By Brad Isbell
This began as an X thread, but don’t hold that against it.
A warning and encouragement for those “returning” to Christianity in the last several years: The normal trajectory for the faithful is to find a settled home in a local church. Finding online affinity groups, being “based,” or having newly radical political/social views is not enough. A new taste for singing Psalms as opposed to praise jingles (as good as that is), an aversion to seed oils, “waking up” (aka becoming woke) re: Israel and race, “noticing things”—none of these are the fruit of the Spirit. If your (warning - terrible phrase coming) spiritual journey does not end in the sometimes-boring or (horrors!) borderline-boomerish local church, you may still be on the wrong road. If your online leaders ply a path of controversy and dissent, they may be leading you astray. Read the final paragraphs of Machen's Christianity and Liberalism; read the Pastoral Epistles and see if Paul would commend the unsettled way of the edgelord. See if your way leads to contentment with the church and her people and her Lord and His provision, or to something else entirely. See if the “better country” you are seeking is “a heavenly one.”
Sometimes, it is true, the longing for Christian fellowship is satisfied. There are congregations, even in the present age of conflict, that are really gathered around the table of the crucified Lord; there are pastors that are pastors indeed. But such congregations, in many cities, are difficult to find. Weary with the conflicts of the world, one goes into the Church to seek refreshment for the soul. And what does one find? Alas, too often, one finds only the turmoil of the world. The preacher comes forward, not out of a secret place of meditation and power, not with the authority of God's Word permeating his message, not with human wisdom pushed far into the background by the glory of the Cross, but with human opinions about the social problems of the hour or easy solutions of the vast problem of sin. Such is the sermon. And then perhaps the service is closed by one of those hymns breathing out the angry passions of 1861, which are to be found in the back part of the hymnals. Thus the warfare of the world has entered even into the house of God, And sad indeed is the heart of the man who has come seeking peace.
Is there no refuge from strife? Is there no place of refreshing where a man can prepare for the battle of life? Is there no place where two or three can gather in Jesus' name, to forget for the moment all those things that divide nation from nation and race from race, to forget human pride, to forget the passions of war, to forget the puzzling problems of industrial strife, and to unite in overflowing gratitude at the foot of the Cross? If there be such a place, then that is the house of God and that the gate of heaven. And from under the threshold of that house will go forth a river that will revive the weary world.
- J. Gresham Machen, closing paragraphs of Christianity and Liberalism,
Some diagnostic questions:
Are you more interested in political theory or Biblical truth, including that narrative of the early Christian Church found in the New Testament?
Does your chosen ethos make it easier or harder for you to welcome seeking, believing, repenting people of all kinds into the Church?
Can you be happy in and thankful for any church local to you?
From an earlier post:
Look at what Machen’s generation faced: national and international strife, racial division, pride (the hallmark of the modern self!), passions for war, and industrial (read: economic and class) struggle—has anything changed?
Machen’s solution was simple, and it was as unimpressive to culturally-obsessed Christians in his day as in our own: worship. Churches heralding gospel truth, humbled under the cross, given to grateful praise—these places were the nearest believers would come to heaven in this world, to the very gate! And the world would benefit as waters flowed forth from a house, not from a fortress. Such was the church Machen longed for 100 years ago. May God grant us the same longing today.
Excellent post! Thanks so much for the encouragement. The 100-year old Machen quote could have been written in our day.
Good words!