Suppose you were the owner of a pro-football team. Now let’s say that you have had the same coaches for 50 years. These coaches have employed the same game plan for these same 50 years, and have a record of 13 wins and 787 losses. This year, their contracts are up for renewal. What do you do? Of course, if you’ve had them for that long, there may be some sentimental reasons for keeping them. But, if you’re looking out for the best interests of the team, the answer is pretty obvious.
In modern American Christianity, who are our leaders (coaches)? I’m not going to name any names, but think for a moment. Which authors write the “best-sellers”? Which preachers are popular enough to make it onto the local radio station? Which ones get a spot on TV? Who have been the most popular “conservative evangelicals” for the last 50 years? These are our coaches, and while we’ve had some “wins” over the years, we’ve had a lot more losses.
In virtually every statistic I’ve ever seen, the general trends for the American family, church and civil government over the last 100 years have been going in the wrong direction. Talk to any Christian who is over 70 years old and they will tell you that Christianity in the U.S. has seen better days. But again, I ask: “Who were the ‘conservative’ church leaders who were/are the most popular today and over the last few generations?” They certainly haven’t been leading us to victory. It’s time to fire the coaches.
You have every right to be suspicious of someone who is telling you to leave mainstream American Christianity. Pseudo-Christian cults also try to convince those in our churches to leave “traditional” Christianity, and follow their brand of “Christianity.” However, I’m not suggesting that you stop adhering to mainstream Christianity, I’m suggesting that you stop adhering to Modern Mainstream Christianity.
If our most popular conservative evangelical preachers, Bible teachers, and theologians are leading us to loser status, then who should be our coaches? The answer is fairly simple. Go back to those coaches who were leading at the time when Christianity flourished.
In order to know how America became a Christian nation, you can’t just go back to the year 1776, you must go back a few generations before that. The generation that fought our War for Independence didn’t spring up out of nowhere. There were many prior generations that slowly and steadily built a Christian civilization.
The 1500’s was the century of reformation in Europe. We now refer to this work of God as The Reformation. For ages, the church had rejected the idea that God’s word was the authority by which every doctrine and church practice should be judged. The Reformers went back to Scripture to reform, not just the church, but every area of life.
When the Reformation came to England, there arose some Christians who were eventually called Puritans. These Puritans took the doctrines of the Reformers and refined them even further. Remember, the Reformers were the first generation in a while to seek to conform all things to God’s word. And while they made great strides, at times they didn’t reform far enough. The Puritans built on the work of the Reformers.
In the 1600’s, many Puritans, and other Christians with “Puritanical” beliefs and practices, began to migrate to the New World (America). In America, they found the freedom they needed to worship God according to the Scriptures and build a Christian civilization.
Many historians believe that the War for Independence was made possible by a great revival in the 1700’s, known as The Great Awakening. The Great Awakening was led by preachers and theologians who learned their theology by reading books written by the Reformers and the Puritans. Much of our Founders’ view of government comes from the writings of the Reformers and the Puritans as well.
This Reformed/Puritanical type of Christianity is what built America. Those who preached it and lived it were the ones who (by God’s grace) caused Christianity to flourish. These were the coaches who had winning records. Was it easy for them? No, they had plenty of opposition. Were they perfect? Of course not. But if “Ye shall know them by their fruit,” then aren’t we forced to conclude that those who held to a Puritanical type of Christianity were far superior to the average modern Christian and the celebrity preachers they listen to?
We need to go back to our roots. That doesn’t mean just learning about the events of 1776. We need to relearn the beliefs and practices that were the most common in the generations leading up to 1776. We need to learn what the average Christian in those days believed about theology, the family, the church, the civil government, and everything else. Of course, if their views don’t line up with Scripture, we should believe the Bible, not them. But I think you’ll find that those from the Reformation and Puritan eras not only knew their Bibles better than most Christians today, but also had a higher view of Scripture as well.
Yes, I know, it will be hard to say goodbye to your favorite modern celebrity preachers. But if you want to see our team win again, it must be done. We must learn from the winners of days gone by. Or, at the very least, learn from those few modern preachers who have learned from the old guys.
Some coaches worth knowing include:
Reformers: Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, Pierre Viret, etc.
Puritanical Christians: William Perkins, John Owen, John Cotton, John Gill, Matthew Henry, Samuel Rutherford, William Gouge, etc.
Great Awakening preachers: Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, Samuel Davies, etc.
A few others from a little later: Charles H. Spurgeon, John L. Dagg, Robert L. Dabney, Charles Hodge, etc.