Dancing With Jezebel

Introduction:

I recently read a great article entitled, “America’s Moral Decay” the writer of this article stated that, “America is incrementally and systematically Rejecting God. As a result, our nation is experiencing unparalleled moral decay. National immorality flourishes when the hearts of a nation's citizens reject God and His principles. Simply stated, "Spiritual decline leads to moral decay!" Ever wonder why America appears to be sliding down a slippery slope? Ever wonder where is the Church in all of this? Well, I have and I have come to the conclusion that there is a dangerous practice taking place within the confines of our churches in America today.

We are warned about this practice in 2 John 9 - 11, “Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.” In other words, those of us who do not fully follow the doctrine of Christ and at same time claim to follow His are compromisers. There are individuals who compromise, and there are entire Church congregations who compromise as well and they indeed follow a compromising doctrine.

A compromised church will endeavor to isolate those of us who see their compromise. And the danger of this is while in isolation we fight to maintain our faith in the Word of God. It can cause us to even question ourselves with questions such as, ““Is it me, did I something wrong.” It is no wonder that many people are walking out the back door of the Church and in turn depriving themselves from all that the Lord has in store for due to a few inside of the Church who are hungry for the world’s acceptance.

One of the biggest problems with the Church today is that we have a few churches that are hiding their light within the church walls that will pass up their mission on their way to mission. When we consider the pertinent issues in America today such as same-sex marriage and abortion on demand, late term, partial birth or otherwise, well-known humanist with very popular talk shows and networks no less, who don’t call themselves humanist but they are. In fact, there is one extremely well known humanistic celebrity who argued with a few members of her studio audience that in her very influential opinion, “Jesus Christ could not possibly be the only way to the Kingdom of God!” —with this, one can easily ask the question where is the voice of the Church these day?

All across America today, pastors and church leaders are being silenced. And when the church is silent, that’s when society as a whole suffers, and compromise begins to set in. With compromise, people both young and old, no matter their race, creed, or color will simply go along to get along; they will do almost anything…the get attention, to be popular and acceptable, to secure their jobs, to get promotions, good grades, more money, a bigger house, live in a better neighborhood, obtain more and more power and the list goes on.

In short, they will compromise what they know is right in order to get what they want. This is what the members of the church at Thyatira were doing—Thyatira stands a model, a constant reminder of what a permissive church with a liberal theology looks like today, a church full of believers who engage in compromise almost in lock step with the world in order to fulfill their own personal desires. This is really nothing new, in other words it didn’t start manifesting itself here in the 21st Century, over 100 years ago a great English preacher by the name of Charles Haddon Spurgeon sounded the trumpet concerning this topic with his with writings concerning “The Downgrade of Christianity” however, other preacher pastors in England were very offended by what Spurgeon had to say and as result he was censured by the Baptist Council of England and in effect drove him to a clinical depression. However, through the years Spurgeon was indeed proven correct.

Here in text Jesus is speaking to ”the angel of the Church”, namely the pastor concerning a woman named Jezebel; there are two Jezebels in the Bible. The first one is found in the Old Testament, and the second one is found in the New Testament. The first time the name Jezebel occurs in the Bible is when she is getting married to King Ahab in 1 Kings 16, “And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD more than all who were before him. And it came about, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went to serve Baal and worshiped him. 1 Kings 16:30-31 (NASB). This Jezebel was for sure a very evil woman who tried to kill Elijah one of God’s prophets and died a horrible death herself.