(sign in to rate this entry) 11/14/09 6:23 am gmt

New Dark Ages

Written by Gina Barr


Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
George Santayana


The word doom means unavoidable ill fortune. To forget the past, to not understand how people in the past messed up, how they missed it, is a guarantee of your own demise. I look at the world around me today and I feel that we in America are doomed. America is doomed because the American Church is doomed, doomed to repeat one of the darkest periods known to man, The Dark Ages. The country’s spiritual condition is a direct reflection of the churches spiritual condition, and the American Church as a whole has become spiritually impotent, morally corrupt, and consequently ineffective. And just as in times past one can mark the beginning of the Dark Ages with the rise of the Catholic Church, you can mark the time of these New Dark Ages with the rise of the Mega Church.

I know that many of you are reading this and disagreeing with me. You are reading this and asking, “How can I say this?” There are churches that are feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, providing schooling for children to get them out of the pernicious public schools. How can I say that the church is having little to no affect when you have T.D. Jakes on the cover of Time Magazine? When we are making movies and television programs? When people like Joel Olsten, Eddie Long, and Creflo Dollar are household names? My answer is a simple one, can be summed up in one word actually as a matter of fact, Sardis.

…I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.
Revelations 3:1

And just like the dead church in Sardis that John the Revelator wrote about in Revelations the 3rd chapter, we have become that dead church. Like the church in Laodicea (Revelations 3:14-16) we have become of luke warm. The American Church has become comfortable, rich in goods, wretched, miserable, and blind, and God is about to spew us out.

But I’m getting a little bit ahead of myself. I need to define the Old Dark Ages in order to fully explain the New. The Dark Ages period ranges from 476-1000 AD after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. A time when the bible was written in Latin and people were ignorant of God’s word. Popes, Cardinals, and Bishops spent their time in luxury and pleasure while at the same time sent out ignorant men to lead the people to believe that religious duty comprised of acknowledging the supremacy of the Pope, adoring the saints, and making gifts to the monks. The institution of mendicant friars who’s life of idleness and beggary became a drain upon the resources of the people. Among young men the actions of the monks brought useful labor into contempt. Young men joined the priesthood for a “free ride”. (After all why should one work a farm, become a blacksmith, or go to a university when you could just memorize a few bible stories, preach to the people, and in turn they would give you their hard earned money?) The sick and poor were left to suffer while the gifts went to the monks. Worse still, the Pope bestowed upon the monks power to hear confessions and grant pardons. Friars granted absolution (for a small fee of course) so that criminals of all descriptions resorted to them, and because of that the worst vices rapidly increased. From the Pope on down these men had political clout, but no spiritual authority. They built huge edifices with high ceilings and beautiful stained glass windows to give the feeling that this was “God’s House” but they defiled their bodily temples with all manner of sin. They recited the bible stories, but didn’t have the word written on their heart. The people ignorant of God’s word followed these so-called “men of God” who were whoremongers, homosexuals, liars, and thieves. And due to the lack of spiritual discernment, there was no “Watchmen on the Wall” (Ezekiel 3:17) to detect a serious threat to all Christendom, that went unchecked and spread like a flesh eating fungus, Islam. A young man by the name of Mohammad begins to spread his abomination of lies in 610 AD and lead 20 campaigns until his death in 632 AD. Over a period of 30 years after his death, his generals conquered all of the Persian Empire and much of the Byzantine Empire.

How can one not see the disheartening similarities of today’s church? We have pastors that are over these mega churches making millions of dollars preaching “feel good” messages and not holiness or hell. They have big beautiful buildings with arcades and Starbucks but no Holy Ghost. The have a “spirit of excellence”, but most of the congregation couldn’t tell you what the Nine Gifts of the Spirit are (1 Corinthians 12:8-10) let alone operate in them. And because of these new aged popes, we’re raising up a group of men and women that want nothing but to become the “next big thing” by pimping off their community. Preaching messages that don’t offend, telling everyone that everything is acceptable, essentially training teachers to have itching ears. And look what has become of it all, the homosexual agenda is running rampant in our schools and on our television. Atheists are waging a silent war on Christianity, and they are winning. Our cities are full of so much violence, that businesses and families are fleeing the inner cities in massive waves. We have whores raising heathens (people ignorant to the ways of God) this new generation has so little respect for their elders, that they routinely murder, rape, and rob them. And in too many churches we have “ain’ts” instead of “saints”, we have pimps in the pulpits, faggots in the choir, and adulterers, fornicators, liars, and thieves in the pews. Just like the Roman Catholic Church of the Dark Ages we care more about our political affiliations than the spiritual condition of the country. Democrats can’t save this country and neither can Republicans. To look to one person or one party to save our nation is leading up to the spirit of the Anti-Christ. I’m not saying that the anti-Christ is any one political figure out there now; I’m saying that the spirit of the anti-Christ is there. Anytime you look for anyone other than Jesus to be your savior that is a spirit of anti-Christ. It used to be people looked to God to save them, now they look to the government, all the while forgetting that it is righteousness that exalted a nation (Proverbs 14:34).

After the Catholic Church had risen to power, there was one thing that almost brought it to its knees and that was the Black Death. The Black Death was a plague that started around 1328 and ended 1351. Once someone contracted the Black Death they died between 2-4 days. Between 1348-1350 this plague killed about 30-40% of England’s population, which estimated to be around 5 to 6, million people. Whole villages were wiped out. Monasteries and nunneries became tombs. People became disillusioned with the church and its power. Many people prayed to the saints and found them powerless. Others had given all they had only to find it done in vain. As a result the Catholic Churches influence went into decline. This ultimately resulted in the English Reformation. It started with a man by the name of John Wycliffe (1329?-1384) who was known as the “Reform Morning Star”. Wycliffe died approximately 100 years before Martin Luther (1483-1546) was born. It should be noted that both Wycliffe and Luther both tried to change the church from within first. Both saw first hand the greed and immorality of the Catholic Church and both called for repentance and change.

As saints of God, that is what we first must do, call for repentance and change. How can we in America during this time of recession and moral decay expect change and blessings when the church is stagnant? We need a revival. My prayer is that all who read this that you pray for revival. Desire it. Seek for it. Yearn for it. For I fear that a Black Death is on the horizon. Judgment has to come saints, and when God cleans house, he always starts with His (1 Peter 4:17).


Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. {3} Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.
(Rev 3:2-3 KJV)

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