Greetings in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Since our last correspondence there has been many transitions. Shortly after we moved to our new offices in Dickinson, Texas, we then moved, after 25 years, from our resident as well. These two moves have been extremely overwhelming to say the least.
We are living in distressing times. Not only have we been through taxing transitions, the world at large has also experienced intense changes. The entire globe is reeling from the aftermath of the war with Iraq. Now, we are entering a new season in the war on terror. Yet, there’s a more serious war that has been looming for centuries – the war on Truth. America has been at war with Truth ever since turning her back on the God of the Bible and embracing the gods of pluralism and postmodernism.
America was founded upon Biblical principles which pervaded our social and governmental institutions. Our common sense of morality came from the scriptures – God’s law. “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” Ps. 119:165 KJV Not so today, we have become an overly sensitive and highly offensive society. The truism, “More truth, less offense. Less truth, more offense,” rings true now more than ever. How one views truth is how they see morality. Recently, while driving to my office one Saturday afternoon, I was outraged at three young, high school girls. They were scantly clad and gyrating their bodies to attract passers-by to a car wash. As I confronted them, I was instantly met with: “I’m offended!” More sadly, in tracking down the parents, I was met with sullen indifference. No wonder these kids were offended at my opposition to their behavior.their parents condoned it! These girls have been handed down a philosophy that truth is in accordance to what they make out of it, not a viewpoint secured to a divine concept from scripture.
Sadly, most American Christians fall into this category of offense because they are being influenced more by the culture than scripture. The Apostle Paul writes: “And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ.” Phil. 1:9-10 KJV Every true believer needs to be a lighthouse to those on the collision course of moral relativism.
Truth Fallen in the Street
In Isaiah chapter 59, the prophet lists the sins of Israel: murder, violence, deceit, oppression, and moral corruption. These same sins are prevalent in America today. “And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.” Is. 59:14-15 KJV In just the last decade there has been scams and shams in every trusted institution from the White House to the courthouse to the schoolhouse. The origins of these institutions had their roots in Biblical truth. Today they have been uprooted by unprincipled men and scandalized by corruption. We’ve become a nation of liars and cheats. Recently, we’ve been inundated with our most honorable and beloved figures – those we never would have expected – engaged in fraud and deceit.
Prophetically, this is what I believe this scripture is saying to us today. “Right is turned away and moral virtue ceases: for right is cast down to a broad place and straightforwardness cannot apply. Yes, stability and established truth is battled; and he who is without wrong morals makes himself an easy victim; and the Lord beheld the social and moral breakdown with displeasure – there was no divine law individually or collectively.”
As in Isaiah’s day, God’s people substituted truth for their own imaginations and the result was madness. Truth turned backward and became broadened into individual concepts. Since truth had no existence there, they substituted opinion in the place of knowledge. And, since they became corrupt, they persecuted the prophets who were straightforward in their pronouncement of God’s righteousness and harassed those trying to maintain an honest lifestyle. A business executive in Corporate America once told me, “Corruption is in – if you’re not corrupt, then they think something is wrong.” When is the last time you heard straightforward preaching in a church service? If you have, it’s usually neutered by a stream of apologies as not to offend anyone. John the Baptist was straightforward in his preaching and confronted the issues of his day. For speaking out against sin, he was beheaded.
Kangaroo Culture
Today in America the anchors of sanity provided by the Bible are being removed. There’s no such thing as conventional wisdom held by a common value system. This generation has been entrenched by a postmodern mindset in a pluralistic society. To the postmodernist, nothing is absolute and to the pluralist, there is more than one ultimate truth. The postmodernist says, “Right is right by me and wrong is wrong by me according to how I feel.” The pluralist says, “We have our way of truth, you have yours.” Yet, this kind of thinking has not produced anything concrete – only contradiction. Postmodernism has taken the “oxy” out of the oxymoron and has left its adherents morons! It talks of cohesion but only brings confusion. My favorite illustration is when a rally speaker at an anti-war demonstration exclaimed, “We must fight to stop this war.”
America, at war with truth, is actually at war with herself. We are on the verge of collapsing from within. “A kingdom at war with itself will collapse.” Mark 3:24 NLT Pluralism has given us what we have today – the clash of the kangaroos. Everywhere you turn today there’s a clash. This group clashing against that group over its own rights and interests. As evident in our American culture, when moral absolutes cease to exist, then centers move and boundaries extend. As a result, order turns to chaos and peace to confusion. Life becomes cheap and things expensive. Meaning becomes nothing and nothing becomes meaning. Reality becomes distorted and distortion becomes reality. In this environment, the deeper the emptiness, the more extreme the madness!
The truth is that people’s lives today are stranger than fiction. In the absence of absolute truth comes a desire to push beyond the limits of fantasy – making imagination a reality. Since nothing is “taboo” then anything imaginable is game and can be real; hence, the Extreme Reality TV craze. Anything that can be dreamed up can be enacted. Why fantasize when anything goes? However, in the presence of moral absolutes, the unimaginable could only be relegated to fantasy – held at bay by truth. Very little is off limits today. Interviewing spectators for a new extreme fighting show, they were asked what they wanted to see. They answered: blood and broken bones. The Roman Gladiators was the extreme reality sport of that era. How far are we from an extreme lust for blood in the name of entertainment?
Depths of Satan
The reality is that satan is behind this distortion of truth because Jesus Christ is the Truth. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. John 14:6 KJV The spirit of antichrist is waging war with the Spirit of Truth (1 John 4:1-6). Since the beginning of time, satan has attempted to dethrone truth and attack it with a lie. Daniel had a supernatural vision of this conflict with the antichrist. “And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered.” Dan. 8:12 KJV Satan is leading this moral rebellion in an attempt to bring down truth from its absolute, holy position to a relative, common place. The spirit of antichrist desires to reduce God’s Son to be made conformable to our image instead of us being conformed to His image (Rom. 8:29). Sadly, as Daniel points out, for a season of time, it will advance and be profitable.
We are seeing this ever so clearly today. “But I also have a message for the rest of you in Thyatira who have not followed this false teaching (‘deeper truths,’ as they call them-depths of Satan, really). I will ask nothing more of you except that you hold tightly to what you have until I come.” Rev. 2:24-25 NLT The depths of satan are really pretty shallow. I believe it is no more than making a lie sound like the truth. Satan’s devices are little more than deception by redefining meanings and seducing people to accept them. His scheme is to pervert truth with lying words to gain power and advantage. He will continue to redefine lies until they resemble truth so people will believe them. The clash continues today of who can invent the most believable truth. Tragically, when you buy into his lies the deeper the darkness and despair.
For Americans, the devil’s lure is to trick us to interpret the scriptures through our present culture. A pastor of a mainline denominational church read the first Harry Potter book in part out of a sense of pastoral responsibility. He said, “We have to interpret the Christian gospel within culture using the things of culture.” This pastor, like many others, has bought the lie and has become apostate. In the Apostle Paul’s day, the Greeks tried to Hellenize the scriptures, that is, make the scriptures conform to Greek philosophy. In the same way, today much of the American church – in the name of being relevant – has tried to make the scriptures conform to the American lifestyle.
Street-Level Gospel
With earth-based philosophies come new truths. One such philosophy is the new way of “doing” church today – the seeker-sensitive approach. It provides a comfortable atmosphere without dress codes. There are positive messages designed to encourage without smothering dos and don’ts. It’s appealing to American culture.but it’s not the Bible. Yet, it’s advancing and growing. This mere, social institution is based on man’s philosophy and makes for goats and not sheep, church members and not disciples. It’s another bloodless ideology in attempt to bypass the cross. It’s redefining truth and when you do that you have another Jesus.a made-to-order Jesus (II Cor. 11:3-4). At this level, truth becomes the god of our own creation instead of the God of all creation.
A street-level gospel is sensitive to the demands of people instead of the holiness and righteousness of God. It’s one thing to “break-down” the scriptures for easy understanding. It’s another to “bring down” the standard for easy access. Street, by definition, means to spread out. Prophetically, truth is being spread out wider than the narrow road in which it was intended. “You can enter God’s kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose the easy way. But the gateway to life is small, and the road is narrow, and only a few ever find it.” Matt. 7:13-14 NLT The true gospel crucifies the flesh that Christ may live. A false gospel feeds the flesh that self may live. There’s no user-friendly gospel. The easier you make it the cheaper it becomes. Christ’s blood came free but it did not come cheap. A false gospel will have to keep inventing attractions to keep the people.
Before Christ, I was the front-man for a high-energy show band that toured the east coast. I spent the majority of my time dreaming up news shows to dazzle and keep the interests of the crowds. I had to have the glitz, be hip and be on top of things at all times. I gave the crowds what they wanted. Perversely, I was their pastor. They came seeking to escape their troubles for a little while. If I gave them what they needed, I’d be out of a job. I was successful because I knew my audience. I could fool them because I knew that they wanted to be fooled. I could hype them up and get them eating out of my hand. I got them where I wanted, either laughing out of their mind or, often times, leaving them in a drunken frenzy. This sounds like many circles of Christianity today. Much of what I’ve seen today reminds me of what I experienced in the entertainment world. That’s why I refuse to be my congregation’s entertainer!
It is becoming increasingly harder to live as a genuine Christian in our society today. That is because the cross is an offense to this culture.and to most Christians! If you’re not politically correct then you’re religious. If you try to keep a standard then you’re “holier than thou.” If you want to become like Christ then you’re too spiritual. The list goes on. People want to be comfortable in their sin and not convicted by your life in Christ. Yet, you’re the first one they run to when they’re in trouble.
There is a price to pay for loving the truth. It’s one thing to know the truth.it’s quite another to live it! In a world of moral laxity – loose living and false teaching – we need to be living examples of the doctrines we profess. If we continue to worship in Spirit – knowing God and worshiping in Truth – obeying God, we will do well.
In order to counter this postmodern culture, the church – the pillar and ground of truth – must engage it with the truth of Jesus Christ. We have a tool in which to help jump start local churches and ministries to become truly relevant to their communities. We have professionally produced the Stop & Pray Community Outreach video. Stop & Pray is the perfect summer evangelistic outreach. We will send a copy absolutely free to any pastor or ministry leader who is serious in reaching their community. Please call 281.534.3533 for your copy today.
After reading this prophetic word, it’s easier to see why this ministry is not “widely” accepted and yet why we are needed. May we continue to walk together in truth along the narrow road in these last days until the coming of the Lord.
George J. Matranga
“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” 3 John 4 KJV