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APOSTASY AND CHURCH GROWTH

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   Background to the Study

The church of Christ in this era has mainly been instituted on the sermons of a prosperity gospel, that has caused her apostate condition. Todayʼs Christianshave unfortunately not well appreciated that the current apostasy in the church, undeniably amounts to a house that has literally renounced her loyalty unto the Lord. Jehovah the God of covenant firmly honours His pledges to the extent that mankind can literally live off every word that proceeds out of His mouth. In the clamour to sustain her earthly livelihood, the church of Christ committed the greatest blunder ever, by forgetting that the most important foundation upon which her provision was well promised, is righteousness. Then there came the deception, as if in an answer to her prayer, one in the guise of the prosperity gospel from heaven, which she readily accepted without any careful afterthought. Pointing to this reason, over the greater part of her life, the church has virtually engaged in the sermons of a false form of christianity that fronts the spiritually reckless living in compromise with sin. Strewed in the churchʼs impaired vision of prosperity are all the excesses of earthly wealth and pleasures to the extent that holiness has been sidelined. This has essentially rendered the church spiritually too faint and feeble to even enter the bloodstained path that Jesus charted out for her, on the Cross at Calvary.

Though the church well recognized the bloodstained highway of holiness from the beginning, contrarily her act is as though she were not provoked into a bitter controversy with the broader highways of this sinful world. Following His passionate suffering on the Cross, the Lord Jesus unmistakably aggravated the church into an eternal controversy with this evil dark world. It is His undaunted stature on the Cross and the suffering of such a condition of things to exist, that raised to the church a red flag on the parleying with sin, that she may not give the enemy an advantage over her life. By conceding to the disguised demands of this sinful world, nothing good has come out of the churchʼs worship, neither has God been glorified by her praise. In the absence of holiness, the evidence of christian walk is today worthless to break the stronghold of rebellion in the church and summon Godʼs might, because human capacity, strength and power have indeed predictably weakened in the face of such a humongous mountain of earthly darkness to surmount. Unfortunately for todayʼs apostate pastors, while this scenario perfectly rolls out, faith, which is the pillar of christian walk in the church now reposes in God. This kind of weakening of faith is what has opened a huge door to deception and rampart falsehood into todayʼs house of the LORD. Only a righteously obedient walk in the highway of holiness can unravel for the church the true defining intent of holiness when the LORD said,“Above all things, I desire that you prosper” (Isaiah 35:8-9).

1.2   Statement of the Problem

Since the loss of his inheritance in heaven, the enemy has determined to find revenge by causing the church to share in his disgraceful fall. Very much aware that in our own strength it is impossible for us to deny the clamour of our fallen nature, the enemy has perpetually taken advantage of hereditary weakness and hence fully engaged his false insinuations to ensnare all whose trust in God is not. He has devised new schemes and channels with which to assault especially the church. At the nativity of our LORD Jesus in a cuddled Bethlehem manger, the enemy already knew that One had now come with a divine commission to dispute his dominion over mankind, and to finally set the church free. This caused the adversary to tremble much, at the angelʼs message attesting the authority of the new born King. Much as it was difficult to fathom the mystery of this great sacrifice of love, the glory and the peace and majesty and the joy of heavenly communion, were mightily manifest abound. That the Son of God should come to this earth as a man, certainly filled the adversary with fearful amazement and with an extreme sense of apprehension, to mention the least.

1.3   Objectives of the Study

The time of this promised endtime revival is nigh and here. Markedly, an indismissible Holy Ghost revival is today beginning to restore righteousness and holiness across the ends of the earth. It is the youthful modesty and grace of this, endtime Holy Ghost revival that will eventually disarm the prejudices of the prosperity priesthood in its totality in order to unconsciously open their minds to the word of God, that the Holy Spirit may speak to their hearts. But while that blessed revival is yet to totally consume the earth, todayʼs spiritual decay indeed marks a significant departure from the expected norm. This is owing to the fact that any church which especially walks the highway of holiness, should have trusted the LORDʼs counsel explicitly on matters of repentance. Furthermore, even in the greatest milieu of money-preaching and prosperity advocacy, the fears on the unexpected return of the Messiah are beginning to be aroused. The church in her best spiritual performance and sensibility knows it too well that never was an earthly confined living, the original intention for which Jesus was sent to the Cross to pay such a horrific heart-wrenching price of redemption. Because of its obvious inborn spiritual shortfalls, the prosperity gospel has completely failed to rebuke the sin that has today intruded the church, and instead opted to accommodate worldliness and spiritual decay within the christian fraternity. Rejoiced as they may seem today, this kind of apostate church cannot however afford the luxury of forgetting the grief and anxiety that their unreadiness will cause upon the return of the Messiah.

1.6   Significance of the Study

It is the faulting of the word of God in this dispensation, that has largely magnified apostasy today and the blatant practice of open lawlessness and shameless heedlessness in the church of Christ. As pronounced in the word, in his open expression of his intention to prosper mankind here on the earth, nevertheless was it Godʼs object that such prosperity focus the heart of the church entirely into the perishable decay realm. By design though, Godʼs ultimate blueprint for manʼs creation very much implied that every blessing of prosperity would be able to cause him to be caught up with the Messiah in the glorious gathering at rapture. However, it is now more and more evident and to a greater extent that the conception of this novel plan of God still remains for the most part, misconstrued to the present church. For this reason, the grievous spiritual misinterpretation that today presents the false gospel of prosperity, has by and large wiped-out the churchʼs authority and honour, to a state of near-irrelevance. With most of todayʼs believers in this degenerate condition, worship observance has now been seriously reduced to a mere formalism.

1.7   Scope/Limitations of the Study

This study is on apostasy and church growth.

Limitations of study

Financial constraint- Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

Time constraint- The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work.

1.8   Definition of Terms

Apostasy:The abandonment or renunciation of a religious or political belief or principle.

Church Growth: Church Growth is a movement within evangelical Christianity which aims to develop methods to grow churches based on business marketing strategies.

REFERENCES

Anderson, Richard Lloyd. “Circumstantial Confirmation of the First Vision through Reminiscences.” Brigham Young University Studies, Spring 1969, pp. 373–404.

“Joseph Smith’s New York Reputation Reappraised.” Brigham Young University Studies, Spring 1970, pp. 283–314.

Cannon, Donald Q., ed. Regional Studies in Latter-day Saint Church History— New England. Provo, Utah: Department of Church History and Doctrine, Brigham Young University, 1988.

Porter, Larry C., Milton V. Backman, Jr., and Susan Easton Black, eds. Regional Studies in Latter-day Saint Church History—New York. Provo, Utah: Department of Church History and Doctrine, Brigham Young University, 1992