Spiritual Pollution

Many will tell us pollution is our greatest threat today, greater than that of nuclear war. As our atmosphere becomes filled with poisonous smog, and lakes and rivers become unfit for humans and animals, fear grips our hearts.

Where will it end? Will man be able to survive? Why doesn't God intervene?

Serious as this is, there is an even greater threat to man. This threat is spiritual pollution. We, in North America, have more Christian churches and ministers per person than any other part of the world, yet we continue to have social unrest and political confusion. Our great interest in things of the Lord has been ineffective in stopping the crime rate as our jails and mental hospitals become overcrowded. Streets once safe are now places of danger. Family structures are breaking down as everyone cries, "What has gone wrong"? "Why does God allow it"? "If God is God, this should never be."

Many have left the church, but there is a growing trend to return. When they do return, what do they find?

They often find a church busy with social concerns to the exclusion of the vital gospel message of salvation. They find a church trying to decide which parts of the Bible are inspired and which parts are not. Sermons are about world problems, interspersed with some author's opinion or a commentary on the latest newscast.

Bible study, if there is one, is a theological debating society leaving one cold and filled with unanswered questions. People find a church void of power as evidenced by the lack of miracles. There is no joy. The hymns often contain no mention of 'the blood' of Jesus--the very power-house of the Christian faith. Prayers are impersonal, and few people expect them to be answered. Most seldom read their Bibles, and therefore do not know its message.

The visitor, then, looks at the spiritual condition of those who attend, and soon becomes disillusioned. If this is all there is to Christianity, he decides to stay in bed Sunday mornings. The church is sick. When a person becomes ill, he calls a doctor. What can be done for a sick church?

Jesus Christ is the great physician who heals. He heals churches by giving His Holy Spirit to guide and direct into all truth (John 16:13), but it us up to us to allow this Spirit access to our lives.

John baptized with water, but Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit (Matt.3:11). Because millions of people are today receiving this baptism and walking in Jesus' footsteps, a great revival has broken out around the world as predicted in Joel 2:28-29.

Just as the sun cannot penetrate a smog-covered city, God's Holy Spirit cannot get through a heart filled with spiritual pollution. God, in His great love, gave us a free will to make up our own mind whether we want to follow Christ or whether we want to remain in the spiritual smog of unbelief with its love of worldly pursuits.

Let us determine to clear the spiritual smog from our hearts and from our churches that the truth of the gospel may be proclaimed throughout the earth.