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"None of those who have Hell before their eyes will fall into Hell. No one of those who despise Hell will escape Hell.... Nothing is so profitable as to converse concerning Hell. It renders our souls purer than any silver."  

~St. John Chrysostom~

BOOK

Evangelicalism 

Dear Aaron,

             It doesn’t sound as if you quite made it to the last line of my previous e-mail. I’m not sure that staying in your church because you enjoy it and because your friends are there qualifies as a thorough investigation of the facts. Not only do I disagree with your assertion that all churches are essentially the same, although I understand how one who is Protestant could hold that position, but I also think that a great deal of Protestantism has done away with most of the reasons to go to church at all.

The vast majority of Protestants, and I guess I’m talking primarily of Evangelicals, do not believe that baptism is necessary for salvation, that confession made to a priest is effectual for the forgiveness of sins, or that communion is the body and blood of Christ. In other words, they have done away with the sacraments, and in doing so have removed most of the reasons for going to church.

These days you don’t even have to go to church to worship or to hear a sermon preached. All you have to do is put on a worship tape and listen to your favorite preacher on T.V. If the truth were known, the only reason most Evangelicals go to church at all is to spend time with other believers, and this is only because of their fear of being led astray due to lack of fellowship. One could accomplish the same thing by tuning into a respectable Sunday morning tele-evangelist, and having some good Christian friends. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that many churches have found the need to be more and more entertaining to entice people to come in. 

This is the primary reason why most evangelical worship has turned into more of a multimedia rock concert than anything the Apostles would have recognized. I believe this came about when as many churches began to see their membership declining, they resorted to the time-honored Protestant tradition of looking to the culture to see what the people wanted and then giving it to them. They eventually came to the conclusion that what most people want today is fun and good times. So they took the rock music, to which everybody loves to party, and brought it into the church. Now they could offer the faithful Heaven, and along with it, a great time getting there. As I heard one person exclaim after a particularly raucous worship service, “The church throws the best parties!”  

Many would ask why it matters if you lure people in with party music, if after you get them there, they can be preached to and possibly converted. The problem here is not with the initial profession of faith, which can happen anywhere, but with what happens afterwards. The fact is that most people obtain their understanding of the faith more through worship than through listening to a sermon. Unfortunately most don’t remember a sermon ten minutes after they leave church. The worship on the other hand gets into their heart and stays with them.

Since today’s Evangelical worship is focused more and more on an emotional experience, what you find is people leaving a service conversing about whether or not they have felt God. Now tell me, Aaron, what does God feel like, or just what is the God emotion? I think what Evangelicals are feeling are emotions stirred by the music, and they are mistaking these sensations for the experience of God. Not only were all the great saints of the ages distrustful of emotions, since they can change so rapidly, but also you’ll find nowhere in the scriptures where the writers speak of “feeling God.” They write about knowing God, having visions of God, understanding God, even becoming like God, but never feeling God.

One problem with all of this is that when tragedies happen in life, and these feelings of God can no longer be produced, then those who have bought into this system begin to wonder why God is no longer with them. I believe this is why so many Christian bookstores are stocked with books trying to assure the faithful that God is still with them when it hurts. Many Evangelical Christians have become so tied to their feelings that when they can no longer stir up the “God emotion,” they think He has abandoned them.

Another problem, along these same lines, is that since these services are designed to be fun and exciting, many believers begin to think that life as a Christian should be equally fun and exciting. As a result, not only are many churches teaching that our lives as Christians should be filled with health, wealth, and prosperity, but virtually none are teaching the true Christian message of picking up our cross and denying ourselves. It is very important to understand that we will act as we worship. If our worship is a party, we will see the Christian life as a party. If our worship is ascetical, we will see the Christian life as ascetical. You can decide for yourself in which direction the Evangelical world has gone.

In addition to all of this, rock music is not conducive to communicating theological concepts. It is more inclined towards relatively simple, emotional verses about loving Jesus. Now there is certainly nothing wrong with loving Jesus, but if all you’ve obtained from years of worshipping is an emotional attachment to Christ, then you haven’t received very much. Don’t get me wrong; I am not saying that worship should be boring and lifeless. I think that was the problem with the more mainstream Protestant denominations that led to the Evangelical rock and roll reaction.

I believe that Orthodox worship is the ideal, as it is both beautiful and God centered, with much of the faith being communicated weekly. In addition, it is done in a manner that allows the faithful to bring any emotion they have into it. If they are happy they can rejoice, if they are sad they can mourn. Since God is not tied to a feeling, he is understood to always be present, our emotional state notwithstanding.

Maybe an example will illustrate what I have been trying to say. A few years ago, I was talking to a student who told me that as a teenager he became interested in Christianity and began to attend a rock and roll church. At about the same time, his life outside of church began to fall apart. I don’t remember the exact details, but it was along the lines of finding out that his girlfriend was on drugs, and his parents were getting a divorce. He said that he couldn’t reconcile the happy, carefree persona he was expected to have in church with his life outside of it. He decided that something had to give, and since he couldn’t get rid of his life, it was Christianity that had to go.

            I hope this helps you to see that it does matter which church you attend. Both doctrine and worship are important and very much affect the life of the believer. Once again, I would greatly hope that you would take some time and look into this a little deeper. I know that between studies and social activities your time is limited, but if at all possible at least try and do some readings in these areas. My prayer is that we would all seek diligently for the truth and not merely be content with what is easy and convenient.

With much concern,

Uncle Greg