God Decides
According to John C. Maxwell, an American author, speaker, and pastor,—“Life is a matter of choices, and every choice you make makes you.” Psychologists say we can make up to 25,000 decisions in one day. That amounts to about 2,000 decisions per hour, responding or ignoring the alert on your smartphone, itching our ear, picking one’s nose, getting up, sitting down, going to the bathroom in the middle of a worship service. Besides these, we make decisions based on personality types.
Take the matter of accepting Christ; is that a decision left up to us? According to a man that was once billed as a brilliant lawyer, the decision could not have been made by him. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 2 Corinthians 4:4
Paul of Tarsus, once on the investigative team of the Sanhedrin, who forced believers to deny Christ, was literally struck by a light so bright that it blinded him. That is reminiscent of Moses coming down from Mount Sinai so “radiant,” because he had spoken with God. Exodus 34:29 It happened to Paul on the Road to Damascus at noon when the sun was at its brightest. The light was that bright that it blinded Paul, and he fell to the ground. He heard a voice say, “Paul, Paul, why are you persecuting me?”
This is referred to as a conversion story. The conversion of Paul meant that he was released from the control of Satan—the god of this age. I was reading an article on revivalism in America which sought to accomplish this. There was the “great awakening” back in the time of Jonathon Edwards and George Whitefield. The influence they brought to both the development of government and the church was highly significant.
It was Charles G. Finney’s theory that during the Second Great Awakening, the spreading of Christianity involved civil and humanitarian purposes: developing Sunday Schools and missionary societies, temperance movements, and developing institutions for the disabled and the mentally ill. There was the era of vast tent meetings. Faith healing became a profitable business. Added to this were the “holiness groups.”
In his article entitled “The Fate of American Revivalism” by Christopher J. Richmann, I was moved by his truthfulness. First, he is doubtful that there will be any great revivals in America. Since the 1960’s less and less people have been going to church, reading their Bibles and catechizing their children. To catechize means to instruct systematically, especially by questions, answers, and explanations and corrections. Revivals in the past were effective on people that had a general knowledge of the tenets of Christianity. Accepting Christ was done with a certain familiarity with the Bible. That familiarity with the Bible does not exist now.
Secondly, Americans have a very thin concept of guilt. At the basis of conversion is guilt which leads to repentance through the weight of one’s sins–God’s wrath and their unrighteousness before God. When seventy percent of Americans believe they are born innocent, guilt is not a factor anymore.
Set against these odds—the lack of Biblical knowledge and the absence of guilt–the fact remains, The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel. 2 Corinthians 4:4a
John Victor Halverson, one of my Old Testament professors, spoke of the remnant of Israel—those to whom God remained faithful. Paul supports that view. If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself. 2 Timothy 2:13 In his book 25 Basic Bible Studies, Francis A. Schaeffer begins the study by discussing the Biblical knowledge of the love and glory of God as expressed in the depths to which His Son, Jesus Christ plummeted to pay for the price of our sin that we might be restored to the glory in which we were once created.
This is the story of salvation which the Christian church here on earth has been commissioned [called] to tell down through the ages, the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 2 Corinthians 4:4b The Christian church here on earth has not been left to do this on its own. Paul makes it very clear in the eighth chapter of Romans just how important the work of the Holy Spirit is. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Romans 8:16
In all honesty Christopher Richmann does not look for any mass cultural turnings toward Christianity. But this we have been promised. For those who receive Christ in Holy Baptism there is something infinitely better ahead. Captured by the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, transforms us into new creations awaiting the new heaven and the new earth. For insight into the Christian church, we offer you this link on Luther’s seven characteristic of the church.
https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/martin-luthers-7-characteristics-church
