Posted on 03/23/2017 4:26:14 AM PDT by metmom
Peek behind the curtain of some "progressive" or "hip" evangelical churches, past the savvy technology and secular music, and you will find more than just a contemporary worship service. You'll find faith leaders encouraging young evangelicals to trade in their Christian convictions for a gospel filled with compromise. They're slowly attempting to give evangelicalism an "update"—and the change is not for the good.
It's painful for me to admit, but we can no longer rest carefree in our evangelical identity—because it is changing. No doubt you have seen the headlines declaring that evangelicalism is doomed because evangelical kids are leaving the faith. It is no secret that there is an expanding gulf between traditional Christian teachings and contemporary moral values. But the sad truth is that the ideological gulf between America's evangelical grown-ups and their kids, aka the millennials, seems to be widening too.
Somehow the blame for this chasm is being heaped on traditional churches. They are accused of having too many rules as well as being homophobic and bigoted. Yes, we've heard those false claims from popular culture in its desperate attempt to keep Christianity imprisoned within the sanctuary walls. But now popular culture is being aided by Christ-professing bedfellows whose message to "coexist," "tolerate" and "keep out of it" is more marketable to the rising generation of evangelicals.
(Excerpt) Read more at charismamag.com ...
ping
A lot of wide gate preachers out there.
Thanks for the post. A lot of truth in the article.
Thanks for the article. Same issues within Catholicism.
I’ve only met one of these “wide gate” preachers. He was just a homoesexual guy who ran a church full of liberals and homosexuals.
I disagree on at least one point with every pastor I’ve ever met, but none of them are that dramatic, usually. I am shocked that people continue to attend a church that teaches tolerance of activities that the bible clearly condemns. You can love them, but you don’t accept their actions. Jesus said to the woman, “Go and sin no more”, not, “Hey, I love ya, babe. It’s ok. I get that it’s hard. Do what you want. I don’t want to be intolerant.”
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
No one means exactly that. No one. Of course, left wing “Christians” who claim there are many paths to salvation are likely the same folks who cannot grasp simple concepts like, “...shall not be infringed.”
But that's not an excuse to continue in sin.
Not when we have the Holy Spirit in us to give us what we need to overcome.
1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
Yep. But I juxtapose that one against this from Paul:
Romans 7:15-20 (NIV)
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.
As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.
For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.
Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
Oops. I forgot the equally critical part, from 21-26:
So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
For in my inner being I delight in God’s law;
but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?
Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature[b] a slave to the law of sin.
These are those that may one day find out just what ‘I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire’ actually means.
“And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.”
Revelation 3:14-22
Been there, done that.
Matter of fact, still there way too many times.
Some people think that chapter 7 describes Paul before he was saved, but I disagree.
A saved person isn’t going to be that tormented over sin. Chapter 8 is the reassurance that we are not condemned even when we feel like it.
Just my opinion.
bmk
Some people think that chapter 7 describes Paul before he was saved, but I disagree.
And oddly, many people, to re-enforce their beliefs, will take a “symbolic language” approach to the rest of the new testament while reading Revelation literally. If it were not so serious, it would be funny.
Deuteronomy 4:19 & Malachi 1:11.
God has changed His mind?
Not trying to pick on you, but this is just a general request and a convenient post to use.
When posting Scripture, could you post the text as well instead of just the reference?
Not many people have Scripture memorized to the point where they know the text by reference alone.
And honestly, when someone does that, even *I* don’t bother looking up the text.
IMO, if someone has something they feel strongly enough to post Scripture about, and you know the reference, it only takes a few seconds more to add the text.
Thanks.
Irrelevant. God is telling the Israelites not to worship anything but Him.
And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars—all the heavenly array—do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.
Malachi 1:11
Also irrelevant. God is exalting His name.
My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to me, because my name will be great among the nations,” says the LORD Almighty.
Exactly, lost men aren’t under conviction of sin. Those under that conviction are those who have been given a new heart. I’ve read those who adopt a different understanding of Romans 7 and never found them persuasive. Paul was clearly writing about the believer’s ongoing war with his old sin nature.
I question anyone who claims Christ who doesn’t also believe they still deal with their old nature. As soon as I believe I’ve mortified one aspect of sin in my life my eyes are opened to another manifestation of sin. It’s never-ending. I know exactly what Paul was experiencing in verse 24 when he wrote, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”
I don’t understand your point. How are those passages at odds with John 14:6?
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