By Reese Currie, Compass Distributors
A reader asked us to comment on the problem of spiritual apathy. People who profess to be Christians today do suffer from spiritual apathy for a great number of reasons. I believe the problems to be fear of ridicule and hurt; lack of knowledge; excessive pride; denominationalism and ecumenism; secret disbelief; and laziness. I will cover these in order.
People think of this apathy as a modern phenomenon, but it is not. The Old Testament is shot through with the apathy of Israel. People who had actually seen the parting of the Red Sea incredibly failed to exercise faith. People who saw miracles and saw prophecies miraculously come true apathetically returned to the worship of false gods. As you will see from the scriptural examples in the following articles, apathy was rampant in the first century to the same degree it is today.
A countless number of sources ridicule the Christian faith on a daily basis. The reasons are the same as they have been since the beginning of time. God said something and the Devil tried to claim it wasn't true (Genesis 3:1-5). As disturbing as this is to say, the vast majority of people's souls are firmly clenched in the Devil's hands.
Therefore, people who believe in God are thought of by the world at large as being stupid, silly, and inconveniently moral. They are ridiculed, and their faith is laughed at. It is no fun having people poke fun at you, and it is especially bad when they poke fun at your Savior.
So why proclaim the word of God? I will tell you the truth: It took more courage than you would imagine to start this web site, but it took a lot more courage for my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to allow Himself to be crucified for me. It took a lot more courage for Peter, knowing he would be martyred eventually, to do his preaching work to ensure people knew what Jesus did for us. Paul was stoned, beaten, and eventually martyred for his preaching work, but he kept at it until the very end, even writing epistles from within the walls of prison.
At the judgment throne, I will be able to say, "Lord, in the easiest time in history to be a Christian, I risked getting some nasty e-mail by attempting to proclaim your Word on the Internet." It won't stack up very well compared to what the early Christians did, but at least I did something. In all seriousness, I thank God for this opportunity to help people come to Christ, because it is a great gift God has given me to be able to serve Him in this way.
Jesus said in Matthew 10:32, "Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven."
Jesus also said, in Matthew 5:10-12: "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
I am presently reading the Bible, cover to cover, for the third time, and I can tell you for a certainty that you learn more each time through. My main associate in this endeavor, Harold Kemp, has read the Bible, cover to cover, seven times. These counts are in addition to research we do with the Bible. I don't know how many times I have read the New Testament, or any of the individual books of the Bible, but I know it is a fairly high number.
A person has to put in time, research, and study, before they will be capable of anything but apathy! We rarely hear anything but the most simple doctrine from the pulpit. Additional study is required if you want to really know anything. I was in the Presbyterian church in my youth, and I never heard even a tenth of the things I know from independent Bible study.
As Christians, we need to be able to answer questions about our faith without any possibility of causing someone to stumble or leading anyone astray. To ensure this, we have to know our Bible inside and out, just like Jesus and the apostles did. That means every Christian, not just clergymen. It is a lot of work.
What do you do if you are asked a question about Jesus? If you're like most people, you say, "Talk to my minister; he knows all about that stuff." Well, the buck has to stop somewhere, Christian. Why not you? There is a reward in it for you!
James 5:20 says, "let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins."
Some people are too proud to admit that they are hopeless sinners, in need of Jesus' salvation. If they don't understand their own need for salvation, how can they possibly help anyone else realize their need for salvation? They think they are so good, and sinless, that God will take them as they are. So, while they may go to a Christian church, and may even believe themselves to be Christians, they are not, and the Holy Spirit will not be in them. These people will be apathetic.
1 John 1:8 says this bluntly. "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."
Romans 3:23 says, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,"
James 4:6 concludes with, "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble."
Christian denominations are not all equal. The philosophies of the men who started these denominations, even the respected ones such as John Wesley, John Calvin, Martin Luther, and Thomas Aquinas, are all at least somewhat divergent, disagreeing with each other. Many denominations have teachings that do not agree with the Bible. Some denominations do not even agree with their founders.
The denominational issue is a twofold problem. First, before you do any preaching, you must be sure that the message you are teaching is true, and not an incorrect teaching your specific denomination may have. You must examine doctrines in the light of the Bible to ensure that they are true. Colossians 2:8 warns, "Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ." To this end, I strongly recommend teaching (and believing) only what you can find in plain English in the Bible.
The second problem is that people will resist pure Bible teaching based on misconceptions they have been given by their denominations. Jesus pointed this out to the Pharisees. "'For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men—the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.' He said to them, 'All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.'" (Mark 7:8,9)
Ecumenism is a new (twentieth century) concept that basically teaches us to respect the beliefs of everyone, and that all denominations are equal. This is obviously incorrect, and this belief prevents us from speaking our minds and using the Bible against the false doctrines of the incorrect denominations. Jesus Christ was not ecumenical; He openly refuted the false doctrines of the Sadducees and Pharisees. Paul was not ecumenical; he taught people to give up their false religions and follow Christ. James, Jude and John were not ecumenical; they fought against corrupting influences in the early church.
Do not be afraid to share the truth with those who are being led astray by false denominations, and if your own denomination is found to be preaching false doctrine, that is, any doctrine which can be convincingly disproven by the Bible, leave the denomination.
I learned something interesting about denominations while reading the Bible. Read 1 Corinthians 1:12-15: "Now I say this, that each of you says, 'I am of Paul,' or 'I am of Apollos,' or 'I am of Cephas', or 'I am of Christ.' Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name."
You don't belong to a denomination. You belong to Jesus Christ. He is where your duties lie, and He is where your salvation comes from. Do not be loyal to a denomination that is not loyal to Christ.
I'm afraid a lot of people in churches don't believe the Bible. They believe you should try to be nice to people, but they don't believe the entire doctrine of the Bible. Their faith runs neither hot nor cold; sticking with the middle ground, they believe they can get by without doing too much work. Revelation 3:15, 16 says, "I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth."
Other people go to church, listen to the preaching, and go home with their obligation to God satisfied for another week. James 1:22 says, "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves."
Speaking from experience, I must say that studying the Bible sure takes away a lot of time that could be unproductively spent lounging in front of the television. But some people are lovers of pleasures and not lovers of God (2 Timothy 3:4), and these people will certainly be apathetic toward their studies.
I hope that this answers the reader's question about apathy. The reader's other question, "How thick was the temple curtain?" cannot be answered from the Bible, although the length and breadth of the tabernacle curtain is documented in Exodus 36.
Remember, reader, there is little you can really do about the apathy of others. Jesus was here, on earth, and people were apathetic before and after. What we must do is take care never to be apathetic ourselves. As Jesus said, in Matthew 7:3-5, "And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye."
To be in a position to help others out of their apathy, we must not be afflicted with apathy ourselves. This is really the only thing we can do to help others in apathetic distress.
Why Is There Such Great Spiritual Apathy? Copyright © 1996 by Compass Distributors.
All Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc.) 1982.