Is There Hope?
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin ArticlesThe history of men and nations shows us that things spiritually and morally swing to the extremes. In the Bible, we see it in the history of Israel, and we’ve seen it in church history now for nearly 2,000 years. There are periods when people are spiritually inclined, and periods when they are spiritually and morally depraved. Time passes, and then – perhaps after much depravity – people tire of their own mess, and begin to work back toward decency. As we stated, it swings from one extreme to the other.
If the world stands, perhaps there is hope. Men are getting the sense that the population is tired of the drugs, the alcohol, the crime, the abortion, etc., and men are getting the sense that we were better off in an earlier time of morality and spirituality. Someone called my attention to an article wherein one man was howling about the lack of Bible emphasis in his own denomination. No less a figure that Paul Harvey, just last week, was lamenting the trend toward liberalism in “mainline” churches, and that the emphasis was on the social and recreational rather than on Bible teaching. Ah, if these “winds” keep blowing across the land, and gain in force and intensity, we may yet see a turnaround!
Sadly, in Israel and in church history, when the turnaround comes, it comes only after generations of people have been lost. These, in backsliding from God and from the right way, form the then majority bent on traveling that broad way leading to destruction (Matthew 7:13). Recover comes at the expense of multitudes being lost in the rejection of God, and the rejection of the only hope they had! It is a true fact, and regrettable, but the truth remains. In the current liberalism affecting the church of the Lord, we are losing so many, either to denominationalism or to infidelity – including so very many of our young people – and it is terribly, terribly sad! If the world stands and we see a brighter, nobler and more spiritual day, it will be at the cost of so many souls lost. The reality of sin and Satan makes it so.
In sum, we like the signs that speak that people are tiring of their own moral and spiritual mess, and are restless to do something about it. There is, in this, a ray of hope. We may yet see, as we have in the past, a “restoration” of the spiritual vitality the nation once had, and a “restoration movement” in the kingdom leading us back to the needed Bible emphasis. Yea, and may it speed its way to us!
THE SOUTHWESTERNER, January 9, 1991