What’s The Church’s Greatest Threat? It’s Not What You Think

Masked man — When it comes to the American church, we might address my conviction that the Church has largely lost sight of the Gospel, the kingdom of God, and the mission of God’s people. | Image by chantakul1981 from Pixabay.

Is Deception the Church’s Greatest Threat Today?

I was asked to write a post on what I believe is the most pressing issue facing the church today. I have been thinking about this question for over 25 years, and I can’t boil it down to just one.

Perhaps, to begin with, we should note that when this question is posed, most American Christians cannot think past their own setting, which suggests that we have lost sight of what the church even is.

The fact that:

We don’t realize that (Hindu) nationalism is threatening the church in India by enacting anti-conversion laws and permitting and even endorsing violence against

Christians in Nigeria live in constant fear that their kids may be **kidnapped** and their villages may be **torched** any day by radical extremists. | Image courtesy of Gwanki, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Christians in many parts of India. Perhaps this is the most pressing issue facing the church.

Or that we fail to understand that Christians in Nigeria live in constant fear that their kids may be kidnapped and their villages may be torched any day by radical extremists. Perhaps this is the most pressing issue facing the church.

Or that we fail to see that authoritarian regimes and powerful cartels in much of Latin America threaten Christians, Pastors, and Priests, as well as whole families (Christian and non-Christian), with death every day because they fail to capitulate to the demands to hand over the sons and daughters, and they even dare to expose the injustices. Perhaps this is the most pressing issue facing the church.

Or that we fail to recognize that in N. Korea (and other countries), even being identified as a Christian, possessing a Bible, or attending a prayer meeting may result in life imprisonment or death. Perhaps this is the most pressing issue facing the church.

But I have another thought:

Young boys dig through the rubble left by Israeli strikes in Gaza. Many Christians have also perished in Gaza in the past year. | Image courtesy of Shareef Sarhan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

When it comes to the American church, we might address my conviction that the Church has largely lost sight of the Gospel, the kingdom of God, and the mission of God’s people.

Or, we could address the politicization of the church.

Or, we could address the wholesale endorsement of war and violence in the name of Christ.

Or, we could address the lack of concern for the other: whether they be the incarcerated, the immigrant—legal and illegal—those suffering from racial and gender inequities, or the poor and the homeless.

Or, we could address the vast sums of wealth that many American Christians, and even our churches, have accumulated.

A Note From Determine Truth

NB: Two weeks ago, I wrote what I believe to be two of the most important posts I have ever written (Post 1; Post 2). In them, I used the Big Beautiful Tax Bill that is going through Congress as the starting point for a discussion on Jesus, wealth, and the poor. In these posts, I outlined some of the problems related to Jesus, money, and the church today. I noted that one of the problems is that we have been deceived so that we have come to believe precisely the opposite of what Jesus taught with respect to money, wealth, poverty, and riches.

What if Deception is the Greatest threat?

What if I addressed the deception that pervades our churches? After all, deception underlies each of these concerns.

There is a famous, albeit very short, book titled “How Do You Kill 11 Million People?: Why the Truth Matters More Than You Think,” by Andy Andrews. I can save you $20 and the hour or two needed to read the book by summarizing his argument in one simple sentence: “You lie to them.”

Perhaps deception is the most pressing issue facing Western churches.

What deception, you might ask?

The deception that causes us to neglect the global church when asked, “What is the most pressing issue facing the Church today?”

Or, the deception:

That leads us to believe that the Gospel is only something we are to believe in, so we can be saved, rather than something we must also do.

That the Gospel is that Jesus is our Savior, but not really our Lord.

That the Gospel of the kingdom is something wholly future and has little relevance to the present.

That the Gospel says that we have no responsibility to make the world a better place. After all, that will happen when Jesus returns, judges all the wicked people, destroys the earth, and creates a new one. Only then will the world be a better place.

Or, perhaps the biggest lie of them all, and one that accounts for all that I have stated so far: the one that fails to recognize that the actions of our own government are directly responsible for the deaths of millions of Christians and the eradication of the church in much of the Middle East and other parts of the world.

How many Christians died in Iraq, Syria, and other parts of the Arab world because of the US’s military campaigns? Campaigns that we cheered on. That we supported. That our tax dollars financed.

How many Christians in Gaza and the West Bank are dead because of our bombs?

How many immigrants have come to our country because of the mess in their own countries that the US helped to create, and that renders their own country so unlivable that they are willing to leave relatives and friends and everything they have ever known and to trek thousands of miles to seek hope?

And, what is worse:

How many churches addressed these issues when they were happening? How many pastors cried out for peace and justice? How many sermons were preached about Jesus as the Prince of Peace and about our responsibility to be peacemakers, to demand an end to war, and to welcome the stranger among us?

Instead, most of our churches have been silent. Some have even celebrated such things as if they were the supposed fulfillment of prophecies.

We have been lied to, and we have believed the lies.

John’s exhortation to the churches rings more loudly today than it ever has, “Come out of her, My people” (Rev 18:4).

NB: We have begun a series of livestreams and videos addressing all of this in a series titled ‘Revelation Revealed.’ You can access the content on the Determinetruth YouTube page under the playlist “Revelation Revealed.” In early July 2025, we will host a discussion on who or what is the Harlot Babylon (Rev 17-18) and what it means for the church today. We will also post videos addressing the role of deception and the church in the coming weeks and months.

Do we really need to ask, “What deception?”

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