Passages such as Acts 2:41-47 are not unrealistic ideals, lovely to contemplate but impossible to realize. They describe normal Body health. If our churches do not enjoy the same measure of health, the problem is not in the book of Acts. I have a sneaking suspicion that it will take a major crisis in America for the church to go from abnormal or subnormal to normal. "Nominal" Christianity is an abomination and the sooner we are rid of it the better.
That is exactly right! When we look at the vision of the church in Acts, we don't get to shrug and assume it is an unreachable ideal. It is an ideal indeed and one we should strive to emulate. The truth that we will never do so perfectly is not an excuse to not use Acts as our guide. "Well that was then, this is now" is not what we should assume as our rallying cry.
I agree with Dr. Black that only a major shake-up will shatter the grotesque cultural Christianity that has dominated America and the West for so long. Instead of funding legal defense funds to keep Ten Commandment monuments on public land and fighting over religion in textbooks in Texas, we should focus on getting the Word of God into the marrow of the bones of Christians and preaching the Kingdom of Christ.
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