THE TRUTH ABOUT THE STATE OF THE CHURCH

By Fr. Francis G. McCloskeyAugust 12, 2003NewsWithViews.com
http://www.newswithviews.com/religion/religion23.htm
Are we at best culturally irrelevant, at worst half-pagan? Your silent pulpit was part of the mix in which the church succumbed with hardly a whimper as Hollywood, Madison Avenue, wealthy foundations and ACLU judges arbitrarily switched rules of right and wrong, corrupted public information pools, lobotomized university faculties, and cajoled mainline denominations into if you can't beat 'em join 'em. It took 100 years for the Nietzchean transvaluation to declare victory. The one obstacle neither he nor his followers could negotiate -- the Christian Church -- did not collapse until this generation. A shroud of blindness fell upon the denominations. The pulpits went silent. The Pilgrims have been betrayed.
Therefore after Planned Parenthood murders children and grandchildren in the neighborhood, like an insatiable monster it then pursues survivor children into the neighborhood schools to corrupt them. This takes place under the corporate nose of silent clergy and counter-evangelized parents. No wonder home-school is a preferred option among Godly parents when godless sex educators (sic) enter classrooms. With the sweet reasonableness of planned deception they impart to children tendentious teachings which violate their religious faith and civic inheritance. Say what you will about previous generations of clergy, this is one area where they would not have failed and did not fail. They would have put the fear of God into the PP sexmongers and anyone else who would dare to corrupt the children. The same cannot be said for us. But then previous clergy were not beguiled by television.
Classroom sexmongering is an evil attack on the innocence of our children. Anti-God, anti-church, anti-parent, it is the New Testament monster-killer of the Christ child (Rev 12:4). If they fail to butcher Him in the womb they leave no stone unturned to corrupt His innocence. Planned Parenthood has a frenzied hatred of innocence.
Church bureaucrats who should have known better found themselves intimidated by the ACLU's relentless but bold pursuit of a godless society. It is time for Christians to wake up to the damage done by these bureaucrats who have even been known to connive in the defeat of the Gospel through political ideologies and liaisons. It is time for pastors in the field to abandon bingo, bazaars, raffles, suppers and feel-good preaching (See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Denounce No Evil) and savor the unmitigated and unadulterated gospel of Jesus Christ.
It is time to confess that we preachers allowed ourselves to become spiritually neutered by the PP media mantras such as "unwanted pregnancy", a repugnant phrase designed to legalize child-killing. Confess openly that we were beaten and beaten with televised sex until we just gave up. Our pulpits, once bulwarks of truth, became strangely silent.
Enter a new order of Christian preacher beginning with self.
PREACHERS' DILEMMA BECOMES PREACHERS' DELIGHT
Resolved: I am going to give up my comfort zone in the face of pogroms, holocausts, blood purges and massive abortion violence! I shall risk everything to grasp Truth as the prize! I will risk rejection and persecution. I am going to try to save the next mother and child. Then I am going to ascend the pulpit and tell my congregation what I did. And to expect more of it.
Preaching must lovingly counter lies with truth. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness but rather expose them...for everything exposed by the light becomes visible... (Ephesians 5:11,13). According to Jeremiah, church folk can and do use "deceptive words" to mix paganism into the Temple worship. "Do not trust in deceptive words and say: this is the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord" (Jer 7:4). He is exposing the enemy's strategy of small compromises each of which sets up the next compromise. Many denominations fell into this trap and are now indistinguishable from surrounding paganism. God's enemies may openly desecrate the Temple but church worshippers do it via life-styles unchallenged by biblical preaching.
A BARBARIAN INVASION
Be among the first to know: a new barbarian invasion is on. Secular historians tell you that the old invasions were caused by tribal expansion, quest for booty and assorted bloodthirsts. The true reason known in the heavenlies was that they were part of the eternal warfare to stamp out the Christian faith. Before Viking marauder Thorgestr (Agent of Thor) burned down the Irish monastery at Clonmacnoise in 844, his wife Ota pronounced pagan oracles from the high altar. At the Jacobin reign of terror following the French revolution, a prostitute was enthroned as goddess of Reason in Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris. The war against the Faith goes on forever and the weapons keep getting more sophisticated. Television is the new Trojan horse. Welcome it into your home so that later it can corrupt your entire pattern of thinking and subjugate your children. Politicize and corrupt whole school systems and place the children at the mercy of the godless.
The ancient barbarians had to travel over land and sea which took months and years. They ended up becoming Christian because they settled among Christians who had fought to keep them out of their homes, farms, towns and villages and away from the children. Today the barbarians arrive unmolested into the home in the twinkling of an eye.
If there is to be a desecration of the Temple, better a barbarian invasion by outsiders than an inside subterfuge masquerading as tolerance. Evil comes sub specie boni as an angel of light. Today's torch-wielding angels of light are found in church bureaucracies undoing the marturion and desecrating the memories of the saints who have gone on before us, causing faithful Christians to wonder if the time of biblical apostasy has come. (Matt 24:10-12, 24; 2 Tim 3:1-5)
With society living the panoply of lies which cause violence and death to others, one asks: will the preacher expose the lies or perpetuate them by his silence? Does political correctness reach into the pulpit to cancel truth? Are Christian churchgoers left to consider lies and truth as nothing but competing political arguments? Assume nothing. Many culturally conditioned Christians are not grounded in truth. When I did not preach Truth, did not thunder against lies, they consequently did not know how to think about legalized child-killing. I abandoned them to the corrupted mindset of the media.
When Jesus exposed lies He dashed them to pieces. He made enemies; they killed Him. Notice how liars tend to be bold and brassy while God's truth-sayers mumble apologetically. Is it because "Light has come into the world but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."? (John 3:19-21)
Are there 10 steps to better preaching? No! The best way to preach it is to just preach it... after having repented of not preaching it, after owning up to the blood-guilt of silence. If you start for the wrong reason you will not last. You must first look to the next infant in the neighborhood, the next mother, the next father. They are either your siblings in Christ or they are not. Instead of preaching on "abortion", talk about them. But first, try to save them. Show up. Pray. Take authority in Jesus' Name over demons of death.
Isaiah 59:2-18 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.
For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters wicked things. No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments and speak lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to evil. ...Their deeds are evil deeds, and acts of violence are in their hands.
Their feet rush into sin; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are evil thoughts; ruin and destruction mark their ways. The way of peace they do not know; there is no justice in their paths. They have turned them into crooked roads; no one who walks in them will know peace. So justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We look for light, but all is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows. Like the blind we grope along the wall, feeling our way like men without eyes. At midday we stumble as if it were twilight; among the strong, we are like the dead.
We all growl like bears; we moan mournfully like doves. We look for justice, but find none; for deliverance, but it is far away.
For our offenses are many in Your sight, and our sins testify against us. Our offenses are ever with us, and we acknowledge our iniquities: rebellion and treachery against the LORD, turning our backs on our God, fomenting oppression and revolt, uttering lies our hearts have conceived.
So justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter.
Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey. The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice.
He saw that there was no one, He was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so His own arm worked salvation for Him, and His own righteousness sustained Him.
He put on righteousness as His breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on His head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped Himself in zeal as in a cloak.
According to what they have done, so will He repay wrath to His enemies and retribution to his foes; He will repay the islands their due. Isaiah 59:2-18
© 2003 Fr. Francis G. McCloskey - All Rights Reserved
Sign Up For Free E-Mail Alerts
Fr. McCloskey is a priest at the Diocese of Albany, ordained in 1963, he resides at the Shrine of Our Lady of Knock in East Durham N.Y., founder of Christian Ireland Ministries Inc. and leader at the ScriptureWall prayer and counseling sidewalk presence at 4 Planned Parenthoods, 3 in the Hudson Valley and one along the Mohawk, plus Bassett Abortuary Hospital in Cooperstown, all in NY State.
Fr. McCloskey is the prime mover, in the Big Oh! Namely - Oh Saratoga! - which is to be kicked off this 8-17-03 for four days. On 8-5-03 he had a conference with the FBI, State Police, National Park Police, and police of 3 local cities to gear them up for the move of God which will be Oh Saratoga!. For further info click on Oh Saratoga! E-Mail: FrFrancis@ScriptureWall.com