Preface: I heard on the radio what Franklin Graham had said but have so far been unable to find it so as to quote him verbatim....but the gist of it was that all he wanted from President Trump was four more years so that Christians would have time to prepare for God's Judgment. This is definitely an improvement on his normal wholehearted endorsing Donald Trump....but he needs to come to grips with the fact that Trump almost daily prophesies that our best is yet to come.....and recently implied that it is nonsense that judgment is coming for America's sins. Donald Trump is not buying us four more years....in fact he is hastening cataclysmic events....and may even before this is all over....turn on the evangelical....of whom only serves a purpose for this purely transactional mind of our president....particularly if we come to see who he is and no longer support him.
I don't know how many times I've done this....I don't know why I do it....but I did it again yesterday in Barnes & Noble. It used to be labeled the Christian Living section....but now it's just plain Religion....at least the B&N that I usually go to every Tuesday....for that's when the new releases come out....and then I torture myself as I walk the aisle....and look at what America is offered as Christian books.
I think back on how thirty years ago I might occasionally criticize Christian bookstores because they mostly sold wall hangings and Christian knickknacks and music....but if we still had those bookstores today....evangelicalism might not have fallen so easily as it has.
It was either late 1981 or early 1982 that I walked into one of those Christian bookstores while my wife was shopping in J. C. Penney....not ever having been in one before....and not knowing hardly anything about the Christian faith....and inquisitive as I have always been....always looking for an interesting book....I walked out with this title....Evidence That Demands A Verdict....written by a Josh McDowell.
In fact....along with all the Christian paraphernalia there were many books....and depending on the individual store....some great Christian literature....along of course with the schmaltz and pablum and nonsense. I was introduced to Banner of Truth publishers in these stores....and Charles Spurgeon and Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield....and R. C. Sproul and John MacArthur and literally dozens of other names from both yesterday and today.
I did fall for some of the charismatic nonsense at first....but the more one varies his reading in something like this....(or politics by the way!)....the more likely that he will spot the genuine....and be able to identify the false doctrine and the fake....and that's what happened to me....but all this is gone today....for the 'Christian' section in Barnes & Noble is the only source that the average person....just browsing....has available to them....that and Christian television.....where they are more than likely going to come across Joel Osteen or Joyce Meyer....with little to nothing in either B&N or on television to combat these false teachers.
If you are a little upset at this my comment....and you have been a Christian for say....twenty years or less....then you have proved my point....although you have no idea that you did. One can go into a conservative Presbyterian church today and receive no warnings on false or just poor Christian authors....if in fact one of these books are not actually being studied....or at least in the church library. That's how bad it is. That's how far we have fallen.
There was only one John MacArthur book in that aisle yesterday.....maybe one or two by Billy Graham....and possibly one or two genuinely good books in amongst the thousand other books....(good luck to the browser)....none by R. C. Sproul or Michael Horton or any of a couple of dozen authors who are out there but not carried in the store by B&N because they do not fit today's criteria for books that will sell. There were no Banner of Truth books....no Luther or Calvin or even church history....other than on Bonhoeffer. The best that you might find as from the past might by C. S. Lewis.
Megachurches dominate our supply lines today....and they are megachurches primarily because they are there to provide what people want....what might excite them....what might make them want to come back....what might make the typical suburban mom to want to stay....active youth programs.....good music....with state-of-the-art sound and lighting systems....but not what they terribly and immediately need. There are no hedges around these churches....not literal bushes....but protections....warnings on cults and false teachers....or strong doctrinal studies.....beyond the bare essentials of which they might very well have....and certainly not anything that might be controversial....or intellectual. Check out if you will....their web sites....and yes you will find that bare essential statement of faith....in the midst of tons of links for various ministries from which you might be interested....and activities that you might want to partake of....and as for the sermons (?)....if you think that they are good sermons....try going back for research on YouTube to Spurgeon and J. C. Ryle and Martyn LLoyd-Jones....do this daily for a week or so....and then see if you hold the same favorable opinion on typical sermons from today.
We have Donald Trump because we have lost discernment....largely because the preached word today is so weak. We never....ever....would have picked him back in the 1980s....because we would have dumped him the first time that he tweeted out his personality and character. We would have spotted the false prophet.
If you are interested.....and if you have read this far you just might be....the novella link to the left of this post....Isaac Crocket....written over twenty years ago....revolves around a Christian bookstore....sounds exciting huh....but it's actually on the issues in this post.
Note: The must have book of the day today is Jonathan Cahn's latest....The Harbinger II....of which I have a review only a little ways back under the same title.
Also: You might want to try this.....Google.....Michael Reeves sermons Youtube. He is a British theology professor who is on R. C. Sproul's ligonier.org often.....and who preaches as wonderful as many of these men from the past.
