If there was anything that I learned from my time in Europe and England, it is the truth that a godly heritage can be almost wasted, and a spiritual history can be all but wiped out. Christian Europe and England are no more, and their amazing Christian heritage is largely lost.
For centuries to speak about Western civilisation was to speak about Christian civilisation – they were basically one and the same for such a long period of time. But no more. When we think about the West today, we think about a godless, immoral, secular and decadent place where the Christian faith has all but disappeared.
This is certainly so in Europe and England. Of course God always saves for himself a remnant. He always has a godly minority who are standing strong. So that is true today, be it in Amsterdam, or London, or Geneva. There are many such pinpoints of light shining through the darkness.
And I met many of these light-bearers. I met many of these brave resistance fighters on my travels. Just like the brave resistance fighters during WWII, so there are many who have not bowed the knee to Baal, and there are many courageous Christians who are doing all they can to be salt and light in godless Europe and England.
But what a wasted heritage! Just think of all that God has done there, and how much of it has now been lost. We have allowed all the great things done by the saints of old to slip through our fingers. Now only a skeleton remains. Now only a burnt-out shell exists.
Simply think of the bombed-out cities of the last great war: that is a graphic image of the spiritual condition of so much of the UK and Europe today. Much of the place lies in ruins, and so few believers even seem to care about this. There is no weeping. There is no mourning. There is no brokenness and repentance.
Instead, so many Christians just party on, seeking entertainment and self-gratification, and act as if things are just the same as always. They seem to have no clue that their heritage has been lost, squandered and wasted. But the true follower of Christ cannot be so indifferent and apathetic.
The West today is in its own Babylonian captivity. What is the mindset of those of us living in such a state? Around a week ago I shared with a group of committed and on-fire Christians in the south of England, and I raised these very issues. I said our first response must be to properly recognise and discern our true condition. We must be aware of the problem.
Lamentations 1:1-3 speaks to the seriousness of the problem the Israelites found themselves in while in captivity in Babylon: “How deserted lies the city, once so full of people! How like a widow is she, who once was great among the nations! She who was queen among the provinces has now become a slave. Bitterly she weeps at night, tears are upon her cheeks. Among all her lovers there is none to comfort her. All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies. After affliction and harsh labor, Judah has gone into exile. She dwells among the nations; she finds no resting place. All who pursue her have overtaken her in the midst of her distress.”
And we desperately need God’s heart on all this. Just as it broke God’s heart to see his own people squander their spiritual heritage and to lose it all, ending up in the hands of their enemies, so it should grieve God’s people. Lamentations 1:12 so powerfully conveys this idea: “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?”
Don’t you care? Doesn’t it bother you? Are you not in the least bit troubled and disturbed by what has happened? As the prophet Amos put it (Amos 6:1, 6): “Woe to you who are complacent in Zion, and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria. . . . You do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph (Israel).”
The true saint will most certainly grieve over the destruction of the work of God, be it what he had done in and through ancient Israel, or the church today. If you truly love God and his work, the spiritual collapse and malaise we find all around us will us make us sick in the stomach (as Amos 6:6 basically says in the Hebrew).
The prophet Ezekiel also spoke to the horrible situation Israel found itself in: “The Spirit then lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness and in the anger of my spirit, with the strong hand of the LORD upon me. I came to the exiles who lived at Tel Abib near the Kebar River. And there, where they were living, I sat among them for seven days, overwhelmed” (Ezekiel 3:14-15).
His only proper reaction was to be consumed by bitterness and anger of spirit. Does that characterise your response as you witness the fall of the church and the triumph of godlessness, immorality and secularism all around the Western world?
Indeed, he sat there, utterly overwhelmed and blown away for seven entire days. Yet most of us can’t even find seven entire minutes to pray about our spiritual collapse, and seek for God’s grace and mercy, in the hopes that he might restore our fortunes and reverse our wretched condition.
One final godly reaction to the Babylonian Captivity – which should also be found in our response – is recorded in Psalm 137:1-4. This is such an amazing yet heartbreaking reply: “By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’ How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land?”
The captors demanded a bit of merriment and glee. But how could the true child of God be so frivolous and carefree in such dark and desperate times? How could they carry on as if it were just business as usual? How could they pretend everything was just peachy?
Yet today, with so much of the Western church in a state of disarray, dysfunction, decay and decadence, so many believers don’t seem to know, or don’t seem to care. They just carry on as if nothing has happened. They seem clueless as to how so much of our spiritual inheritance has been squandered and lost.
There is of course only one proper response to all of this apathy and carelessness. May God favour his church with a mighty wave of repentance and contrition. May he break us in his great love, so that we may once again be all that he wants us to be.
It is only the sheer mercy and kindness of God if he does send such a wind of repentance among us. We so very much need it. Revival is the need of the hour, and as is often the case, great revival is intimately connected with great repentance.
May God have mercy on his wayward people in the West. We have been given so much, but used so little of it. We have squandered and wasted the great heritage bestowed upon us. We must return to our first love, and seek his face afresh.
A few words from some recent great saints are the best way to finish here:
“I read of the revivals of the past, great sweeping revivals where thousands of men were swept into the Kingdom of God. I read about Charles G. Finney winning his thousands and his hundreds of thousands of souls to Christ. Then I picked up a book and read the messages of Charles G. Finney and the message of Jonathan Edwards on ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,’ and I said, ‘No wonder men trembled; no wonder they fell in the altars and cried out in repentance and sobbed their way to the throne of grace!'” -Leonard Ravenhill
“When revival sweeps over a people, the first evidence is a profound awareness of sin and sorrow for it. This was true of the great Welsh revivals of the last century and of the revivals under the Wesleys the century before that. It was true of the Reformation and of the first revival in recorded history, the revival in Nineveh in response to the preaching of the prophet Jonah.” -James Montgomery Boice
Or as Jesus put it to the Church at Ephesus: “Look how far you have fallen from your first love! Turn back to me again and work as you did at first” (Revelation 2:5, NLT). Or as the NIV puts it, “Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.”
6 Replies to “Squandered Heritage, Wasted Opportunities”
And as if to fully highlight and confirm my thesis, i just came upon this piece about churches converted into secular places – many of them in Europe and England:
It’s not only the churches of England and Europe. If you travel within Australia, there are many buildings that were once churches that are now in private hands.
Some of this is attributed to the changing fortunes of the bush where populations have dwindled and moved away, but much of it can not be excused as anything other than a lack of interest in the things of God and particularly regular worship and tithing.
Buildings that were once churches are regularly decommissioned and some house New Age mystic pursuits.
There appears to be no fear of the wrath to come which Scripture notes, only a general apathy about the spread of discounted alcohol outlets throughout our communities.
In the early decades of the 20th century, the Australian Inland Mission, led by the Rev. John Flynn build an Aerial Medical Service which created a regional health scheme throughout the vast inland of Australia. This was largely funded in the first instance by Australian people.
Flynn’s prophetic Mantle of Safety has been likened to Elijah’s mantle which he passed on to Elisha to care for the people, but there are more problems with alcohol in the inland now than there were a hundred years ago.
The old Australian community values, post-Federation came through WW1, the 1930s Depression and WW11. We have lived in a land of plenty ever since, especially since the 1980s, but now that we have to tighten our belts to balance our books, consumer confidence has dropped an estimated 6.3% and students protest about losing a “free” education. The state of our souls doesn’t rate a mention.
As part of the West, we too are indifferent to our Christian heritage and what it will mean to lose it. It’s taken for granted by those who don’t read the Scriptures and marked-down as God-bothering, but a day is coming when our prosperity won’t be linked to the mining industry.
‘Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people’ (Pv. 14: 34). It’s the word ‘any’ that appears to have been missed by the no worries nation, but if you don’t believe in the Ten Commandments, why bother with the rest?
But this rot in the established church has been developing since the beginning of state religion. Chartres Cathedral in France is arguably the most beautiful of all Gothic cathedrals but we must not forget that it is dedicated to the cult worship of Mary, the Queen of Heaven. Hence the many ” Notre Dame(s)” scattered across France.
Perhaps it will only when we are forced to meet in secret, in homes, underground and forests that the Church grows, just as it always has in places of persecution.
David Skinner UK
Dear Bill, Thank you for the article.
David, Catholics do not WORSHIP Mary the Mother of our Saviour.They humbly ask for her intercession because they recognise as a Mother she was the closest person on earth to her Divine Son and is also closest to Him in Heaven. Once a mother always a mother. However, I agree that everything is not right in the Catholic Church.
I went to Poland last year because I dearly wanted to walk in the footsteps of Pope John Paul 2 having lived through World War 2 myself but in England. I got the impression that the Poles have gone through a frenzy of building massive, beautiful Churches as a result of the fall of Communism an era where the Church was persecuted.
However, I also got the impression that anyone visiting Poland without a good understanding and empathy of the terrible deprivation suffered by that nation, first under the Nazis and then under the Communists would not appreciate the amazing role of John Paul 2 in those times. Consequently, they could easily view the numerous monuments etc to him as an undesirable cult of personality. However, we must keep in mind that God chooses who He raises up as He did with John Paul 2 to free that nation from a godless yoke
Sadly though, given time the Poles will go the way of the West. They will forget their history and take their new found freedom for granted. It is a fact that people turn to God more in times of persecution and war.
I had breakfast in a converted church recently, and pondered how sad the original parishioners would be knowing that their House of God is now a resturant which serves alcohol.
But what a wasted heritage! Just think of all that God has done there, and how much of it has now been lost. We have allowed all the great things done by the saints of old to slip through our fingers. Now only a skeleton remains. Now only a burnt-out shell exists.
And as if to fully highlight and confirm my thesis, i just came upon this piece about churches converted into secular places – many of them in Europe and England:
http://io9.com/beautiful-churches-that-have-been-converted-into-secula-583156045
It’s not only the churches of England and Europe. If you travel within Australia, there are many buildings that were once churches that are now in private hands.
Some of this is attributed to the changing fortunes of the bush where populations have dwindled and moved away, but much of it can not be excused as anything other than a lack of interest in the things of God and particularly regular worship and tithing.
Buildings that were once churches are regularly decommissioned and some house New Age mystic pursuits.
There appears to be no fear of the wrath to come which Scripture notes, only a general apathy about the spread of discounted alcohol outlets throughout our communities.
In the early decades of the 20th century, the Australian Inland Mission, led by the Rev. John Flynn build an Aerial Medical Service which created a regional health scheme throughout the vast inland of Australia. This was largely funded in the first instance by Australian people.
Flynn’s prophetic Mantle of Safety has been likened to Elijah’s mantle which he passed on to Elisha to care for the people, but there are more problems with alcohol in the inland now than there were a hundred years ago.
The old Australian community values, post-Federation came through WW1, the 1930s Depression and WW11. We have lived in a land of plenty ever since, especially since the 1980s, but now that we have to tighten our belts to balance our books, consumer confidence has dropped an estimated 6.3% and students protest about losing a “free” education. The state of our souls doesn’t rate a mention.
As part of the West, we too are indifferent to our Christian heritage and what it will mean to lose it. It’s taken for granted by those who don’t read the Scriptures and marked-down as God-bothering, but a day is coming when our prosperity won’t be linked to the mining industry.
‘Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people’ (Pv. 14: 34). It’s the word ‘any’ that appears to have been missed by the no worries nation, but if you don’t believe in the Ten Commandments, why bother with the rest?
I found the same in Canada.
In Bournemouth Tesco superstore is a former church.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1328629/Tesco-opens-latest-convenience-shop–church.html
Also in Bournemouth is Halo, a raving nightclub in the very centre of the town
http://www.halobournemouth.com/home/
Liverpool has this example of a Roman Catholic church now used for performances of semi-clad dancers.
http://www.alma-de-cuba.com/
Then of course we have churches throughout the UK being converted into Mosques.
http://www.thegreenarrow.co.uk/extras/videos-4-u/999-churches-converted-to-mosques
The recent protest by a brave German woman, Heidi demonstrating against Allah being worshipped in a great German Cathedral ought to be a wake up call to the Christians.
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2014/February/German-Woman-Publicly-Rebuking-Islam-Goes-Viral-/
But this rot in the established church has been developing since the beginning of state religion. Chartres Cathedral in France is arguably the most beautiful of all Gothic cathedrals but we must not forget that it is dedicated to the cult worship of Mary, the Queen of Heaven. Hence the many ” Notre Dame(s)” scattered across France.
Perhaps it will only when we are forced to meet in secret, in homes, underground and forests that the Church grows, just as it always has in places of persecution.
David Skinner UK
Dear Bill, Thank you for the article.
David, Catholics do not WORSHIP Mary the Mother of our Saviour.They humbly ask for her intercession because they recognise as a Mother she was the closest person on earth to her Divine Son and is also closest to Him in Heaven. Once a mother always a mother. However, I agree that everything is not right in the Catholic Church.
I went to Poland last year because I dearly wanted to walk in the footsteps of Pope John Paul 2 having lived through World War 2 myself but in England. I got the impression that the Poles have gone through a frenzy of building massive, beautiful Churches as a result of the fall of Communism an era where the Church was persecuted.
However, I also got the impression that anyone visiting Poland without a good understanding and empathy of the terrible deprivation suffered by that nation, first under the Nazis and then under the Communists would not appreciate the amazing role of John Paul 2 in those times. Consequently, they could easily view the numerous monuments etc to him as an undesirable cult of personality. However, we must keep in mind that God chooses who He raises up as He did with John Paul 2 to free that nation from a godless yoke
Sadly though, given time the Poles will go the way of the West. They will forget their history and take their new found freedom for granted. It is a fact that people turn to God more in times of persecution and war.
I had breakfast in a converted church recently, and pondered how sad the original parishioners would be knowing that their House of God is now a resturant which serves alcohol.