Abomination In The Sight Of God
August 17th, 2008 by Northern FarmerIn the four years to follow, the spirit of religious revival, and particularly the camp-meeting variety, seemed to be dying away. Robert witnessed this with a heavy heart, but fought back with an increase in personal activity to do his share in trying to overcome such spiritual apathy. The people alone could not be blamed, he learned, for some of presiding elders and some conference officials in league with them had spoken openly against the continuance of camp meetings. How blasphemous they were in even suggesting that “The church had now come out of the mountains and it was time both dignity and piety joined hands for the ultimate good of the whole church”! Couldn’t they see that a love of education and culture was becoming the fraud of the age! The very word “dignity” was an abomination in the sight of God! Nothing on earth was really important except the extension of God’s kingdom by loving one’s neighbor and meditating on God’s Holy Word both day and night.
The above is a paragraph from the book “The Saint of the Wilderness”, a book about circuit rider Robert Sheffey that I’ve had for the last few months and it has become a book worthy of having a place alongside of my Bible. The situation described in the paragraph is taking place in the late 1880s in the mountains of western Virginia and surrounding areas. The thing that struck me was how the book documented how the people started slipping away from God in exchange for this culture and the modern education that esteems man and his wisdom. Before this time in that region the Spirit of God was moving through out the region and the folks trusted in God simply. But modernism had crept in and the old circuit rider could see the writing on the wall as far as what was on the horizon! Gone would be the days of folks simply trusting God, that was getting thrown away for the worship of humanism. The churches wanted to be dignified, and as Sheffey said, the word was an abomination in God’s eyes.
The book is a wonderful book. But the lessons in it took me by surprise to say the least. From the 1840s through 1902 a person reads how the faith of the people changed. And even the fact that it had changed so much by 1902 is small in comparison how its changed today. There is really very little left of the real faith, the faith where Christ is the King! I write this because it’s such a burden on my heart, knowing the humanistic ways of the modern church and society compared to what once was, a people that went after God with everything they had! The simple people, rural people that knew no other way and loved the Lord Jesus Christ with all their heart. For a long, long time this has been a very real backround message on this blog. I’ve written numerous times about the old faith that folks had and the joys that came out of it as they lived their simple agrarian lives on a patch of land.
I question, can this be brought back? By the way, Sheffey was a Methodist circuit rider but the thousands of folks that attended the camp meeting or were visited by him were of every denomination, not just Methodist. Before humanism came in the folks didn’t seem to pay much mind to denominational differences, in fact they could care less when God was the focus of their lives. When a man of God was coming through the parts folks were overjoyed to have the visit. All sorts of different churches would ask him to preach as he was coming through. Now the humanistic church is scared of anybody that has a slightly different view than they have on some unimportant doctrinal difference that will probably send the “wise” to hell anyhow from those particular denominations. The book takes place in the rural areas so the humanism came in at a rather late date compared to the more “educated” areas. But with the way society dominates almost every home in America nowadays the humanistic religion has a strong foothold everywhere. We are being told things by the modern churches that were unthinkable in the Bible and by the early rural church in America. Now the churches cheer when a person is sending their children to a humanistic, well lets stop beating around the bush, a satanic college and everyone calls it “good”. This way the indoctrinated child will become a part of the system and to put it bluntly, all is lost. There are forms of the modern religion that praise education without any thought about what is being taught, what is being planted in the students, and no one gives a thought to the eternal consequences. Many of the colleges that are supposedly run by different churches are the biggest hell pits of all, and the deception just grows deeper. The reason for this is that most people even in the church truly worship humanism as god, all the time. God is just a backround , make me feel good thingy. Everyone knows that you have to make it to the top nowadays, no matter what the consequences!
Back to my question, can this be brought back? I don’t know. I wish I knew, but it don’t look good from a man’s view. The love of “education and culture” is strong in this society. Nothing else seems to matter and to even suggest what I’m suggesting is wrong is all out blasphemy in the eyes of most. But it doesn’t change any of the facts, because this is as true as it gets. Modernism always takes first place in everything that there is, bar none. Its over faith, over family, over everything, no exceptions and when a person finally gets truthful with him or herself this becomes very apparent. Whatever happened to being Christlike? Now its the blessings that matter, the perceived blessings. Oh Lord, give me that old faith, that faith where Jesus is everything and I’m absolutely nothing without Him! When a person gets right down to it, this is thee problem, all others problems stem from the humanistic religion that has taken over in this age. Its time to get back to the King, get back into His Word, and believe it, not the perverted wisdom of fallen man. The only thing that I can do is keep me eyes on a God that never changes, follow Him no matter what the world thinks, no matter what. Bring Him to every person, even if that means just one person at a time. To do like Jesus did, go to the poor, the helpless, and everyone else that will listen. Bring back that Good News as it is written in the Bible, written by the very inspiration of God Himself. Nope, God doesn’t change, only frail humans do. Societies change but the message of the Good News hasn’t change one bit. I asked God, what can I do? The answer was to start at the bottom, He’s still there moving like He did in days gone by!
August 18th, 2008 at 8:36 am
Tom,
Things may seem bad to us at times. We may wonder “why is God not moving”? Or we may think that the church is dead, that there is no life in the people. That may be so in some ways. The denominations may be dead. There may be no life in many of the church congregations. However God said he would send out his word and it would not return void to Him. He said the gates of Hell would not prevail against His church. The Holy Spirit of God never dies, weakens or stops working. It’s like the undercurrent of a river.
I once waded across a small river that looked peaceful on the surface. When I got almost neck deep in that channel and up stream from a log jam, man I tell you I was afraid for my life. I wasn’t expecting such a powerful force in such a small river. I was praying for Gods help real bad. I was thinking what a foolish decision I made to try and cross that little river. Plenty of people have drowned in that little river. Now I know why.
The river may seem lazy and slow on the surface but in the channel, just under the surface it moves more powerful than anything on earth. Nothing can stop the power of that river in the channel. It constantly changes the world arround it. It has flowed from the beginning time and will continue until the end of time, unhindered.
That’s what the Holy Spirit of God is like. When you think the churches are dead and the people are lifeless, the power of God is moving just beneath the surface, as powerful as ever, unstopable. You just can’t see it…..yet.
August 18th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Great comment Don!
What you wrote is exactly what I believe. And your way of putting it will not be forgotten by me. That is just a great story to go along with it! Kinda a parable from down Cincinnati way
In studying the great revivals and movements of God in this nation’s past there is a definite pattern that shows up. When God moves and awakens the church there is always something big in the nation’s history to go along with it. Whether it be war, or earthquake or financial disaster to go along with the fact that as humans we have no control, whether we believe that or not. And as I have written over and over, there’s the faithful remaining everywhere in all sorts of different churches whether their leaders are faithful to God or not. If we only had the slightest understanding how much the Lord loves His church we’d see things allot differently! And He will not lose His bride!
When I read about the church around the world it just gives me a hunger to have what they have. Its almost non existent in the western church, but in the countries where Christianity is illegal the church just blossoms! And the Holy Spirit is in control. Here He’s pushed to the side many times because we feel we can do it better, we’re pretty smart in our own eyes. And that’s where I’m coming from with this post. We aren’t smart, we aren’t wise, we are nothing without Christ. Might think we’re something and then we die and there ain’t a durn thing important that we accomplished, nothing.
So many times I read on the internet views from folks that say it can only be their way, our denominations way, and all I can do is shake my head in wonder at such ignorance. They can get tangled up in legalism, (directly disobeying the Word of God), they can get caught up in traditions of men, (again in absolute disobedience of the Word of God), it just amazes me. At one time I’d stay silent because of their slick tongues, their legalistic maneuvering, but after studying the Word for years and walking the walk I’m not very concerned about these people. Just as I don’t bend an ear to the modern prosperity preachers that feed on the lusts of carnal folks. There’s a narrow path and that’s the one a person has to stay on. To be the servant, not the master.
As I wrote, I love your analogy about the still water on top and the tremendous current under the still waters. The church is looking like an algae covered still waters, all covered with slime and muck, but underneath the Spirit of God is moving as always, unstoppable and when the time is right will burst the log jam down stream into only a memory!