Alex Murashko, Christian Post, Jul. 26, 2012
The church in America is no longer simply in a slumber when it comes to its lack of awareness about the persecuted church in the Middle East; it is in a “diabetic coma,” says the leader of a persecution watchdog group in the U.S.
“For years we’ve said wake up and strengthen what remains,” Open Doors USA President and CEO Dr. Carl Moeller told The Christian Post in an exclusive interview. “We would think of the American church as a napping church and that we would elbow it and it would wake up and rouse itself and do something.
“In my mind today, the picture I have is a church in a diabetic coma that has gorged itself on the sweets of affluence, materialism, and the idolatry of worshipping the materialistic world. That diabetic coma is now life threatening. We as a church are at the point of death—not the church in the Middle East. We are the ones who can no longer rouse ourselves to even pray for an hour on behalf of things that God would have us pray for.”
Moeller said he has been working with Open Doors for almost 10 years to bring an awareness of “the suffering church to the American church conscience.”
“Revelation 3:4 says, ‘Wake up, and strengthen what remains about to die.’ For 50-plus years Open Doors has taken that verse as a motive to wake the church in the West up and to motivate them to go and strengthen what remains in the Body of Christ that is about to die in those places where the church is suffering,” he explained. “It’s always been a case where we talked about waking the church up in the West, but also serving the church that is in utter persecution.”
Moeller believes Open Doors has a unique perspective as it has ministry workers on the ground in many Middle Eastern countries in efforts to support Christians who are persecuted for their faith by governments and other faith groups.
“I’m utterly amazed at the inability of Americans to put two and two together at times. This is what has challenged me,” he said. “We’ve been working in those places where Christians are persecuted for decades. We’ve seen what real, true fire-tested Christianity looks like and the faith that it produces. We’ve also seen unfortunately a slumbering church in the West move deeper and deeper into sleep.”
He believes that one of the most telling signs that Jesus will soon return to the world is “this great apostasy in our church today of people who claim to be Christians and yet have neither the guts nor the hands to live out the Christian life the way our brothers and sisters in the persecuted church have.”
“The American church is now on a death spiral to final unconsciousness,” he said. “If we were to say what is the insulin that the church needs desperately to wake up from its diabetic coma, it’s to understand that the lies of a materialistic culture are not true. We need a dose of truth and the truth is found in the persecuted Christians’ experience with Christ. They are the ones that know that despite all the attempts of the enemy to destroy the church, persecution only serves to strengthen the true faith of believers. That’s the message the American church needs to know and learn.”
“One of the greatest tools of the enemy is to make the church in America and the Western world numb to the cries and suffering to people around the world,” he explained.
Moeller said he hopes and prays that the current state of the church in the U.S. does not become a permanent disability.
“I want nothing more of a church that is simply entertaining,” he said. “I want a church that is prepping people for the inevitable battle that is raging all around us spiritually.”
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