Give Me that Old Time Religion – I'm Tired of the New Stuff!!!

This tract is written in protest of the modern day, passive, sissy-fied, and noodle for backbone, watered down religion.

People claim the name of Christianity without being Christian at all. The word Christian means to follow in the ways of Jesus Christ. As I look around and see the spiritual shape our churches are in I can't help but feel that this isn't what Christ had in mind.

Today the gates of hell do not have to prevail against the Church because hell is being invited into the Church. Churches across the country are having Super Bowl Sunday so those that are not comfortable in church can come watch the ballgame. When are they going to allow those who are not comfortable watching the game without beer to bring their own beer? Or even more repulsive, to have the beer on hand?

How long is the judgement of God going to be postponed before God has had enough?

I talked to a lady not long ago that asked, "Why do the ladies in your church wear dresses? We have Casual Day at our church!"

How long will it be before they have a Drunk Day or a Bathingsuit Sunday? You say that would never happen. But not long ago I heard a church went to a water theme park on Sunday.

Today it's getting hard to tell if the church is worldly or the world is churchy. Today you have people getting saved without getting changed. However, in the bible those that came to Jesus left a different way, they left changed. If I were you I would be worried about salvation without transformation.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, [which is] your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Romans 12:1,2

Why are pastors getting lured into letting modernistic gimmicks enter into the church without being concerned about compromise? The answer is simple. It's the numbers game. If their brethren are running 100 in Sunday School, what can they do to increase their attendance? That’s right! Come see the pastor swallow live goldfish! This Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday! Come see the pastor slide down the slide into the water with his suit on. Do you recall anywhere in the bible where Jesus used such nonsense to gather people? Me neither.

So, How do you get people into church these days? Do you compromise the word of God or do you stay true to the word of God? As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord! Not out of convenience, but out of conviction. It has never been popular to be on the Lord's side. For example, The Israelites have always been viewed upon in a negative sense yet they are God's chosen people. The disciples were blessed to have been with Jesus, yet most of them died a martyr's death. All through church history, it was the small groups that have carried the torch of Christianity, not the large denominations of the Pharisees. God is not impressed with numbers, but God loves for us to obey His word.

Thou shalt not follow a multitude to [do] evil; Exodus 23:2a

Many times in church, I've heard the preacher preach that, "You don't have to keep up with the Jones's!" But pastors all across the country are trying to keep up with each other so they can report their numbers to their denominational board. The preacher shouldn't have to answer but to one authority and that is God. He shouldn't have to answer to a man in an office living in another state, completely ignorant of the situations in which this pastor is having to deal. The local church is to be under the authority of the pastor and the pastor under the authority of God. Not a deacon board, not the associational missionary and not the influential family of the church he pastors! Do you recall associational boards in the Bible?

This "new-fangled" religion going around is destroying the power and influence of the local church. Lost people are laughing at you.("You" is from hereon substituted for the terms "compromising pastors" and "preachers" that have adapted to the modern religious ideas). I weep for you. The devil has pulled the wool over your already blinded eyes. You've gotten so used to the dark that you're ignorant of the light. You think that rock music with Christian lyrics is a good thing and you have concerts in the church house that is intended for worship and drawing sinners toward the light of the gospel. What your doing is trying to take a medium (rock music) that the devil created and trying to glorify God. God has given us Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs to glorify Him.

The songwriters of old were not in the music business but in the ministry. The hymns of "Amazing Grace" and "No One Ever Cared For Me Like Jesus" and many, many others were written to minister from the heart of the individuals that wrote them, not to earn a buck!!!

When you fill your church with these mediums, you get Christians without convictions, Christianity without Christ, preachers that won't preach convictions and gain without Godliness.

If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, [even] the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness ; He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings , Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself. I Tim. 6: 3-5

If you have given into these mediums in your church supposing that gain is Godliness you need to examine yourselves. You have been led astray with compromise. We are living in the latter days when the existence of apostasy isn't a revelation but a reality. Don't you think it strange when the Bible says concerning the age of apostasy in which we live, that you will become, "Rich and increased with goods," and yet you don't preach sound doctrine or about such sins as tobacco use, theater attendance, worldly music and improper dress? Does that not seem strange to you? Maybe it doesn't because you're scared to preach the truth in fear that you will loose your flock! After all, the Bible says they will heap to themselves teachers having itchy ears and you don't want to be replaced for preaching about the sins of the flock do you? That makes you a compromiser and compromising builds church attendance not Christians!!! When you fail to preach convictions for perfecting holiness you've become a coward because you don't want to run off your tithing church members and you probably don't preach on tithing either.

Your new religion is building large churches where people can hide and not have to deal with the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. How do I know? I see the way your people live. They don't bear the marks or display the testimony of holiness. They have no power to overcome sin nor do they have desire to try. One of the reasons that people don't flock to the church I pastor and others like it is they don't like to deal with their sin. They enjoy their sin. They can attend your church and be comfortable in their sin. The reason the devil doesn't mess with your church is you mess with it better than he can. He is vacationing from your church.

David R. Watkins, Pastor

Liberty Baptist Church

2828 Hwy. 11 South

Attalla, AL 35954

(256) 538-9600