Torch, Summer 1998

(continued from page 5) had the same kind of heart. Depravity is a terrible thing, and we all are inflicted with the same depraved hearts. When we ask the question, "How could the Holocaust happen?", the only possible answer is the depravity of man. When we ask, "How could they have such a meaningless brand of Christianity in Germany?", or "How can we have such an ineffective brand of Christianity in America?", the answer is the same: the depravity of the heart results in almost incomprehensible evil. The problem in Jeroboam's day, the problem in Nazi Germany, and the problem in America today is with our hearts; they are "deceitful and desperately wicked." Convenient Christianity- this system of religion that doesn't change our lives or change our world and demands no consecration- can come in and we 10 Torch will not even realize it. The reason is, it begins in the depraved hearts of individuals and spreads like a cancer throughout the Church. Not only does this passage tell us the origins, it also gives us three evidences of Convenient Christianity. Recognizing these evidences could help us overcome the natural tendency toward this problem. The first evidence is a lack of reality. Read verse 28 again. "The king took counsel, and made two calves of gold and said unto them, 'It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, 0 Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.' And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan." Rehoboam makes two golden calves. He takes one and puts it in one part of the kingdom and takes the other and puts it in the other part of the kingdom. Then, he calls the congregation together to worship them. Can you visualize it? It's as if we put one in the auditorium of our church and the other in the fellowship hall and said, "We are not going to have morning services anymore. Just go to these idols and worship them because these are the gods who redeemed you from your sin and have given you heaven instead of hell." That is exactly what Jeroboam said: "Here are the gods who brought you up out of the land of Egypt." Can you imagine the Jews processing this? "These are the gods who led us by the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day? Who gave us the manna out of the heavens? Who destroyed Pharaoh's army as it pursued us?" Do you think they believed it? Of course they didn't! But it certainly was