In my previous column, “How the Apostates Take Over, Part 1,” I explained how apostates used the cause of equality to gain a destructive foothold within the church.Posted on 03/25/2012 6:54:49 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
In my previous column, “How the Apostates Take Over, Part 1,” I explained how apostates used the cause of equality to gain a destructive foothold within the church.
Some of my readers have missed the point of this 2-part column all together, thinking it is about women’s ordination. People will see what they want to see. The deeper point is that those who deny the core of the Gospel used an innocent issue, such the role of women in the church, to flood the church with non bible-believing men, women, and homosexuals.
This is how it happened:
Initially, whole denominations acquiesced and allowed women to be ordained, but most churches still did not call women to be pastors. But with an influx of women into the system, something had to be done. So while the men worked by pastoring to parishes and parishioners, many women aimed at taking over denominational committees. Time and persistence had a way of succeeding.
By the early 90s, women made up only 20 percent of the clergy in some denominations, but they controlled every single committee.
With control of the ministerial candidate selection committees, for example, they focused on expanding the number of women clergy, not expanding the Kingdom of God. Time after time, I saw good young men turned down for ordination while spiritually unqualified women were given the green light.
I once asked why so many good men were being rejected. I was told that it was necessary to “make up for past injustices.”
But once the dam had been cracked, the people who flooded in were no longer those who argued for justice and equality. They were people whose hidden agenda was nothing short of apostasy and control.
From that point, committee leaders began to push for extreme feminism, abortion rights, homosexual advocacy, and other issues that were repugnant to biblical obedience.
All of that inevitably sapped the energy of the faithful. They no longer had the time or strength to preach the Word of God and witness to others. Although they still called themselves “the church,” they had strayed from the fold.
Today, the flood waters continue to rise and are even encroaching into some evangelical churches. But thank God for those who still stand strong, for they represent the last great hope for biblical submission. We need the evangelical church to refuse to put on the garment of compromise, to not bow to the gods of social acceptability and popular culture. We need it to never surrender to the secular armies and their weapons of manipulation and false accusation.
Back in 1980, I met with the retired Episcopal Bishop of Atlanta, who had been Bishop during those tumultuous times. It was soon before his death, and he told me, “If I had known all this would happen, I would not have been quick to give in.” He went to his grave in regret.
The apostates are like the ancient Greeks who destroyed the city of Troy by offering them an apparently innocent gift—the Trojan horse. The people of Troy willingly took the deceptive symbol of peace and moved it within their walls. Later, under cover of night, Greek soldiers crept out of the giant horse, opened the city gates, and ushered in the enemy army.
As with Troy, apostates today take over the church through means that seem innocent at first. For that reason, bible-believing Christians must stand at the watchtower and be prepared to defend biblical truth, even when the threat seems harmless. If not, many more Christian leaders will go to their graves with deep, deep regret.
He must have focused more on popularity than on Scripture; he could have also read Solzhenitsyn to learn how to discern.
I have come to have a deep suspicion of those who seek positions of power within the Church. It seems to me that these jobs come with an enormous amount of responsibility - that much in fact that no serious religious person would seek these positions out without a great deal of soul searching and prayer.
Mel
Doesn't this sound familiar? This liberal Siren call, this "new" paradigm has lured the mariners of social, religious, and economic seas to crash upon the rocks human reality.
Making up for "past injustice" invariably leads to injustice and destruction for those on the other end of the scales; those who are innocent of perpetrating any injustice to those past-offended. Those innocents who had/have the misfortune of playing by the rules and are now made to suffer for some elites' construct of fair play.
“Evangelical” has all the flavor of fast food.
If fast food didn’t have flavor, no one would eat it. It may not be flavor that you like, but that doesn’t make it flavorless.
I’m old. I’ve watched this evangelical thing unfold for a long time.
I am not a theologian so my response will be kind rough and abbreviated.
In brief, the evangelical movement began in the mid-1800’s in reaction to a “dead” Presbyterianism. (Too much form, and not enough heart.)
Tragically, in the desire to separate, they “threw out the baby with the bath water.” They threw out creed and systematic doctrine.
I grew up in an evangelical church (I’m 64), that was at the tipping point between holding onto the old paths, and moving into new evangelicalism.
The rally cry was, “Defending the essentials, and not argueing the unessentials.” (Can’t we all get along?)
It doesn’t sound like a bad idea does it? Well, who decides what is essential, or not essential? What does the Bible say about “every jott and tiddle”? Does not the Bible define every detail of faith and practice? (What can the righteous do when the foundations are destroyed?)
Believe me, I was no whiz bang, wise beyond my years teenager. Being in our church was like being in a family about to divorce, there was a level of confusion, chaos, and lawlessness. (Every man doing what was right in his own eyes.)
Their God was not big enough for my problems. They were all giddy and joyful. It wasn’t working for me.
I left home and church with several thoughts:
1. God, if you don’t want me, leave me alone.
2. I would love to hear God’s Word for the first time, to know what I believed for myself, and not just something I absorbed from the walls.
3. I wanted God to be worthy of my worship, and not this silly God who cheered for the local football team.
God answered my prayers in His own time and way.
I was in my ‘50s before I was in a church that taught systematic doctrine, and all of a sudden all the disjointed bits and pieces I had learned along the way came together, and opened God’s Word, and my relationship with Him that changed everything.
I’m telling you this because of this quote from the article:
“Back in 1980, I met with the retired Episcopal Bishop of Atlanta, who had been Bishop during those tumultuous times. It was soon before his death, and he told me, “If I had known all this would happen, I would not have been quick to give in.” He went to his grave in regret.”
The broad evangelical umbrella is a skeleton of what the church use to be under creed and systematic doctrine.
That’s ultimately why this Bishop went to his grave with regret. So tragic for him, and tragic for his congregation.
Ordinary people like me see the sickness, see the remedy, and pray that we will see God work a new reformation in individuals, families, churches, the world. “Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”
My original comment was out of frustration, and I should have deleted it.
“He must have focused more on popularity than on Scripture; he could have also read Solzhenitsyn to learn how to discern.”
Agreed. Being indiscriminate and undiscerning has been promoted as a “virtue” in our hyper-politically correct culture.
“I was in my ‘50s before I was in a church that taught systematic doctrine, and all of a sudden all the disjointed bits and pieces I had learned along the way came together, and opened God’s Word, and my relationship with Him that changed everything.”
Interesting read about your religious experiences. I had a similar experience after I first read the Westminster Confession of Faith(conservative Presbyterian). If you do not mind my asking, what theological perspective is the church that introduced you to systematic doctrine?
I’m not as old as you, but I’ve seen it from the opposite point of view. I’m United Methodist and was raised Methodist and then UM. I’ve seen a vibrant church wither and grow old because it allows the congregations to rely on their creed and systematic doctrines and not on a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and a sharing of that relationship.
I never left the UM church, even as I saw the spiritual rot within. I stay with it because it is my church, but when I see elements of evangelical protestantism injected into our lifeless liturgies, I can see some life...and then I see some old-school Methodist step in to hammer it back down so it goes back to looking like it did when he was a child.
I believe that there is place in between dead presbyterianism and out-of-control evangelism that ignores all Christian tradition for no other reason other than “we don’t do traditions here”.
The old Methodist Church of the 19th century was a place of Anglican traditions and American evangelism and it was a powerful force. If we aren’t destroyed by the gay agenda next month at General Conference, then our future is somewhere in that 19th century church.
Faith Free Presbyterian church in Greenville, SC. !
sermonaudio.com is produced by a young man in that church!
I felt like I had a wheel barrow full of unanswered questions I didn’t know how to ask. Sitting under Alan Cairns preaching I felt like the duck in the shooting gallery...everything was aimed right at me! I was starving and could get enough!
Life moves on, we are now in New Mexico with no church. Sermon Audio provides us with live services.
During the week I am listening to J. W. Mencarow’s series on the traditional, reformed view (historical) of Revelation.
Have you read J.R. Wylie’s history of Protestantism? Like reading today’s newspaper!
Oh listen! Do a wonderful thing for yourself! Go to
sermonaudio.com.
On the left side menu click on “speaker”. When the big menu appears find John McKnight (Official Broadcaster Speakers.) He is Evangelical Methodist!
I would love to know if you listen, and what you think!
My father was raised Free Methodist. It’s why he moved on to the Christian Missionary Alliance which is nothing like what it was when I was a kid.
I understand what you are saying.
I’ll do that. I’ve been following the evangelical and revival Methodist movement for the past year. They are my hope that we can recover our church from the leftists. I listen to sermonaudio quite often, but never even checked to see if any EM’s are on there. Thanks.
Your post 8 was a very good observation. I think the bottom line to all of this is that people are growing up in the church or even if they become members when they are adults, but do not have their faith built upon foundational truths. Love of the truth must be at the core of any real believer. I see many fall way because their faith was superficial, nothing but church talk and feel good platitudes.
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