Zone1 Letter to the American Church

[Skull]

From Eric Metaxas Introduction to his Letter to the American Church:

"I have written this book because I am convinced the American Church is at an impossibly—and almost unbearably—important inflection point. The parallels to where the German Church was in the 1930s are unavoidable and grim. So the only question—and what concerns us in this slim volume—is whether we might understand those parallels, and thereby avoid the fatal mistakes the German Church made during that time, and their superlatively catastrophic results. If we do not, I am convinced we will reap a whirlwind greater even than the one they did.
The German Church of the 1930s was silent in the face of evil; but can there be any question whether the American Church of our own time is guilty of the same silence? Because of this, I am compelled to speak out, and to say what—only by God’s grace—I might say to make plain where we find ourselves at this moment, at our own unavoidably crucial crossroads in history."

“This is a bold and insightful book with a deeply troubling message. Eric Metaxas calls for pastors (and other Christian leaders) who, like Bonhoeffer in Germany in the 1930s, will be courageous enough to speak unambiguously against the massive anti-Christian forces that now threaten to permanently transform American society and bring to an end America’s role as a beacon of freedom for the world.”
—Wayne Grudem

 

[LuckyDuck]

When the church (synagogue, temple, mosque) had a major voice with a government in various public matters:
Spanish Inquisition.
Religious wars (still going on with Islam's violent war on who they perceive as non-Muslims).
Public persecutions and executions.
Forced religious educations.
Recall how Puritans treated people in early America?
The above is why the church, whether american or not, needs to confine itself to its own flock.

 

[Skull]

From chapter seven on "by faith alone" and Luther:

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not
have works? Can that faith save him?… But someone will say, “You
have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your
works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that
God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do
you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works
is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he
offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active
along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the
Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was
counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.
You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And
in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works
when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from
works is dead. (James 2:14, 18–26)