The Protestant Smackdown

Renew America ^ | 05/10/2005 | Adam Graham

[Keyes2000mt]

Orthodox Catholics love to praise the new Pope for putting the "smackdown" on heresy. While most would resist the same tight control on doctrine that Pope Benedict exercises, it's time for Protestants to get serious about rank heresy and fraud perpetuated in the church, as well as the disunity that has sprung up in the body of the Christ.

Start With the Basics

In taking action against out of control clergy, it's important that it be done in a spirit of love but that resolve be firm and action be decisive.

The focus of those concerned with liberal clergy has been on social issues like gay marriage, but I suggest a closer look is required at the fundamentals of the faith. If we look at the mainline churches, we find something quite remarkable. There's a large number of people who don't believe in the Resurrection of Christ ministering in "Christian" Churches. This is the root cause of many of the church's other issues, as once you've denied the fundamentals of the faith, it frees you to follow after whatever humanist idea is presented at the moment. According to a 1998 Jeffrey Hadden poll, here's the % of mainline Protestant ministers that don't believe in the resurrection:

1) Lutherans-13% 2) Presbyterians-30% 3) American Baptists-33% 4) Episcopalians-35% 5) Methodist-51%

It's time for churches to challenge ministers with simple questions of basic truth such as, "Do you believe in the resurrection?" If the answer is no, you have no business being a minister or lay leader of a Christian denomination.

Also leaders of the "take down the cross" movement who worked with known cult leader Sun Myung Moon to take down crosses in churches across the country have no business holding positions as Christian ministers and they should be defrocked. Nor do those who will stand by and watch him crowned Messiah deserved the title of Reverend by their name.

If churches won't submit their leaders to basic doctrinal tests, they're not really Christian. They're a social club with a religious pretext. If ministers embrace false prophets and deny fundamentals of the faith, they should get an ordination from a non-Christian denomination or leave the ministry entirely.

Secondly, abuse in protestant churches has to be addressed, particularly in regards to well-known national figures. Benny Hinn has been accused of faking healings, and he and Robert Tilton have both been accused of fraudulently getting people to give them money in hopes of obtaining God's blessing. In Tilton's case, there's evidence that he convinced poor people to send them their money with the promise that his prayers would cause them to prosper and then had people at his ministry take the cash and throw away the letters.

For such people, there should be an interdenominational court empowered to hear charges of malfeasance and dishonesty against televangelists and others, so that warnings can be put out and people can avoid throwing their money away on charlatans. Obviously, the court's power should be limited to issues of malfeasance and not denominational disagreements.

Unity

Once you get rid of the people who deny the basics of the Faith, it's past time for Christians to seek unity across racial and denominational lines.

There are 121 separate Christian denominations with 5,000 or more members including 15 separate Baptist denominations, 14 Orthodox denominations, 9 Lutheran denominations, and 17 Pentecostal denominations.

At some point, we have to get together and talk, really dialogue about issues, determine what matters and what doesn't. The splintered and divided Church is, in many cases too much at war with itself to handle issues of great moral, cultural, and religious importance.

When we take the stand that we'd rather see millions perish and our country fall away rather than risk being contaminated by people of other Christian denominations, are we truly living Christ's command to love one another or is hatred blinding us to a dying world?

Martin Luther King, Jr. bemoaned the fact that eleven o'clock on Sunday Morning was the most segregated hour in America. We've made progress, but not enough. Clearly, we've come a long way when a Black Catholic like Alan Keyes can speak in a White Bible Baptist Church in Illinois. There are also multi-ethnic congregations springing up across the country.

There's more we can do. We must reach across racial lines to Christians of all heritages to bring the church together. The cloud of racial disunity so encouraged by modern liberals must dissipate, so we can see that we are truly brothers and sisters in the Lord.

Christians in the 21st century must bridge racial and denominational divides to come together on the common ground of the Faith in a hostile world. We must hang together or as Ben Franklin quipped, "assuredly we shall hang separately."

[proxy_user]

The Catholics can have authoritative teachings because they have Apostolic Succession. The Pope is the heir of the Apostles in a direct line, and what he says is the official doctrine.

But if you believe in the priesthood of all believers and justification through faith alone, it's kind of hard to keep out heretics, particularly antinominians.

[faloi]

I didn't realize there was a movement to take down the cross. I've moved around a bit, and been shocked to see some "churches" with no cross or religious trappings at all. I think the article makes a valid point, it's time for more denominations to stand for what they believe in. The moral relativism that's creeping into Churches is frightening. I'm not above there being some changes as time goes on, but there need to be boundaries. Some things just are, and always will be, wrong.

[tx_eggman]

Good luck Adam, many good men have tried. To this day the wheat and tares are still growing together in the same field.

[Grim]

Once you get rid of the people who deny the basics of the Faith ... we have to get together and talk, really dialogue about issues, determine what matters and what doesn't.

There you go. Brilliant idea. Get rid of the people who disagree with you and then discuss the issues you have in common.

Perhaps we can burn a few heretics at the stake, too. That'll help.

[Unam Sanctam]

Perhaps we can burn a few heretics at the stake, too. That'll help.

No has a right to be Catholic or any other denomination. The Inquisition was several centuries. No one is remotely suggesting any sort of physical punishment for dissension. It is a matter of freedom of religion and association. If you believe what a private group teaches, join the group. If you don't believe it, don't join the group, and don't compain if you're kicked out. As Cardinal Dulles recently said, the Catholic Church is not a society of freethinkers. If you want to join or set one up, go right a head. This is a free society.

[wideawake]

Surely it's not too much to ask that Christian pastors actually believe in Christianity?

What's your problem with simple truth in advertising, or insisting that job applicants are actually qualified to do the job they're applying for?

[SaltyJoe]

I'm Catholic, and I love Protestant Conservatives who have kept un-Catholic "Catholic" Politicians out of the White House. Thank for upholding Christian values! God Bless you.

[Grim]

Surely it's not too much to ask that Christian pastors actually believe in Christianity? What's your problem with simple truth in advertising, or insisting that job applicants are actually qualified to do the job they're applying for?

As the author points out, there are 121 denominations and then some of Christianity. He points out that there are disagreements over the "fundamentals" of faith and gives as an example the fact that a large number of ministers don't believe in the "resurrection."

Some Christians believe the resurrection was a physical event, and some believe that it was a spiritual event. So, can we come to some agreement about this by sitting down and talking about it? Maybe.

Furthermore, and this is more to the point, some Christians believe that in the Last Days there will be a physical resurrection of the dead, while others believe there will be a spiritual resurrection of the dead.

So, to answer your question, no, I don't think it's too much to ask that Christian pastors believe in Christianity. But there are at least 121 different definitions of what that means.

Should Christians set aside their differences and unite? Of course they should. Will they? I doubt it.

[wideawake]

So, to answer your question, no, I don't think it's too much to ask that Christian pastors believe in Christianity. But there are at least 121 different definitions of what that means.

I doubt that even one of those denominations, no matter how liberal, officially teaches that the physical Resurrection of Christ is an open question.

A denomination which teaches such a doctrine, like the Unitarians for example, is a non-Christian religion.

[Jibaholic]

We don't need to take the Catholic approach when our approach is superior. No one is going to feel the Holy Spirit in a Church that teaches that Jesus was a swell guy but not the only path to God. This is why the mainline Protestant Churches are declining while the evangelical Churches are thriving.

[Grim]

A denomination which teaches such a doctrine, like the Unitarians for example, is a non-Christian religion.

See what I mean? You simply declare that people who disagree with you aren't Christians and shazaam, problem solved.

[wideawake]

See what I mean? You simply declare that people who disagree with you aren't Christians and shazaam, problem solved.

Incorrect.

There is an historical record which is quite well-documented for over twenty centuries as to what Christians believe.

Up until the late 1800s all professing Christians believed in the physical resurrection of Christ, and those professing Christians who ceased to believe in the Resurrection - like the Unitarians - had the intellectual and moral honesty to declare that they were no longer Christians.

It's not what I personally think that defines Christianity - it is the unbroken witness of the Christian community since the Resurrection.

By your argument, one would not even have to believe that Jesus ever existed or that anything in the NT was valid or useful to be a Christian. Simply making the claim is enough.

That's an intellectually frivolous position.

[Honorary Serb]

My Serbian Orthodox priest said that any "church" that does not teach the Resurrection should be called a CLUB, not a church.

By the way, I am an ELCA Lutheran who attends a Serbian Orthodox church once a month. And I am fed up with what's happening to the ELCA due to the depredations of feminazis, "gays", and revisionists.

[redgolum]

Kind of agree.

We all have some house cleaning to do.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

"it's kind of hard to keep out heretics, particularly antinominians"

I'm necronomian - just as the Apostle Paul teaches!

[Former Fetus]

I didn't realize there was a movement to take down the cross

Have you heard of the Word of Faith? They call the Cross a place of defeat, and claim that Jesus became a sinner on the Cross and went to the burning part of Hell where He was tormented for 3 days and nights until God the Father said "it's enough" and Jesus was born again and then resurrected from the dead. Of course I don't consider them Christians, anybody who believes that Jesus was a sinner at any time, does not deserve that title. But they have a lot of influence on Christian churches. I would advise them to remember Paul's warning to the Galatians: "but even if we, or an angel of heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed" (Gal 1:8).

[Grim]

Up until the late 1800s all professing Christians believed in the physical resurrection of Christ...

1 Co 15:44: it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body....
1 Co 15:46 However, the spiritual did not come first, but the natural, then the spiritual.
1 Co 15:47 The first man is from the earth, made of dust; the second man is from heaven....
1 Co 15:50 Now this is what I am saying, brothers and sisters: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.[2]

This passage seems to contradict your "historical record." Although I know that what you said is true, most Christians do believe in the physical resurrection. How then, to reconcile the apparent contradiction? Furthermore, since the original subject of this discussion is Christian unity, who shall be the final authority to settle the differences of opinion?

[Jibaholic]

See what I mean? You simply declare that people who disagree with you aren't Christians and shazaam, problem solved.

So your position is that you can be a "Christian" and yet think that Jesus is a liar?

[ZULU]

What is an antinominian?