..the SBC comes out looking pretty good--there must be something to that idea they embrace of the Bible as the last word on church doctrine...
Posted on 07/09/2008 4:32:10 AM PDT by johnstown
The Episcopal Church has been at the forefront of baptizing active homosexual lifestyle as God-blessed.
Since 1960, that denomination has decreased in membership by 48%.
The United Methodist Church has been roiled by those adamant on establishing homosexual lifestyles as Christian legitimate. In the fight for one side or another that denomination has decreased in membership by 25%.
The Presbyterian Church (USA) has likewise been embroiled in the tussle. That denomination has decreased in membership by 44%.
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has also been riddled with in-house fighting over homosexual lifestyles as anti-God or pro-God. That denomination's membership has decreased 74%.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America has permitted the fight to be more open, some in administration arguing homosexual lifestyles as okay with God. That denomination's membership has decreased by 31%.
The United Church of Christ (Congregational) has defended aggressively homosexual activity as totally legitimate in the definition of "Christian." In the last 40 years, that denomination has lost 40% of its original membership.
By contrast, denominations preaching the Bible as divine revelation, openly stating their love for homosexuals but their disdain for homosexual activity, have grown in membership and church attendance.
For instance, the Southern Baptist Convention has increased in membership by 76% according to the National Council of Churches statistics for 2007.
Read James L. Clark's "The Church Homosexual Problem" at http://www.postchronicle.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=75&num=153523
I tend to believe that its not apathy that has caused these denominations to fall, but rather it is a focused attack from homosexual activists.
Baptists and Catholics shouldn't be smug. If homosexual activists cannot get around the strong Bible-centered faith of the Baptists or the strong conservative central leadership of the Catholics, they will find legal means to close us down.
California has already forced Catholic hospitals to provide contraceptive benefits to its employees. Just wait and see what happens when a priest refuses to perform a gay marriage in California.
Who grades sin as to severity? And who decides which sins are OK and which aren't?
I think the highest increase in any one year since the 1970’s for Southern Baptists was 12 percent. I have read several stories about declining baptisms (and membership) in recent years.
The 76 percent increase is entirely bogus.
Presumably they will preach the Christian ideal of chastity from their pulpits as one of the constituent elements of their normal Gospel witness, and those among the faithful who cannot accept this moral teaching will leave and those who accept it will strive to live by it.
Presumably those who accept the teaching but struggle with it in their lives will seek the counsel of their pastors to make positive changes in the way they live and will be encouraged and challenged to do the right thing.
..the SBC comes out looking pretty good--there must be something to that idea they embrace of the Bible as the last word on church doctrine...
The one extreme or the other nonsense is a leftist argument. As Christians, we are not supposed to approve of behavior that the Bible forbids. That does not mean you hate or fear the person.
Yeah kidd,
I was just thinking that the other day. We may not think it possible that they could force any Catholic priest to perform a same sex wedding, but 10 years ago, no one woulda thought that the evil that has descended upon us could have happened as it has. Scary, just keep praying. Pray unceasingly until you stop breathing or your Redeemer appears.
Or I suppose they could rewrite scripture and proclaim it isn't really a sin after all, like they've done for others? Not that I expect that to happen any time soon.
Succinctly put, but he did give us the command to decipher good from evil and act upon it.
Homosexual "marriages" and ordinations of noncelibate homosexuals have become a catalyst for the splitting of denominations. However, secessionist bodies have existed for decades. In the instance of Presbyterians, the OPC (1930s start-up) and the EPC (1970s start-up) represented breakaways from the UPCUSA, the Northern Presbyterian church, while the PCA, another 1970s start-up, was a conservative split from the PCUS, the Southern Presbyterian church. All three groups believe in Biblical inerrancy and subscribe to a somewhat strict to very strict interpretation of the Westminster Standards. What is happening now is that even the moderates in the mainline churches are becoming fed up. They did not vigorously protest the de facto abandonment of the historic Reformation creeds and the Protestant "solas", the rise of the "social gospel", i.e., socialism and radical egalitarian baptized by church officials, and the ordination of women to the positions of deacon, elder, pastor, or priest. However, the rise of homosexual activism is the proverbial straw that broke the moderates' back.
The split between looser and stricter interpretations of the Westminster Standards had roiled Presbyterian circles for over a century before Fort Sumter. The slavery issue was the catalyst for the split between the Northern and Southern Presbyterian churches that had been brewing for several decades. Similar splits among Methodists and Baptists in the same time frame had older theological causes as well as immediate political ones. History may not exactly repeat itself, but you can hear similar tunes.
Yes, those churches preaching Christ as Savior and the Bible as the Word of God without question are not hampered by the ‘homosexual problem.’
The churches proclaiming saving grace for the repentant individual back up such sermons with Scripture as divinely inspired. These congregations are not torn apart by the homosexual controversy.
Some of the more conservative denominations do it all the time, as do some of the more liberal. Just look at how they treat divorce and remarriage.
You wrote: “I think its because it remains God focused.”
Yes, by God-focused I assume you mean preaching the Bible as God’s Word and calling persons to repent of their sins to Christ, thus finding His gift of salvation.
Those churches are growing because God is blessing their message.
Yes
Poor logic alert!
Why 1960? That wasn't even on the radar then. Why not choose 1948? 1928? 1876? 1780? Why not? Because 1960 just happened to be about when the Episcopal church peaked in terms of membership. The decline since was due to a number of factors, including a revisionist liturgy and womens' ordination (these two factors led to a tremendous decline and to the possibly unratified "Dennis Canon" in which parish property suddenly became diocesan property), later unqualified women bishops, and then most recently the homosexuals. And though I do not have the numbers, I suspect the decline has been even larger than declared here.
Not so.
Loving the individual does not mean loving the sin of that person.
Loving the individual is to love that person while presenting God’s gift of saving grace for those who repent of their sins and commit to following Christ and His ethic.
Perhaps what’s meant by chastity is those who don’t engage in homosexual behavior? The sin isn’t the urge but the action.
Somebody feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t the entire (ostensible) point of these denominations liberalizing their doctrine on sex and other matters that they wanted to be as welcoming of as large and broad a membership as possible, as against the more traditional, even fundamentalist denominations?
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You are right on your analysis re “they revised the Hymnal and purged ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’....”
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