Eric Metaxas Urges American Church to Not Abandon Liberty in Face of Evil

For so many people, the thought of following through on an urge or a notion seems trivial. And why not? It’s probably just a passing thought, nothing more, nothing less. 

People of faith, however, often see that ‘tick in their spirit’ as being something a little more substantial. It is God’s way of letting us know that something is important. Quite simply, it's an urging of the Holy Spirit.

Several years ago, author and radio host Eric Metaxas felt an urge. It wasn’t one of the general variety, but a notion that was so clear and so vivid that he couldn’t ignore it. He felt that God was calling him to write a book that would serve as a warning to the American Church to not fall asleep and abandon its mission of proclaiming liberty. Furthermore, this book would serve as a declaration to stand up to the forces of evil that are slowly enslaving our culture.

Released in the Fall of 2022, Letter to the American Church served as a clarion call for people of faith to not fall prey to what happened to the German Church during the 1930s, when a diabolical regime ripped apart the soul of that nation.

The blueprint for what could happen that Metaxas layed out in the brief book’s 139 pages inspired a pair of filmmakers, Rachel Tash and Simone Alex, to take action. The end result is a documentary of the same name that will air on EpochTV this evening at 7pm ET (February 8th), to be followed by a national church tour later this year.

I recently sat down with Metaxas to discuss the new documentary film, the eerie comparisons between 1930s Germany and 2020s America, and practical ways pastors can share this urgent message with their congregations.

If you were trying to convince a friend or family member to watch the documentary Letter to the American Church what would you say to encourage them? What would your sales pitch be?

Here's an easy one. The Letter to the American Church book is not free, but The Letter to the American Church documentary film is. By the way, it’s a spectacular documentary film. I can't take much credit for that. It is spectacular, but it is available free to churches, any church that wants to do a free screening. We want to get this message out desperately to every church in this country. And my question is, if you're going to a church that's not interested in a free screening of this, why are you interested in that church? Because this is biblical. There's nothing about what we say that's just a political point of view or whatever. Somebody would want to tag it as. This is about what God is saying to us. What does the Scripture say is our responsibility as the church, when evil is rising around us? What is our biblical responsibility?

We made the film because we are desperate to get this out to anyone willing to watch it. I'm excited, frankly, that the film is out because it's so beautifully done. It's just a wonderful documentary and it gives me hope. It gives me hope because I think that right now we're living at a time, where most of us have not seen anything like it. But I want to say God has prepared us for this time, and He's called us as the church to stand during this time. So the question is, what does that mean? And it's why we made the film. It's why I wrote the book. It’s to help Christians understand what does it mean to be the Church at a time like this?

For the average American churchgoer, this thought of the American Church going the way of 1930’s Nazi Germany a Marxist takeover is slim to nearly non-existent. What are some practical ways that pastors can bring this to light to their congregations?

Different churches at different seasons will buy different kinds of lies. We'll kind of focus on one thing and we'll forget something else. And the German Church focused so much on grace. (Dietrich) Bonhoeffer wrote his book, The Cost of Discipleship, talking about cheap grace. They got so focused on grace, Lutheran grace. It’s faith that they forgot. What does that mean? What it means is you've got to live out your faith. Your faith is costly. Grace is costly. Jesus died on the Cross so that you could have grace. They lost sight of that. Well, we in the American Church have similarly lost sight that we're in a spiritual battle. And it's not just about evangelism. There's a chapter in the book Letter to the American Church where I talk about the idol of evangelism.

You take a good thing and you make an idol of it, and you forget that there's anything else. You're worshiping this one thing. God calls us in Scripture to love our neighbors, that there are many ways you can love your neighbor. And people say, “Oh yeah, sharing the Gospel with them.” Yeah, you bet. But what about feeding the hungry? What about caring for the poor? What about being politically active so that we don't have corruption in our government so that people can get a fair trial? What about standing against racism? What about standing against slavery in the 19th century? The Church is called by God to live out. It’s faith in all of these spheres. A lot of folks have gotten just focused on, all we have to worry about is evangelism. And I'm thinking, okay, so what dead Gospel are you leading these people to?

What do you do if you're not speaking out against evil? There are people dealing with all kinds of evil in America, and they're fighting against it. We've got a two-tier justice system. We've got the government coming against pro-lifers. We've got all this stuff going on, and there are pastors and churches that say, “Well, that's not my business.” And I'm thinking, what Gospel are you preaching? If the only thing you're thinking about is leading people to faith as though there's nothing else to do, what about discipling people? You don't do that. You don't disciple people and say, “This is what the Scripture says. This is what it means to live as a Christian.” To live as a Christian means to get involved in all these different things, to live out your faith. Bonhoeffer called it faith in action.

We are to care about our neighbors. And that's really part of what the Letter to the American Church book is about. Letter to the American Church, the book and the film is about waking people up to what is the job of the church? What is God calling us to do? Why did the German church miss it? How did they miss it? Real Christians who had theology that was just twisted enough that they were able to turn a blind eye to the Satanic evil being perpetrated, mostly against the Jews, but against anybody who spoke out against the government. If you don't care about that, I want to know what God it is that you worship, or what salvation it is that you think you have if you don't care about that stuff.

Today’s American Church has come to a place where it faces a crucial decision: the choice to abandon its mission of proclaiming liberty or to stand up to the forces of evil that are slowly enslaving our culture. How did we get here?

There's many things, and I think I cover them in the book. The devil will use whatever works. He can use greed to tempt you, to look the other way, to say nothing, to do what the government tells you to do. If he can use greed, he'll use greed. He can use fear. Maybe you're afraid you are going to lose your job. Maybe you're in the country club, somebody's going to look at you funny, or maybe at work somebody will look at you funny. If he can use that, he will use whatever works. And how the Church got here is a combination of those and other things. 

We've been so blessed in America that we let our guard down. It's kind of like when you're so blessed, you get fat and lazy because you don't have to work, you don't have to do anything. We've been so blessed in America. We don't know what evil is. We forgot that it's real. It's just as real here as it would've been at any time in history. We kind of act like we've moved past that. Absolutely not. We have not moved past that. But we've been lulled into thinking it could never get as bad here as it got in Germany. Oh my goodness, that could never happen to us. Well, why not? Theologically, that's nonsense. And the fact of the matter is, the Germans thought exactly what I'm saying. They kind of thought Germany was so wonderful.

We gave the world (Martin) Luther. Luther gave the world Protestant Christian faith. We're at the epicenter of the Christian movement in the world. We're Germany. They let their guard down. And that's basically what the American Church has. We've been so blessed, we've never had to fight these battles. 

When you wrote the book did you foresee that it could be shaped and subsequently released as a documentary? Was that in your plans from the beginning?

Absolutely not, emphatically not. It wasn't even the dimmest idea in my mind. Anybody familiar with all of my books knows that many of them would be terrific as streaming TV series. But this book, Letter to the American Church, never ever occurred to me. And when these two women, who go to Rob McCoy's church, heard me speak about it and they said, “This needs to be filmed.” And I was just shocked. I said, “Really?”

What do you have in mind? And they obviously knew what they're doing. They got the best of the best to make this. So, this isn't some combo thing. This is a beautiful film. But I really believe that this is God. This is God's delivery system to wake up His people for such a time as this. It's an extraordinary moment that we get to be awakened. We get to participate in what God is doing. And I want to beg people to not miss this. This is what God is doing. This is exciting. I think that if the Church would awake … when I say the Church, I’m talking to those who are reading this right now. You’re the Church.

If you will do your job, and do what God has called you to do, again, a free screening in your church, that's step one, right? If people go to the website, lettertotheamericanchurch.com, there's also a list of other things you can do. But this is part of a movement of the Church arising in the way the German church did not. We have a choice and people are waking up. I'm encouraged. But if more don't wake up, it's over. The evil that is being pushed against us in this nation right now is unprecedented. And I think the only good thing about it is it's waking some people up who otherwise would still be sleeping if it weren't this bad.

What is the screening plan for Letter to the American Church?  Where and when can people see it? I understand there is a plan for a national church tour?

Honestly, it's why we made the film. It is to make it easy. It's a beautiful film. I didn't make it. I just wrote the book, but the film is fantastic. It's just an amazing film and it is available free to churches. If churches will go to lettertotheamericanchurch.com, you can sign your church up for a free screening. It’s free because we want to get the word out. I really believe that if people will take the lead on this, whether lay leaders or people in ministry in the Church, take the lead on getting a free screening in your church and invite the community, doing that will wake people up. You don't need to do much more after that. I think that people will begin to know that they need to get involved. Understand that in every church, the Lord wants to lead us. This is not some extra credit thing. This is where God is right now, and He's calling His people to step up.

WATCH A TRAILER FOR LETTER TO THE AMERICAN CHURCH:

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON HOSTING A SCREENING AT YOUR CHURCH, PLEASE VISIT LETTERTOTHEAMERICANCHURCH.COM.