What are the options? To be frank, there aren't many. We can look to the Confessionalist churches within the Reformed, Lutheran, and Anglican traditions. This is a viable option in some cases and in terms of week to week worship these offer much better opportunities - but they are not without their problems. Their ecclesiologies are often unbiblical. Many Reformed are actually just Evangelicals. There are real problems with Lutheran and Anglican worship but I find them preferable to Evangelical pop-culture worship and piety.
For some the Confessional route is the only option. It all depends on their circumstance and if that's the only church option available to them, they might do best in pursuing it. But membership in such bodies is fraught with problems and their leaders are not always transparent or honest. In a world that often offers no solutions, it is a non-solution that some will have to embrace. It's better than staying at home and cutting one's self off.
Another option is far more viable and yet decidedly unattractive to most. It is to pursue a dissident form of Christianity. This might mean traveling long distances, meeting in odd places at odd times. Ultimately we need to become dissidents - just as there were dissidents in the context of the Roman dominated Middle Ages, the time is well past for dissidents to emerge in this present (if more complicated) setting. It's a little trickier in this context - in some ways akin to Late Antiquity. Persecution isn't always acute or overt and yet the pressures are there. There were many dissidents in Late Antiquity. We need not agree with all of them and so it will be today, but we can learn from their example and reflect on how they operated in their time and place - something I continue to do.
Historically dissidents focused on poverty and austerity which are simply outworkings of antithesis. Poverty and austerity need not be absolute (as in homelessness or cultural philistinism) but our lives should demonstrate our ethics and testify to our faith. Rejecting the system means we will not be invested in it. We will not have standing. We will not be members of the Middle Class. Time is a factor in this too. If we give ourselves to pursuing Kingdom interests, then jobs (and connected lifestyles) that require all our time, energy, and devotion are unacceptable paths. It would be better to be poor, live simply, and have the time to spend with Church (and family) then to find solace and respect in the trappings of the Middle Class.
Taking Scriptural authority seriously (again, with a priority placed on the New Testament as the baseline or norm for all doctrinal development) our lives will reflect the ethics of Christ and the apostles. We're going to be strangers and aliens in the context of mainstream church bodies. The dissidents of Late Antiquity did this and suffered for it to some extent - sometimes severely. In the Middle Ages the groups that emerged stood out - their lives were lived in sharp contrast with the cheap grace Christianity of Catholicism and the often libertine conduct of both peasant and lord. They denounced the mainstream Church of their day as apostate and antichrist. So it is once again in our day.
Some of us may be reduced to meeting with another family or two in a living room. Others will do that sometimes and also try and attend church somewhere for wider teaching and access to sacraments. Others will end up driving long distances to attend something that may only be tolerable and maybe because of the logistics involved, they can only attend once every few weeks or so.
Those who can't pursue these options may have to opt for a pietist course within a Confessional church - worshipping and fellowshipping as much as possible and yet pursuing growth elsewhere. It's difficult though to escape the burden of attendance and the discouragement when everyone you encounter is all wrapped up in politics, mammon, guns, and the like. I've been there more than once. For many people, these topics are the basis of their fellowship and thus it's no surprise to find they actually have more in common with like-minded Catholics and Mormons than Christians who (in theory) share their views of Scripture but don't embrace their warped understanding of the Christian life. And I've thought of this recently in the context of where I attend. There are a couple of older men in the church that are so dominated and shaped by FOX, they seem incapable of discussing anything but Right-wing topics and issues. No matter how you steer the conversation, or even talk about the weather, it always circles around and comes back to the politics and the stupid absurdist framing of the FOX/Newsmax worldview. Sadly, I end up trying to avoid them.
But don't fool yourself and just rest easy in a context of compromise and apostasy. Never give up. Keep looking and trying to make contacts. Be willing to suffer some inconvenience. Maybe once a month you drive two hours to attend some place more solid where there's some fellowship. Never give up.
As such the implications of Evangelical apostasy are hard to quantify as is the response. The apostasy is not universal. There are some 'decent' Evangelical churches out there but not many and far fewer today than twenty years ago. From my own life experience I've had to learn to try and think ahead because frankly the decline and even collapse of the Church in my area took place at a far greater pace than I ever imagined.
In some cases maybe you can stay some place and try to make a difference. Though it's hard not to be cynical. I've tried this before and so have others I've known. It's never worked and the end result is a bitter departure.
I've been writing online for over fifteen years now (I launched the website in June of 2010) and my theme has pretty much been the same. I was willing to speak of Evangelical Apostasy back in 2010 and before. But the conviction behind the charge has never been as forceful as it is now. I've never felt the same desperation. For my part I have a church I attend that I'm less than happy with, but it's better than nothing. We've been there for some time. It's an old German Reformed congregation that went into the UCC back in the 1950's and then left over a decade ago. It's now an independent 'Reformed' congregation. There are a few people that are broadly Reformed. Some are more of a leftover Mainline mindset. Others are Evangelical types that for whatever reason have ended up there. They're not always clear themselves. It's a bit of a mess but it's all we have and we drive just over an hour to get there. The drive is often longer in the winter. The worship is simple and traditional (at least by 20th century standards). There's just a piano and we sing traditional hymns. Things seem to be slowly improving and so that's encouraging. The teaching is pretty weak but the Scriptures are honoured and read and it could be a lot worse - something I'm reminded of when we occasionally visit other churches in the wider region.
I continue to labour in my area - back in the hill country (as it were) but to no avail. There is seemingly little to no interest in anything beyond either Evangelicalism or (as an alternative) high church worship. Groups like the CREC and ACNA are growing and making their mark in both Northern Pennsylvania (where I live) and Western New York.
I regularly talk with my young adult children about these issues and I try to help them work through the necessary questions because I would assume at some point most or all of them will leave the area and will need to wrestle with these realities either on their own or with spouses. There's no checklist or black and white set of criteria to this question. The same is true in Church history at least during Late Antiquity and the Dark Ages. By the time of the Gregorian Reform (or High Middle Ages) the situation had become acute and the dissident groups that emerged were in many cases openly breaking with Rome and denouncing it as antichrist.
Though
many will disagree I argue (laid out in part over the course of this
essay) that we've reached that crisis moment with Evangelicalism -
we're well past it in reality. But as with the courses and shifts
within history, people don't wake up one morning and say, "Oh,
we're in the High Middle Ages now," so it is with our situation
and context. Everyone's situation is different. Churches vary as do
individual circumstance. I understand that. But I'm arguing
vigorously against the status quo. I am arguing that something is
very wrong and its getting worse and these questions and issues have
to be dealt with. For some the reckoning will create great discomfort
- loss of jobs and status, drops in income, having to engage in
burdensome travel to find a congregation to meet with - and at that
point it's not a local congregation any more. I long to fellowship
throughout the week with people I go to church with but all too often
they live some place else, well beyond the zone of daily travel and
experience. The town we travel to is distant and not even in the same
circles that we move. There's no overlap in day to day errands,
shopping, or anything like that. It might as well be in a different
state. That's unfortunate but it's the best we can do - and we cannot
easily afford to relocate.
So much of what I write is negative
and critical. I don't apologize for it. We're at war. The enemy is in
the pulpit and the pews, his agents are on the 'Christian' airwaves
and dominating social media. The Church has been invaded and
infiltrated (to borrow the term used by a corrupt Catholic teacher).
I constantly encounter people that are not feeling the burden, that
don't sense the danger, that are not disturbed. This is because they
are either ignorant or apathetic. You cannot be deeply engaged with
Scripture and not be torn apart by all that is going on and being
done in the name of Christ.
There's nothing I would love more than to spend time focusing on positive things - not in a Pollyanna sense but just simply working through Scripture and doctrinal issues - even devotional type work. But my time is limited. I scramble to make a living and it's a pretty poor one, certainly by Western standards. I am content. This is my choice. I long for my time but the money isn't there unless I go out and work for it and so something has to give. When I have the time to write (time I have to make and carve out) I use it to warn, expose, call out, and fight - tearing down strongholds, casting down false ideas, and disarming the enemy's agents that have entered the Church. In other cases I hope I am being salt - not a preservative but a seasoning (that's the way Christ refers to it), steering well meaning people away from the bad roads that can seem so enticing and easily traveled.
I ask for prayer. I'm sure there are at least a few who pray against me. So be it. But I ask for prayer that I may continue in this task and persevere in the fight. In worldly terms we're being slaughtered. We're losing badly. But such an assessment is made from the vantage point of the world which is both dark and limited. We have a different vantage point that allows us to see a bigger picture and one that covers a vast scope of time. We stand on the eschatological Mountain - Zion. We have a vision and perspective that sadly many (whose eyes and appetites are bound to the Earth) seem incapable of viewing. I think of these things as I read Psalm 48. It is a comfort in trying times.
Do not despair the downfall of this perverse and pseudo-Christian civilisation. The Church faced a pagan world in the first century and this did not lead to despair. We face a harder battle in some respects - we face not only a pagan world but another powerful religion on the rise - that of Materialist Humanism. But even this is nothing to fear or to be intimidated by. The hardest part of the struggle we face is the fact that we're still surrounded by vibrant and yet degenerate and sometimes utterly false forms of Christianity that work against us, confuse the conflict, seduce would-be believers, and its adherents absolutely hate and detest those who reject their vision.
I was struck the other day watching a video of a Charlie Kirk memorial service - one of many around the United States. As expected, it was dominated by Dominionist types and some Doug Wilson/CREC folks. One of the speakers invoked Revelation 21's reference to cowards being thrown into the Lake of Fire. He was suggesting that those who refuse to take up the sword and coin ethics they espouse and fight by means of consequential ethics, politicking, and the culture war they have made their raison d'etre - such people are cowards and will be rejected by God and cast into fiery judgment.
The irony is this. The cowards way is to indulge the flesh. There's nothing more pleasing to my sinful nature than to take their Lamech-inspired path and lash out against my enemies, seek their destruction, and find satisfaction in it. Their course pleases the flesh, and relishes in its fallen proclivities. This is why it's so popular. This is why they get the crowds. Because fallen man likes this message of wrath, power, and triumph. Fallen man wants worldly glory. The message of the cross is foolishness to them. The ethics of Christ as expressed in the Sermon on the Mount are ridiculous - I've heard Theonomists say as much. It takes fortitude and courage to stand against all the factions and to be resolute even though everyone will hate you - even though they will knock your teeth out if they get the chance. It takes courage to turn the other cheek and yet to keep bearing witness as people spit on you - as these lost Dominionists spit on you. These Dominionists are the progeny of the Crusaders, Inquisition, and the Medieval 'Church' which persecuted the faithful. They wear different garb and use some different words but they're cut from that same polluted cloth. They define courage in worldly terms - in ways Lamech would understand, for they are his offspring. New Testament courage is typified by Christ and the apostles who did not strike back, who endured suffering, and continued to bear witness as they were killed to the glory of God. Those who take up the sword out of fear of the cross are cowards - as defined by Scripture.
But we know that when consciences are seared and judgment is lost, white will become black and black will seem white. And so it is with today's Evangelicals and Dominionists. And so we must turn away from them. If not now, then when? At what point will the faithful say - enough?