Why is the Church Weak?

James Montgomery Boice:

We do not have a strong church today, nor do we have many strong Christians. We can trace the cause to an acute lack of sound spiritual knowledge. Why is the church weak? Why are individual Christians weak? It is because they have allowed their minds to become conformed to the “spirit of this age,” with its mechanistic, godless thinking. They have forgotten what God is like and what he promises to do for those who trust him. Ask an average Christian to talk about God. After getting past the expected answers you will find that his god is a little god of vacillating sentiments. He is a god who would like to save the world, but who cannot. He would like to restrain evil, but somehow he finds it beyond his power. So he has withdrawn into semi-retirement, being willing to give good advice in a grandfatherly sort of way, but for the most part he has left his children to fend for themselves in a dangerous environment.

Such a god is not the God of the Bible. Those who know their God perceive the error in that kind of thinking and act accordingly. The God of the Bible is not weak; he is strong. He is all-mighty. Nothing happens without his permission or apart from his purposes—even evil. Nothing disturbs or puzzles him. His purposes are always accomplished. Therefore, those who know him rightly act with boldness, assured that God is with them to accomplish his own desirable purposes in their lives. (Foundations of the Christian Faith: A Comprehensible and Readable Theology, pgs. 25-26)

Modalism and the Trinity

Modalism and the Bible:

Sabellianism, also called Modalism is the heretical belief that God is one person who has revealed himself in three forms or modes. This belief is in direct opposition to the Orthodox Trinitarian doctrine which teaches that God is one being eternally existing in three persons. According to Modalism, Jesus was simply God acting in one mode or role while here on earth. Thus, the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was God acting in a different mode. Therefore, God does not exist as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at the same time. According to this line of reasoning, God is one person who manifests Himself in these three modes at different times. Modalism denies the basic distinctiveness and coexistence of the three persons of the Trinity.

Modalism is a common theological error concerning the nature of God among many Christians. Modalist churches accuse Trinitarians of teaching three gods. This is not what the Trinity is. The correct teaching of the Trinity is one God in three eternal coexistent persons: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The Bible teaches:

Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. (1 Corinthians 8:6 ESV)

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. (John 14:26 ESV)

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. . . . (Matthew 28:19 ESV)

When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all. (1 Corinthians 15:28 ESV)

The Need for Reconciliation

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. (Matthew 5:21-26 ESV)

We see in the above verses that Jesus is responding to the traditional interpretations of the Law during His time on Earth, not the Law itself. Note that He says, “You have heard that it was said to those of old.…” He is referring to the oral traditions rather than the written Law. These were the accepted traditions of the Scribes and Pharisees.

For instance; the phrase “whoever murders will be liable to judgment” may be referring to local courts, but Jesus did not see this as going far enough. Was this Law only concerned with real acts of murder?

“But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”

(Matthew 5:22 ESV) Jesus taught that “everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.” Indeed, “whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council (Sanhedrin).” Anyone who says, “You fool! will be liable to the hell of fire.”

Therefore, we see that the traditional interpretation of the Law fell far short of the teachings of Christ. Matthew 5:23-24 says, “So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” (Matthew 5:23-24 ESV) In other words; we should not try to worship God when we are presently having a conflict with a brother. Such relationships should be restored before worshipping God. Wrong feelings towards others can harm our relationship with God.

Jesus has provided us here with an interesting contrast between traditional views of the Law and the righteousness of the kingdom of heaven. He shows us that the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees did not go far enough in applying the Law.

Jesus also teaches us that wrong thoughts and emotions, such as anger toward others, can harm our relationship with God. We only want to think of murder as the physical act of killing someone, but we can also murder relationships and the reputations of others. We must learn to overcome wrong thoughts and emotions – and, in order to do this, we must be born again. Peter writes, “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. . . .” (1 Peter 1:22-23 ESV)