dead Christianity imported from Europe. The nation headed to Civil War. Christians on both sides fought for either the Union or their states in trying to leave it. The winning side would determine where the church would go and that bastion of liberalism in America resided in the land of the victors.
With the Civil War over, America was free to grow with full use of its bounteous resources. The church became very proper and the remnant of Biblical Christianity were now outsiders, whether on the prairies, in the mountains or in the few seminaries and churches of the east that remained true to the Gospel. Eventually, all kinds of mystical religions sprang up from false teachers who thought themselves directly indued with knowledge from on high. True Christians on the farms and in the towns beyond the big cities were labelled "fundamentalists," and "troublemakers" in the Eastern population centers.
Wars ravaged the world and Communism sought to put the final nail in the coffin of Christianity. Out of the chaos of agnosticism was born the "Evangelical." Refrigerators and television sets replaced tanks and jeeps on the assembly lines. Prosperity freed the imaginative preachers to pursue glorious doctrine founded in the mysticism of decades past. Liberalism built the American style cathedrals of beautiful stone, tall steeples and great red doors entered by large congregations of only the most respected of the community.
The youth had revolted as war returned. Both the new Evangelical and the liberal churchgoer languished as the plague of Beatles chewed at the potential of the young American mind but the remnant of true Christianity survived, as it always does. Great minds, part Puritan and part Geneva, trained a cohort that would one day, a decade later, work towards a reformation.
Out of the rabble came "freaks".....Jesus Freaks who would grow into a powerful force of their own. The Fundamentalist had returned and the Evangelical entered the halls of our Congress and the stage was set. The Reformation minded and the Evangelical waged war on ignorance from two fronts with the liberal who turned ultra aggressive in attempting to, once and for all, banish this God who would not keep His proper place in society.
And so here we are. What does tomorrow bring? Should the Lord of Glory tarry, future generations will either look back on us and learn from our mistakes, look to us and be encouraged, or ignore us altogether and navigate raging seas with no compass, no maps and no hope to arrive safely in harbor with, as the Puritan once wrote, "hull unbreached, cargo unspoiled."
