Intro to 'Elijah Men'
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| Protest papers started going up on Catherdral doors in the UK on 31 October 2017 |
Hello
Martin Luther ignited a world-changing reformation on a door in Wittenberg, Germany on the 31st October 1517. Armed with nothing but words and a hammer, he protested against a spiritually bankrupt world and a corrupt priestcraft. He protested against religious abuse and the absence of God’s word in the language of his people. Thus, Protestantism was born.
But this birthday is a dark one for the UK church. Aggressive demands are being made by this generation’s zeitgeist on the church and fires of holy resistance are tragically few and far between. A blitzkrieg of LGBT activism has battered us in efforts to squash all dissent to a new view of sexuality and marriage. Qur’anic passages that deny Christ’s divinity are now read in our nation’s cathedrals at the invitation of ministers. One man who held ‘traditional views’ on gender was bullied out of becoming a bishop in our midlands. Sadly, many churches have responded with all the fight of a wet croissant. Instead of protesting sin, some of us now boast of affirming it.
The churches in America and other Western countries also have challenges but, statistically, the church here in Britain is very ill. 71% of those 18-25 now register as ‘non-religious’. Faith is alive in some immigrant communities but among the ethnically British, churches are in sharp decline. One report attests that for every one child from a secular home that finds faith in Christ, twenty-six from Christian homes fall away. In spite of the millions we spend on savvy media and large events, Babylon still devours our children like popcorn―and there is little fervor or faith in the hearts of those who survive to adulthood.
Other surveys indicate that the average Christian now spends 30 minutes a week in prayer and 50 minutes a day on social media. We are obese physically and skeletally thin spiritually. Our youth do not yearn for the glory of God because they have never seen it all while we hibernate from Biblical truths that once kept our spiritual forbearers ablaze.
It was to a similar comatose generation that Elijah appeared as a rough and roaring alarm clock to rouse the nation he loved. On the 500th birthday of the Reformation, may we also awaken to our impoverishment. Let us pray that God would raise up men to protest sin and light the fires of revival and reform.
It is to that end that I offer up this book. As ravens carried meat to Elijah in the desert, may this book carry nourishment to ravenous souls in dry places.
-Joshua D. Jones
2017, Cambridge
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