Posted by
ValiantForTruth on Friday, August 27, 2010 10:56:16 AM
“…the only answer to our country’s moral freefall is another great awakening.” –Harry Jackson
You are right that we suffer from a plague of spiritual darkness and that the only remedy is spiritual awakening. It is written that ‘out of the heart come the issues of life’ [Proverbs 4:23]. And this is the doctrine of Christ…
“…out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man…” [Matthew 15:19-20]
The secularists deny the most basic truth that evil resides within the human heart. What have their political solutions done but to aggravate problems by giving opportunity for increased lawlessness? The welfare state is the best example of enabling fraud and destroying those it was intended to help.
How long will they cling to their failed policies? How long will they spread misery and joblessness and call it economic recovery? How long will they divide America by promoting class envy and fiscal irresponsibility? When will the people come to their senses and rise up and put off this tyranny?
Then you say that ‘preachers must preach to individuals with a desire to see them transformed internally and spiritually’. We can agree with you here because to acknowledge that transformation is necessary implies the need for faith and repentance.
But will you preach the same gospel that Edwards and Whitefield preached at the first Great Awakening in the mid 1700s? Their gospel did indeed transform the heart of men and their gospel was visited with power so that a whole culture was transformed. Liberty, duty and honor was valued more than self. Is this something we really want?
Will our churches forsake the broken cisterns of a man centered religion and return to the old paths of living waters? When will we return to the Bible that proclaims a sovereign God who is full of mercy and has spoken peace in Jesus Christ?
There is no peace except the peace given by Christ because He alone has the power of life to transform the spiritually dead heart and reconcile men to God. He has promised grace to all who will call upon His name. He will see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied; none of the given ones will be lost. He has answered yes to all the promises and sealed them with His own blood. Will you preach a conquering Christ who won the victory over sin and death? Will you preach the Christ of the Bible who has all authority and does all things according to the counsel of His own will for the good of His redeemed people?
This is the truth that transforms men and puts iron in their blood. This is the kind of men who won freedom in America as a result of the Great Awakening. Men have not changed and the gospel has not changed. But as a man thinks, so is he. A distorted message bears a deficient fruit. We must proclaim the truth of the whole counsel of God in order to transform the whole man.