Slice of Laodicea

I think most concerned Bible-believers today would agree that there has been an incredible escalation of mockery and filth coming into evangelical churches in the past couple of years.  Public behavior and speech that would have been unacceptable among civilized non-believers not that many years ago are now routinely engaged in by supposedly Christian pastors and their flocks. Day after day, I have documented the spiritual and moral decline—posting just a few of the examples daily that come my way. I do not have to look for it.

Some would ask what the point of such documentation is. Why record the collapse? Why point to false church after false church, emergent heresy, Purpose-Driven lies and the rotten fruit it has all produced? Every so often I think it is helpful to revisit the purpose of this blog. It is sometimes misunderstood.

Every era has those who record what is going on at a given time and place. When oral history became insufficient, men like Herodotus saw the wisdom of writing down what was going on around them for posterity. Through his famous work, The Histories, we have a way to understand Greek history and how it ultimately impacted the world. Beginning with the work of Herodotus, we have had a written record of most eras in Western history. We are deeply indebted to those who have done this. Slice of Laodicea provides a hefty slice of evangelicalism in 2009. I record and report. It’s that simple.

Having grown up in a pan-denominational environment and having worked in the same for many years, I’ve had a front row seat to evangelicalism and its death spiral over the last few decades.  The concern over Protestant evangelical doctrinal compromise and its subsequent chaos led me to record just how bad things have gotten. A.W. Tozer wrote extensively on the evangelical church of his day. He died in 1963, and could not have known how important that year was in Western history or how steep the downward slope would quickly become for compromised evangelical denominations. Tozer’s observations about the state of the church, her lack of godly fear and reverence, her lack of holiness and her disregard for sound doctrine were prophetic and enormously helpful in understanding the decline. He documented the spiritual sickness of his day in supposedly Bible-preaching churches. Today, sites like Slice take time to document and expose the rigor mortis that has now set in. The patient is deceased, regardless of how much lipstick is applied to the corpse.

It can be difficult to stomach, this recitation of the downfall of the Protestant evangelical church. But someone must record and report what has happened in our time. I don’t want it said that while sensuality, heresy and idolatry were parading themselves on church platforms we  winked at it and looked the other way. Also, young people, easily seduced by the spirit of the age in the evangelical church, need to be warned, to see truth upheld and the counterfeit church laid bare for what it is.

Critics have sneered at this site since its inception. Those engaged in spreading the counterfeit gospel today have always feared the disinfecting qualities of sunlight. God’s Word is that light that exposes error. We who believe God’s Word must contend for the faith, be willing to warn where spiritual error threatens souls, and above all, point to the unchanging standard of the Bible. Our love for the truth of God’s Word and for the souls who are dying eternally must be our motivation in these efforts.

We live in a nation where plain speaking is currently viewed as mean and unloving.  There is tolerance for nearly everything but truth-telling. But  if you saw someone running towards a cliff to a certain demise, how plain would your speech be? “Stop! Watch out! Don’t go there or you’ll die!” Those would be the words we would cry. Those who refuse to warn others spiritually in this fashion cannot truly believe that souls are in peril. If they saw eternity looming, and the yawning pit of hell that Christ spoke of so often while on earth, could they do anything else but use any and all means to spare some from that eternal torment?

This is not a game, friends. This website is not a tabloid intended to titillate and entertain. It is a warning to all who read it. Jesus Christ warned that He would spew the Laodicean lukewarm out of His mouth. That is not a fate that any of us should risk. Each and every post, video and link provided here is a cry to those who are deceived. “Come out, come out of the whoring American evangelical church! Listen only to the voice of our Good Shepherd who calls us to the narrow and winding path that leads to Heaven. Don’t be fooled by the Broad Way that leads to death. God’s Word is truth. Believe it and live!”