Biblical Christianity in Crisis 2

Biblical Christianity in Crisis 2

Jerm 12:10-11

‘Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourneth unto me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart.’

Last time we looked at the two opening clauses of our text and considered how that today, ministers and pastors are Dismantling the wall of Separation and how they show willful Disregard for the vines. Such disgraceful behavior by the pastors in Jeremiah’s day preceded the judgment of God which removed the testimony into Babylonian exile; and such deplorable circumstance in Biblical Christianity will hardly go unnoticed by Almighty God.

‘They have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.’ Sometimes we need to be reminded that Biblical Christianity does in fact belong to the Lord; it belongs to the Almighty, He it is that allows His people to labour in His vineyard. It is entirely wrong to imagine co-ownership here, the work is God’s. To turn the pleasant portion of God’s vineyard into a desolate wilderness, ministers and pastors have Discarded Christian principles and precepts over the wall and have supplanted the chaos of secular humanism. Rather than preaching the Word of God, there are certain ministers today that give a glory slot to someone in the congregation. By majoring on some human virtue, the preacher inflates the ego of his listeners, the flesh is exalted and the people are encouraged to come back again in anticipation that they too might get a mention. What about the fruit of the Spirit, ‘love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance’; these are what makes God’s vineyard a pleasant portion. The ministers of today actively encourage such Christian virtues to be supplanted by the base values of humanism. Secular humanist values turn a good Christian fellowship into a desolate unspiritual wilderness.

‘They have made it desolate’ When the testimony of Biblical Christianity is Destroyed; it then becomes a Spectacle of derision. Politicians as ministers and oversight members have made a mockery of Biblical Christianity; on the one hand they aspire to Biblical teaching, while on the other they support immorality of every type; they have no problem in using Christianity as a cloak, so that their political image is enhanced. Then there are the women ministers and elders; they advertise equal opportunities while disgracing the office of eldership. The unsaved have sneaked their way into pulpits and have left a trail of desolation behind; bringing the work of God into disrepute. Homosexuals and child molesters have caused Biblical Christianity to get a bad name. So called healing ministries, give to get, faith prosperity, the emerging church, neo Pentecostalism, charismania, Roman Catholicism, ecumenism, new age, secularism and humanism have all worked tirelessly to discredit Biblical Christianity and to turn it into a Spectacle of disdain.


Rev Mervyn Cotton (Heb13:6)