Good Intentions Gone Bad

Ligonier Ministiries ^ | R. C. Sproul

[Gamecock]

The adage tells us that there is a destination, the road to which is paved with good intentions. It is the destination that we would prefer not to reach. Good intentions can have disastrous results and consequences. When we look at the revolution of worship in America today, I see a dangerous road that is built with such intentions. The good purposes that have transformed worship in America have as their goal to reach a lost world – a world that is marked by baby boomers and Generation Xers who have in many ways rejected traditional forms and styles of worship. Many have found the life of the church to be irrelevant and boring, and so an effort to meet the needs of these people has driven some radical changes in how we worship God.

Perhaps the most evident model developed over the last half century is that model defined as the “seeker-sensitive model.” Seekers are defined as those people who are unbelievers and are outside of the church but who are searching for meaning and significance to their lives. The good intention of reaching such people with evangelistic techniques that include the reshaping of Sunday morning worship fails to understand some significant truths set forth in Scripture.

In Romans 3, Paul makes abundantly clear that unconverted people do not seek after God. Thomas Aquinas understood this and maintained that to the naked eye it may seem that unbelievers are searching for God or seeking for the kingdom of God, while they are in fact fleeing from God with all of their might. What Aquinas observed was that people who are unconverted seek the “benefits” that only God can give them, such as ultimate meaning and purpose in their lives, relief from guilt, the presence of joy and happiness, and things of this nature. These are benefits the Christian recognizes can only come through a vital, saving relationship with Christ. The gratuitous leap of logic comes when church leaders think that because people are searching for benefits only God can give them, they must therefore be searching after God. No, they want the benefits without the Giver of the benefits. And so structuring worship to accommodate unbelievers is misguided because these unbelievers are not seeking after God. Seeking after God begins at conversion, and if we are to structure our worship with a view to seekers, then we must structure it for believers, since only believers are seekers.

The purpose of corporate assembly, which has its roots in the Old Testament, is for the people of God to come together corporately to offer their sacrifices of praise and worship to God. So the first rule of worship is that it be designed for believers to worship God in a way that pleases God.

Another erroneous assumption made in the attempt to restructure the nature of worship is that the modern generation has been so changed by cultural and contextual influences – such as the impact of the electronic age upon their lives – that they are no longer susceptible to traditional attempts of being reached by expository preaching. So the focus of preaching has moved in many cases away from an exposition of the Word of God. We assume this alteration is necessary if we’re to reach the people who have been trapped within the changes of our current culture. The erroneous assumption is that in the last fifty years, the constituent nature of humanity has changed, as if the heart can no longer be reached via the mind. It also assumes that the power of the Word of God has lost its potency, so that we must look elsewhere if we are to find powerful and moving experiences of worship in our church. Though the intentions may be marvelous, the results, I believe, are and will continue to be catastrophic

[alpha-8-25-02]

Saint John Eudes: “The road to hell is paved with the skulls of bishops”; Saint Athanasius originally said: “The floor of hell is covered with the skulls of bishops”; St John Chrysostom: “the road to hell is paved with the bones of priests and lined with the skulls of bishops.

AS I PROCLAIMED,6/23:THE PROBLEM WITH DOCTRINAL WEAKNESS STARTS IN THE SEMINARIES AND WORKS IT’S WAY DOWN THROUGH THE PULPIT INTO THE PEWS.MAYBE 5 U.S. SEMINARIES ARE TRULEY REFORMED AND NO WRITTEN STATEMENT OF FAITH AT A SCHOOL OR CHURCH WILL LET YOU KNOW WHAT IS ACTUALLY BEING TAUGHT.THE VAST DENOMINATION RANGE ALLOWS MOST TO PICK AND CHOOSE DOCTRINE,LIKE A CHRISTIAN BUFFET.
THERE NEEDS TO BE GOVERNANCE LIKE THIS WEEK’S 177TH SYNOD.
THE UNDER SHEPHERD WHO LETS A FLOCK WITH SOFT BELLIES PICK WHAT GARBAGE THEY WANT TO EAT,INSTEAD OF LEADING THEN TO SWEET GRACE HAY WILL BE SEVERLY JUDGED,I BELIEVE THERE WILL BE MUCH COLLATERAL DAMAGE AT THE JUDGEMENT SEAT!

Matthew 7:13
“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.

Matthew 7:14
“Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Matthew 7:15
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

Matthew 7:16
“You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?

Matthew 7:17
“Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

Matthew 7:18
“A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.

Matthew 7:19
“Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

Matthew 7:20
“Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

Matthew 7:21
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.

Matthew 7:22
“Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’

Matthew 7:23
“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
(NKJV)

90% OF SO CALLED PASTORS ARE FEEDING THE FLOCK GARBAGE.

MY MOM WHO IS IN HER 70’S AND STILL RC IS MORE AUGUSTINIAN THEN MOST PROTTIES!

2 Peter 3:14
Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless;

2 Peter 3:15
and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you,

2 Peter 3:16
as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.

2 Peter 3:17
You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked;

2 Peter 3:18
but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.
(NKJV)

5 SOLAS AND 66 POINTS!

[HarleyD]

The church has forever been shaped by it's environment. It happened with Constantine, during the Renaissances, and the social beliefs of Charles Finny to name but a few. This “seeker-sensitive” nonsense is just another example among many of the corruption of the gospel. It is not unlike the Jews who, when given the holy word of God through Moses, distorted and corrupted it until 2100 years later with Christ, it was unrecognizable.

History has shown that man is in a constant state of devolution, destroying those things that God establishes. The church will stand until the last soul is saved. The time of Christ return is shorter than I believe many of us imagine. And He won't come with hugs and hot cocoa.

[Gamecock]

Amen brother, Amen.