My thoughts on the Church transforming the world

This was in response to a letter that Reverend Carl posted to a forum I am in. He has been feeling moved by the spirit and realizes that his church isn't alive in the spirit, but rather is dead in the world. Much of what he wrote I agreed with, but when it came to the Church needing to transform the world, I felt moved to fill in the details a bit. Basically the body of Christ is here to bring people to Him so that they may know Him and choose to live a Godly life - we cannot do it by force, nor should we for it is in disobedience to God when we do.

Here is my response:

A powerful message, Reverend Carl!

I feel compelled to respond, not only to commend you for voicing what you know to be true and what you have felt but because I feel that the Holy Spirit is moving me to remind us that we must not let the church be modified by the world nor is the church to modify the world, but rather one person at a time by bringing them to know the Lord. I picked up on the portion where you state that the Church is to transform the world. As long as that is done through the church and even local policy, it may succeed, but when it rises to national and empire levels as law it fails.

We are to reach out to as many people as we can and attempt to bring them to the Lord through Jesus. We can, however, only plant the seed. It is not our time to shape the world. When we try, we fail miserably and very quickly our moral laws that we get placed into the world work to defeat us or destroy the lives of those we had hoped to protect. Examples of such laws of morality that have been put into place and are failing their intended purpose include the drug laws, the attempt to make abortion illegal, attempts to regulate sexuality between two consenting adults... to name a few.

I am concerned that a worst case scenario of abortion is that one day not only will it be 100% legal but it will also be a tool of "the state" to be ordered on people as officials see fit. I am sure the fight against this sin has gone on long before recorded history. Well intended people of our states achieved some success making the practice illegal at local and state levels. Yet, when those people pressed to have it made illegal at the federal level not only did they lose, their efforts were reversed and we eventually lost the right for states to make it illegal. Now we have legislation in process that will make it illegal for medical providers to refuse to provide abortion. This is the natural result of trying to press Christian ideals on a broken world.

As horrible as abortion is, it is a sin. The Lord sees no degree of sin. All sin is equal in His eyes. There is no question that our Lord has beaten evil and will always triumph! Evil cannot defeat his design and in adversity the Lord shows himself. With the truth that all those who are not of age to decide to accept Him, He brings them to him. Thus, there are over 50 million "American" souls who went straight to the Lord in Heaven. Does that not fly directly in the face of evil? It is a major silver lining on such a terrible cloud.

I believe that we should fight evil, but not through the force of law over those who have not chosen to accept the true path to God. We must fight evil through example and by sharing the natural law that surrounds most sins. Naturally a drug user will become addicted, endure bodily harm, and reduce their healthy lifespan. Naturally a woman who submits to abortion will feel some remorse and wonder if there could have been a better way, or even physically suffer during and after the procedure.

We need sinners in the pews, so that the message of Christ may eventually reach their hearts and then they will repent and come to know the glory of their future in Him. There is a difference between members of the body of Christ, and souls that need to hear the message so that one day they may be saved. You can, however get many of the sinners who have no desire to ever change to willingly leave your church by preaching the true Gospel of the Lord and changing the direction of the Church from one of comfort to one of principle. As an example, Chuck Baldwin sure upset many members of his church when decided to run for President on the Constitution Party ticket, and after viewing many of his sermons I can see how bringing the truth of the word of God to bear on our present day can make people decide to find a calmer church that ignores adversity and thrives on comfort and fellowship or just focuses on one or two sins, making everyone else in the Church feel like they are fine and dandy.

God gave us free will so that we may each turn to Him or commit ourselves to Hell as we chose. It is error for any man to step in and tell a person that he must conform to the will of God. Judgement has not come to America, perhaps it is true that we have lost some of the favor of our Lord... The Lord permits adversity and trials so that we may turn toward Him to seek His Love and Strength. Think about it from a different perspective: When we live comfortably in luxury are we in God's favor or are we letting ourselves be pacified into thinking we do not need Him? I tend to believe the later, for Heaven will not come to us until after we die knowing that Jesus died for the forgiveness of our sins. Not the sins of the past, but for all the sins for all time that this "world" is permitted to exist.

As long as we work with each other and help our brothers and sisters by ensuring we keep true history preserved, keep our focus on the Saviour, and live as close as we can to the example of our Lord we will reach others and they will know what it is to be a Christian.