Letter to the American Church Book Review

By Eric Metaxas

Introduction

Do you love going to church? Do you love the message of the sermon preached? Does your church preach the truth of the Bible or the heresy of today’s world? How close are we, as Christians, mirroring the lives of those living in Germany in the 1930s who sat on their church pews and did nothing that would have stopped the horrors emanating from Hitler and his cronies?

Good questions. There are no doubt more questions to ask of ourselves. And this is where Eric Metaxas’ book, Letter to the American Church, opens the door for discernment, for wisdom in how we, as Christians, should be addressing the issues of today. Not as the Christians living in Germany almost a hundred years ago, but as disciples of Christ speaking up against the immoralities of today’s world.

The Author

Eric Metaxas is a gifted and acclaimed conservative writer and speaker. He is the author of fourteen books, including the New York Times bestseller, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. He has written over thirty children’s books. Considered to be an “ambassador for faith.” Metaxas hosts Socrates in the City as well as his nationally syndicated Eric Metaxas Radio Show.

Overview

In reading this book, you feel not only the pleading but also the case-making by Eric Metaxas for us, as Christians, to take a greater stand on the issues today. Using the efforts of Dietrich Bonhoeffer to underscore points being made, Metaxas makes the case against the passivity associated with the term “Faithful Presence.” Religious freedom, provided for in our Constitution, is characterized not by practicing our faith behind closed doors, but as Metaxas says should be “carried everywhere we go, on every day of the week and in every place we take ourselves.”

In chapter 1, titled “What is the Church,” he speaks of the American Church today as having shied away from engaging with the public on biblical issues, conceding to those with “un-American and unconstitutional” viewpoints, those which are contrary to God’s Word.

Do we not realize that no good ever can come of such silenced inaction, that human beings whom God loves suffer when His own people fail to express boldly what He has said and when they fail to live as He has called them to live?

Eric Metaxas

He reminds us of the history made in the eighteenth century by pastors who spoke up against the tyranny being exacted upon the colonies by the British monarchy. Their voices did not go unheeded as they were instrumental in the freedoms we have via the Constitution. In fact, in an effort to ensure that the ways of the Old World were not continued, James Madison stated that Virginia and all America should offer “an Asylum to the persecuted and oppressed of every Nation and Religion.”

As one thinks of the efforts made by our ancestors to ensure our freedoms, it is no coincidence as to the timing in which we are each placed on this earth. It is also no coincidence as to the gifts that God has given each of us. And it is these gifts (see Romans 12:6-8) that we, as Christians, should use to help others. Which brings to mind Mordecai’s pointed statement to Esther in Esther 4:14 “For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place; but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this.” Perhaps, as Metaxas and others have pointed out, we, as Americans have become so comfortable in our lives with the blessings bestowed upon us that “we have forgotten that God expects us to serve Him with everything we have.”

In 2015, David Fiorazo, in his book The Cost of Our Silence, pointed out “if we do nothing and the majority remains silent, the secular progressives win.”  History has proven this time and time again. We see it in the public school system. We see the disruption in family life. We see and hear of innocent lives taken, some yet to be born. Have we no regard for the lives of others and the life God has called us to live?! Metaxas reminds us that “silence in the face of evil is itself evil.” There will be accountability.

In chapters 2 and 3, Metaxas further discusses the efforts of Bonhoeffer in getting the German Christians to wake up. The prophetic sermon Bonhoeffer gave on November 6, 1932, at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, however, fell on deaf ears. No one could or would imagine that any inroads had been made by the state to inject itself in religious matters. It just couldn’t happen. In November 1943, the church was destroyed by the Royal Air Force (RAF)

In chapter 4, titled “The Church and the Jewish Question,” Metaxas poses this scenario:

Many pastors and leaders sincerely believe that we can - and should - continue as we have been doing for decades. We should ‘preach the Gospel’ and ‘teach the Bible’ as we always have done, and we must act as though the current state of our culture and nation is essentially the same as it has always been.

But things aren’t the same as they were even a decade ago. Is this where we are at today - ignoring today’s realities and, thereby, ignoring God and the judgment that is sure to come? In the days of Bonhoeffer, with Hitler knocking on the Church’s doors, 12,000 out of 18,000 pastors stood down. They refused to sign the Barmen Declaration, which essentially stated that the German state could not co-opt the German Church. Two-thirds of the pastors, for whatever reason, did not see the need to ensure separation of church and state. Their actions, or lack thereof, came home to roost.

Metaxas later on, in chapter 7, discusses faith and the view that Martin Luther had regarding such. And it is this view that Metaxas believes is present in many evangelical churches today. It is centered on Romans 3:28:

For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

Our faith is that Jesus, perfect in all ways, died on the cross for our sins. On the third day, He rose from the dead, and sits at the right hand of God the Father. Jesus defeated both sin and death! But Metaxas points out that “Luther had in his zeal [regarding faith] made an idol of his idea of faith, so that the genuine faith to which God calls us was crowded out.” He references excerpts from the book of James; for instance, James states in chapter 2, verse 17 that “faith apart from works is dead.” Metaxas follows up curtly: “James in his epistle is talking to all of us who think there need be no connection between what we say we believe and how we believe.”

Final Thoughts

In large part, due to years of silence on the part of Christians, we are seeing abhorrent things occur today that most Christians would never have envisioned. Can America recover? Yes, when we boldly stand up for God. I remember years ago, there was mocking of America’s leaders who would, figuratively, hold up their index finger to see which way the wind of a particular issue was blowing. Never mind what God wills us to do, right? Wrong. Today’s church should not be competing with others in a popularity contest.

We must be honest and admit that much of the time we are not living out our faith but are at least partially enslaved to public opinion over the truth.

Eric Metaxas

The apostle Paul states in Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” God knows the hearts of us all. He cannot be fooled. It is hoped that many more will read Eric Metaxas’ Letter to the American Church and run with the message. “This is the hour of the American Church.”

Sources:

Fiorazo, David. The Cost of Our Silence. Aneko Press, 2015.

Harrell, David Edwin, et al. Unto a Good Land: A History of the American People. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2005.