What is the greatest danger to the church today?

This is an important question to ask. A lot of answers could be given. But first, I want to address the reason why the leadership of Auberry Community Church is starting a blog.

The reason is simple: We hunger for the truth. 

The world is increasingly manic. It changes its worldviews seemingly at a whim. Now this is not unique to this generation, but there is clear data showing that, especially in America, moral relativity has penetrated into almost every crevice of our society. 

Space does not allow to give every current example of this, but make no mistake, all you need to do is turn on the news or go online to see the moral crumbling of our world right before our eyes. 

Now social scientists would give plenty of reasons for why we are where we are in 2023. But I believe there is one undeniable spiritual source for the chaos of this era of history: The spirit of the antichrist.

To be frank, the spirit of the antichrist has always played a role in the moral demise of humanity, but it is the current manifestation that needs our attention. 

I offer these 4 areas as the current cocktail of the spirit of the antichrist:

The spread of secularism

The seed of secularism was first planted by Immanuel Kant in the late 1700’s, making its birthplace in Europe. This cancer spread into the United States over the next two centuries, becoming mainstream with the death of God movement in the 1960’s.

David Goetsch states,

“Perhaps the most striking evidence of America’s drift away from its Christian roots can be seen in the everyday behavior of everyday Americans. Think of all the behaviors you observe routinely now that violate the second half of the Great Commandment in which Christ told us to love our neighbors as ourselves. These behaviors include rudeness, incivility, road rage, school shootings, workplace violence, vulgar music lyrics, character assassination in politics, rampant profanity, epidemic cheating, Internet “flaming,” cyber-bullying, sideline rage, gratuitous sex and violence in the movies, on television, and in computer games, and lest I forget, abortion on demand. These types of things would not be seen or, better said, would not be so commonplace in a society that was close to God. They were either non-existent or rare during my childhood.” (Effects of Removing God from the Public Square, Jan 5, 2020)

The weakening of our minds

Back in 2015, Microsoft conducted a survey and found that since the year 2000 (or about when the mobile revolution began) the average attention span dropped from 12 seconds to eight seconds. This is concerning for a variety of reasons.

According to V A Mohamad Ashrof, a lesser attention span can have several negative effects, including:

• Poor performance at work or school
• Missing significant details or information
• Communication difficulties in relationships
• Data wouldn’t emerge as knowledge, as the data is being bombarded haphazardly.
• Empathy and the kindness it sparks are essential human traits.
• Decrease in attention span decreases empathy.
• Big picture is lost, and easily carried out by propaganda.

Though each one of the reasons are concerning in their own right, I want to comment on the last one. Propaganda is not just a human ploy, it is also a demonic ploy. Asborbing these thirty second clips of TikTok emotional appeals, rarely based in fact, are now the new playground of the demonic. Rules of logic and debate are not used, but even worse, they don’t exist to this generation. In other words, it takes effort to ask questions. It takes effort to think through the cultural and then relational consequences. On the most basic level, society cannot progress in a sea of weak minds. Fear becomes again the mechanism to control the masses.And then there is the more practical issue. A short attention span means another barrier is put up, making it even more difficult to consider the existential inquiries of life. Identity, meaning and eternity. All require effort. All require tension and uncomfortablity.

The deification of big government

I give all credit to J.P. Moreland on this one. His musings about transcendence are spot on.

“There are three reasons why postmodernism and naturalism provide pressure toward expanding the role of government. The first reason is the need for transcendence. All of us need to transcend our own lives and to believe that we are a part of something bigger than we are. Nietzsche said that with the death of God—roughly, the secularization of society—people would no longer be able to find transcendence in a supreme being and would instead find it in the state. And this is what is happening today. In my view, the more secular a society becomes, the more its citizens turn to government to give them a sense of transcendence. Postmodernism and naturalism kill off an objectively existing, knowable God and leave people with the state as their best hope for transcendence.” (Moreland, A Biblical Case for Limited Government)

Not trying to rant here or act like I own an aluminum foil hat, but our society’s general response to COVID-19 only reinforces Moreland’s point. Our society has lost the ability to think for ourselves, so we need the government to think for us and ultimately, save us.

The deification of feelings

Just like J.P. Moreland, I am completely indebted to Carl Trueman for this point. In his excellent work, Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution, Trueman explains the exaltation of the self.

“The modern self assumes the authority of inner feelings and sees authenticity as defined by the ability to give social expression to the same.”

Giving authority to feelings? That sounds like a horrible idea. But as a scheme of the Evil one? Yep, makes sense to me. Then sprinkle in a little humanism, post-modernism and relativism. Now we have a society of confusion and chaos. Now a person can identify as any gender they want, which only works in a society that elevates feelings above even the scientific community.

Bottom line is this: the spirit of the antichrist is alive and well. 

What is our response? 

I would strongly encourage anyone to go to the source of the absolute truth. This makes sense, right? Out of all the voices banging around our heads, we should want to hear the One who is outside of time and space. We should want to hear from our Creator. We should want to hear from the source. God is our source. He is the truth. 

Sitting at the feet of the One who knows us completely and loves us is awesome. Run to Him today.