Everbody is Quitting
"EVERYBODY IS QUITTING AND THOSE WHO ARE NOT QUITTING ARE COMPROMISING" By James W. Crumpton
"Everybody is Quitting and Those Who Are Not Quitting Are Compromising."It is shocking as to how often and from the many places from which this quotation is being heard these days. I hear it in the homes, the churches, among Christians, and from preachers and missionaries. In most conversations about Christians, the Lord’s work, religion, in Bible conferences, in mission conferences, in revival meetings, and on the street, this situation is called to our attention. And we must admit that the situation is tragic. The liberal theologians, the neo-orthodox, and the neo-evangelicals who have been translating and interpreting the Bible to prove their teachings, while denying the infallible truths of God’s Word are having a heyday. The Bible is being ridiculed as the infallible, inerrant Word of God. The virgin birth, God incarnate in human flesh, the substitutionary atoning death of Jesus, His bodily resurrection, His personal return, church discipline, and separation of Christians from the world are passe with them. This crowd smiles with a cynical grin at those who believe these precious teachings, as teachings held only by backwoods’ ignoramuses. This should not surprise us because the liberal theologians lie about other things, also.
Separation from the world, purity of Bible doctrine, New Testament church polity, morality, integrity, and modesty are not taught and practiced by those whom we had thought of as being God’s preachers, God’s people, and God’s churches. Professed Christians, pastors, missionaries, church officers, and other leaders go half to three-fourths undressed. I fear that we will soon have crowds of men, women, boys, and girls who will be going around publicly in the nude. Drinking intoxicants, smoking tobacco and marijuana, popping dope, dancing, committing adultery, fornication, and sodomy, watching filthy, wicked movies, lying, stealing, gambling, and the practicing of every sin in the category is increasing in "leaps and bounds." In the face of all of this, preachers are being told by their members, as well as by outsiders, that compromise is the only way to reach the crowds, and many seem to believe this in the light of their practice of compromising. This makes our hearts sad. And another reason that our hearts are deeply grieved about this situation is that so often those who are saying, "Everybody is quitting, and those who are not quitting are compromising," evidently are using this kind of talk to excuse themselves from ceasing to be faithful, practicing sins of omission and commission, and ceasing to be active in our Lord’s service. How sad! How sinful! How hypocritical!
Jesus told us that the majority always has been on the wrong road. "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" (Mat 7:13-14).
He also warned that the whole situation would get worse and more wicked as we approach His return. "But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come" (Mat 24:37-39, Mat 24:42).
Oh, we need to wake up, be alert, recognize the strategy of Satan, and not use the falling away as an excuse for us to backslide. God’s Word makes it clear the falling away will come.
"Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, not had pleasure in unrighteousness" (2Th 2:3-12).
God help us to be real soldiers. "Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ" (2Ti 2:3). Let us not excuse our going away, falling out on God, because of the preachers who are traitors to our Lord. God spoke through Isaiah of these kinds of preachers in his day and said of them: "His watchman are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter. Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant" (Isa 56:10-12).
Paul spoke of these same preachers as he wrote to young preacher Timothy.
"For 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" (2Ti 4:3-4). And he told Timothy what to do in the face of these wicked changes that would come. "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry (2Ti 4:2-5). This is not time to turn back but to go forward at any cost. Truth has not changed. It is only being lied about by some preachers, processed Christians, religious folk, and Christians who have fallen out. The Lord challenges us to be faithful unto death.
"Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; he that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death" (Rev 2:20-21).