This is a series of articles inspired by meditating on David Bryant’s book Christ Is All
Surprisingly the fundamentalist media that delights in spotting potential candidates for the title of “AntiChrist” is remarkably silent on this development. One might have thought a movie, at least, was warranted by this fearful development. Had our ancestors noted this religious movement’s power, perhaps they might have reserved for this movement those denunciations they applied to the the Pope when they called him “that antichrist, that man of sin, and son of perdition, that exalteth himself in the Church against Christ, and all that is called God, whom the Lord shall destroy with the brightness of his coming,” as they did in the Savoy Declaration.
Even secular investigators have noted the danger of this looming threat. They note it’s religious intensity, its popular appeal, its therapeutic impact, its vigorous growth, its social impact, its entrepreneurial prowess, its chameleon-like adaptability, and its marketing savvy.* Religious observers such as Francis Schaeffer noted that, like the Borg, of Star Trek science fiction, this religious mongrel morphed with every new cultural pattern it confronted still claiming supremacy for itself and advancing its power. While protesting unquestioning allegiance to the Almighty, its true soul could not be identified. To the human eye though, it seemed power hungry, ever thirsting for more authority and privilege, ever expanding its grip…while losing any hint of a heavenly orientation.
But, then again, that’s how it is with an AntiChrist isn’t it? It commands worship for itself and promotes idolatry in the name of the True Faith, but when the the math is done, what pretends to be so “spiritual” is nothing of the sort. The beast, after all, is nothing more than man in the service of the idols of money, sex, and power (Revelation 13:18).
That man of sin is?
That man of sin, that hideous beast for all intents and purposes, is Evangelicalism on its present trajectory… Evangelicalism that is, today, all too comfortable talking about “God” but so ashamed of Jesus Christ, the Risen Lord before whom every knee is called to bow.
But AntiChrists have a way of being struck down time and again in history. Some are killed outright. Some are brought into submission to Jesus Christ the Supreme Lord again. That’s the legacy of the Risen Christ. “For He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet” 1 Corinthians 15:25
Evangelicalism in its compromise, its fuzziness about the identity of Jesus Christ as the only Savior and Sovereign Lord, its pretension that it can serve “God” while remaining lukewarm about Jesus Christ is Evangelicalism to face a head on collision with the very Lord who threatens to spew the faithless out of His mouth (Revelation 3). Trendy Evangelicalism delights in the Rider on the White Horse because His thigh declares KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS letting them justify their new found tattoos and exotic piercings. But does this Trendy Evangelicalism delight in the Rider Himself, the Supreme Christ who destroys what Evangelicalism is becoming?
Will Evangelicalism repent and bow before the Supreme Christ or will Evangelicalism enter the Gehenna of history as another would be AntiChrist smashed by the Risen Lord who is crushes the unrepentant as He rules them with his rod of iron (Revelation 19:15) ?
This is the where Evangelicalism finds itself today, and why it is so badly in need of reformation.
Will we regain our worship of the Supreme Christ? Or continue to emerge as another AntiChrist to be defeated by the Risen Lord?
*From US News And World Report, quoted on pp 7-8, in Christ Is All by David Bryant
