Friends,

Here is Common Christianity column #833 (11-1-22), “Sleepers Awake.” Eric Metaxas is a favorite author and he’s blown it out of the water with “Letter to the American Church.”  Buckle up. See the column below.

And a personal note … this column #833 begins the 17^th year of Common Christianity.  It began November 7, 2006, as the Christian column in the Current in Carmel (then Fishers, Westfield, Zionsville weekly newspapers through 2015.  Since then I just do it because I must – total 833 weeks in a row.  Thankful for the outlet.  Thanks for reading, commenting, and occasionally arguing.  May Jesus Christ be praised.

Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #833

November 1, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Sleepers Awake

By Bob Walters

“But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.  Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.  If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent.” – Revelation 2:2-5

These are the ominous words of the “always forgiving” Jesus after complimenting the church at Ephesus for its “patient endurance,” saying now they “have fallen.”  This “lampstand” is the light and protection of God. “But I have this against you…”  Yikes.

It’s not enough to be a patient, enduring Christian.  Jesus calls us to be active, be true, repent of our errors, and stand up – and fight – in the battle for God’s Kingdom.

Christian salvation is a free gift, but it is not a free ride.  Here’s a story.

The Protestant church, especially the Lutherans, celebrate “Reformation Day” on Oct. 31, marking (in 2022) the 505th anniversary of Roman Catholic priest Martin Luther’s nailing his “95 Theses” to the door of Germany’s Wittenberg Castle, effectively breaking from the Roman Catholic Church and launching the Protestant Reformation.

Some years ago, a passionate 26-year-old Lutheran minister and celebrated theological prodigy delivered the Reformation Sunday sermon at an august European cathedral.  He ripped into the staid, comfortable, and “enduring” congregation with a warning of God’s coming judgment against a church that no longer fought for truth.

It was October 1932 at Berlin’s Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.  The young preacher with the unsettling and unwelcome – and basically ignored – call to action was Dietrich Bonhoffer, who never stopped fighting for Christian truth.  As a passionate servant of Christ, patriot, and martyr, he swung from the end of a Nazi noose in 1945.

Judgment for the church, incidentally, had arrived three months after Bonhoffer’s famous sermon when on January 31, 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany.

That German congregation never recovered the first love it abandoned, and the once-magnificent Wilhelm Memorial Church was bombed into near oblivion by the British RAF in 1943.  Its ruins in downtown Berlin to this day are a reminder of inaction.

Bonhoffer was not appreciated as a prophet in his own country in his own time, though he told the prescient truth.  It was a truth not about foreseeing Hitler’s and Germany’s atrocities, but what the lukewarm German church was opening itself to in a perilous time when few wanted to “rock the boat” of politics and upset comfort at church.

Moreso than “future telling,” prophecy involves discerning and communicating God’s will.  Bonhoffer’s message of God’s will in Berlin went unheeded.  Germany's once-Godly national culture had lost its will to honor God, and its lampstand went out.

I thank God that I’m almost out of space for this week’s column, because I’ll spare – for now – my own church and friends and any other Christians who read this the many thoughts I have on the relevant prophecy Bonhoffer presents to America today.

America’s lampstand flickers at a political tipping point, and the “out-loud in bright lights” message of Christ is as important to our nation’s survival as it has ever been. 

Eric Metaxas, with his book Letter to the American Church, has “thrown a bucket of cold water into the face of the sleeping church.”  We had better wake up.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) suggests this video: American Church – Metaxas.