This weekend I rediscovered an old cassette tape that I'd bought years ago from Focus on the Family. Yeah, that's right, I've been known to listen to James Dobson from time to time. Anyways, the tape was titled "For such a time as this" and consists of a broadcast speech given by Rev. Lawrence White to a pastors conference in 1998 in California. In his speech, which I've transferred to mp3 format and attached to this page, Rev. White voices his grave concern for the wellbeing of our nation due to the avarice and inaction of today's church.

He relates the story of the rise of the Third Nazi Reich under the rule of Adolph Hitler in prewar Germany. Our current national situation is frighteningly similar to that of Germany in the years preceding that great struggle between not only the axis and allied powers, but also the struggle between the German Church and that of the Nazi government. At that time the church and its leadership had become very lackadaisical and apathetic in its affairs and, much like the American Church today, had allowed the lie of "Separation of Church and State" to shorten its reach and undermine its effectiveness in reaching the lost AND in proclaiming in the public square the need for a moral Christian lifestyle. The German church, under pressure from Hitler and his racist culture, bowed out of the public square, which not only allowed for the citizens of Germany to become accepting of the Nazi message, but in turn made it possible for the cruel and senseless murder of millions of Jews, Russians, and other "lesser" ethnic groups by the axis powers.

Just as the German Church was guilty of forsaking its calling in the years prior to the Nazi takeover, the Church of America has likewise become slack in its stand on the Gospel and its message.  Over the last 20 to 30 years the Christian Right in this country has become increasingly silent and motionless concerning the degradation and decay of the morality of the society in which we live.  It IS true that we have been called to live in this world of decadence, however we have also been called to live a sanctified and victorious life while in it.  That the Church as a whole has allowed popular culture and societal whims to corrupt and erode our foundation beliefs and views is an affront and disgrace to Christ and His sacrifice. 

We have long stood silent in the face of the humanistic and socialistic lifestyle that is being pushed on America, and the Church's silence has once again allowed for cruel and senseless actions taken against those whom are least able to defend themselves.  Today it is not the Jews who are being slaughtered and incinerated... it is our own children.  In a massacre that makes the holocaust appear as minor as a traffic accident some 45 million of our own flesh have been brutally murdered, dismembered, and disposed of like so much table scraps... and all in the name of vanity and convenience.  And yet we remain silent.  We have been browbeaten by popular culture and its false vision of life to the point that we have folded over, given in, and accepted it as truth.  Is it any wonder that even our pastors, youth ministers, and deacons struggle with the simplest of moral and ethical quandaries?  When we reach the point as the Church that we misconstrue the very Word of God to justify our sinful actions is it not the time to fall to our faces before God and plead for forgiveness? 

On the radio this morning was talk of Russia's newly re-awakened hatred of America.  Iran has procured its nuclear capabilities.  Our own leadership desires the downfall of America... Our world is at an impasse.  We are standing on a precipice overlooking that long awaited coming of our Lord, and WOE be unto us, the so-called bride of Christ, who have whored ourselves to this age and have forsaken our sacred calling to righteousness and exaltation of His Name. 

I say all of that to say this.  We must not continue to remain as silent lambs, retreating into our sanctuaries, singing our worship songs, leading or DNOW weekends separated from yet wholly influenced by the very world in which we are to be reaching.  Our desire to make the gospel appealing and fluffy to the world has done them a great disservice.  We must stand on His word and shout to those around us that the time truly IS at hand, that God HATES the murder of his children, and that only through true repentance and scourging by hyssop can we be saved.