12 Responses to “Moving Closer Toward a Christian Philippines”

1. icthus2008 Says:
   November 6, 2008 at 6:48 pm

   Hi! I would like to participate in your ongoing discussion. I guess, although it is true that we have lots of “Christian” churches in the Phils. not all of them are evangelical churches. The Evangelical and/or Full-Gospel churches comprise less than 10 percent of the total population of 85 million. In other words, we do not command a critical mass to affect dramatic changes in our country. What is more, not all evangelical/full-gospel churches believe in an aggressive societal transformation as such. My proof? Who’s involved? Take a survey among evangelicals, especially Pentecostals, if their churches are involved in anything other than religious/spiritual activities. I believe we need a total overhaul of our theology before we can make a move toward societal change. It is true that “as a man thinks so is he.” The church thinks, that’s why she is like that. I think one of our greatest hindrances is our belief system.

   However, in fairness to the church, other factors must equally be explored before making a final conclusion on the matter. For instance, is it really within the mandate of the church to transform a whole culture or nation? Did this happen in the powerful first century church under the mighty apostles? Did this ever happen in the history of the church? I think we need to answer these questions also.

   Thank you and God bless.
2. iloilochristianforum Says:
   November 6, 2008 at 11:09 pm

   Thanks for your thoughts ichtus2008.

   It could be that the church has failed to understand her role or authority in the affairs of the world that’s why she’s timid or so other-worldly minded that she feels she has no part this side of heaven. The eschatological understanding of the church (generally speaking) may be defective that’s why there is also a defective expression of the Christian life in the world arena, namely, apathy, non-involvement, passivity, detachment, total separation, etc. from the affairs of men. This posture is rendering the church ineffective and powerless in its goal to change the world for Christ. It is also a failure to understand the ramifications of the SALT and LIGHT concept of the Lord (Matt. 5:13-16).

   Christians seem to forget that salt and light ARE NOT NEEDED in heaven. They are for this world at this throbbing moment. A Christianity that lives in the THERE and THEN cannot be effective in the HERE and NOW. But it seems that most of the evangelical Christians are guilty of this.

   God became man and entered the stream of human life in the INCARNATION simply to become RELEVANT and TANGIBLE to man. John could not have said it more accurately, “The Word of Life which we have SEEN and our HANDS HAVE TOUCHED….”

   Let’s go back to SALT and LIGHT. Salt has at least three properties: it preserves (from spoilage), it add flavor (to life), and it prevents (infection). Jesus said to his followers: YOU ARE the salt of the earth. This simply means, to me at least, that the Church, as the community of believers, should have these very same INFLUENCE upon the world. We cannot salt the world if we only hide (pardon the term, but it seems that’s the truth) in our churches and behind our pulpits. Salt must be spread abroad beyond the four walls of the church for it to have the desired effect. But what we do is put salt in the cooking pot without removing it from the salt bottle! Such is the condition of a BOTTLED CHURCH. We are in the world but we cannot influence the world because we are hiding in our churches (bottled Christians).

   Light has also three properties which we can apply to the church: it destroys darkness, reveals darkness and shows the way out of darkness. We have here a more aggressive picture than the previous analogy of salt. We are to influence the world so that darkness is arrested, it is revealed for what it really is, and help people see the light in Christ.

   We have forgotten this, generally speaking, as a church.

   I do not negate nor underestimate what many of our churches are doing in terms of missions and sending of missionaries cross-culturally. what I am referring here is the TOTAL CHURCH doing missions and transformation works and not just a couple here and there and not just in foreign lands but also within our own culture (since we are dreaming and praying for a cultural transformation).

   I don’t have enough time to talk about other related matters but I shall just mention them here in passing and as a jumping board for all other discussions. What have the following to do with our desire for societal transformation: Christian UNITY (or the absence of it), Pastoral PURITY (or the lack of it), CORRUPTION in the CHURCH, Christian DISCIPLESHIP (do we really understand what this is?), Christian AUTHORITY (we have it, but don’t know we have it? or we have it and know we have it but don’t know how to use it? or we don’t really have it?), PRAYERLESSNESS or PRAYERFULNESS, Sovereignty of God, Evangelism, etc.
3. patriot Says:
   November 7, 2008 at 6:42 am

   We have been like this since I can remember. 400 years of Spanish Christianity and 100 years of the American version of Christianity failed to change us. We are worse now than we were ever before! This is not only the failure of the church but also the failure of Christianity itself. Not that the Christianity of Christ is bad, oh no! But we might have received a form of Christianity that does not have what it takes to change our world. A prepackaged, ready-to-eat, ready-to-wear kind of Christianity that has left the churches in our country powerless against the onslaught of evil. Maybe an investigation and discussion toward this direction shall be of great value for all of us, especially our county.
4. antigraft Says:
   November 7, 2008 at 6:50 am

   I think church leaders are to be held accountable. There is as much corruption inside the church as there is outside. Priests caught molesting altar boys, pastors kicked out of their churches because of immoral activities (usually having to do with either money or women, or, in some instances, both), Christians living way below the Christian biblical standard. All of these add to the already obvious weakness of the church as a world-changer. The church is in a mess because her leaders are in a mess. How then can we require righteousness from the world when even the supposed pillars of righteousness has become corrupt? Can a blind man (even if he is Christian) lead another blind man?
5. brandon Says:
   November 7, 2008 at 8:26 am

   I agree with you antigraft. The condition of the church is simply a reflection of the condition of its leaders. Leaders lead and followers follow, right? Church leaders cannot bring their churches to a level higher than themselves.
6. anna Says:
   November 7, 2008 at 8:29 am

   If God is sovereign, then the condition of the church cannot hamper his plan or purposes. Even if church leaders fail, God never will. Look at the long history of Christian failure. I am referring to the dark ages. God’s sovereign will still prevailed in spite of the church.
7. icthus2008 Says:
   November 7, 2008 at 8:41 am

   Hey, Anna,

   Are you implying that since God is sovereign and can and will do what he has planned and purposed in his heart to do in spite of the church that we, as the church, have nothing to do anymore? And that since our country is in shambles at the present moment that this, following your reasoning, is God’s will for us? Where then is Christian accountability? Where then is the salt of the earth and the light of the world? If what you say is true, then why go to any lengths in evangelizing the lost since God, in his sovereignty, will ultimately save them with or without my help?

   What I believe is the proper stance in this issue is a balance between God’s Sovereignty and Man’s (Christian’s) Accountability. God is sovereign, but we also have accountability. On the one hand, pure sovereignty will lead to passive Christianity. I mean, why do anything when God will do it with or without me anyway?

   On the other hand, pure human accountability will lead to Christians taking things into their own hands (apart from God).

   I believe these two MUST go together for a healthy balance and truly dynamic and relevant Christianity. Jesus said, “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.” I think this aptly applies to our discussion here. We have responsibility toward BOTH worlds — the world now and the one that is yet to come.
8. lizette Says:
   November 7, 2008 at 11:04 am

   Thank God for a site like this. We will encourage friends and church members to contribute to this site. God bless the Philippines!
9. demie tidon Says:
   November 7, 2008 at 11:27 am

   The discrepancy between the concentration of churches and the apparent corruption of Philippine society reflects the lack of understanding and convictions on the church’s mandate to call the shots in the world. The “let them have dominion” and the “let Your kingdom come” mandate of the church has not been abrogated. It is rather perplexing that the church allows other power blocs in society to dominate. By that i mean the government, civil society, media, and religion. The armamentarium of the church is largely underutilized, misunderstood, unknown, or all of the above. It is both pathetic and tragic. Churches seem to have serious difficulties getting out of the parochial mind-set into the strategic-level mode where she must engage the elements of wickedness at the highest level. This is an embarrasing and disastrous irony for the church. She who is backed by no less than the Almighty behaves like a commoner when her calling is ambassadorial, priestly, and kingly! And worse, the Philippine church is generally beset with alley cat morality and piratical thievery. No exageration there, just sad and painful reality. Common knowledge. Perhaps, that could be one major cause for hesitancy to marshal the resources of heaven to implement divine purpose upon the earth. She is severely insecure in her standing before her Master.

   God is sovereign but He has made it absolutely clear that the dominion of the earth is placed under the responsibility and accountability of man. In the new covenant, that means under the stewardship of the new creation – the church. the new man in Christ, the Last Adam, the Man. Yes, God is Sovereign but in this period of grace, He strictly obseves his own directive that made man in charge of planet earth. The concept is too colossal for the church to grasp. And, thus, it is also a serious indictment for her lack of faith.

   But all this is changing. with the emergance of Christians better than ourselves, there is going to be major clashes of kingdoms in the Philippines. That would make docile Christianity obsolete and herald spiritual, biblical Christain “violence.” Jesus is not called Captain of the army of the Lord for nothing.

   When that time comes, you will find yourself in one side or another. But the lines are being drawn, and they are being drawn clearly.

   We will conduct ourselves either as priests or a puppets, kings or medicants, ambassadors or marginalized aliens.

   The phillipine together with the world faces the darkest era yet in human history, and at the same time, the church’s brightest testimony of triumphant Christianity.

   “and this gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
10. cenon ybanez Says:
    November 8, 2008 at 12:50 pm

    cenon ybanez Says:
    November 8, 2008 at 12:20 pm

    It was not only eloquent speech that enabled Jesus to defeat the Kingdom of Darkness and transform the world, but with a tangible demonstration of dynamic power capable of staying the hand of death or stopping violent storms dead in their tracks. This element of power seems to be missing from our Christianity today. We have been content to feed on nothing but hyped, psychologically conditioned demonstrations of what we call “divine power.” Sick people healed in crusades today and dead by the following day. Evangelists demonstrating the power of God today only to be exposed as immoral sexual perverts the following day.

    As preachers aim for eloquence (especially in squeezing more money out of people’s pockets) and putting aside the authentic demonstration of power, churches and Christians have become mute and powerless witnesses to a powerful Savior. The disparity is not only between the number of churches and the level of immorality and corruption, but also with the quality of present Christianity in contrast to that of biblical Christianity.

    To point out such predicaments the church is involved in is not to be pessimistic or negative, but realistic, honest and sober. To deny that any problem exists within is to be defeated even before the first shot is made. Such is the sad and unfortunate state of affairs in the churches. Maintaining the status quo simply because it is convenient and comfortable is not the call of the hour. The hour such as ours demands men and women devoid of personal ambition to rise up and tell the church what is wrong with her before turning a condemning finger against the world! Only when the church recognizes that she herself is in trouble can she truly affect the world around her. Not until then.

    Let this voice be such a voice that will shake us from our very foundations and lead us to evaluations and adjustments with regard to our spiritual compasses. For, truly, the church has drifted far from her intended course and is in danger of going aground or of being dashed to pieces in the sharp rocks of unbelief and corruption.

    We need more prophetic voices in the church today; voices that not only give hope, but voices that can also bring fire down from heaven to purify us from every form of compromise, corruption and contemptible acts of evil that are not supposed to be found in the house of God.
11. immu Says:
    November 10, 2008 at 6:02 pm

    Praise God for a site like this where locals can share their hearts toward a better Philippines. Hope many will contribute and that God will use this to bring us together for a Righteous Philippines. God bless the Philippines!
12. Benson L. Says:
    March 30, 2009 at 10:27 pm

    Iloilo Christianity has been known to start many things and finish none. There is no virtue in starting something. You will be judged not by what you start, but by what you finish. Iloilo Christianity is a ‘Ningas Cogon’ Christiantiy. Quick to start and quick to quit. Loud but empty. Intellectual but irrelevant. A Christianity for show cannot change the world. It cannot. Get back to your senses Iloilo Christians! A world is burning right before your very eyes and you are just content to keep your fences tidy and well-painted! Shame on you!