Bored Christians in ProphecyProphecy Chat by Sharon L. Clemens

     After more than 2,000 years, instead of a strong, victorious church, the Lord will return to find His earth filled with apostacy. Apostacy is a falling away from the true faith, and it is a sign of the end times [2 Timothy 3:1-7]. Only the saved remnant will stand firm for the Lord.

     In the Old Testament, Israel was also guilty of apostacy--a lack of faith Zephaniah described as complacency, or religious BOREDOM. In Zephaniah 1:12, the LORD promises to search out and punish the "men who are settled in complacency." Such men were stuck in a hum drum religious rut that had little to do with Christianity. They went through the motions but regarded God as so morally indifferent to what was going on in the real world, they cared less about a personal relationship with Him. Their God was allowed no active part to play in their lives. And yet, God was constantly calling out to them.

     Boredom and complacency are not characteristics of true saving faith. Those who are bored with God are not Christians; they are false converts or self-deceived. Such "Christians" exhibit a shallow faith ABOUT God but evidence no saving faith IN God. God is secondary and irrelevant to what really drives their lives--themselves. The opposite of BOREDOM is religious ZEAL--an excitement about the Lord and the personal relationship He desires with us. When true convicting faith leads to repentance and conversion, the changes in the new believer can't help but be noticed. His Lord is now a very active partner in life. Through the Holy Spirit, the believer has come to depend on God like the human body needs food. As Job said in 23:12:

"I have not departed from the commandment of His lips;
I have treasured the words of His mouth
more than my necessary food."

     Because the faith-based life flourishes in Christ, the believer must be nourished by the Word of God on a daily basis in order to access His guidance and leadership. Christ provides peace and security, even in the midst of life's storms. It all comes down to faith... Those who have it live by it; those who do not merely go through the religious motions, faking devotion.

     The prophet Malachi identified complacent worshippers by the way they did "church," or in his time, the way they brought their sacrifices before the LORD in the Temple:

     * Malachi 1:7 -- "You offer defiled food on My altar, but say, 'In what way have we defiled You?' By saying, 'The table of the LORD is contemptible.' And when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? Offer it then to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you favorably?" says the LORD of hosts."

The people of Judah were disgusted with having to bring sacrifices continually to the LORD. They began bringing damaged animals when God expected the best of their flocks. The Lord exposed their hypocrisy by challenging the people to try the same thing when paying their taxes. They wouldn't get away with cheating the authorities, but they thought they could cheat God. Are we not just as guilty today when we give God our second best, both in time and money? When we grudgingly attend worship services and resent the time spent in the Word and prayer, are we not as guilty as Judah?

     * Malachi 1:12 -- "But you profane it, in that you say, 'The table of the LORD is defiled; and its fruit, its food, is contemptible.' You also say, 'Oh, what a weariness!' and you sneer at it,' says the LORD of hosts."

How easily we become bored and weary with God. However, if we live "by faith," our Lord is not tiresome to us--He is our source of strength and energy. We have come to know that THERE IS A DIRECT RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OUR JOY AND OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST JESUS.


APOSTACY IS EVIDENCE OF PROFESSING [False] CHRISTIANITY

     At Bible study Wednesday evening, we were sharing our life verses--Bible verses that have impacted our lives in especially meaningful ways. My life verse is John 15:5:

"I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing."

     In John 15, Christ taught His disciples that He was the power source for the Christian "system." Believers stay hooked-in to the power source, Christ the vine, to enable the Holy Spirit to produce fruit in us. The fruit of our Christian life is to His glory--and to our COMPLETE JOY! [John 15:11] It is also of a specific kind or variety--that reflects our spiritual gifts, talents and abilities. Each believer is unique to the working out of God's plan. What an exciting purpose we have in Christ; but we realize without Him, we can do nothing.

     A complacent or apostate religious person has no desire to stay hooked into Christ Jesus because they have no dependence on God's system. THEY DO NOT BELIEVE IN IT. They have no faith in it. Why SHOULD the lost have a desire to abide in Christ. Only in the Holy Spirit do we desire to operate within God's system instead of our own. A PROFESSING Christian may say he believes in Christ and attends church; but when outside the church, he does not live by faith.

     Let me illustrate it this way: In the morning, I have faith that when I plug in my coffee maker, fill it with ground coffee and water and turn it on, it will make fresh coffee. I do this every morning because I need my morning cup of coffee to jump start my day. In the same way, every morning I sit down with my Bible and read at least a chapter a day and then spend time in prayer. I have come to NEED this daily personal time with my Lord because I need Him. He is my LIFE SOURCE; like the electricity that powers my coffee maker, the Lord powers my life. As in John 15, I must stay plugged in [abiding] to my Lord if I hope to be a functioning part of His system.

THE EMERGENT CHURCH--Entertaining the Bored False Believers

     The Emergent Church is a natural result of living in times when men will be lovers of themselves. Rather than correcting the sin of self-centeredness, churches cater to it to keep the pews full. They minimize God's Word and present only a shallow Gospel of salvation. Their worship is full of mystical emotion and entertainment to counterfeit the presence of the Holy Spirit. The result is worshippers with shallow faith because they have no sure foundation. Like the seed that fell on stony ground, such faith has no real power and can't survive the trials of this world [Matthew 13:20-21].

     In 2 Timothy 3:1-7, Paul describes professing Christians who think they are saved but still love themselves more than God. They exhibit a self-centered life that has "a form of godliness" on Sunday mornings, but there is no power of God exhibited on a day-to-day basis. They believe "about" God but they do not believe "in" God. If they did, they would live WITH God and allow Him to work in and through them. Instead, such apostate Christians continually make decisions and live as the world does, never taking God's will and purpose for their lives into account. Like the people of Judah in Malachi, God is irrelevant to them in real life.

     A believer who is "in" Christ Jesus is baptized [identified] with Christ in His death and resurrection. The Holy Spirit comes in to take up residence in us. How can we help but be a new person in Christ when such a change actually takes place? The answer is, we cannot help but be "new" because it is the Holy Spirit that makes the difference. [Romans 6:3-4; 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God..." 2 Cor. 5:17-18]

     HOW DO WE COMBAT COMPLACENCY? If Jesus Christ and His worship are boring religious ritual, the FIRST question is, HAVE I RECEIVED CHRIST AS LORD AND SAVIOR? I truly wish someone in my main-line, apostate church had asked me that question sooner. I was not a true believer until I was 24, but I had attended church my whole life.

     There is no middle ground. In Revelation 3:14ff where Christ described the COMPLACENT and APOSTATE condition of the church just before His return, He said He would vomit the lukewarm, middle-ground, so-called Christians out of His mouth. He told them in verses 18-19: "I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire [faith], that you may be rich; and white garments [His righteousness], that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed;...THEREFORE BE ZEALOUS AND REPENT." Repentance is the first step because until we understand we cannot save ourselves through emotion or works, we cannot come to Christ. Let me put the Gospel of the Good News of Christ in my own words:

* Repent of your sins and realize your need of a Savior. [Acts 2:38]
* Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who died for your sins and was raised from the dead to take victory over death as true God and true Man. [Acts 2:23-24]
* Receive Christ as Lord and Savior and give Him first place in your life. [Acts 2:36]
* Allow Him to come into your life in the person of the Holy Spirit and submit freely to His Lordship. [John 14:6, 16] That means He has FIRST PLACE and we are no longer self-centered, we are God-centered: "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." Luke 10:27 This is not possible in ourselves; but the Holy Spirit who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ at the Rapture, when He takes us home. Philippians 1:6.

     If you HAVE received Christ as Lord and Savior but are not in fellowship with Him as you once were, "abide in Him" by reading His Word and praying each day. You are the one who left; He is still there, waiting to work in you... Find a fellowship of believers and meet with them on a regular basis, as the Apostles taught [Acts 2:42, 46-47]. Every relationship needs nurturing; Christ wants that kind of relationship with you, dearly beloved of Christ. Get ready for a great adventure; it is anything but boring.

In Him,
Sharon

[Prophecy Chat is a weekly commentary of current events in light of Bible prophecy. Sharon L. Clemens is an evangelical, premillennial, dispensational teacher of eschatology. She can be reached for comment or questions by e-mail at farmgrove@verizon.net]