Bringing the Church Back to Christ

In these last days, many religions and false gospels are rising and becoming widespread. Many are being deceived into putting their confidence in a false hope. These are perilous times, and many are desperate for quick fixes to get them out of their hardships. These uncertain times have become the perfect breeding ground for false prophets to thrive and exploit the ignorant. It is at such a time as this that the Church must earnestly contend for the faith. The Christian faith is being attacked, not only by the media, the scientific community, and antichrist religions, but also by certain elements within the institution of the local churches. The true Church must boldly stand up in these last days, before the night cometh when no man can work, and earnestly contend for the faith. There are so many distractions. The Church must remove herself from the distractions and fix her eyes on Jesus, the author, the perfecter, and the finisher of her faith. (Hebrews 12:2).

Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. (Jude 1:3, KJV).

Today, the world continues to question the relevance of the Church. Even many professing Christians have disengaged from the Church and see it as no longer relevant. This unfortunate state of affairs may have its origins in denominationalism which essentially hindered the Church from speaking with one voice. When the Church does not speak with one voice, it becomes difficult to discern what the Church is contending for. If we are just contending to be right, then we are not contending for the faith. Making it more complicated is the fact that Christians are not agreed on what constitutes the Christian faith. And so what one group of Christians are contending for as the faith may be entirely different from what another group is contending for as the faith.

What is the Church earnestly contending for? What should the Church be earnestly contending for?

In Romans 1:28, the Scriptures talk about a people that did not like to retain God in their knowledge. God gave these people over to a reprobate mind that caused them to do things that ought not to be done. There are these kinds of people in Christendom. They have lots of knowledge, but God is not a part of their enormous knowledge base. They do not like to retain God in their knowledge. They are like those Pharisees that search the scriptures, thinking that by merely doing so, they have eternal life. Yet, they cannot see the light of Christ in the scriptures. (John 5:39). They are full of knowledge but little conviction. God is not retained in our knowledge when He is not the center of our knowledge. Many in the Church must be careful not to fall under the fate of Romans 1:28 and must avoid being given over to a reprobate mind. The only way for us to avoid this is by retaining God in our knowledge. Those local churches that have pushed God to the periphery and made something else their priority for such a lengthy period of time may well be operating with a debased and reprobate mind. When Christians idolize conferences, programs, budgets, auditoriums, projects, building projects, pastors, prophets, apostles, and politicians, they push God aside to the periphery. When Christ is not the driving force of what we do, we begin to contend for other things that are not of the faith. This is why some of our local churches, including some of the big and prominent churches, are caught up in doing things that do not relate to the Kingdom of God. They applaud themselves for their accomplishments even when some of these accomplishments were done without God’s hand being in it.

The neglect, and in some cases, failure of the Church to earnestly contend for the faith has been costly. It has resulted in the doors of many local churches being opened to religious spirits. The religious spirit wastes no time in removing the focus of the people off from God. The religious spirit knows how to demonstrate a form of godliness that denies the power thereof. It can operate using the name of Jesus but will not honor the Holy Spirit. Eventually, the religious spirit makes a church substitute the presence of God for mere activities and routine. Believers must be thoroughly discipled in the word of God so that they have a basis for testing such contrary spirits.

Distraction, Delusion, and Deception

As the bride awaits the coming of her groom, and as she earnestly contends for the faith, she must watch and pray. She must avoid all distractions. The distractions of the world have a way of taking our focus away from Christ. A church that is not focused on Christ will soon fall into confusion - or a delusion that it is still on the right path. There is a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof is destruction. Simply put, delusion occurs when a lie is viewed as truth in spite of all the evidence pointing to its falsehood. Delusion can easily occur when a denomination bases its entire faith structure on the personal revelation of its leader. Deception closely follows after delusion.