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WHY ARE THE CHURCHES SILENT?
boblonsberry.com ^ | 12/14/2022 | Bob Lonsberry

Posted on 12/15/2022 5:52:32 AM PST by shortstop

You wonder where the churches are.

As American society is awash in new morality, as ageless conventions are toppled and condemned, as the teachings of millennia are dismissed and the very definitions of humanity are changed, where are the shepherds of the Savior’s flock, and what guidance do they give?

For the most part, they are passive and silent. Or worse, they have gone over to the side of confusion. But seldom are they heard, and seldom do they lead, and seldom do they seem to be a light of the world.

Nowhere do you find the courage and clarity of Isaiah, who foresaw this technique of the adversary and warned those who might be deceived by it. “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil,” he wrote, “that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”

“Woe” means great sorrow and discouragement, a fundamental unhappiness. And that is where an increasing percentage of Americans are, lost and confused, just as an Old Testament prophet foresaw they would be. Yet Americans navigate these perilous times with the guideposts of biblical truth obscured and forgotten, their watchmen upon the walls silent and blind.

The churches are often like salt that has lost its savor.

While the world shouts that good is evil and evil is good, that men are women and women are men, that right is wrong and wrong is right. The absolute and eternal truths of humankind’s Creator are seldom heard, including across the pulpit.

Religion, which in most cultures and in most eras shapes social attitudes and practices, has been silenced or co-opted in modern America. We have redefined marriage and gender, issues addressed in scripture, and the preachers of the gospel have looked the other way. We have rejected law, devalued work, preached entitlement, suppressed speech, and burdened portions of our society with ever heavier taxes – contrary to cultural practices rooted in traditional Christianity – and the Christian ministers have been silent.

We have replaced love of neighbor with tribal hatred, and the structures of power in our society seem intent on pitting us against one another to the point of violence and social dissolution. Those institutions of power – the government, the school and university, the entertainment and news media – all preach a strange gospel, focused in large part on children, that confuses the mind and obscures the truth.

And the churches are silent.

Not only about what is the truth, but on the existence of truth.

Religion declares that truth is absolute and eternal, that it is not subject to the opinion of man but is established by God. Situations may change, but truth never does, and the role of the religious has always been to proclaim the truth, to humbly seek to learn it from God and to share it with the world. Christians, Muslims and Jews have done that, and so have most believers of other faiths.

Certainly, there are disagreements, and a free and tolerant society like the United States recognizes and accommodates that. But the overlap of common belief among the faithful is broad, and the divine principles valued in a Muslim home are often the same as those cherished in a Christian home, and the Catholic is not that much different from the Baptist. And the cause of all believers is largely the same – freedom and decency, the right to believe and live as you wish, and the common embrace of right over wrong.

But American society has veered from that. There is no more right and there is no more wrong, and the immorality of yesterday is the morality of today. Good is called evil and evil is called good. There is no God and those who worship him are marginalized and ridiculed in society, the freedom of religion restricted to an hour a week behind closed doors.

And those shepherds and pastors called to guard the flock are silent as it wanders into forbidden and dangerous paths. The ecumenical groups and councils of churches, having long since sold their souls for a mess of progressive pottage, are useless to the task. Some religious bodies seek accommodation with the social masters, ignoring the reality that those who try to appease the lion end up in its stomach. Individual ministers and congregations, perhaps fearful of public ridicule or a loss of non-profit status, are silent, like lambs to the slaughter.

All while our children and society stumble through the fog of demonic deception, straying into the bondage and sorrow of those who do not know the truth and cannot be set free by its tenets.

The war between evil and good rages on, and good is not fighting back. Its institutions have largely abandoned the field. And when the wicked rule, in government or in the pulpit, the people mourn.

The battle for souls and safety is raging all around, and you wonder where the churches are.


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: church; morality; society
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To: no-to-illegals

>> I’ve seen a few threats in my lifetime

I have seen a few threats as well, but they have always been veiled threats and have only come from local governments (e.g. the lezbo mayor of Houston demanding that pastors submit their sermons to her office prior to delivery — the pastors in question just ignored her and carried on). Or they were threats by activists to sic government on a church, but action never materialized.

But to the best of my knowledge there have been no actions, or even threats, from federal government by an agency (DOJ, IRS) with actual power of enforcement. Pols like Brandon talking a tough game don’t count as credible threats.


21 posted on 12/15/2022 6:32:48 AM PST by Nervous Tick (Truth is not hate speech.)
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To: Tell It Right

praying you are correct and the revival will come for US all


22 posted on 12/15/2022 6:34:52 AM PST by no-to-illegals (The enemy has US surrounded. May God have mercy on them.)
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To: shortstop
Infiltration and subversion. If it can’t be infiltrated and subverted, then it must be destroyed.

There is no institution that influences human behavior and perception that the Left will not target. Their systematic process has taken decades to achieve and are now seeing the fruits of their relentless efforts.

23 posted on 12/15/2022 6:35:12 AM PST by sjmjax
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To: shortstop

John MacAuthur.. at 83.. still leading. Grace to you is an amazing source of truth.. even truth that hurts. He stood when others were taking cash to stay closed from Prez lockdown.


24 posted on 12/15/2022 6:39:47 AM PST by momincombatboots (QEphesians 6... who you are really at war with)
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To: WildHighlander57

BINGO!!!!


25 posted on 12/15/2022 6:40:13 AM PST by SgtHooper (If you remember the 60's, YOU WEREN'T THERE!)
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To: Nervous Tick

Look at today …… action action everywhere against Jews and Christians and our government encourages these actions against Jews and Christians United Methodists is but one example of government sponsored intervention


26 posted on 12/15/2022 6:40:51 AM PST by no-to-illegals (The enemy has US surrounded. May God have mercy on them.)
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To: lurk
Lonsberry is a Mormon.

Let me help the Mormons...




 
 
What is your church doing to help the male to stay true?




"All of this should be conveyed without having priesthood leaders focus upon intimate matters which are a part of husband and wife relationships. Skillful interviewing and counseling can occur without discussion of clinical details by placing firm responsibility on individual members of the Church to put their lives in order before exercising the privilege of entering a house of the Lord. The First Presidency has interpreted oral sex as constituting an unnatural, impure, or unholy practice. If a person is engaged in a practice which troubles him enough to ask about it, he should discontinue it."
- Official Declaration of the First Presidency of the Church, January 5th, 1982


Spencer W. KimballBoyd K. PackerN. Eldon TannerMarion G. Romney
 
 


"Prophets anciently and today condemn masturbation. It induces feelings of guilt and shame. It is detrimental to spirituality. It indicates slavery to the flesh, not that mastery of it and the growth toward godhood which is the object of our mortal life. Our modern prophet has indicated that no young man should be called on a mission who is not free from this practice. What is more, it too often leads to grievous sin, even to that sin against nature, homosexuality. For, done in private, it evolves often into mutual masturbation-practiced with another person of the same sex and thence into total homosexuality...."
- Prophet Spencer W. Kimball, The Miracle of Forgiveness, Pages 77-79, 81-82

"Among the most common sexual sins our young people commit are necking and petting. Not only do these improper relations often lead to fornication, [unwed] pregnancy, and abortions - all ugly sins - but in and of themselves they are pernicious evils, and it is often difficult for youth to distinguish where one ends and another begins. They awaken lust and stir evil thoughts and sex desires. They are but parts of the whole family of related sins and indiscretions. Almost like twins, 'petting' and fornication are alike."
- Prophet Spencer W. Kimball, The Miracle of Forgiveness, page 65


"Also far-reaching is the effect of the loss of chastity. Once given or taken or stolen it can never be regained. Even in a forced contact such as rape or incest, the injured one is greatly outraged. If she has not cooperated and contributed to the foul deed, she is of course in a more favorable position. There is no condemnation where there is no voluntary participation. It is better to die in defending one's virtue than to live having lost it without a struggle."
- 
Prophet Spencer W. Kimball, The Miracle of Forgiveness, page 196


"And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth." (Genesis 4:9-14.) That was true of murder. It is also true of illicit sex, which, of course, includes all petting, fornication, adultery, homosexual acts, and all other perversions. The Lord may say to offenders, as He did to Cain, "What hast thou done?" The children thus conceived make damning charges against you; the companions who have been frustrated and violated condemn you; the body that has been defiled cries out against you; the spirit which has been dwarfed convicts you. You will have difficulty throughout the ages in totally forgiving yourself."
-Prophet Spencer W. Kimball, "Love Versus Lust", BYU Speech January 5, 1965. Often-used quote still used today in LDS seminary classes.


"I do not find in the Bible the modern terms "petting" nor "homosexuality," yet I found numerous scriptures which forbade such acts under by whatever names they might be called. I could not find the term "homosexuality," but I did find numerous places where the Lord condemned such a practice with such vigor that even the death penalty was assessed."
- Apostle Spencer W. Kimball, "Love Versus Lust", BYU Speech January 5, 1965


"If adultery or fornication justified the death penalty in the old days, and still in Christ's day, is the sin any less today because the laws of the land do not assess the death penalty for it? Is the act less grievous? There must be a washing, a purging, a changing of attitudes, a correcting of appraisals, a strengthening toward self-mastery. There must be many prayers, and volumes of tears. There must be an inner conviction giving to the sin its full diabolical weight. There must be increased devotion and much thought and study. And this takes energy and time and often is accompanied with sore embarrassment, heavy deprivations and deep trials, even if indeed one is not excommunicated from the Church, losing all spiritual blessings."
-Prophet Spencer W. Kimball, The Miracle of Forgiveness, Page 155


"How like the mistletoe is immorality. The killer plant starts with a sticky sweet berry. Little indiscretions are the berries -- indiscretions like sex thoughts sex discussions, passionate kissing, pornography. The leaves and little twigs are masturbation and necking and such, growing with every exercise. The full-grown plant is petting and sex looseness. It confounds, frustrates, and destroys like the parasite if it is not cut out and destroyed, for, in time it robs the tree, bleeds its life, and leaves it barren and dry; and, strangely enough, the parasite dies with its host."
- Apostle Spencer W. Kimball, General Conference Address, April 1, 1967.

https://exploringmormonism.com/boyd-k-packer-and-a-whole-new-sin/



27 posted on 12/15/2022 6:40:55 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: shortstop

The leadership of most denominations, just like the boards of most companies and organizations were infiltrated by leftists, and in particular leftist gays.

When some pushed back.. the organizations simply split into one liberal one and one much smaller and less powerful conservative one. It happened with Baptists 25 or so years, ago, its happened with nearly every denomination.


28 posted on 12/15/2022 6:41:00 AM PST by TexasFreeper2009
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To: Ransomed

bingo


29 posted on 12/15/2022 6:41:52 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: shortstop

There is great fear of the left in this country. There is fear of what the New York Times and liberal late night comedians will say about people. So considering that religious leaders choose to remain silent, rather than be subject to ridicule by the left.

And related to that is the way that the issues get discussed in this country.

For example if you would say you oppose homosexual marriage then you are condemned as an anti-gay bigot.

If you oppose abortion then you hate women and want to see women impaled on coat hangers.

If you oppose illegal immigration then you are bigoted against so-called brown people, also let compassion for those less fortunate than ourselves.

The way the liberals set up these debates, there is great fear of being called racist sexist homophobic Etc if you take a position opposed to the leftist view of any issue. And then you get condemned by the New York Times and late night comedians on TV.


30 posted on 12/15/2022 6:45:51 AM PST by Dilbert San Diego
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To: shortstop

I just posted this topic on another thread. We are relying on politicians and media to do their jobs, which they haven’t and they won’t. Where are the churches and clergy leadership, EVIL IS THEIR JOB. They have a vast weekly audience and it is time to put pressure on them to find their voices.


31 posted on 12/15/2022 6:52:45 AM PST by Toespi
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To: shortstop
WHY ARE THE CHURCHES SILENT?


32 posted on 12/15/2022 6:52:52 AM PST by stars & stripes forever ( Blessed is the nation whose GOD is the LORD. ~ Psalm 33:12)
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To: shortstop

Evil has washed away the signposts...


33 posted on 12/15/2022 6:55:37 AM PST by GOPJ (IF OLD twitter management had stood up to Homeland & FBI goons they'd be 'hurt 7 ways from Sunday'.)
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To: shortstop

You cannot have agnostic clergy mouthing rituals and expect them to be moral firebrands.


34 posted on 12/15/2022 6:57:45 AM PST by allendale
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To: no-to-illegals
One solution is abolish all tax breaks for 'charities, non-profits, foundations and yes, even churches.

Evil has taken over 'charities, nonprofits, NGO's and foundations anyhow so there's very little to lose. Being forced to give tax breaks to the corrupt weakens the power of goodness. Change the laws - stop subsidizing evil.

35 posted on 12/15/2022 7:03:14 AM PST by GOPJ (IF OLD twitter management had stood up to Homeland & FBI goons they'd be 'hurt 7 ways from Sunday'.)
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To: GOPJ

evil likes the money breaks ……


36 posted on 12/15/2022 7:06:15 AM PST by no-to-illegals (The enemy has US surrounded. May God have mercy on them.)
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To: WildHighlander57

Exactly!


37 posted on 12/15/2022 7:08:40 AM PST by Dubh_Ghlase (Wake up! The Philistines are upon you!)
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To: MHGinTN
Welcome to the Laodicean Age of Christianity

There are still a few churches that stand tall, like the Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills, Calif., which is more like the church in Philadelphia. Its courageous and outspoken pastor, Jack Hibbs, is what the Old Testament would call a mighty man.

38 posted on 12/15/2022 7:31:26 AM PST by Fiji Hill
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To: Fiji Hill

I would assert the same for SLBC.org, Pastor Andy Woods, in the Houston area. (Sugar Land Bible Church))


39 posted on 12/15/2022 7:34:31 AM PST by MHGinTN (A dispensation perspective is a powerful tool for discernment)
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To: lurk
The LDS church just threw in with the marriage protection act, and is going woke in a hurry.

Ministers want to be a part of the in-crowd, like many other followers.

40 posted on 12/15/2022 8:11:45 AM PST by libertylover (Our biggest problem, by far, is that almost all of big media is AGENDA-DRIVEN, not-truth driven.)
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