Is the church we see on Sunday the same Church Christ is building?

Many Americans still believe in God, heaven, and the soul, and most still call themselves Christian. Yet research cited in this book finds that only about 4% of U.S. adults hold a consistently biblical worldview.

Western churches are drifting toward secularism and syncretism, while faithful believers face growing pressure around the world. What is happening to the Church, and where is it heading?

In Divine Analogies: Reflections on the Life and Future of the Church, Chuck Vollmer offers 52 short, personal reflections that use everyday analogies to explore the Church's identity, condition, and future.

His perspective comes from five decades of following Christ. It also draws on combat experience as a fighter pilot, national-security work with American and foreign governments, years of interaction with Israeli and Arab leaders, and long study of biblical prophecy. He writes as a fellow believer, not a distant critic, and he examines his own heart as honestly as he examines the Church.

The book unfolds in four parts:

• Prologue: The Church's identity, purpose, structure, authority, and mission, including the Church as visible and invisible, as a building, as a universal priesthood, and as a remnant vanguard.
• The Man of Sorrows' Church: How Christ's sorrow over a lost world, and the difference between godly and worldly sorrow, can lead the Church to repentance or decline.
• Jesus as a Contrarian: Why following Christ has always meant speaking truth to the status quo, with a biblical worldview as the believer's operating system.
• The Invisible Church Revealed: The final days of the Church Age, including persecution that exposes authentic faith, the Rapture, and the faithful remnant who endure until Jesus returns as King.

Each reflection takes only a few minutes to read. That makes the book well suited to daily devotions, personal study, or small-group discussion. It is written from a dispensational, premillennial perspective, but it is meant for any Christian who cares about the health of the Church. The book closes with a call to remain watchful, faithful, and ready until He comes.

Divine Analogies is a series exploring parallels between spiritual principles and everyday life.