Recently the state of Florida began offering a license plate with a picture of a coiled snake on a yellow background with the byline, “Don’t Tread on Me”. This picture, known as the Gadsden flag, was first introduced in 1775 during the American Revolution by Christopher Gadsden as a symbol of our country’s independence and willingness to act in defense and defiance against the oppression of the mother country. The rattlesnake image and motto were used by the continental marines as well as other militia groups during the war for independence. The snake image was eventually incorporated into the seal of the United States Department of War by an act of congress in 1778 and has been used in some form since that time. Yet, even though eleven other states have issued license plates with this motto and image for some years, Florida has come under attack for promoting it due to the associations it has with “far right” ideology and the January 6th riot at the Capitol. Much of this outrage by the media has been widely accepted and embraced due to revisionism that has been promoted in recent years. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, revisionism is “trying to change existing beliefs about how events happened or what their importance or meaning is.” Every time a statue is removed, a history book is re-written, or a historic premise demonized there is revisionism taking place in the background. Many young people are being educated and indoctrinated to view or nation’s history and it’s key historical figures through this lense. However, as sad as it is to see revisionism taking place in our country, I’m afraid it is also happening in the church.
Let’s look at just a few ways in which revisionism has affected our church culture. There are things which were previously considered “normal” habits and practices in our churches that have now been deemed obsolete, unnecessary, or old-fashioned. One of these areas is in the preaching. The Bible tells us that “the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:3-4). So many churches and pastors today have placed “sound doctrine” on the sideline so that they can “itch the ears” of their congregations. Sermons have become shorter, more focused on philosophy, psychology, solving relational issues, or just trying to make people feel good about themselves. Often, instead of teaching people what they NEED to hear, pastors have succumbed to feeding people what they WANT to hear in their sermons.
In mentioning these new practices, I’m not advocating that the “old ways” are always better or that the new ways are always wrong. We do need to adapt and be relevant to our culture in order to communicate God’s Word effectively to them. However, we have also seen a revisionist philosophy affecting our worship music in the church. The traditional hymns are deemed to be dusty, out of date, and unrelatable expressions of worship. Their historical significance, their scriptural message, and the sometimes miraculous stories behind how they were written are being lost to this generation as a result. While I am not against newer expressions of worship (when they are biblical in both content and practice), I firmly believe that the old hymns should not be shelved. There are to be a variety of musical expressions of our worship (see Ephesians 5:19) which are to include hymns of the faith. This is critical as many of them contain deep, theological truths that are absent in today’s emotion-driven modern worship climate.
Another way in which revisionism is affecting the church is in the amount of church meetings that are offered each week. Twenty years ago we lamented the decline of attendance at the mid-week prayer meeting. For many churches the prayer meeting has long been in the rear-view mirror and the Sunday evening service is now being targeted. Why don’t families make church attendance a priority? Have we evolved spiritually to the point that we need LESS Bible teaching, prayer, and Christian fellowship each week than the generations that have gone before us? Can we truly meet the deep spiritual needs in our lives and our families with a Sunday School lesson and a morning worship service once a week? Of course, the answer to all these questions is “no”. While our culture deals with spiritual darkness all around, the light and hope to be found in the church has become all too dim.
Proverbs 22:28 tells us to “Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set.” Again, I’m not saying that we should do a cultural retreat, cloistering ourselves together and only offering church practices that were relevant 400 years ago. However, I do believe that we continue to erode the core functions and features of what Bible-believing churches once represented. Instead of allowing revisionism from your culture to sneak into your mindset of what the church should be doing, allow the transforming power of God’s Word to be a revolutionary force to the culture around you. Commit to embracing those church practices, habits, and worship from the generations that came before you. You’ll find that there is much wisdom and learning to be found there.
References:
https://www.npr.org/2022/08/10/1116523396/florida-dont-tread-on-me-license-plate-ron-desantis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadsden_flag