American Council of Christian Churches
83rd Annual Convention, October 22-24, 2024
Hope Evangelical Methodist Church, Youngstown, PA
Resolution on the Convention Theme: “Christ Victorious Over the World”
Through the efforts of Calvinistic Methodists in 1855, the gospel of Jesus Christ came to Cwmorthin, a small village in North Wales. Souls were saved, a church was formed, and a meeting house was constructed. Shortly after this church was founded, a school was established, not only to educate children in reading, writing, and arithmetic, but to help Christian parents raise their children in the ways of the Lord. The evil cloak of paganism and traditionalist religion that had darkened minds for generations was lifted as the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ brilliantly shone forth in hearts.
In those church walls of Cwmorthin, hymns of praise and thanksgiving were gloriously sung. The Word of God was faithfully proclaimed and taught. Saints prayed with importunity for the Lord to build His church and for their own pressing needs. Lost souls were brought to the Redeemer and taught to observe Christ’s commands.
As generations passed, souls stopped focusing on the Lord of glory and gradually turned their attention toward money, sports, entertainment, and Christless education. Some in the church drifted back to formalist religion, others toward Darwinian atheism. Growing numbers forsook assembling with the church on the Lord’s Day, believing they could worship God just as well in their homes or while attending a festival, a sporting event, or even while working.
Today, Cwmorthin is deserted. The church building that once rang with the sound of the gospel and the praise and prayers of the saints is now in ruins. The school building where children were taught how to live in God’s creation according to God’s revelation is in rubble. People still visit the valley, not to hear glorious gospel truths, but to view the spectacle of decay and imagine what once was.
The ultimate reasons for the church’s decay and death are not found in economic or sociological causes. The church died because of sin in human hearts. It died because Satan, the great deceiver and enemy of souls, sowed the tares of false teaching and choked the Word with the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches. It died because the church yielded and conformed its worship and ministry to the corrupt culture of this world.
The events of this small town in North Wales are not unusual. They have sadly continued since Eve was deceived by Satan’s lies and Adam knowingly rebelled against God’s command. Gratefully, churches are still started and continue, but history demonstrates that eventually they turn to follow the world, the flesh, and the Devil, resulting in a decay of ministry, worship, and morals. Instead of the faithful proclamation and teaching of truth, preachers give life lessons devoid of Christ and the true gospel. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are treated with indifference and disdain. The church’s singing no longer exhibits the ordinate affections of regenerate hearts rightly responding to God’s truth, but instead tickles and gratifies the physical senses.
Despite this sad, repetitious cycle influenced by the world, the flesh, and the Devil, He who sits in the heavens is not confounded. The Lord God Almighty laughs at and derides every rebel and will in wrath distress every enemy through His Son. He will break them with a rod of iron and smash them like pieces of pottery (Psalm 2). He will continue to save souls to live for His glory, fortify them to resist the dazzling and stimulating influence of unregenerate culture, and enable them to be transformed into the image of His Son by the renewing of their minds. The God of peace will crush Satan under the saints’ feet (Rom. 16:20).
Therefore, the American Council of Christian Churches at its 83rd annual convention, October 22-24, 2024, at Hope Evangelical Methodist Church, Youngstown, PA, resolves by grace and through faith to look to the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who gives the victory over the world, the flesh, and the Devil. We will resist and fight the ever-present enemies of Christ by putting on the full armor of God. We will earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints and be separated from evil unto our Lord God and Father. We determine with renewed conviction and commitment to preach the Word in season and out of season. We will guard the church’s worship. We will be holy in our conduct as God is holy. We will devote ourselves to prayer. Finally, in everything we will rest in and follow the Lord Jesus Christ, who through His death and resurrection has defeated His enemies.
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