The following was sent to me by Pastor Buddy Smith, Grace Baptist Church, Malanda, Queensland, Australia, and he has agreed to allow me to publish it:

Dear Brother Cloud,

I want to thank you for taking the time to research the Mel Gibson film and send out the warnings about its true nature. I am beginning to wonder if I Thess. 5:21 is still in many Christians' Bibles ("Prove all things; hold fast that which is good"). I have taken the liberty of forwarding your reviews of the film to my pastor friends. Most of them have written back to say they agree, but some have praised the film and consider it to be a tool for evangelism. And sadly, some responses have been very critical of your reviews.

The last response concerns me deeply, as I feel it indicates that we are losing the "voice of the prophet" in fundamental churches. I don't know if it is a symptom of the pacifism of our generation, or of political correctness, or if it is the pervading softness of a consumer oriented society (or something I cannot yet identify), but we seem to have almost entirely lost the "prophetic voices" among Independent Baptist churches.

I grew up under A.V. Henderson's preaching. Bro. Henderson had always been a very bold preacher. I remember sitting at his feet fifty years ago and hearing him boldly denounce sin, and preach Christ as the only remedy. He marked me for life. I will always wish I could hear preaching like that again. I don't know very many that preach like that anymore. I am missing the voice of the prophet. Possibly I am not making myself clear. I am thinking of Micaiah who rebuked Ahab and Jehoshaphat's alliance. I am thinking of Elijah's confrontation with Ahab and the prophets of Baal. I am thinking of the unnamed prophet who put a curse on the altar and worship of Jeroboam. I am thinking of Nathan telling the king that he had stolen a poor man's ewe lamb. I am thinking of Peter boldly preaching Christ at Pentecost, and of Paul rebuking Bar-Jesus for hindering the gospel.

This is what we have lost. The ability to see in stark black and white. The backbone to speak up about the errors that will destroy our churches in ten years or twenty years. The willingness to be rejected for the sake of truth. Wearing sackcloth and ashes, and wearing it often. This is all passing off the scene.

Wishy-Washy Creek and Saddlesore (I mean Willow Creek and Saddleback) churches and their methodologies have become the flavour of the month.

I am so deeply troubled about this that I often don't sleep at night thinking about it. I am grieving over what is happening to the gospel lighthouses all over the world, and what will happen to poor sinners when the light goes out. So I am wondering what will happen when the last remaining "prophets," the theological fossils, are gone? We seem to be moving into a spiritual ice age. Oh, we have educated men, cultured men, polished men in the pulpit. Men who can make us feel good about ourselves, but the voice of the prophet is strangely silent in most circles.

I cannot help feeling that the rush to support Mel Gibson's film and to consider it to be "evangelistic" is a symptom of the perilous spiritual health of churches. If our churches are really healthy, vibrant, awake, filled with the Spirit, sweetly discerning the mind of God, and faithful to the Scriptures, and at the same time excited about the world's interpretation of the crucifixion, we have an embarrassing problem. We had better hope that none of our people ever read widely enough to become familiar with John Knox, or John Bunyan, or Ian Paisley. If they do, and are mentally alert enough to ask why these men were so opposed to Rome, and why today's spiritual leaders are so willing to devour Mel Gibson's cinematic mass, we will need lessons in Jesuit casuistry to be able to explain our back flip.

I am reminded of J. Sidlow Baxter's description of the Pharisees. He said they "praised the dead saints and persecuted the living ones." So it is today, when we quote Spurgeon, but oppose any preacher brother who exposes (as Spurgeon did) the modernism and compromise of his denomination.

As a matter of conviction, I don't go to the movies. As far as I am concerned, anything from Hollywood is dirty. I mention this aversion to Hollywood simply to point out that there is a vast chasm between what the average church is comfortable with and what the prophets used to preach. Is it just a cultural difference? Or is it a moral and spiritual issue? When there is a paradigm shift in morality we need to ask why.

When there is a theological earthquake can we afford to roll over and go back to sleep? Prophets call on us to explain why we are so comfortable with the world, and prophets have never been popular, have they?

What I am compelled to do is to voice a loving lamentation over the decline of the church. I mean all the churches, any of the churches, my church. I grieve over the harm Mel Gibson's film will do to our struggling little church here on the mission field. And I grieve over the wounds of the churches we love in the USA. Will the wounds of the churches be as gruesome as the wounds of Cavaziel? Or will they be internal and unseen, sapping the strength of the church until she dies? Will we be like Samson who knew not that the Lord had departed from him?

I remember a time when there were prophets in the land, bold, brave men who lifted up their voices and warned the people of God about the judgment that would fall on them for their idolatries. I remember that. I have heard them preach it. And I remember when the people repented and burned their idols publicly.

Is it possible that we are more like the old prophet in I Kings 13? He heard about the young prophet's curse on Jeroboam's altar, and of the power that accompanied his obedience. He remembered the old days, and the old preaching. So he persuaded the young prophet to come and have "some fellowship", and by doing so, disobey God. In reality, the old prophet signed the young prophet's death sentence. Is it possible that we have become so completely conditioned to Jeroboam's false worship, his golden calf, and his "Too much!" that we hush the Lord's prophets into silence with compromise, and by doing this we destroy them?

We must have prophets to speak the Word of God boldly, or we are finished.

Thanks again for speaking up. Don't ever stop.

Bro. Smith
smiles@tpg.com.au