I am going to try to make this as opaque as possible. A Christian celebrity today announced that she filed for divorce after a ten year marriage. She came to this decision through much prayer....and is thankful for all the support that she is being given. Normally that story would go in one ear and out the other because we hear things like this all the time....but it was less than a week ago that I went to a Southern Gospel concert....of a group that I really liked....and during the concert I learned that two of the ladies had been divorced from their Christian husbands. One of these ladies made this comment in explaining how hard it was to get divorced....she was most sad because she had broken God's heart by getting divorced?
It was Wednesday morning....January 6.....2021. I....along with most everyone else in America....knew that there was going to be a protest gathering on the Ellipse in our capital....so I clicked on the television. I've done this many times....I might be watching something....maybe a Trump rally....or a prayer rally....and I knew that I was going to want to post on what was being said....and had no time to attempt to record it....so I....as I heard it....shorthanded the words the best that I could. On this particular Wednesday morning I just wanted to type my thoughts on what I was watching....and post them later. I did not know that that day would be one of the worst days in the history of our country.....and I was describing the beginning of that day. Here are the exact words that I typed and saved as I watched....
"Wednesday morning at 11:30....The melody is beautiful.....there's no denying that....and it gives me chills....but the wrong kind of chills. I'm talking about Leonard Cohen's....Hallelujah. The word 'hallelujah' is special......for in essence it means....'praise Yahweh'.....or....'praise Yah.' I cringe when I hear in used other than where it should be used....and that includes Neil Diamond's.....Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show. So I booted up the computer a few minutes ago to hear what President Trump was going to say in his appearance at the Washington protest/rally.....and Cohen's song was playing. The chills were there.....and I didn't like it....but to make matters worse.....as the video feed showed from the rear of the first twenty or so rows of people....I saw a few raised hands....swaying back and forth to the song.....as if in a charismatic church. What were they praising...for it's hopefully not the object of the Cohen song? Trump eventually came on.....he is speaking now....and I had to turn him off....because folks it is unnerving....the sway he has....as this very large crowd chanted.....fight for Trump....fight for Trump....fight for Trump!"
(I need to repeat that....I was so unnerved by what I was witnessing....that I actually had to turn the television off!)
Back to that Southern Gospel concert that I mentioned above....at one point the up-tempo music slowed....and the female singer began a riff on the chords to Hallelujah....only it was not the chords from their own beautiful Halleluyah....but Cohen's famous chords for his....Hallelujah....the same chords that had people raising their hands on January 6 before the violence would begin.
January 6th wasn't the beginning of the collapse of evangelicalism....far from it....nor was June 16 of 2015 the beginning....when Trump came down that golden escalator...a false prophet/wolf into the middle of evangelicalism. Maybe there was no beginning? Whatever the answer to that....we today are cheering the footage of human beings blown away as missiles hit their targets....booting up Fox to see what new video they might have of blacks fighting each other....or what new story of an illegal who committed a violent crime....or licking our lips as indictments of some sort are brought by Trump's Justice Department....against his personal enemies.
It should therefore be no surprise that we have no discernment at all on the nearness of the Lord's coming in glory and righteous judgment....nor do we really want Him to return....for first and foremost....we want our country back....as we have turned out backs on a scriptural truth that we once memorized...."Not by power....nor by might....but by My Spirit....says the LORD of hosts. (Zechariah 4:6 ESV)
ICHABOD....the glory has long since departed evangelicalism....a divorce so to speak....irreconcilable differences....between God's Word....and the church.
Addendum: It's not the divorce....or the lifestyles....or the idols....I have my own idols....it is a general falling away that we have had from God's Word....as we over time choose what verses of Scripture that we want....and ignore the vast majority that are problematic to things like divorce....and lifestyles....and idolatry....and someone like trump! God has taken home R. C. Sproul and John MacArthur....earlier than He might have....and these were the men who reminded us of the....Holiness of God. We have no one of stature left! They are all out there telling us that we have to protect our rights to preach the lifestyles and the idolatries and the freedoms that we hold dear! If there is ever to be a last days revival....it would have to begin with us....with our faces flush to the ground asking forgiveness for going to 'Egypt' for our help!
