Release From Captivity

The following excerpt comes from Chapter Four entitled:

Understanding the Present through the Eyes of the Past.

The content comes from pages 40, 41, 44 and 50.

    If it is true that too much of the world exists within the Church, then we must seek to know how it got there. At what point and place did it invade the Church? Where is the open door, the breach in the wall?

    It came in through a door we readily opened, a breach in the wall we did not recognize as such. This may be hard for many of us to grasp, but I know that this is the truth. The answer is that the world infiltrated the Church through grandfathers, grandmothers, and moms and dads just like many of our own parents---well-meaning people with good intentions. What do I mean by saying it was our families that caused this intermingling with the world's wisdom and way? I'm saying that the condition of today's Church has it's origins in the generations of the past.

    Truly we have, for the most part, built our belief systems upon what we were taught by those before us. We have also accepted the traditions and practices of those past generations as our own way of living out our faith. We have, in most instances, done this without question or without any real research into the matters we call religious or spiritual. After all, it was our parents and grandparents as well as other well-meaning relatives who were responsible for guiding us into these beliefs and practices. They would most certainly never intentionally lead us off into heresy (false teaching) or error. I believe that without realizing it, they led us into the same error into which they had been led themselves. You see, they inherited their belief system, traditions and practices the same way we did. It came through parents, grandparents, relatives and good church people who led them into their own personal beliefs and views of Christianity. These were based upon what they themselves had been taught by the generation before them. Just like us, although they learned some truth, they also swallowed many of the same lies of the previous generation hook, line and sinker. There were few or no questions asked. All you were supposed to do was follow the directions you were given and pass those same instructions down to the next generation. It was a simple process to participate in and to follow. Generations before us have followed it blindly for hundreds of years, accepting as truth the old saying, "If it was good enough for them then, it's good enough for us now."

    So here we are today, the product of years of erroneous thinking, beliefs, and practices.

    What a deception we've plunged into by our desire for the approval of those we admire and look up to so trustingly. We have wandered so far away from the purity and faithfulness of our devotion to the Word of God as the highest authority governing the faith and practice of Christianity.

    Covenant relationship and intimacy with God in Christ are no longer the passion and purpose of modern day Christianity.

    As we look at ourselves today, we should truly see that we are continuing in the same path of rebellion as our fathers before us. But let us not be like the religious leaders of Jesus' day who defended and excused away their own guilt. No! Let us fall upon our faces and cry out for mercy, confessing our own guilt as well as that of our forefathers in whose iniquities we have continued. Only mercy can lift us up from where we've fallen. Thank God that His mercy endures forever to His own children. He will come to forgive, rescue, and restore us into His favor again!