Last night I watched the movie "Luther" again. I am always inspired by his life and his stand against the established church of his day. The contemporary church reminds me alot of the medieval church of years gone by. Luther had to stand up against externalism, formalism, tradition, prejudice, and false doctrine. Christianity was nothing more than cosmetic externals, relics, and superficiality.Here are a few charactaristics of the medieval church that are happening again today:
Powerless Preaching - The medieval church preached church tradition and not sound doctrine. Today "traditional" is out of style, but the preaching is still powerless. Pep talks, and sugary speeches bloat the church attender so he walks out thinking he's full, when all he got was a spiritual milkshake. The people think because there is a reference to the Bible here and there, that somehow what is being said is benefiting them, but they don't know that they are really starving.
Entertaining the Simple Ones - The Medieval church believed that the common person was too dumb to understand the Bible. So, theatricals were performed by the church in the town square. Sounds a little like the entertainment that goes on in contemporary churches today. The "seekers" can't understand biblical truth, so we need to give it to them in a medium that that he can relate to because his attention span can only process information for 15 minutes at a time.
Beautiful Cathedrals - In downtown San Jose, Saint Joseph's Cathedral is a place I like to go to and just admire the building. It fills me with a sense of awe, but then as I look around at the idols and I am reminded that they are damning millions of people, I am filled with a sense of sadness. In modern contemporary churches, the buildings are state of the art, and have great curb appeal, but what's going on inside of them is next to idolotry.
Latin Vulgate Onlyism- Luther would have been burned alive if the Catholic church could have done it. He translated the Bible into the common people's language and the Roman Catholic hiearchy was outraged! In fundamentalism, they attitude is almost the same concerning the King James Bible. Maybe in 400 years there will be a sect of NIV Onlyists!
Ignorant Clergy and Laity - Most people of the middle ages were illiterate, especially when it came to the Bible. Unfortunately, you can go to certain Christian colleges and graduate as a biblical illiterate today. Luther didn't even own his own Bible until he had earned is doctorate in theology. Today, many of our preachers don't even know what's in the Bible, but they're up there teaching it. The people are getting watered down gospel preaching, shallow surface level Bible teaching, and they are spiritually anemic. In 20 years from now, the contemporary seeker sensitive churches will be unrecognizable in doctrine. People will attend church for years and have no clue what sin is nor will they know that they are in any danger of it.
We are in desparate need of a spiritual awakening. It's been about 150 years since the last one and we are overdue for one again.
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