Dear John and Valiant Ones:

I’ve been corresponding with Steve Atkerson of New Testament Reformation Fellowship. The focus of NTRF is to promote the re-establishment of church community as it existed in the early church because the Biblical way of “doing church” is the most effective way. I certainly can’t disparage Steve, the NTRF or their efforts, as I’d be doing the same thing if I didn’t think the damage to America and the American Church was beyond repair.

I told Steve that the churches had “preached themselves into irrelevance” and a recent headline (there are many I could have chosen) demonstrates this: A Top Russian Official Quoted the Book of Revelation to Describe What Will Soon Happen to America – the “top Russian official” being Dmitry Medvedev, former President of Russia, currently serving as deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council. No local church that I am aware of covers anything like this.

I recently was sent excerpts from The Church Impotent: The Feminization of Christianity by Leon J. Podles. I have not read the book and don’t intend to; the excerpts and book reviews on Amazon were sufficient. The take-away is that we have embraced and projected a view of Christ that makes Him tame, safe, gentle and harmless. We have presented a view of a “god” who delights in having His people sit quietly in rows, be nice, smile at your neighbor, and listen to an essentially irrelevant TED talk while the world around us goes to hell.

Ezekiel chapter 9 (referenced previously in A Fuller Dignity which I hope you read) illustrates the end result of a totally corrupted ecclesiastical system. This is what has been intentionally done to America’s churches. I hate to paint all American clergy with the same broad brush, as I’m sure there are decent and well-intentioned people who are “professional Christians.” But it simply appears inarguable that the “church” as it’s expressed, implemented, and experienced in America is irrelevant.

This is what we might expect if the “church age” is drawing to its close. True and authentic Biblical Christianity has become a hate crime, punishable without a trial. Those who hate God and love death have taken political and economic control of the planet and we are no longer welcomed here.

For perspective, think about how you (if you’re old enough) functioned as a Christian in America just twenty years ago. You may have met someone in the neighborhood, perhaps at work or maybe at church. You start to develop a friendship and you may invite the person over to your home. Maybe you and a few other casual friends are developing an in-home Bible study or fellowship group. You’re open about what you’re doing and what you believe, and you’re delighted when newcomers join you for a meeting.

Would you do that today? How do you feel about having strangers in your home? Would you be willing to share your faith at work, knowing the person you shared with could perceive your efforts as a “hate crime”? Would you share God’s offer of reconciliation with an overt homosexual, who could then accuse you of “harassment” and get you fired? If you meet someone new at church who seems pleasant and speaks fluent “Christianese” do you accept him at face value? Or might he be a plant, seeking some pretense to bring legal action against you or your church?

I understand that this is not (yet) Canada, but we’re unquestionably heading in that direction and increasing speed. The world we’re now in has been sent a strong delusion. God’s offer of reconciliation is not well-received. The level of trust necessary to build cohesive and functioning New Testament ekklesias simply does not exist any more, at least not in America.

I am not saying it’s time to stop praying, stop witnessing, or stop living out your faith. The time is coming when no man can work, but apparently that time has not yet arrived. What I AM saying is that the corporate organizational churches have become irrelevant and the culture has become hard-boiled in its rejection of Jesus Christ.

It’s time to go home.