Dear Reader – I believe the following article may be the most important one I have written compared to over 250 articles I have posted on CultureWarrior.net over the last eleven years. Please forward this post to your family and friends on social media. Thank you. Larry G. Johnson
On February 7-8, 2024, one thousand Assemblies of God pastors gathered at the “1000+ AG Lead Pastor Connect” conference in Miami, Florida. This gathering was designed for lead pastors from the largest one thousand churches among the thirteen thousand plus AG churches in the United States. John Maxwell was the featured speaker, and the core of his message to the pastors was “to avoid politics, because it is polarizing.” Maxwell’s message has created a firestorm among the faithful inside and outside of the denomination.
Who is John Maxwell? The biography in the 1000+ AG Lead Pastor Connect Internet brochure[1] advertising the conference reads as follows:
John C. Maxwell is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, speaker, coach and leader who has sold more than 34 million books. He is the founder of Maxwell Leadership—a leadership development organization that has trained tens of millions of leaders in every nation. Having been recognized as the #1 leader in business and as the world’s most influential leadership expert, Maxwell continues to influence individuals and organizations worldwide—from Fortune 500 CEOs and national leaders to entrepreneurs and the leaders of tomorrow.[2]
Here we have an expert on business and leadership advising pastors on what to preach! However, what preachers preach is determined through a process of prayer, rightly dividing the Word, and leading of the Holy Spirit. This is the same John Maxwell who glowingly endorsed Andy Stanley’s new book Not in it to win it-Why choosing sides sidelines the church (2022). Andy Stanley is a false teacher but highly influential evangelical leader who also wrote Irresistible-Reclaiming the New that Jesus Unleashed for the World (2108) which teaches Christians to reject the Old Testament’s teachings (including Ten Commandments) because they are not applicable to Christians today. Maxwell also endorsed Stanley’s book Irresistible in which he states that he was challenged to “do more connecting and less correcting of others…I love how Andy loves people…”
What were General Superintendent Doug Clay and the rest of the Executive Presbytery thinking when they determined to invite Maxwell to speak to and influence one thousand pastors from the AG’s largest churches to stay out of American politics? Where were their discernment, knowledge of the Word, and critical thinking skills?! Mario Marillo asked the question, “Why did these 1,000 AG ministers not drop everything and cry out to God for mercy on America? Is it because they are more interested in the hottest new business model for church growth?”[3]
Effectively, the actions of the AG leadership in allowing Maxwell to speak have encouraged AG pastors to remain silent in their pulpits about politics only eight months prior to the most critical political moment in our nation’s history. The outcome of the November 2024 elections will determine if it will be the last election in which the destiny of America will remain in the hands of the people or be vested in an all-powerful ruling elite of anti-God socialists/Marxists bent on world domination. Apparently, John Maxwell and the AG leadership have been living under a rock and are unaware of what is happening in America.
The Big Lie – Churches must avoid politics inside and outside the church
A brief look at Scripture exposes Maxwell’s lie that the church must avoid all politics, inside and outside the church. That has always been the goal of Satan in American churches. Beginning significantly in the 1960s, churches and Christians have been coerced to keep their opinions inside the walls of the church and not interfere or influence the remaining spheres of American life: government, politics, business and commerce, physical and social sciences, media, arts and entertainment, education, and the family. There is not a single sphere where churches, Christians and Christianity are not under a full frontal assault from Satan and his minions. Without restraint exerted by the church, how would Maxwell and his sycophants combat the carnage that has spread across America? Their typical response is that “we should pray about it.”
Do the scriptures encourage Christians to stay out of politics? The words of Christ and the early church leaders expose the lie that pastors and churches should avoid politics. When Christians speak truth, it is polarizing because Satan is a liar and is the father of lies. Truth can be offensive to many and does not bring peace. Mario Marillo presents three examples that expose the Big Lie.[4]
• In Matthew 10:34-36, Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.” [NKJV]
• John the Baptist confronted King Herod in Luke 3:18-20, “And with many other exhortations he preached to the people. But Herod the tetrarch, being rebuked by him concerning Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done, also added this, above all, that he shut John up in prison.” [NKJV]
• Peter and John refused to obey an evil government in Acts 5:23-29: “And when they had brought them, they set them before the council (Sanhedrin). And the high priest asked them, saying, “Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this Man’s blood on us!” [NKJV]
Silence in the pulpits of American churches began long before Maxwell and Stanley arrived on the scene
The modern evangelical church since the 1960s began embracing the Big Lie that the church must avoid politics. Many evangelical churches in the 1960s to the present day ignored the voices of earlier 20th Century giants beyond our shores who defended the freedom to speak truth not only from the pulpits of churches but for all mankind. The following are excerpts from Chapter 12 of my sixth book published in 2020, Defending the Good Society – The Assault on Order, Justice, and Freedom.[5]
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) was born in Russia and studied mathematics, philosophy, literature, and history at the university level. He was a thrice decorated for personal heroism as a Russian Army Officer during the fight against the Nazis in World War II. In 1945 he was arrested for criticizing Stalin in private correspondence and sentenced to an eight-year term in a labor camp. From that experience he wrote One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich which was published in 1962, the first of many books. In 1970 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. In 1974, he was stripped of his citizenship and expelled from the Soviet Union whereupon he moved to Vermont with his wife and four sons.[6]
Solzhenitsyn’s background, experiences, and powerful words in defense of truth speaks far louder than the din of lies shouted by egalitarianism’s Ministry of Truth and its toadies including spineless politicians, the corrupt media, universities in name only, complicit mega-corporation billionaires, ranting Hollywood leftists, self-proclaimed “intellectuals,” and many corrupt voices and false teachers in the church. However, such lies cannot long stand against timeless truth of which God is the author and finisher.
Solzhenitsyn gives both the diagnosis of the plight of the good society and a prescription for preserving its Judeo-Christian cultural heritage and its attendant freedom.
In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it (evil) will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers . . . we are ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.
The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. One word of truth outweighs the world.[7]
The defenders of the good society must raise their voices in the defense of the language and free speech from the lies and distortions of radical egalitarians. Silence only emboldens the evil doers and digs the graves of our children and grandchildren’s moral and civil order, justice, and freedom.
Martin Niemöller and Dietrich Bonhoeffer
At the beginning of 1933, the German church stood at a crossroads. The great majority of German Lutheran churches chose the path of Hitler and the Nazis instead of the teachings of Jesus Christ.[8] There was a minority of Christians and churches in Germany that opposed Hitler and the apostatized German Christians. The resistance centered within the new “Confessing Church” led by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Niemöller, and a few others. As Nazi pressure was ratcheted up against the dissenting churchmen, Bonhoeffer and Niemöller were criticized by their fellow churchmen for opposing Hitler and his policies. Eventually over two thousand would choose the route of appeasement and safety and abandoned support of Bonhoeffer and Niemöller’s efforts in resisting the Nazis. “They believed that appeasement was the best strategy; they thought that if they remained silent they could live with Hitler’s intrusion into church affairs and his political policies.”[9]
In the late summer of 1933, Niemöller wrote a letter to a friend about his opposition to Hitler.
Although I am working with all my might for the church opposition, it is perfectly clear to me that this opposition is only a very temporary transition to an opposition of a very different kind, and that very few of those engaged in this preliminary skirmish will be part of the next struggle. And I believe that the whole of Christendom should pray with us that it will be a “resistance unto death,” and that the people will be found to suffer it.[10]
In early 1934 from the pulpit of his church in the Berlin suburb of Dahlem, Niemöller spoke of the coming trials that faced the German church.
We have all of us—the whole Church and the whole community—we’ve been thrown into the Tempter’s sieve, and he is shaking and the wind is blowing, and it must now become manifest whether we are wheat or chaff! Verily, a time of sifting has come upon us, and even the most indolent and peaceful person among us must see that the calm of a meditative Christianity is at an end…
It is now springtime for the hopeful and expectant Christian Church—it is testing time, and God is giving Satan a free hand, so he may shake us up and so that it may be seen what manner of men we are!…
Satan swings his sieve and Christianity is thrown hither and thither; and he who is not ready to suffer, he who called himself a Christian only because he thereby hoped to gain something good for his race and his nations is blown away like chaff by the wind of time.[11]
In 1937, Niemöller and more than eight hundred other churchmen were arrested and imprisoned for their opposition to the Nazis. Following release from prison after eight months, Niemöller was immediately arrested again as a “personal prisoner” of the Führer himself and spent the next seven years in Dachau, one the Nazis’ most infamous concentration camps. He was freed by the Allies in 1945.[12] After the war, in his sorrow for not recognizing and speaking out in the early days of the Nazi rise to power, Niemöller penned this sorrowful message.
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.[13]
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was discussed in chapter 8 (Defending the Good Society) with regard to his views on church-state relationships. Bonhoeffer knew well the cost of silence in the church when faced with evil in the public square. His ardent faith and boldness in confronting evil cost him his life. He called silence when faced with evil what it was…sin.
We have been silent witness of evil deeds; we have been drenched by many storms; we have learnt the arts of equivocation and pretense; experience has made us suspicious of others and kept us from being truthful and open…Will our inward power of resistance be strong enough, and our honesty with ourselves remorseless enough, for us to find our way back to simplicity and straightforwardness?[14]
Silence in the face of evil is itself evil, God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.[15]
The words of Solzhenitsyn, Niemöller, and Bonhoeffer all carry the same message. Defenders of the good society must not remain silent. We must speak out with truth and take action to confront the evil of humanism and its handmaidens—egalitarianism’s lies and falsehoods and socialism’s corrupt order.
Silence in the face of evil occurs because of cowardice in the leadership of local churches
Franklin Graham said, “Those who are afraid to address moral issues are no better than those who commit transgressions.”[16] The truth of his powerful words is confirmed in Revelation 21:8, “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” (emphasis added) [NKJV] In his commentary on this verse, Donald Stamps states that,
The “cowardly” are those who lack faith in God and who fear the disapproval and threat of people more than they value loyalty to Christ and the truth of his Word. Their personal security and status among others on earth mean more to him than faithfulness to God. The “cowardly” include the compromisers among God’s people who give up the spiritual light and do not overcome evil.[17]
There are many facets of cowardice including fear of retribution, fear of being accused as intolerant and judgmental, fear of being culturally exiled, and desire for acceptance. However, in spite of the cost, the church, individual Christians, and other defenders of the Judeo-Christian worldview are called to soldier in a much larger ongoing conflict which I described eight years ago in my book Evangelical Winter – Restoring New Testament Christianity.
In addition to the liberal apostate church of the last 120 years, there is also a faithful but mostly silent church in America that is content to preach the gospel and ignore the culture. But Erwin Lutzer disagreed with hiding behind the gospel while ignoring the culture. He wrote, “whether in Nazi German or America, believers cannot choose to remain silent under the guise of preaching the Gospel…we must live out the implications of the cross in every area of our lives. We must be prepared to submit to the Lordship of Christ in all ‘spheres’.”[18] [emphasis added]
As we live out the implications of the cross in every area of our lives, we must understand that the culture wars in which we soldier for Christ are not about maintaining the American dream however one may define it. Rather, the culture wars are about restoring the biblical understanding of truth in all spheres of our national life. To do so one must speak the truth in the face of lies, stand on biblical principles when others compromise, and take right actions in spite of consequences.[19]
If we are not actively living out our faith by fighting the wickedness in society and the culture of our time (in the schools, government, business, popular culture, arts, entertainment, media, and so forth), God will view our inaction (neutrality) as participation in the enemy’s wicked cause. In other words, God will not find us guiltless. Here we speak of individual and collective guilt.
In closing, we must note that perhaps there is no arena of public affairs where the silence of the local churches is more heartbreaking than their silence with regard to the welfare of our children in America’s K-12 educational system. The very youngest of children in most local schools are being fed pernicious ideas on the subject of sexuality—ideas with which their young minds are quite unable to cope, and to which their own parents object. Older children are being so confused by sexual activists that they agree to have their bodies mutilated, so they can never become the men and women God has created them to be. We cannot help but wonder where are all of the leading American pastors today on the issues of sexuality and transgender craziness. Are they afraid to speak? Like lemmings, it appears that local pastors across the nation have also lost their voices and backbones in their failure to consistently and repeatedly address these issues in their pulpits and at local school board meetings.
Eric Metaxas in his 2022 book, Letter to the American Church, captures the essence of how the church has become silent in the face of evil.
…those who behave as though there is really nothing to worry about, who seem to think—as such prominent pastors as Andy Stanley and others do—that we ought to assiduously avoid fighting these threats and be “apolitical” are tragically mistaken, are burying their heads in the sand and exhorting others to do the same …Do we not realize that no good ever can come of such silence and inaction, that human beings whom God loves suffer when His own people fail to express boldly what He has said and why they fail to live as He has called them to live?[20]
Larry G. Johnson
Sources:
[1] 1000+ AG Lead Pastor Connect, https://churchmultiplication.net/1000plus (accessed 2-21-2024
[2] Ibid.
[3] Mario Marilla, “Politics in the Pulpit?” Mario Marillo Ministries, February 12, 2024. https://mariomurillo.org/2024/02/12/is-he-right/ (accessed 2-22-2024).
[4] Ibid.
[5] Larry G. Johnson, Defending the Good Society – The Assault on Order, Justice, and Freedom, (Owasso, Oklahoma: Anvil House Publishers, 2020), pp. 109-112.
[6] “Biography,” The Aleksandra Solzhenitsyn Center, https://www.solzhenitsyncenter.org/his-life-overview/biography (accessed June 18, 2020).
[7] Solzhenitsyn, AZ Quotes. https://www.azquotes.com/
[8] Erwin W. Lutzer, When a Nation Forgets God, (Chicago, Illinois: Moody Publishers, 2010), p. 44.
[9] Ibid., pp. 19-21.
[10] Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer, (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, 2010), p. 197.
[11] Lutzer, When a Nation Forgets God, p. 32-32.
[12] Metaxas, Bonhoeffer, pp. 293, 295.
[13] Ibid., p. 192.
[14] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “Letters and Papers from Prison Quotes,” goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1153999-widerstand-und-ergebung-briefe-und-aufzeichnungen-aus-der-haft (accessed June 29, 2018 (accessed June 29, 2018).
[15] “20 Influential Quotes by Dietrich Bonhoeffer,” Crosswalk.com. https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/spiritual-life/inspiring-quotes/20-influential-quotes-by-dietrich-bonhoeffer.html (accessed June 29, 2018).
[16] Marillo, “Politics in the Pulpit?”
[17] Donald Stamps, Commentary on Revelation 21:8, Fire Bible: Global Study Edition, New International Version, Gen. Ed. Donald Stamps, (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers Marketing, LLC, Copyright 2009 by Life Publishers International, Springfield, Missouri), p. 2565.
[18] Lutzer, When a Nation Forgets God, pp. 31-32.
[19] Larry G. Johnson, “Pornography in Owasso Public Schools – Will local churches remain silent?” CultureWarrior.net, November 8, 2022. https://www.culturewarrior.net/2022/11/08/pornography-in-owasso-public-schools-silence-of-the-local-churches/
[20] Eric Metaxas, Letter to the American Church, (Washington, D.C.: Salem Books, 2022), p. 51
