Save the Church....Save the Nation

A year ago I got hooked on the TV program "24." A couple of months ago, while channel surfing during a commercial on "24," I came across something on NBC called "Heroes." I'm still trying to figure out what this is about. Since I'm not into science fiction, it isn't easy to understand it, especially since I missed most of the first episodes. There seems to be a kind of theme mantra which goes like this:

Save the cheerleader, save the world.

The cheerleader is Claire played by soap opera veteran (The Guiding Light) Hayden Panettiere.

Using this same mindset, how about this one?

Save the church, Save the nation.

As I look back to the beginning of the Reformation when IMO the more true church got back on track, I see historically that overall those nations that were Protestant fared very well. Those that were European Catholic kept having really bad revolutions (France, Italy) or stayed medieval for a very long time (Spain, Poland), although there were exceptions (Belgium). And those third world countries that were Roman Catholic--Latin America and the Phillipines and parts of Africa--would you wanted to have lived there? Do you want to now? And we also see the pagan countries with Buddhism and Hinduism. Yet many evangelicals today want to drag in these beliefs into our evangelical theology and practice through contempletive meditation techniques. Anyone want to live in Hindu or Buddhist countries? (Japan doesn't count anymore as it has become almost agnostic.)

My point is this: If the evangelical church in this country doesn't start to focus more on the cross and the Scriptures, and not allow this other stuff in, then this country will be nothing - just like so many other empires that refused to give up their paganism, or worse, as here, started to bring it into the church.

Many say that if we just rehang the Ten Commandments or put back prayer and Bible reading into the schools, then things will get better. But really, that doesn't make sense if you think about it. Most Christians (95% in one poll) cannot even name the Ten Commandments in any order. And prayer and Bible reading never took place in many states including most school districts where I live. Yet my state of California for decades had the best schools. The worst schools (this is factual, not my opinion) were in the Bible reading/prayer-in-the-schools states of Lousianna, Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas. These are things that will follow the church being strong and in revival, not things that will cause revival. We seem to be putting the cart before the horse.

If we are going to save this nation, we must save the evangelical church. Is there a Congressman Nathan anywhere to assist us in flying away the dangerous eastern and paganistic religious techniques?