Today, as we observe the operations and functions of many ministries; we note that society’s major civilizational advancements in the physical realm have created in the church a phenomenon, which manifests apathy toward things that are truly spiritual. It’s not that God’s people don’t believe in Him anymore ----- the majority will absolutely affirm that they believe, but the pertinent question is, in what? In other words, what is it about God that they believe?

Statistics will readily show that a significant number go to church on a sporadic basis and this number seems to be dwindling as other issues arrest their attention more and more. Even when they do go, it’s more to socialize or enjoy some familiar ritual or entertainment peculiarity than it is to actually worship and fellowship in God. Thus the focus is more on their personal wishes, wants, desires and aspirations than it is on God’s will, plan and purpose. In this sense, they are not found putting much thought or effort into their faith in God’s agenda but in their own.

Instinctively, many are moved to search for comfort and assurance in the physical vein of this present life, thus relegating God to be only a supplier of perishable goods. Hence this has resulted in the rise of "spiritual apatheism", which can be defined as a disinclination to assess much value on unseen things. In recent years, this mindset has become increasingly apparent among God’s people in proportion to their economic progress and the emergence of a larger base of the status quo of the middle and upper classes. Unfortunately, this distorted view of blissfulness has become the foundation of too many ministries.

As some view the complexity of the complicated and confusing world in which they live, it gives the illusion that the crux of education should be invested predominately in the secular aspects of epistemology. In this sense, most of that which is viewed as spiritual is actually physical. Many of God’s people spend much of their time pining for simpler solutions to life’s problems while forsaking the blueprint that has been outlaid for the grace recipient in today’s church. Such would rather trust in human capabilities purposively aided by God. With this facade in place, they show little if any evidence of renouncing their so-called freedom of personal choices. This produces a concrete barrier to such one’s comprehension of a world of total dependency on God, which entails deference and strict obedience to His design for His beloved.

Such behavior can be termed "flexidoxy", which describes the practice of those who adhere to the belief that man participates in determining the destiny of his course. In this rule of thinking, everything touching life is flexibly cued to the dictates of human actions, thus it appears that flexidoxy is a natural precursor to apatheism. Consequently, there are those who make themselves the center of their existence, leaving very little or no room for God to independently operate in their lives.

Those who endorse such doctrinal belief think that this constitutes the correct concept of living. They offer as evidence the rationale that such philosophy is the key to uniting the otherwise most divisive and volatile of social forces. The premise of this thinking is that true faith engenders a common basis of fellowship; believing that it is better to be lukewarm in a general sense than it is to risk being distinctly isolated along lines of godly principles. But there are apparent problems with this analysis as it promotes humanly selfish agendas. Here it should be noted that it is selfishness, not godly principles that is the disruptive force.

In fact, if one really exercises true faith in God in lieu of embracing social and political correctiveness, one is drawn away from self centering on human issues to focus on the will, plan and purpose of God. It is selfishness, not tolerance that dictates that one directs ones own life and dwell in ones illusionary comfort zone. Selfishness is that which causes one to operate according to that which is acceptable to the majority rather than risk being labeled as unorthodox or even heretical.

So the main question confronting Christendom today is, how will it respond to the challenge of the avalanche of humanly contrived solutions that are offered for the ever-increasing problems of depraved nature? What is being foisted, especially by the so-called successful mega-churches, is a compromising gospel that is general in everything physical and visible but not specific in anything spiritual and invisible. The influence of this so-called "progressive approach" in reaching out to the world; is to package a gospel that in effect fantasizes the folly of prioritizing temporary physical commodities, while simply ignoring the power of the "foolishness of" the preaching and teaching of the gospel of the Grace of God (I Corinthians 1:18,21).

In a world that is dominated by fleshly passions, this attempt to amalgamate these fashionable human amenities into the ministry, only fuels the flames of the depraved nature; thus the proverbial "throwing of gasoline into the fire" that is already raging out of control. The basic fact of the matter is that the informed spiritual base of the Body of Christ must stand uncompromisingly in the foundational teaching of the directives that are addressed to the Grace Church in this present dispensation. This entails strict adherence to the thought conveyances and instructions recorded in the epistles written by the Apostle Paul as well as all others whose writings are corroborative in nature to his.

This type of allegiance is exhibited by those who are dedicated enough to stand against the sweeping tide of compromise that has seemingly engulfed most mainline denominational organizations, even the so-called conservative ones. The specifications of sound ministry require a greater evaluation and love of God and the truthfulness of His word above the worldly assessment of the great amassing of crowds, economics and real estate. It is critical that those who are enlightened; will continue to prioritize the unpopular yet truth of the gospel, which propagates the everlasting eternal-spiritual-unseen things of our gospel (the mystery) over the inevitably perishing temporary-physical-seen things (II Corinthians 4:18) that are dominating the emotions of the majority of God’s elect.

To accomplish this, there must be a dedicated force of God’s elect who are thoroughly committed to the doctrinal teachings of the grace contract, which predominately focuses almost entirely on God’s eternal purpose that He decreed in eternity as the ultimate end, which entails perpetual joy and glory to those whom He has elected to be the benefactors of such tremendous honor. It is crucial that God’s people comprehend these facts as the primary message that should be communicated to the church; that its prioritized view should be heavenly, instead of earthly (Colossians 3:1-2). The center of attention of the Body of Christ must shift away from the temporary earthly abode of the present existence of creation to the eternal heavenly sphere of its everlasting existence in Him!