A lifelong friend of mine wrote a piece for The Wall Street Journal recently about Pastor Bill Hybels and Willow Creek Community Church, the megachurch near Chicago that pioneered and came to symbolize “seeker” evangelicalism in this country. Lately, Willow Creek has been re-examining the assumptions that underlay its emphasis on witnessing to non-believers rather than helping build up the local body of Christians.

The point is this: The seduction of Christianity is so deeply entrenched today it could only be the master deceiver himself who could have thought of such a brilliant way to bring it about. And I’m talking about seeker megachurches. Not only do they cater to the worldly person who is searching – which is a great way to try to reach the lost – but they go too far. They don’t allow expository preaching from the Word of God each week so that people go home and actually read their Bibles. They only tell them to read their Bibles but then don’t give them a message that leads its hearers into the Word for more.

This is so slick, it’s amazing. But in John 1:12, the Bible tells us, “Jesus came unto His own, but His own received Him not. But to as many as received him, to them He gave the right to become children of God.”

The church looks deceptively strong in America. I mean, we have Joel Osteen filling Madison Square Garden. We have Christian recording artists packing the American Airlines Center in Dallas. Things are fine except for the recession …. Wrong!

The problem is connected to the apostasy. Jesus said he could not come until a deception came first. He was talking to his disciples in Matthew 24. What, you mean even his disciples could be deceived? Why else would He be warning them so that we also could read about it? Why did they all flee the night of his betrayal and Peter deny Him?

Then Paul also tells us in 2 Thessalonians 2 that a deception must come first. And Timothy tells us that a falling away from the faith must come. Could seeker megachurches represent a falling away from the faith?

Let’s examine one more thought I mentioned earlier: Jesus came unto His own, but His own received Him not. Now, how incredible is that? You would think He would want to make sure He got a reception like Joel Osteen gets, wouldn’t you? And Jesus’s  disciples wanted to establish His Kingdom right away, in Israel, and show the Romans who was boss.

But that was not Jesus’s plan. His actual plan is a hard pill to swallow. God’s plan is the narrow road, “and few there be who find it.”

“Narrow.” Why does it have to be narrow? Don’t ask, it is just God’s way.

So here is my point today. Is your church telling you to store precious metals, food, and guns, and to prepare for martial law that is coming to the city near you? If they are not, remember David Wilkerson, a prophet any reasonable preacher in America would acknowledge if they are old enough to know him. He is warning his flock at Times Square Church in the heart of Manhattan: Prepare!

Should your church be doing any less?