The Coming "Rude Awakening"
Why those expecting another "Great Awakening" may instead be in for something else
Throughout its history, the Church of Jesus Christ has undergone periods of decline and periods of renewal. This pattern is nothing new. Before it, the nation of Israel also experienced repeated cycles of decline, judgment, and renewal. The book of Judges, for instance, gives us example after example of this cycle playing itself out historically accompanied by the repeated refrain: “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6 and others). One cannot find in scripture a better description for the Church at present.
A long disobedience in the wrong direction
All indicators point to the reality that we are, at present, in a period of Church decline, and a precipitous one at that. Church membership and attendance are way down. Countless researchers, pollsters, and cultural commentators have documented this, and I will not bother to rehash their work here—many others have already done so. For a taste of the trends these folks are documenting in the U.S. Church, check out the Barna Group’s State of the Church and Gallup’s robust polling on this topic. Suffice it to say that things are not well. Quantitatively, anecdotally, observationally, and even viscerally, in our gut, I think all honest believers could testify to this.
Hardly a week goes by without another prominent church leader making shipwreck of his faith (1 Timothy 1:19). The godless Communist indoctrination camps, or “universities” as we are now calling them, are luring our children away from the faith of their Christian upbringings to the “god of this age” by the scores (2 Corinthians 4:4). Proselytization is alive and well on college campuses, and the cult that is winning the day is that of “Caesar, Mammon, and Sodom” as John Zmirak has put it, or “Nietzsche, Marx, and Darwin” as Carl Truman has put it.
Christians, yes, all Christians, have taken up the practices of the world to one extent or another in the form of sanitized, Church-sanctioned, family friendly versions of divorce, infanticide, feminism, porn, greed, drugs, sodomy, etc. It seems there isn’t a bandwagon so rickety and godless that we won’t chase after it and hop aboard, several years late to the party. We will address these categories of sins and their inroads into the Church with greater specificity and depth over time, but given where things currently stand, we’ve got a lot of groundwork to lay in addition to this if we are to approach these issues with the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). Frankly, we as American Christians have our work cut out for us. The number of dumpster fires on our hands is growing by the hour.
Forget Eugene Peterson’s “long obedience in the same direction.” Ours is “a long disobedience in all the wrong directions.”
American exceptionalism?
The Biblical aphorism “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18) expresses a spiritual law as fixed as the physical law of gravity. When a people collectively turns from God, He turns from them, and all hell breaks loose (Deuteronomy 28:15-68). What goes up in pride and rebellion must come down in shame and humiliation.
This theme is everywhere in scripture. Take Babel for instance. Here was a city determined to shake its puny fist at God right from the cloudy floor of His throne room in heaven. George Herbert described this deluded mindset well:
He makes flat war with God, and doth defy
With his poor clod of earth the spacious sky.
Americans are doing this en masse. We are casting off frighteningly basic categories of the created order, such as the gender binary. And the Church is no different. Perhaps several steps behind, but fellow travelers on the broad road to perdition nonetheless.
So, why would we expect America’s fate to be any different from that of Babel’s? Why wouldn’t God send mass confusion to our land and scatter us to the four winds? Isn’t it perfectly obvious that this is precisely what God is already doing? Isn’t it only a matter of time until we too are reduced to a smoldering crater, a byword, a haunt of jackals?
As alluded to above, wayward Israel was disciplined severely for its many apostasies, culminating in national captivity under the Assyrian empire in 722 BC for the northern tribes (Israel) and captivity under the Babylonian empire in 586 BC for the southern tribes (Judah). Although the Israelites were God’s unique covenant people, this fate is applicable to any nation that turns its back on God, because God is Lord over every civilization under the sun. He used the Israelites to judge the wicked Canaanites during the conquest under Joshua, and then, some hundreds of years later, He did the very same to the Israelites when they had sunken to even lower depths than their pagan predecessors (2 Kings 21:9; Ezekiel 5:7, 16:47).
In his day, Martin Luther wrote On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, recognizing a similar period of spiritual bondage in Europe under the corrupt Roman Catholic Church. What followed was nearly two centuries of bloodshed, and yes, some hard-won revival intermixed.
Why would so-called Christian America be any different? Are we more special to God than Israel? Are we immune to His judgments? If this is what we mean by “American exceptionalism,” then I’m out. Forget all this talk of “the last best hope of earth.” God does not play favorites. He didn’t do so with His chosen people, the Jews, so why would He do so for us? Leviticus 18:26-29:
“But you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, […] lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. For everyone who does any of these abominations, the persons who do them shall be cut off from among their people.”
If God did not spare the natural olive branches, then why would He spare us wild branches (Romans 11:11-24)?
“What’s wrong with the world?”
What’s troubling, though, is the lack of church leaders clearly pointing out the true culprit behind our civilizational decline: us. The Church. Or as Chesterton so famously put it (in a perhaps overused and even spurious quote) in response to the question “What’s wrong with the world?” posed by The Times of London: “Dear sir, I am.” It’s us. We’re the problem. Christians. There’s a lot of blame to go around, granted. But in God’s eyes, the buck stops with us. He will lay it at our feet.
We in the Church underestimate the restraining power on sin that the Holy Spirit can and should exercise on the world through us as believers (2 Thessalonians 2:7). When we grieve the Spirit (Ephesians 4:30) and quench His work (1 Thessalonians 5:19) by condoning, supporting, and even participating in the very sinful practices on account of which the wrath of God is coming (Colossians 3:6), we become culpable for making conditions ripe for further societal decline. In doing so, we devolve into repulsive hypocrites that the world can sniff out from a mile away, rather than the convicting, life-giving aroma of Christ (2 Corinthians 2:15, 16).
The Church is the “light of the world” a “city set on a hill” (Matthew 5:14-16) and “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). And the hard truth is we American Christians are failing miserably to live up to this high and holy calling. Not only should we be holding the line on evil, we should be leading the way into righteous living under Jesus’ lordship in any civilization that we find ourselves in. Instead, we are the tail being wagged, the dog begging for crumbs of relevancy from the table of the true cultural “influencers.” You know, like that dude on TikTok who filmed his “transition” into a chick (“How did those videos become so viral? What lessons can we glean from him, I mean, her?”).
We Americans are clearly in the process of being gradually given over by God to our enemies, spiritual, national, and otherwise (see this brilliantly succinct article by Leo Hohmann for documentation), no small thanks to the capitulations of the Church. In the words of Deuteronomy 28:43-44:
“The foreigners who reside among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower. They will lend to you, but you will not lend to them. They will be the head, but you will be the tail.”
Still, we are perplexed. Like the hapless politician baffled by his tanking poll numbers after implementing a slew of disastrous economic policies, the cause is always the same: “It’s the economy, stupid.” And so it is when an ostensibly Christian nation plummets spiritually and morally: “It’s the economy Church, stupid.” It’s not the groomers’ fault, or BLM’s, or Antifa’s, or even the politicians’, as destructive as these groups are. It’s us. We’re the problem. These groups would not be culturally ascendant had we not first ceded our authority over to them, over many decades, through our own compromise. In the end, God gives no one over to the power of another, much less an enemy; we do that ourselves by giving away our strength through the sins we commit of our own accord.
And yet we continue to miss the mark. We hear an endless litany of laments and, yes, often highly astute, technically accurate assessments of the problems “out there” in the world. But those are easy to see, even for the spiritually near sighted: “The sins of some are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them” (1 Timothy 5:24a). When these sins infiltrate the Church, all the good conservative Christians are up-in-arms, and rightly so.
But what about the so-called “respectable sins” of the average church-going evangelical? The sins even your pastor winks at? Suddenly, even the stoutest culture warriors among us turn sheepish. “Owning the libs” is just so much more enjoyable. They are easy targets, whether they are within the Church or without. But when the sights are aimed back at us, the cries of “Give ‘em hell, preacher!” grow awkwardly silent. “The sins of others trail behind them” (1 Timothy 5:24b).
“Prosperity is just around the corner”
In spite of the dire straits in which the Church currently finds herself, the message we hear from most evangelical leaders resembles Herbert Hoover’s purported reassurance to the American people on the brink of the Great Depression: “Prosperity is just around the corner.”
That’s right folks, despite all appearances, fret not: Revival is coming.
I’m not talking about the hucksters among us. Yes, there will always be the crass false prophets, who at present are predicting windfall gains in power and prestige for God’s people in the form of enormous transfers of wealth from the clandestine coffers of the globalists to the offering plates of the churches. That is one thing.
It’s another thing when the good guys, however well-intended, hold out equally false hopes of restored fortunes and resort to dealing “hopeium,” as some term it, rather than shooting straight with God’s people. You get the feeling deep down that these leaders are just telling you what you want to hear, but you don’t speak up, because they are good, sincere Christian men. And, in all honesty, something inside of you wants to believe the convenient lie rather than face the ugly truth.
Although I take no pleasure in saying this, such dangerously naïve sentiments are often found on the lips of prominent, otherwise exemplary Christian leaders with large platforms in the Church. Many of these leading evangelical pastors, current events commentators, and prophetic voices, while often so helpful and dead on when it comes to many cultural trends, nevertheless forward a sincere (and I believe sincerely misguided) hope of a budding spiritual awakening unfolding right beneath our noses. A renewal spurred on by a widespread return to God and ordered liberty. “The sleeping giant is awakening” they assure us.
And the advice they offer can be good. Make your faith work in public life. Live out your Christianity in the open, unapologetically. Embrace civic engagement. Get out and vote. Show up. Make noise. Pray. Fast. Make war against the unseen principalities and powers. Dust off that shofar if you have to. Perhaps God will grant mercy on our land in the form of a great resurgence of sheep in the pews, courageous political leaders in the civil realm, and anti-woke Christian-adjacent crusaders in the cultural sphere.
Now, don’t get me wrong. These are fine things to promote. But according to these leaders, what is it, precisely, that the Church is guilty of? Let me attempt my best “steelman” of their position. The answer appears to be primarily the embracing suicidal cultural trends, apathy, entitlement, and ghettoization. If so, then what is their proposed solution? It is to wake up from our complacency and turn the tide of evil in our country before it’s too late. And how? Through identifying and rejecting the cultural Kool-Aid wherever it is served up, involvement in the life of the Church and the body politic, appreciation for and robust defense of the blessings of American life and the creeds that enabled them, and cultural engagement to preserve these values for ourselves, our posterity, and the world. Above all, it is to pray for revival in the Church and against the onslaught of the corrupt governmental and societal forces seeking to overrun us with the help of the demonic hordes that animate them.
This is all perfectly true. And, at this point in the game, largely irrelevant.
We can fight the culture wars on these fronts until the cows come home. We can pray until we are blue in the face. And we can blow those shofars into orbit. But it will do us no good, zero, zilch, nada, unless we first get our own spiritual house in order through individual and corporate repentance of the root sins underlying the mere symptoms listed above.
Make no mistake about it: It is awakening we need and it is awakening we must pray for. But unless this evangelical awakening is marked by real, deep, profound, and, yes, painful, costly, uncomfortable, and downright inconvenient repentance from specific, Biblical, Ten Commandment-breaking sins, rather than the mere downstream malaise that these sins produce, then it is not genuine revival. Thus far, this sort of awakening is not occurring. Until it does, we are mostly wasting our time. We’ll be no better off in the end, only worse.
The coming awakening
Awakening is coming alright, but it may not be the “Third Great Awakening” that many Christian leaders are setting their followers up for. No, taken together, all the current indicators tell us that what we’ve likely got in store is a massive “Rude Awakening.” And one I fear, if we do not get sober about and fast, may result in many believers simply ditching the faith altogether in disillusionment. Why? Because they’ll be expecting one thing, a surge of revival, and instead get another, a broadside of judgment. And the reason for this is simple: We are calling for revival without really calling for repentance. We want the benefits of turning to God without the hard and bloody sacrifice of fessing and forsaking our most cherished Christian vices.
Our prophets would heal our wounds too lightly (Jeremiah 6:14). Where are the stalwart stands against the sins of the saints? Where are the resolute calls to repentance? Where are the uncompromising John the Baptists of our time, calling out the viper broods that have infested God’s house (Matthew 3:7; Luke 3:7)? And yes, both John and his cousin, the Prophet Jesus (Matthew 23:33), were referring to conservative religious leaders when they used that colorful, serpentine epithet.
We need to stop praying for revival superficially. Instead, we need to confess and forsake our precious pet sins, the ones that cling so closely to us that we hardly notice them (Hebrews 12:1). The sins presentable Christians get away with because, well, all the other Christians in good standing in the Church are doing the same thing (nowadays, that is; don’t look too deep into the past for comfort).
We all agree that true revival is essential. It really is the only solution that will turn things around, if we have not already passed the point of no return (a question for another time). But how long can we in the Church stand around getting all worked up about the evening news and putting on fleshly shows of consternation when God is simply staring down at us from heaven and saying “I’m waiting. You want national repentance? Then for once, lead the way, Christian. Until then, don’t bother asking for help.” Isaiah 59:1-3:
“Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear. For your hands are stained with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters injustice.”
What is revival, if not an outpouring of God’s Spirit that results in conviction of sin and repentance (John 16:8-11; Acts 2:36-41)? If a revival gets Christians back in the churches, into the voting booths, and in the public square, standing for sound principles backed by good laws and strong leaders in Washington, absent a profound, soul-piercing work of Holy Spirit-wrought repentance that must take precedence over all other reforms, then it is no revival at all. You can keep it. God’s not in it.
History has seen countless formerly good, and even godly nations abandon the Lord and His law with catastrophic results. Even after witnessing Israel’s treachery and exile, the prophet Jeremiah noted that “‘in spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but only in pretense,’ declares the LORD” (Jeremiah 3:10, emphasis mine).
Yes, Christians are slowly waking up to some of the effects of our sins, but we have not yet renounced the sins themselves and turned to God with all of our hearts. In truth, we are still largely oblivious to these sins, and when made aware, defend them vehemently.
Perhaps we need a rude awakening after all.
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