Hebrew Word Study – Power That Is Evil – Ra’a  רעע – Resh Ayin Ayin

Jeremiah 18:8: “If that nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.”

This prophecy is given to a nation that God has pronounced. It does not say what He has pronounced. Translators assume God is pronouncing judgment. But look closely at this word in the Hebrew for pronounced it is devar which means to speak from the heart. This does not have to be rendered as if God is pronouncing judgment on the nation, it could merely mean that He is warning the nation. God does not have to bring judgment on a nation, they can bring it upon themselves. 

But soft, check out the word for nation. It is goy not umanah goy means a group of people a body of people. Umanah is the word for nation. I believe goy is used to express a broader range of meaning than just a nation. These rules apply to any group of people like the Rotary Club or a church. Perhaps in this context you would translate it as a nation yet, the message applies to any body of people like the church so let’s apply this to the church.

If the church turns from their evil they will be spared. Well, the church is not evil as we think evil, but it could be as the word used in Hebrew is ra’a’ which is rendered in this passage as evil.  Actually ra’a’ is spelled Resh Ayin, Ayin and represents an specific evil. It is an evil which results from the abuse of leadership that causes grief and sorrow to those under that leadership. Now that can and does happen in many churches.This is a warning to the leadership of the a body of people, a call for the leadership to repent.  If they do repent then God will not bring evil upon them. This second word for evil is ra’ah which is a removal of the presence of God. It is also the word for shepherd or friend.  It would be the removal of the shepherding or friendship of God. 

I read some interesting statistics on Pew Research and Gallup as well as other polls.  All agree that the church in the United States is in decline. Twenty years ago 67-70% of those who identified as Christian attended a weekly church service regularly. Today it runs from 22% – 37%.  Oddly, 75% of the population of the United States claim to be Christians.  So where does the 40% – 50% of the Christians in American worship each week if not in a church?  

When I was a child most churches had a regular schedule of Sunday School at  10:00AM, Worship service at 11:00 AM and an Evening service at 7:00 AM.  They would start their worship service with opening prayer, a hymn, then some announcements. This the pastor would give a long pastoral prayer with the organ playing soothing music in the background, then the choir would sing and we would then sing another hymn and the pastor would preach. Today most churches have no Sunday School for adults just for children.  Many have double services with the hope of luring more people. They are rushed out of the first service to make room for the second service or just rushed out to catch the football game. As someone recently said; “On Sunday the church once ruled, now it is the NFL.” The services have abandoned any sign of ritual.  There is no pastoral prayer, the choirs have been disrobed and replaced with worship teams who sing a bunch of I like God songs using music with the hope will appeal to the younger generation. They have no evening services as no one was attending these. 

The church has been in decline since the eighties and pastors changed their services in desperate attempts to rebuild the congregations.  Now many church services consist of music, announcements and a sermon.  Very few attend meetings during the week.

So why is the church in decline when still 75% of Americans call themselves Christians? There are many reasons, including the rise of cyber churches which accomplish pretty much the same thing most churches do every Sunday only you don’t have get up early, dress and drive to a service, just click on your computer and you fulfilled your Sunday obligation. Of course the problem with that is you can’t pass an offering plate online. 

There are 350,000 churches in American. Last year 3,500 of those churches closed their doors.  Four out of every five start up churches will die in five years. 60% of all churches have a congregation of less that 99 people. Why? Many reasons but as an ordained minister myself, who has served as a pastor, let me share my humble opinion. I watched the ministry grow into a good job, well paying, respectful and I have watch pastors milk their congregations dry to build new buildings, hire staff, and build a name for themselves among denominational colleagues bragging about the size of their church at pastor conventions.  I have watched pastors abuse or ra’a their leadership role to increase their salaries and prestige. I have watched pastors ra’a’ and the result is ra’ah, the disappearance of the presence of God.  People go where they can feel the presence of God. That is one of the major reasons Pew Research found for the reason people attend church. The phony presence of God with loud music and shouting doesn’t fool people. 

Are churches in decline because the evil or ra’ah is happening, the presence of God has lifted from the churches and people turn to cyber churches and home churches to feel the presence of God.  I don’t know. I could be wrong. I only give this to you for your consideration.

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