Crisis in the Church Essay Project

Josh Smith' Response

There were twenty Essays entered in the Crisis in the Church Project sponsored by The Trumpet and AVIDD (American Veterans in Domestic Defense). Judges were Pastor Jim Grove, Pastor of Heritage Baptist Church in Loganville, PA; Wiley Drake, Pastor of First Southern Baptist Church of Buena Vista, CA; Judge Roy Moore and staff of Montgomery, AL; and Jim Cabaniss and the AVIDD staff of Houston, TX.

Dr. W.N. Otwell, Pastor of the Heritage Baptist Church in Mt. Enterprise, Texas, and Josh Douglas Smith, a 23 year old free lance photographer and web developer from Berwyn, PA, tied for first place. Joey Faust, Pastor of Kingdom Baptist from Mansfield, Texas, was second. Four entries tied for third place: Pastor John Steven Brown, Everette Ramsey, Jimmie Warren and Alwyn Williams.

This all came about some months ago when Mr. Cabaniss sent one of the most startling e-mails to The Trumpet, with three of the most thought-provoking questions that we had ever considered. Those questions were pertaining to the Lord’s churches after the following statements.

“I am deeply concerned with the obvious erosion of the Christian Church in America. One does not have to be a Rocket scientist to notice that the Lord's Church is experiencing a diminishing image even among the Christian community.

“The news media, Hollywood, the pornography industry, the abortion - Planned Parenthood effort, the "Gay" and Lesbian agenda, the ACLU and certain other organizations are openly showing their intent to destroy the influence of the churches in our society. Even our government is now declaring that there is no God. For example:

“In the final minutes of Former Chief Justice Roy Moore's encounter with the Alabama's Court Of The Judiciary on Nov. 12, 2003, Attorney General Bill Pryor questioned Judge Moore under oath.

“Following is an exact exchange of Judge Moore's powerful witness. The Attorney General asked, "And your understanding is that the Federal Court ordered that you could not acknowledge God; isn't that right?" Judge Moore said, "Yes." Pryor continued, "And if you resume your duties as Chief Justice after this proceeding, you will continue to acknowledge God as you have testified that you would today?" Judge Moore, "That's right." Pryor, "No matter what any other official says?" Judge Moore replied "Absolutely."

“On the basis of that testimony the Alabama Court of the Judiciary removed Chief Justice Roy Moore from office and stripped him of his reputation. Then they removed the Ten Commandments Monument from the Alabama Supreme Court Building.

“It is becoming clear that our Government has taken the position that there is no God, which also means, that to the government, there is no Jesus Christ either, and in the end it will mean no church in America as we have known it.

“Pastor Dixon, this is shocking to my family and me. I personally believe that the Bible believing and teaching Christian Church is the most important establishment of God in the history of the world. Please help me to understand what is going on in our Churches. Please consider the answer to the following questions:

1) What is the problem?

2) What is causing the problem?

3) What is the solution to the problem?”

Jim Cabaniss

Following is Josh Smith’s essay. Mr. Smith tied for first place with W.N. Otwell, whose essay was featured in the January-March Trumpet.

Josh Douglas Smith is a 23 year old free lance photographer and web developer from Berwyn, PA. His vision is to direct films that will help witness to God's children who are scattered abroad or to help Christians better understand their relationship to God. His last film project, a short drama titled Four Thorns for Aidan, won a number of awards in Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Other essays will be featured in subsequent Trumpets.

CRISIS IN THE CHURCH

By Josh Smith

What is the problem?

The problem, which could be summed up as 'worldliness reaching towards the great falling away', has nowadays been caused primarily by three major issues:

1. The loss of courage, love (agape), and loyalty to Jesus Christ among Christians in America, especially from men who claim to be teachers of God's word or servants to God's children.

2. The infiltration of pagan/catholic doctrines and religious relativism within the 501(c)(3) church organizations, primarily from five major systems:

- The Socialist Purpose Driven 'Church' Movement (Rick Warren exposed his membership to the CFR at Davos 2008 as seen on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je2FDmsrxiA)

- The Postmodern & Ecumenical Emergent Movement (social relativism that displaces truth with theatrical fireworks, sacraments, and the worship of men)

- The Eastern Mystic Third Wave New Apostolic Reformation (e.g. Todd Bentley's contemplative meditation and kundalini chakra sorcery)

- Seeker Friendly Mainline & Non-denominationalism (forfeiting truth for the sake of 'church growth' and bureaucratic pillaging)

- Karmic Word of Faith Televangelism (Gloria and Kenneth Copeland's existential pyramid scheme; a sure hit on TBN and GodTV)

3. The cowardly willingness for Christians and churches to forfeit their God-given gift of exousia (i.e. freedom to exercise choice) to Babylon (i.e. the State) and Babylon's forceful will to abrogate the exousia of all men and subjugate them under the system of the State. This is by far one of the most endangering problems for the body of Christ.

What is causing the problem?

The cause is fairly easy. The world will always be the world, and will worsen as the time for Jesus Christ's return to earth draws near. A primary catalyst though for this problem is the church's unwillingness to embattle the world's wickedness and hold it at a standstill. Instead, the church 'leaders' have, out of fear of men and love of themselves, embraced the world and all of its cowardliness, unbelief, abominations, murder, immorality, sorcery, idolatry, and lies. Since there are few who exist in this world with the shield of faith or the sword of the spirit, the sheep are scattered and the world is swallowing them up.

What is the solution?

There is no global solution to this problem apart from the return of Jesus Christ, who will bring all things in subjection to Himself. This is our hope and faith. Any global solution short of that would be self-imposed dominion theology, which is the last system we ought to be contributing to. The least we can do now as individuals and within the body of Christ in our respective cities is to continue in our obedience, courage, and loyalty to what is right and true in Jesus Christ for the sake of God's will (Ephesians 1:9-10) and to perform the individual preordained works he has for each of us; also to help persuade others of the truth thus snatching them from destruction, and to pray that we grow in wisdom and be kept from temptation or led astray. Other than that, prepare yourselves, each one, for the return of Jesus Christ and be ready and willing to pledge your allegiance to this one true King and Mighty Warrior unto death. The gospel of the kingdom will be preached before the end, and this gospel is the most hated by the Babylonian/ Luciferian state system. This is the gospel that Jesus Christ is coming back to tear the governments from their pedestals and overthrow kings and their cities. Jesus is taking over soon, and the governments ought to be trembling in their boots.