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“For the time will come when
men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit
their own desires, they will gather around them a great
number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to
hear.” – 2 Timothy 4:3
“I don’t really know that much
about prophecy,” someone recently told my wife. “That stuff
tends to depress me.” This person is a regular churchgoer,
and admittedly preferred hearing “edifying and encouraging”
messages in church. By her own admission, prophecy and
apologetics were just too “hard core” for her tastes. This
woman is not at all unusual. We get comments like this from
people all the time, who prefer to go to a “lite church”
that doesn’t challenge or admonish, and indeed hesitates to
toe any line on biblical doctrine.
My wife and
I live in the Seattle, Washington area. This is the
birthplace of Starbucks Coffee, and you can’t throw a rock
around here without hitting an espresso stand. One thing
that always perplexed me is people who would order a
non-fat, caffeine-free latte. Such an order defies logic,
and denies the basic purpose of a latte – that is to provide
at least four ounces of concentrated wakey wakey juice and
leave a frothy moustache on one’s upper lip! A similar
phenomenon is occurring within Christianity today. Churches
that expound the fundamentals of the gospel – that adhere
strictly to the truths of the Bible – are dwindling away.
In their place are arising mega-churches that preach a
watered-down, morally flexible doctrine that is meant to
make everyone smile, but does not challenge or prepare the
saints. These churches are preaching a non-fat,
caffeine-free gospel that is leaving its consumers
frighteningly unprepared to face the challenges of living in
and reaching a godless world for Christ.
Feel Good Theology
Watching the
news, reading the paper, or even reading the Contender
Ministries news section every day can be unsettling, and
even discouraging. The world in which we live is in a
steady state of moral decay. Trying to find an edifying and
heartwarming story on the news each day is like trying to
locate a contact lens on the bottom of an Olympic-size
swimming pool. But people want to be happy and
want to feel good. The assurance of the gospel is not
enough for us, and so we want those assurances reiterated
each and every week at church. We enjoy reading 1
Corinthians 13, but Romans 1 is just a little to heavy.
Many Christians find the world to be so depressing, that
they’d rather disassociate themselves from any
non-believers, nest comfortably into the gilded confines of
their church sanctuary, and rejoice in simply being right.
A New Social Theology
Sometimes I
feel that if I hear the words “tolerance” or “unity” one
more time, I’m going to involuntarily regurgitate my last
meal. It’s not that those words are bad in and of
themselves – they’re not. But in this day and age, those
words are being used to promote a social theology, as
opposed to a biblical and spiritual theology. In this new
theology, the Bible cannot be taken at face value. Romans 1
is not edifying and should not be valued, as it speaks of
the sins of lust and homosexuality. John 14:6 is divisive,
as it excludes non-Christian faiths and “spiritual
traditions.” This theology is morally and spiritually
relativist, and assumes that all roads lead to Rome, or in
this case, to salvation. Many “mainline” Protestant
denominations are being swayed by this new pluralist
theology, and even some evangelical churches are falling
prey as well. The hard and fast facts of sin and death,
salvation by faith in Christ and no other, and the
instructions for moral and godly living are compromised
where they are perceived as being intolerant of others.
Proponents of this theology will often talk of how Jesus
taught a message of love and acceptance. In truth, Jesus
taught of love for other people, but He also spoke of a
narrow path to salvation, and He never taught that sin
should be tolerated.
The time has
come to ask ourselves if we are truly committed to the
gospel of Jesus Christ, or are we in favor of what Episcopal
Bishop John Shelby Spong called, “A New Reformation.”
Adherence to the gospel means that we will not always find
social acceptance. It means that we may need to move from
our comfort zones to face an increasingly evil world that
promotes tolerance for everything but Christianity. It
means that we must equip ourselves, with the help of
motivated and biblically sound churches, to engage in battle
with the principalities and powers of this dark world
(Ephesians 6:12). If you are ready to fight the good fight,
you cannot be prepared by clinging to a caffeine-free diet
gospel. You must be spiritually fed and motivated to expose
the deeds of darkness.
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