“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:” Amos 8:11.

 

Theological truth has lost its flavor. A growing trend in the church today points to a moving away from God’s word, away from sound biblical teaching. Has God’s word become of non-effect, unnecessary in these last days? The significance of this trend is obvious when reading the results of a recent survey done by the Barna Research Group (BRG). This survey indicates that Christians are in a regression of sorts when it comes to their knowledge of the scriptures.

 

People naturally seek after truth. Now that the Bible has been designated as being merely myth and legend, too many people now turn to the Discovery Channel for their daily allotment of “truth”. Oh, and of course there’s always the major news sources now seen as purveyors of truth, right? Especially if you want to learn about what’s wrong with the church, or read about the never ending scandals men of the cloth (sinful man) get themselves into now and then.

 

God’s truth is found solely in the Holy Bible, but that truth you’ll never hear on your nightly news channel. If the masses are not taught God’s truth by those of us who still know His truth, then their lives will be governed by what they learn from the secular media and of course in our wonderful government run, fully secular, Godless, public school system. Here’s a little news flash – those two wonderful sources of miss-information I just mentioned are inadequate, if not completely incapable, of portraying anything that might vaguely resemble the truth of God.

 

Whatever happened to the faith of our fathers? The knowledge that the older believers possessed is fading into the sunset, and many of the younger group of those who profess a belief in Christ no longer look at the Bible as inerrant. After all, the Bible is only a quasi guideline – we shouldn’t pattern our lives after what we read in that dusty, antiquated old book, should we?

 

Sorely missing in most seminaries and Christian colleges today is that “full council of God” teaching. Thus many of the new Christian leaders, teachers, and pastors exploding onto the Christian scene today are wholly incapable of teaching Theological truths.

 

Here we are today facing a world where many Christian churches have and are teaching from the “Purpose Driven Life”, and sometimes exclusively. They’ll read and study from books such as the “Shack” and even Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code”. These heretical books are promoted by pastors as “must read” material; even worse, they’re viewed as truth. But God’s inerrant word get’s passed over and finally lost in the insignificant garbage heaps of life. There was a time when Christian pastors taught from God’s word and never from a book written by some man – containing page after page of that particular individual’s presuppositions or prejudices.

 

“And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.” Amos 8:12. It’s interesting how the early Church yearned for the Word, how those such as the Bereans studied God’s word no matter what they were taught by Paul and Silas. There was a deep desire to learn God’s truth in those early church years and for many years thereafter. Where is that desire today?

 

Amos tells us that people will run around like chickens with their heads cut off (I’m paraphrasing of course) seeking God’s word but they won’t find it. Is that where we are today? People seem to be turning to any source in seeking the word of the Lord, and yet the word of the Lord eludes them; all the time it’s within their grasp, in front of their very eyes, right there in their Bibles. 

 

Today, not only is there no time to study and learn God’s word, but His word has become of little use in our post-modern world. Many just dismiss the Bible as irrelevant for today. People are taught that the Bible is just a book full religious tradition thus inadequate as a source for any real human growth.

 

So it begins. There is a famine in the land. And yes, there may be a famine for food and water coming in the near future, but a famine for hearing God’s word is already here.

 

So where does this leave a huge segment of our protestant churches today? More importantly, where does it leave all those gullible individuals who believe they’ve been taught the truth while leaving their Bibles to collect dust? The “feel good” message delivered from many pulpits today leaves a lot to be desired in regards to understanding the truth of the scriptures. Teaching through the Bible exegetically, it seems, has gone the way of the Dodo.

 

What about salvation through Jesus Christ alone? This has become an antiquated concept today. It’s being replaced with salvation through many man devised works, and of course these works lead to the biggest deception of all, the concept of many roads leading to Heaven. Let me tell you where these folks stand in relation to being born again believers “In Christ”. They stand firmly entrenched with the rest of the non-believing, Christ rejecting, perishing masses.

 

As we move deeper and deeper into the prophetic last days before Christ’s return, we may find it extremely difficult to locate a truly Christ centered, Bible believing church. I’ve received numerous letters addressing this very problem, not only from folks here in America, but from brothers and sisters in countries all around the world. They’ve been telling me, for some time now, how difficult it is to find a church where Jesus Christ is still preached and worshipped, and where the Gospel is still taught. Many have given up the search, and with their families assembled, they simply worship at home.

 

The exclusivity of the Christian faith and inerrancy of the Bible is so offensive to some, that many in the church have taken it upon themselves to devalue and disparage God’s word so the promotion of the unity of all religions can be advanced. It’s no longer all about Jesus Christ – Mohammed and Buddha must have their place firmly established and on the same level as our Creator, Savior, and Lord. 

 

The scheme, and that’s exactly what it is, of theological truth being ignored in many of our protestant churches today is not a new phenomenon. The enemy has been putting up roadblocks to God’s word for the last 6,000 years. In turning people, ever so cunningly, away from God’s word, Satan has successfully replaced Jesus Christ with a false gospel. “For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.” 2 Corinthians 11:4. Paul was very concerned about false gospels being promoted and that folks would believe those lies and follow the purveyors of those lies. You see, if we actually read and studied our Bibles we would have seen it coming and we could have avoided this evil substitution of God’s word. The presence of one little lie can grow and corrupt the entire church.

 

“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” Galatians 1:8-9. The Apostle Paul declares in the strongest language that the Gospel he preached was the one and only way of salvation, and that to preach another was to nullify the Death of Christ. So would anyone like to venture a guess as to what happens to those who presume to persuade the masses of the “truth” of a different and false gospel? Does Joseph Smith come to mind?

 

Apparently, according to this same study done by the Barna Research Group (BRG), teaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified is no longer an effective way to approach the lost of this world, especially the young. People who are not born again are not encouraged to become born again. But Jesus says “…Ye must be born again.”John 3:7b. Those who follow these false teachers, yet still call themselves Christians, are not encouraged to spread the Gospel of Christ. Why? Well according to BRG’s survey, the exclusivity of the Christian faith has entered a new phase. Apparently, it is now frowned upon to approach the lost to witness to them. This all stems from believing there are many paths that lead to Heaven.

 

Jesus Christ as the way, the truth, and the life, is an old tired concept in the minds of many and should be shelved, replaced with the feel good message, and the unity of religions, these new concepts are doing a great job of adding warm bodies to the pews. The creation of the last day’s “church of universalism” can plainly be seen. 

 

The famine spoken of by Amos concerning the word of the Lord is now firmly entrenched in all societies and quite discernable. This was to occur in the last days, which is just one more example of God’s prophetic truth coming to pass. Hold fast to the faith my brethren, we must occupy ‘til He comes. It won’t be long now.   

 

God bless you all,                           

 

Ron Graham

twotug@embarqmail.com

All scripture is from the KJV and God breathed