Correcting Problems In The Church

For years, Josiah had tried to please God, without knowing what god actually wanted.  Sadly, today many Christians are in the same boat because churches have become so wrapped up in fulfilling the first part of the Great commission of Matthew 28:19-20 that they have neglected the last part, where Jesus said “…teaching them to observe all thing whatsoever I have commanded you.”  This requires a lot of time and effort, and Josiah would spend the next twenty years making the necessary changes.  

He started by reading God’s commands to the people so that they knew what was expected, then got them to commit to following those commands, in II Chronicles 34:29-33.  “Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.  And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites, and all the people, great and small: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of the LORD.  And the king stood in his place, and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments, and his testimonies, and his statutes, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant which are written in this book.

And he caused all that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.  And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the LORD their God. And all his days they departed not from following the LORD, the God of their fathers.”

II chronicles 34:33 makes it sound like the corrections came about rather easily when the people committed themselves.  II chronicles 23 describes some of the things that had to be done.  The first thing was to eradicate all the idols and religious practices  that had been incorporated into the Temple worship and eliminate the false teachers and priests, as we see in II Kings 23:4-6.  “And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Bethel.  And he put down the idolatrous priests, whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places round about Jerusalem; them also that burned incense unto Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.  And he brought out the grove from the house of the LORD, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people.”

Because Christian have not been systematically taught what God commands, Chruches have adopted religious practices and beliefs from various other groups, incorporating them into their beliefs and practices, just as Paul warned in I Timothy 4:1-3.  “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.”  While Christians have the Holy Spirit to guide them, without a solid biblical background, they have no way of determining whether a practice or belief is from the Holy spirit or from some Satanic being.  John 14:26 tells us, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”  He can’t bring to mind things they have never heard. 

One obvious result of not following the Lord properly is a break down of moral standards.  Time after time when Israel and Judah turned away from god, they began to tolerate sexual immorality, and especially homosexuality.  One of the things that are essential for people to please God and avoid his judgment is to eliminate sexual immorality as Paul tells us in I Corinthians 5:11-13.  “But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.  For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?  But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.”  Josiah had to deal with homosexuality, in II Kings 23:7.  “And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the grove.”

Until problems in the church are properly addressed, it will be difficult to bring the people to a truly godly spiritual state.