Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.

• 2 Peter 2:1-3

“In early times, Christians were perfectly instructed in all points necessary to salvation, whilst we see to-day so gross an ignorance of them, that it makes all those mourn who have sentiments of tenderness for the Church.
“Men only entered then into the Church after great labors and long desires; they find their way into it now without any trouble, without care, and without labor.
“They were only admitted to it after a strict examination.  They are received into it now before they are in a condition to be examined. …
“Hence it is that formerly none but well-instructed persons were to be seen among the Christians, whilst they are now in an ignorance that inspires one with horror; hence it is that those who had formerly been regenerated by baptism, and had forsaken the vices of the world to enter into the piety of the Church, fell back so rarely from the Church into the world; whilst nothing more common is to be seen at this time than the vices of the world in the hearts of Christians.”

• Blaise Pascal, Minor Works (Comparison between Christian of early Time and Those of To-day)

The title is based on my recently completed series from Dietrich Bonhoeffer about Costly Grace.  Blaise Pascal says much of the same things.

Seeing ill-instructed church leaders as false teachers seems a bit harsh, but when these people are asked to teach Sunday school and they possibly never went to Sunday school themselves, never having read the Bible, then they could introduce heresies out of ignorance.  And as voting members of the church, they could vote for heresies to be added.  It all becomes a snowball rolling downhill.

Note: I have met Sunday school teachers who never went to Sunday school and never read the Bible.  In some ways, the smart ones stick to the curriculum and fake it and pray no one asks a question.

When I first joined the church, I went to a class when I was twelve, but there really was no examination.  When my wife and I joined a Presbyterian church in Texas, they examined us, but when my wife started crying, they backed off.  But I wonder how many of those examiners were like those that Pascal mentions not having the common knowledge of a new convert much less someone capable of a real examination.  With this weakness in the church education system, I have since changed churches a few times without ever being examined.

But what caught my attention was that Pascal’s lament was written probably in the late 1650s.  He died in 1662 at the age of 39, and he devoted himself about 1954 to theology and a fledgling “bus” system to take the poor where they needed to go to improve their lives.  He ignored his health, and died as his father did, working long hours to help others while ignoring his own needs.

But I have seen others today lament about the lack of well-educated church leaders, but the type of education that they need is that of the heart.  You can see that type of sentiment in Pascal’s comparisons.  Those not in a condition to be examined – or they did not know Jesus in their hearts.  Pascal, being a scientist, mathematician, and philosopher would express himself in terms of education.

We keep thinking that our age is so much worse than all previous ages, but is it?  We think of ourselves to be so much closer to the End Times than previous generations, but other than being our lifespan closer, have we gone that far downhill that fast?

These same things were happening roughly four hundred years ago, and sometimes the ship righted itself.  Sometimes the ship turned around for safer waters only to stray in another direction.

I am not ready to wear my sign saying “The End is Near.”

But we should always act as if it were.  The Apostles did and see what they accomplished?

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.