Biblically Speaking

Declining Christianity

By Rev. Joseph Graber

The moment the last nail is driven into a building it begins to deteriorate.  Without continued effort in building and maintaining the structure, it will soon (sooner than we usually think) be in shambles.  This principle of devolution can be seen clearly in our Christian lives.  Without a continued commitment to building and maintenance of our Christian walk, our walk will soon become a blind stumbling and a fall is close at hand. 

In Proverbs 4:12, we are told to get wisdom and to practice  the things which God has entrusted to us through his word and, “When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble.”  But we are told shortly after this that when we incline ourselves toward the things of the wicked we will be entering into their darkness in which they stumble as they cannot see. We must constantly guard against our neglect of our Christian walk as we might neglect a new building.  If we do, we will soon be in ruin.

In his A Christian Directory, Richard Baxter (1615-1691) gives us 20 specific signs or symptoms that our Christian walk is declining.  Perhaps these will prick your heart and bring you to action as they have me:

  1. We grow bolder with sin or with temptations to it.
  2. We no longer grieve over our inward corruptions and sins.
  3. We act as very pious, explicit Christians in every area but our profession.
  4. We have become ritualistic toward the things of religion.
  5. We have allowed our prayer lives to deteriorate.
  6. We don’t specifically work to put away inner sins and desires, but religion has become outward.
  7. We aren’t constantly thinking of Christ or aren’t meditating on His Word day and night.
  8. We have grown indifferent to the sermons and prayers that we once couldn’t live without.
  9. We have become more careful of our words outside of prayer than in prayer, and we regard how others see more than we regard the eye of God.
  10. We begin to debate vehemently and most hotly some smaller matters in religion.
  11. We relish more the fineness of speech than the spirit and weight of the matter.
  12. We set less in the company of serious, godly Christians than we once did, and we are almost as pleased with the common company and discourse.
  13. We love not to be told of anything in us that is amiss (or any reproof for sin), but we love those best who give us the highest applause.
  14. We no longer constantly renew our repentance.  It has grown to a lifeless, cursory work.
  15. We grow uncharitable to brethren who differ from us in tolerable points.
  16. We grow less compassionate to the ungodly world and less regardful of the common interest of the church to press the claims of Christ.
  17. We become thirsty for some worldly contentment.
  18. We are more tolerant of, and make a great matter of, fleshly pleasure, sense and appetite.
  19. We become more proud and impatient and less able to bear a slighting or injuries from men.
  20. We are unwilling to think of death, or to prepare for it and expect it.

 As with most of what Richard Baxter has written, this list cuts me.  I see myself all through it, and it drives me to my knees.  May it drive us all to our knees in repentance and cause us to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God.  May it cause us to be diligent and watchful lest we become ruinous from neglect.