Pacifier

Throughout the centuries, there have been different tactics employed by the enemy to pacify the Church. Usually it is some form of trying to get Christians to want to “fit in” to the religious subculture or the current dominant culture. In Paul’s day, there were those who wanted the Gentile believers to fit in by getting circumcised. He writes, “Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ”(Galatians 6:12).

In this case, to “fit in” meant compliance with the Jewish religious subculture. Paul calls them out for what they are doing. They are trying to avoid being persecuted, mocked, insulted and left out. And this same thing has existed in every generation of the Church.

Today there is a similar pressure to “impress people by means of the flesh.” There are many in the American Church who so badly want to fit in with the rest of culture. They try so hard to prove they are “normal” and not some fanatical Christian. They compromise holiness and soften the gospel until it is barely unrecognizable. All of this is an attempt to “avoid being persecuted” even though persecution in America just means mockery, insults and social condemnation (not beatings, imprisonment and death like in other countries around the world).

There is a lie that is all too easy to believe. It is the lie that we can make the gospel more respectable. It is the lie that we can make the Christian life easier to accept. But if the last century of American church history has shown us anything it is that, if this tactic does “win people to Christ,” it too often creates Christians who look like, act like, think like and live like the rest of the world. Instead of being the called out ones we’ve become the blended in ones.

Too scared to pray for people in public, too scared to share the gospel, too scared to stand firm on morality, too scared of what others think about us, too scared to believe in the miraculous power of God, too scared to allow the Holy Spirit to move in a way that might seem “weird,” too scared to take risks, the American church has been thoroughly pacified.

We need a new generation of Christians who aren’t full of fear, who aren’t trying to impress unbelievers with how “normal” they are, who aren’t afraid of being persecuted for the cross of Christ.