Is the Church Called to Reform the World?
By Rev. D. Earl Cripe, Ph.D.
False Religion is Identified with the Passing World System
In today’s Church, we see a furious contending for the right to defend this world, its kingdoms and its systems. This is in spite of the fact that Jesus disclaimed any interest in them when He said that His kingdom was no longer of this world. Therefore His servants do not fight for their rights and for deliverance from injustice. There was a time in the Old Testament when it was of this world and His servants did fight with the temporal sword. But from the Cross onward, it is no longer the case (John 18:36). St. Paul told Timothy that if a man is to fight a good fight and war a good warfare in the Kingdom of God, he cannot afford to get entangled in the affairs of this life. If he does, he will be disobeying the orders of his commander (II Tim 2:3-4). God changed the covenant and took the Kingdom from the Nation of Israel and gave it to the Church. He wrote off this world and its systems as having any eternal, lasting and ultimately meaningful value in the Kingdom of God or to the child of God.
He did do that.
This doctrine of worldly entanglement is confusing Christian people on a massive scale and convincing them that Christian goals and objectives are the opposite of what they really are. It is not the mission of the Church to get Christians in high places of government. It is not the Christian duty to enact laws in an unregenerate society. It is simply not. And the reason is that the societies of this world that we are trying to protect do not mean anything to God.
The Accelerating Evil of the Last Days
God has not only declared His position on this, but He has warned us about wasting precious time. “In the last days evil men and seducers will get worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” (II Tim 3:13)
Who can be so foolish as to believe that he can change what God has ordained and decreed? The church can get better, but the world is going to get worse and worse! You are not going to reform it. The Old Testament is historic proof of the impossibility of such a program working. It is also proof of God’s lack of interest in having us try it.
You say, “Well, but we have to try, God told us to try.” Yes, we would — if God told us to do that. But He has not told us to do that. In fact, He has told us specifically not to do it.
A People Not Of This World
Look at it this way. Suppose that we comprise a rescue party, and our sole purpose is to stand by for rescue instructions. We get the call to go out and rescue people off a ship that has been torpedoed and is sinking. But we go out there and spend our time trying to salvage that sinking ship, while the people that we are supposed to be saving are dying in the water. We are failing our mission, we are disobeying our instructions, and we are embarked upon an exercise in futility. And that, in case you did not know it, is exactly what the Nicolaitans (the People of Victory, that heresy of wealth and prosperity that Jesus hates) are doing and teaching others to do in the Church both in that day and this.
I have pastors asking me all the time, why I do not become involved in the Moral Majority movement, the Theonomy movement, the Reconstruction movement, or some other pseudo-Christian social reformation. I tell them why I do not become involved. I do not want to waste my time on a losing and unsanctified cause. Those people are going to lose — they are going to lose — oh yes, they are! The Bible says it. The unregenerate people of the world are not going to listen! They are not going to listen to you! And here is the main point of it all: God does not care!
Oh, how they hate to hear me say that. Well, I will say it again, because I want to drive you up the wall with it. I want to break your thick skull with it. I want to penetrate your worldly mind and your hardened heart with it. God does not care about what happens to this world! That is what the Bible says.
No wonder God hates this damnable, misleading lie that shoots the heart out of the real mission of the Church. God is not interested in the unregenerate societies of this world. He is only interested in those who will come into the Kingdom of God, which is not of this world.
When Christ Fights Against You With the Sword of His Mouth
You can shake your finger and your head all you want, but I am not going to argue with you, and neither is Christ, the Head of the Church. He told that Church that if it did not purge out the world-loving doctrine of the Nicolaitans, He would come and fight against them with the sword of His mouth. When you cast aside the banner of the Cross and pick up the flag of some godless and unreformable nation, you are butting heads with the Word of God.
Many pastors have gotten angry and told me that they are going to do it anyway. All right, go ahead and do it. But for your own sake be sure you understand what you are doing. You are marching headlong into the Sword of God Himself.
Rev 2:16 Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
It matters not what your motives are, however many good examples you think you have drummed up to justify yourself, and however big a majority is on your side to give you a false sense of sanctity in what you are doing. When you set yourself against the Word of God, you are on a losing side, my friend. You cannot win! You cannot win!
“He that hath an ear to hear let him hear what the Spirit sayeth of the churches,” Jesus said. I do not know how to put that in any more dramatic fashion than these words themselves: “He that has an ear, let him hear it!” Jesus is calling upon people in the Church today. If you have any spiritual sense and spiritual life in you, listen to what I am telling you. Listen! Do not start gainsaying. Do not get watery-eyed, hard-headed, red faced and argumentative. Forget the nonsense about “Christian America.” Do not start misapplying Old Testament Promises meant for Israel to nations of today. Do not bother trying to explain that it is the modern times, and we simply cannot do what the Bible says anymore. Listen! Listen! Are you listening?
God's Point of View (C) 2020
This article was an excerpt of our commentary on the Book of Revelation. It can be purchased from Kindle at the following link: Vol XXX - Seven Trumpets Asounding - Commentary on the book of Revelation