Does God Discipline Entire Churches?
A Biblical View of Revival - Part 4
by James Pool, OneCry National Prayer Director
“Also I scattered them among the nations and they were dispersed throughout the lands. According to their ways and their deeds I judged them” (Ezekiel 36:19 NASB).
Prior to COVID-19, statistics tell us that 74% of America’s churches were stagnant or declining in the area of church attendance. The largest evangelical denomination in the United States has been reporting an annual decline in church baptisms for the past nine years. Weekly churchwide prayer meetings are disappearing, and those that exist are usually attended by just a handful of those who are already doing everything else. Experiencing financial pressures or having their fellowship marred by internal strife and division is an age-old problem in many churches.
Who Is to Blame?
What do churches do when struggles like these begin taking place? In many cases, it becomes “blame the pastor” time! Of course, an ungodly pastor could certainly contribute to the challenges a church faces; but most of the time, the real issues lie with the congregation as a whole. As it says in Ezekiel 36:19, God brings remedial judgment or discipline upon groups of His children when they depart from Him corporately through their disobedient ways and deeds.
One of the main ways God judges churches is by removing His anointing so that the life-altering manifestations of His presence and power are no longer experienced (Exodus 33:1-5; Revelation 3:14-19). What you end up with is a congregation filled with good, religious people who become very proficient from generation to generation in simply maintaining the traditions, programs, and activities of the church. They measure their church’s spiritual health not by their loving obedience to Christ, but by how faithful their members are in simply attending their church’s activities.
Corporate Discipline in the Old Testament
An Old Testament example of God moving to wake up and revive His children when corporate sin takes place is found in the unique and devastating story of Achan (Joshua 7:1-26). The context for this story has God telling the nation of Israel that when they conquered Jericho (the first city of the promised land), there were certain items that were to be dedicated to Him; all the silver and gold and articles of bronze and iron were to be “holy to the LORD” and were to go into the “treasury of the LORD” (Joshua 6:17-19).
Following their divinely orchestrated conquest of Jericho, the sons of Israel, along with their leader, Joshua, were greatly dismayed when thirty-six of their men died while attacking the small town of Ai. They all recognized that God’s supernatural presence and power that had led them through the wilderness had been removed.
As Joshua mourned this unexpected defeat, God began to reprimand him, saying, “Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them” (Joshua 7:10-12). The uniqueness of this narrative is brought to light when God showed Joshua that one man, Achan, had caused the nation to sin by taking from Jericho some of the gold and silver that fell under the ban.
Since Achan was a part of the nation, the whole nation was disciplined, because it was the nation that God held accountable, not just one individual. When Achan and all of his family and possessions were removed from the people of Israel by stoning and fire, the sons of Israel were once again empowered by God and easily conquered Ai.
Corporate Discipline in the New Testament
In the New Testament, this same principle appears when Jesus denounced the cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum because they did not repent after seeing His miracles (Matthew 11:20-23).
In Revelation 2 and 3, five of the seven churches addressed by Jesus were warned that disciplinary measures would come their way if they failed to repent of their corporate sins. Some of the congregational sins present in those churches were: leaving their first love, holding to and propagating false teaching, immorality, failure to keep God’s directional commands, and being lukewarm in their relationship with God.
This leads us to these questions:
Are the challenges facing my congregation today related in some form or fashion to our having departed from our love relationship with God?
Out of love for us, has God been disciplining us so that we as a church will turn back to Him, listen to His commands, and demonstrate our love for Him by repenting of our sinful ways and deeds?
Next month, we will begin to examine the important role that personal and corporate repentance play in revival. May God help all of us individually and our churches as a whole to continually walk with humility before Him! May God help us make the connection between our corporate and personal sins and His righteous disciplines! May revival and spiritual awakening like we have not seen in our generation be experienced once again!