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The deadly hypocrisy of Black Lives Matter

Posted by :admin On : June 19, 2020
1

Category: Culture Wars, Humanism, Marriage, Socialism, Truth

“To destroy a people, you must first sever their roots.”[1]

The above quote is from one of the twentieth century’s greatest truth tellers—Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008). Born in Russia, Solzhenitsyn studied mathematics, philosophy, literature, and history at the university level. He was thrice decorated for personal heroism as a Russian Army Officer during the fight against the Nazis in World War II. In 1945 he was arrested for criticizing Stalin in private correspondence and sentenced to an eight-year term in a labor camp. From that experience he wrote One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich which was published in 1962, the first of many books. In 1970 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. In 1974, he was stripped of his citizenship and expelled from the Soviet Union whereupon he moved to Vermont with his wife and four sons.[2]

I have taken time to briefly describe Solzhenitsyn’s background because his experiences and quiet words in defense of truth from such a man speaks far louder than the din of lies shouted by Black Lives Matter and their toadies including spineless politicians, the corrupt media, universities in name only, complicit mega-corporation billionaires, ranting Hollywood leftists, self-proclaimed “intellectuals,” and many corrupt voices/false teachers in the Church. Such lies cannot long stand against the timeless truth of which God is the author and finisher.

Regardless of their self-professed good intentions, the devil-doing of those leading and promoting Black Lives Matter is exposed by its own words on BLM’s official website[3] with regard to its beliefs and true objectives.

Black Lives Matter Beliefs and Goals

A thoughtful examination of just three of BLM’s goals gives a clear and frightening understanding of the damage that is being done in the war against the soul of American life and liberty including the culture at large and the average American family, black or white.

1. “We are self-reflexive and do the work required to dismantle cisgender privilege and uplift Black trans folk, especially Black trans women who continue to be disproportionately impacted by trans-antagonistic violence.”

BLM wishes to dismantle cisgender privilege. The term “cisgender” means “of, relating to, or being a person whose gender identity corresponds with the sex the person had or was identified as having at birth.”[4] Although the word may be unfamiliar to many, the concept that the two sexes equate to two genders is obvious to the vast majority of Americans and needs no label to explain it unless one is of the “woke” crowd.

Carla A. Pfeffer expands on Merriam Webster’s definition: “I grew up in a family with a cisgender and heterosexually identified mother and father of the same race (White) who had 2 children when they were well into their late 20s and early 30s and after they legally married with the full support of both their families.”[5]

For BLM, cisgender privilege has been transformed to be equivalent to white privilege. Such privilege cannot be eliminated without suppressing the carriers of this disease (privilege) by denigrating their belief systems. Therefore, the supposed evil that adherents to BLM ideology desire to dismantle are the dominant Judeo-Christian beliefs in the nuclear family, heterosexuality, marriage, and monogamy from which “white privilege” supposedly arises. However, the fatal flaw of BLM’s ideology regarding cisgender families is that the very nature of these beliefs is color-blind. To the contrary, the strength of cisgender families (of whatever color) rests on the universal truth of the values, beliefs, and structure of Judeo-Christian families.

2. “We foster a queer‐affirming network. When we gather, we do so with the intention of freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking, or rather, the belief that all in the world are heterosexual (unless s/he or they disclose otherwise).”

Now we come to “trans” by which is meant transgender and defined as “of, relating to, or being a person whose gender identity differs from the sex the person had or was identified as having at birth.”[6] And trans does not mean just male and female but a whole alphabet of identities such as LGBTQ+. However, deny it as they might, it is one’s biological sex that determines gender, and there are just two. BLM calls this belief being in the “tight grip of heteronormative thinking.”

3. “We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and “villages” that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable.”

BLM wishes to disrupt (disorder, upset) the nuclear family structure by supporting (replacing) it with extended families and “villages” (also infamously promoted by Hillary Clinton). This group care for children promises to limit such care “to the degree that mothers, parents, and children (what about fathers?) are comfortable.” Tell that to parents who have unsuccessfully objected to the things taught in their child’s classroom that made them uncomfortable (e.g., transgenderism).

History reveals the fatal flaw of BLM ideology with regard to the nuclear family, marriage, monogamy, and heterosexuality.

1. Nuclear family, marriage, and monogamy

Daniel Patrick Moynihan retired from the United States Senate (Democratic Senator from New York) in 2000. Near the beginning of his career he was an assistant Secretary of Labor in Lyndon Johnson’s presidency. At the time of his retirement, the senator was asked to describe the biggest change he had seen in his forty years of government service. Articulate and intellectual, the distinguished public servant, having served both Democratic and Republican presidents, replied, “The biggest change, in my judgment, is that the family structure has come apart all over the North Atlantic world” and had occurred in “an historical instant. Something that was not imaginable forty years ago had happened.” Author of the 1965 Moynihan Report officially known as “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action”, Moynihan knew that of which he spoke.[7]

Enormously controversial at the time of its release, the report continues to be a topic of debate in the twenty-first century. The report characterized the instability of the black families in America and the importance of the family unit in providing that stability.

At the heart of the deterioration of the fabric of Negro society is the deterioration of the Negro Family. It is the fundamental source of the weakness of the Negro community at the present time…The role of the family in shaping character and ability is so pervasive as to be easily overlooked. The family is the basic social unit of American life; it is the basic socializing unit. By and large, adult conduct in society is learned as a child…the child learns a way of looking at life in his early years through which all later experience is viewed and which profoundly shapes his adult conduct.[8]

Writing shortly after Moynihan’s perceptive summation of the condition of the family structure, William Bennett noted the deep concern of Americans with regard to the family. Bennett pointed to the general instability of the American family and the contributing factors such as the decline in the status and centrality of marriage in society, substantially greater percentage of out-of-wedlock births, and the significant increase in co-habitation. With the decline of social perception and necessity of matrimony, children are less valued, more neglected, more vulnerable to non-family influences, and have less resources devoted for their care and benefit. Bennett wrote that, “Public attitudes toward marriage, sexual ethics, and child-rearing have radically altered for the worse. In Sum, the family has suffered a blow that has no historical precedent—and one that has enormous ramifications for American society.”[9]

Two decades have elapsed since Moynihan’s diagnosis of the disintegration of the family unit as the major modern affliction of the Western world and Bennett’s reporting of Americans’ purported concern for the survival of the family. It is no longer the problem of the black population. The deterioration of the family unit is pervasive and crosses all ethnic, socio-economic, and religious lines although the poor and disadvantaged bear a greater portion of the misery. Yet, there has been no public hue and cry to reverse the decline, no urgency or sense of crisis in dealing with the problem, no new series of government studies explaining the situation, and no investigative reporting or meaningful media attention regarding the most profound change in society that has had no historical precedent. Why is this so? The answer is that the solutions to reverse the decline and devastation of marriage and the family unit stand as polar opposites of the prevailing and pervasive humanistic worldview of which Black Lives Matter is the current purveyor of this cultural carnage. Its own website condemns it.

2. Heterosexuality

Heterosexual marriage is the central organizing concept in society. By contrast, homosexuality is a disorganizing concept with regard to human relationships and ultimately disorganizing in building stable, enduring societies. Heterosexual marriage orders the soul whereas sexual intimacy outside of marriage, co-habitation, divorce (apart from infidelity and willful desertion), and homosexuality (with or without benefit of a civil union) are inherently disorderly and destructive. History and human nature attest to these assertions for according to researchers, heterosexual married life as opposed to all other similar social arrangements provides greater financial security, better health and sex, and a longer and better life.[10]

Bennett called marital love that rests upon a foundation of unconditional commitment as “…safer, more enduring, and more empowering that any sentiment yet discovered or any human arrangement yet invented.” He credits these attributes to the basic heterosexual complementarity of man and woman joined together as one in marital love. The complementariness of the relationship is based on the differences, not just the physical but also the emotional and psychological. As the physical differences make sexual union possible, so too do the emotional and psychological differences of the marriage partners complement and complete each other.[11] The union becomes stronger than its parts.

In the longer term, homosexuality and same-sex marriage undermine society. The central cultural vision upon on which the nation was founded was based on biblical Christianity and its understanding of the nature of man and his origins. The truth of the Christian worldview of marriage as being between a man and woman is supported by the fact that it is a cultural universal imprinted on human nature and common to all people groups, all cultures, and all ages in history. Heterosexual marriage is the well-spring of civilization, and its centrality in the human experience is indisputable. Humans have fashioned numerous methods by which to organize their societies, but the common link to all is the family unit—a father, a mother, and children living together in bonds of committed caring.

God created heterosexual marriage as a cultural universal, and the strength and unity provided by this universal is the foundation of a strong and enduring society. Where traditional marriage is in broad disarray, as it is in most Western societies, it does not disprove the truth of the heterosexual marriage universal but rather speaks of the ravages caused by the ascending humanist worldview. Where traditional marriage declines, so do those societies decline that allow it to occur.
______

During the turmoil in America of the late 1960s and early 1970s, Russell Kirk wrote The Roots of the American Order, a book of exceptional scope and insight into the origins of America. Summarizing the words of Simone Weil, Kirk states that “…order is the path we follow, or the pattern by which we live with purpose and meaning. Above food and shelter, she continues, we must have order. The human condition is insufferable unless we perceive a harmony, an order in existence.” Kirk identified two roots of this order: the order of the soul (moral order) and the order of the republic (social order), and they are intricately linked and dependent on each other. Disorder of one leads to disorder of the other.[12]

The American order that was established by the founders was not an “ideology” nor a “thing” created for the moment. Rather, the American order is a living culture whose roots have grown over millennia and were watered by the sound principles of moral and civil social order arising from eternal truths and the revelation of God to the Hebrews and the first century Christians. America was established on these eternal truths and the revelation in which the Founders believed, and upon these pillars they built the greatest nation in the history of the world.

Kirk’s roots of order are the same roots of which Solzhenitsyn spoke in the quote given at the beginning of this article. BLM is attempting to sever those roots along with America’s cultural norms, traditions, beliefs, and even our history and that of Western civilization. Those severed roots are to be replaced with a humanistic cultural Marxist society whose citizens will be subject to machinations of an autonomous socialistic state and its evil overseers. Such a society will be devoid of the three essential elements of the good society: divine order, justice, and freedom.

Do not fool yourselves by blithely dismissing the challenge of BLM. Our present struggle is an existential war of the highest magnitude between good and evil, and the conflict is spreading around the world. What must Americans to do who love this nation and its history? For the answer we look once again to the wisdom of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in which he gives us both the diagnosis of our plight and a prescription for preserving America’s Judeo-Christian cultural heritage and its attendant freedom.

“In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it (evil) will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers . . . we are ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.”[13]

“The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. One word of truth outweighs the world.”[14]

Larry G. Johnson
June 19, 2020

[1] “Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn,” AZQuotes, https://www.azquotes.com/author/13869-Aleksandr_Solzhenitsyn (accessed June 18, 2020).
[2] “Biography,” The Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Center, https://www.solzhenitsyncenter.org/his-life-overview/biography (accessed June 18, 2020).
[3] “What We Believe,” Black Lives Matter, https://blacklivesmatter.com/what-we-believe/ (accessed June 18, 2020).
[4] “Cisgender,” Merriam Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cisgender (accessed June 18, 2020).
[5] Ibid.
[6] “Transgender,” Merriam Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/transgender (accessed June 18, 2020).
[7] William J. Bennett, The Broken Hearth, (New York: Doubleday, 2001), pp. 2, 85.
[8] Lee Rainwater and William L. Yancey, The Moynihan Report and the Politics of Controversy, (Cambridge Massachusetts: M.I.T. Press, 1967), p. 3.
[9] Bennett, pp. 1-2.
[10] Ibid., pp. 14-188.
[11] Ibid., pp. 186-187
[12] Russell Kirk, The Roots of American Order, (Washington D. C.: Regnery-Gateway, 1991), pp. 3-5.
[13] Solzhenitsyn, AZ Quotes.
[14] Ibid.

The “damnable heresies” of Kristin Chenoweth

Posted by :admin On : March 24, 2017
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Category: Archives, Christianity, Homosexuality, Truth

Kristen Chenoweth was born in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Adopted by Jerry and Junie Chenoweth soon after her birth, she grew up in Broken Arrow and graduated from high school. After graduation, she studied Musical Theater at Oklahoma City University. Over the next three decades, the forty-nine year old singer-actress became a well-known star of Broadway, screen, and television.[1] Ms. Chenoweth also became a spokesperson for various organizations and causes including Americans for Marriage Equality which supports laws that allow same-sex marriage and for whom she made a promotional video. In a Huffington Post interview, Ms. Chenoweth said, “Look, the bottom line is that regardless of how you were made or who you love, you should be able to get married if you want to get married. I truly believe it’s that simple.”[2]

Chenoweth professes to be a Christian but doesn’t want there to be any confusion about what she believes.

I don’t believe gay people are going to hell. I believe that judgment is left to the one upstairs and I believe Jesus is all about love. If I can live my life even just a smidgen the way God made his son for us as an example, I’m happy. I do not judge other people for what they believe, but for me, this is what works…I don’t believe if you’re gay or you have a drink or you dance, you’re going to hell. I don’t think that’s the kind of God we have. The Pat Robertsons and Jerry Falwells of the world are scary. I want to be a Christian like Christ – loving and accepting of other people.[3]

Although Chenoweth claims she doesn’t judge other people for what they believe, that absence of judgment does not extend to Christians who disagree with her rejection of the biblical view of homosexuality as a sin.

…I just want it [gay marriage] to hurry up and not be an issue anymore! I’m very proud of the work that has been done so far, I want us to hurry it up a bit more. I think it’s important to say this because a lot of people think if you’re religious or you have any sort of faith, you’re automatically against equality in marriage.

It is the antithesis of what I believe. It is the antithesis of what you should believe if you
believe in Jesus. It’s not what he taught, it’s the opposite of what he taught. If Jesus was to walk the Earth today, or Buddha or anybody, they would be horrified. Those people saying they’re doing it in the name of God? No, no, no, no, no.[4]

Chenoweth credits her grandmother for instilling her with some of her pro-gay beliefs.

Even as a young child, I thought, “Why is being gay bad?” I didn’t understand it. So I asked my grandma, who is the best Christian I ever knew. I’d say, “What about my friend Denny, he’s gay, is he going to hell?” She told me, “I read the Bible like I eat fish. I take the meat that serves me well but I don’t choke on the bone.”[5]

Chenoweth’s outspoken opinions reveal her basic beliefs about Christianity, Jesus, the Bible, and homosexuality, all of which are heretical to biblical Christianity. From her remarks, we may glean the following beliefs.

• Homosexuality is not a sin because homosexuals were made that way and ought to be allowed to marry.
• Christians should not judge other people for what they believe or do.
• Jesus is all about love and accepting people so we should not judge anyone.
• The Bible is not the inspired word of God. Therefore, not all of what the Bible says is true because the Bible contains error and false teachings.

For the Christian, truth is found in the inerrant word of God—the Bible—which forms the basis for one’s the opinions, doctrines, and practices of Christianity. The definition of heresy is an opinion, doctrine, or practice contrary to the truth or to generally accepted beliefs or standards. Ms. Chenoweth’s beliefs, opinions, and practices are unquestionably heretical by any standard or measure whether it is the plain language of the Scripture, reason, tradition, historical record, or scholarly study. Yet, Chenoweth’s beliefs are not uncommon but widespread in the general culture at large and within the church world as well. We shall examine her beliefs in light of what the Bible has to say.

Homosexuality is not a sin

Chenoweth believes that one who is engaged in homosexual activity will not be condemned to hell, but the Apostle Paul says that homosexuality is a sin, and the wages of sin is death.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth…Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own person the due penalty for their error.” [Romans 1: 18, 24-27. RSV] [emphasis added]

Because of Ms. Chenoweth’s defense of homosexuality and homosexual marriage, in Paul’s words she has suppressed the truth and embraced the lie. Therefore, she is preaching a false gospel.

Christians should not judge other people for what they believe

The world often chastises the Christian for judging non-Christians. They point to the phrase “judge not lest ye be judged” and thereby demand tolerance for the sinful behavior of non-Christians (see Matthew 7:1-5). But these verses generally apply to fellow believers. What Jesus is saying is that believers should not get in the habit of criticizing others while ignoring one’s own faults. For a Christian brother or sister who sins, Matthew 18:15-17 provides a specific manner for dealing with those situations.

However, the world takes the “judge not” verses of Matthew 7:1-5 out of context when dealing with non-Christians in an attempt to defend sinful behavior that clearly violates the commandments found in the Bible. Christians are allowed to make judgments with regard to sin in others.[6] But making such judgments is not done for the purpose of condemnation. Christians and the church should gently reach out to individual non-believers with love and kindness in the hope of a sharing the truth of the message of Jesus Christ.

There is a third area in which Christians are to judge sinful behavior in the world. Christians would be remiss if they did not speak out about sinful behavior and beliefs which debase and corrupt government and society as a whole. This becomes even more crucial when such sin invades the church. This occurs when Christians-in-name-only are in reality false teachers in the church whose goal is to lead the flock astray. Christians are to use discernment when making judgement of those who appear to be Christians but are really false teachers and false prophets (see Matthew 7:15-20). How are these false teachers recognized? If anyone teaches other than the word of God, they are false teachers and must be vehemently and publicly confronted as Jesus did with the Pharisees in Matthew 23. Chenoweth falls within this category of judgment because she is promoting/teaching a heretical gospel that opposes the truth of the word of God and therefore is a false teacher.

Jesus is all about love and accepting people, and he will not condemn homosexuality as a sin

In an attempt to continue as a moral force within the culture by becoming culturally relevant, many churches gradually have compromised the biblical message, mixed the light with darkness, and preached nonjudgmental love without the necessity of repentance and turning from sin. This is also the message of Kristen Chenoweth—Christ’s love is all that matters. But martyred German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer preached that this message of nonjudgmental love produces only a cheap grace.

Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church…In such a Church the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin…Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner…Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.[7]

Cheap grace is the end product of preaching the world’s definition of nonjudgmental love which attempts to redefine, hide, or deny sin but does not eradicate it. Rather, it makes a mockery of Christ’s death on the cross to purchase forgiveness for mankind’s sin. Cheap grace makes the shedding of His blood at Calvary irrelevant for man’s redemption.

The Bible is not the inspired word of God but contains error and false teachings

For Chenoweth, the Bible is comparable to a plate of fish. One may pick and choose what one wishes and discard the rest. Her belief is that Jesus would love, accept, and have relationship with the homosexual while they continue in their sin. But this belief contradicts Paul’s warning to the Romans when he called such activity dishonorable passions and shameful acts which lead to eternal separation from God. Because of Chenoweth’s twisted view, the Scripture cannot be divine revelation but is in effect the product of changing conceptions of God within an evolving culture. When partaking of Chenoweth’s biblical smorgasbord, one may consume the meat of God’s love but leave bones of contrition, repentance, and turning from sin. But Christ said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” [John 14:15. KJV]
______

Kristen Chenoweth is but one of a massive number of high-profile people in the arts, media, entertainment, and other fields who profess to be followers of Christ but are false teachers. This is not surprising for the Bible warns that there will be false teachers within the church.

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive (damnable KJV) heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their licentiousness, and because of them the way of truth will be reviled. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words; from of old their condemnation has not been idle, and their destruction has not been asleep. [2 Peter 2:1-3. RSV] [emphasis added]

And what of the multitudes being deceived by these false teachers? Paul tells us the reason people follow them.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. [2 Timothy 4:34. KJV]

In his letter to Timothy, Paul described these Christians-in-name-only in the emerging apostasy of the last days in which men and women who once knew Christ reject or abandon their faith.

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. [2 Timothy 3:1-7. KJV] [emphasis added]

True Christians must turn away from the Kristin Chenoweths of the world. God commands it.

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:

[1] “Kristen Chenoweth – Biography,” IMDb, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0155693/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm (accessed March 20, 1017).
[2] Curtis M. Yong, “Kristen Chenoweth Speaks Out For Gay Marriage As Part Of HRC’s ‘American’s for Marriage Equality’ Effort,” The Huffington Post, updated February 2, 2016.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/21/kristin-chenoweth-gay-marriage-hrc-_n_5697743.
html (accessed March 20, 2016).
[3] “Kristen Chenoweth – Biography,” UNDb.
[4] J. R. Tungol, “Kristin Chenoweth Talks Marriage Equality, Anti-gay Christians,” The Huffington Post, updated February 2, 2016. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/07/kristin-chenoweth-gay-marriage-christianity_n_2828968.html (accessed March 20, 2016).
[5] Sheila Marikar, “Kristen Chenoweth Defends ‘GCB’s’ Gay Plotline,” ABC News, March 5, 2012. http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/kristin-chenoweth-gcb-christians-gays/story? id=15828618 (accessed March 5, 2017).
[6] Commentary on Matthew 7:1-5, The Full Life Study Bible, King James Version, ed. Donald C. Stamps, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Bible Publishers, 1990), p. 1691.
[7] Erwin W. Lutzer, When a Nation Forgets God, (Chicago, Illinois: Moody Publishers, 2010), pp. 117- 118.

Take heed that no man deceive you – Part I

Posted by :admin On : September 9, 2016
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Category: Archives, Christianity, Truth, Worldview

The Apostle Paul’s second letter to Thessalonians speaks of the great falling away from the Christian faith in last days of the age just before the rapture of the church.

Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition…[2 Thessalonians 2:1-3. KJV]

As the end of the last days nears, great numbers of the professing church will depart from biblical truth in both word and deed. This departure is called apostasy and means to “fall away” which is characterized by rebellion and abandonment of truth. Within the church, the apostasy will take two forms. The first is theological apostasy in which false leaders will depart from and reject part or all of the New Testament teachings of Christ and the apostles. Under these false leaders and teachers, a false salvation and cheap grace will replace salvation through Christ’s atoning sacrifice at Calvary, repentance, turning from sin, and adherence to God’s standards of living. The false leaders and teachers will offer a gospel centered on the self and its needs and desires. The second type is moral apostasy in which one severs his relationship with Christ and embraces sin and immorality. Although proclaiming right doctrine and New Testament Christianity’s teachings, they will abandon the moral standards as taught by the New Testament. These moral standards are exchanged for money, success, honor, and a large following.[1] Others ignore the Bible’s moral standards because they have been deceived into believing such compromise is necessary in the modern culture in order to accomplish Christ’s great commission of winning the lost.

The collective worldviews of the inhabitants of a civilization or a nation becomes the central cultural vision which informs and directs that civilization or nation with regard to ultimate questions of reality, truth, and right and wrong behavior. For fifteen hundred years the Christian worldview has been the foundation and central cultural vision of Western civilization. However, beginning about AD 1200, humanist ideologies began challenging the Christian worldview for supremacy in Western thought with regard to reality, truth, and concepts of right and wrong. America resisted the humanist onslaught far longer than Europe because of the biblical foundations for governance established by the early colonists and later Founders of the American republic. But by the latter part of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, humanism had displaced the once dominant Christian leadership in all spheres of American life.

The erosion of Western civilization’s Christian roots had been a gradual process until the twentieth century when the forces of humanism had gained critical mass in the various spheres of culture. The once powerful and culturally dominant Christian Church was rapidly displaced and subsequently abandoned the culture—one segment by surrender (the liberals) and the other by retreat from the culture (the fundamentalists-evangelicals).

The liberal church had become fully apostate by the 1930s, and much of the leadership of many once conservative evangelical churches was well on the road to apostasy by the end of the twentieth century. Elements of the Catholic Church have been apostate for much of its history (certain popes, universities, certain congregations, and other elements of the church hierarchy). These apostate elements have recently been joined in their apostasy by Pope Francis, the current Pope of the Catholic Church. Considering what has happened over the last two hundred years in Europe and America, Kevin Swanson called this period “the most significant Christian apostasy of all time. As measured by sheer numbers, there is no other apostasy so extensive in recorded history.”[2]

Christians who know God’s word should not be surprised at this raging apostasy in the church in our time because the Bible records numerous prophesies in both the Old and New Testaments that these events would occur just before the end of the last days. In their respective ministries, both Jesus and John spent considerable time warning against apostasy and impending judgement.[3] In Matthew 24, after Jesus and His disciples left the temple, they went to the Mount of Olives where the disciples asked questions with regard to the sign of His coming and the end of the world. In verses 4 through 14, Jesus gave them general signs and events leading up to the rapture which will be followed by the seven-year tribulation period that will bring about the end of the age. The signs that Jesus gave in these verses characterize the events preceding the rapture, and these events will intensify as that time approaches. In verse 4, Jesus warned His disciples to “Take heed that no man deceive you.” One of the signs of the end of the last days is found in verse 11, “And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.” [Matthew 24:11. KJV] Because so many false prophets and religious compromisers have emerged in recent times, religious deception has become rampant throughout the planet.[4]

Apostasy may occur on a national scale where an entire nation may move away from the biblical foundations upon which their civilization was built. This has occurred in Europe and has substantially happened in America. Apostasy may also happen within segments of peoples within a nation, large denominations, local churches, and individuals. At whatever level apostasy occurs, it is the result of a shift in perspective and decrease in the commitment to a biblical understanding of reality, truth, and right and wrong. This ultimately causes large numbers of people to abandon their Christian faith entirely. Although they may retain some peripheral link with the church and Christian culture, the life sustaining connection with Christ has withered and died.[5]

The Bible has much to say about false prophets. Listed below is just a sampling of verses from both the Old and New Testaments that deal with false prophets and religious compromisers.

I have given heed and listened but they have not spoken aright; no man repents of his wickedness, saying, “What have I done?” Every one turns to his own course, like a horse plunging headlong into battle…How can you say, “We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us”? But, behold, the false pen of the scribes has made it into a lie. The wise men shall be put to shame, they shall be dismayed and taken; lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord and what wisdom is in them. [Jeremiah 8:5-6, 8-9. RSV]

Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions; they have not exposed your iniquity to restore your fortunes, but have seen for you oracles false and misleading. [Lamentations 2:14. RSV]

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for it is because of these things that the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore, do not associate with them. [Ephesians 5:6-7. RSV]

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves…Thus you will know them by their fruits. Not every one who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father, who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many might works in your name?” And then will I declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.” [Matthew 7:15, 20-23. RSV]

For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is not strange if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds. [2 Corinthians 11:13-15. RSV]

For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. [Matthew 24:24. RSV]

The Bible tells us that “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” [Hosea 4:6. KJV] One of the reasons for the ease with which false prophets and religious compromisers have gained great followings in the last days is a lack of knowledge of His people. Much of the modern church is being spiritually destroyed because of the deadly combination of a lack of knowledge of God’s word and a lack of knowledge of the humanistic spirit of the age that has infiltrated the church. Without a thorough knowledge of the word of God, people cannot have a worldview that gives a rightly-ordered understanding of reality, truth, and right and wrong. Apostasy arises and spreads within His church because of deception. Lack of knowledge becomes the breeding ground for deception and apostasy.

The principal conflict of worldviews is between humanism and Christianity. Where Christians, see God as the ultimate authority in truth, reality, law, man’s salvation, man’s life and worship, humanists see man himself as the ultimate authority. That is why there is a war of worldviews in which Christianity battles against humanism’s materialism, egalitarianism, utilitarianism, abortion advocacy, evolution, socialism, and deviant sexuality.[6]

In this series we will look at specific instances of religious compromisers and false prophets that have risen to leadership within the church during these last days at the end of the age. To varying degrees they have become theologically and morally apostate. Their words, works, associations, and worldviews will be examined and compared to the unchangeable words and meaning of the Bible, and by their fruits we shall know them for what they are—apostates!

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:

[1] Donald C. Stamps, Study Notes and Articles, The Full Life Study Bible – New Testament, King James Version, gen. ed. Donald C. Stamps, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Bible Publishers, 1990), p. 478.
[2] Kevin Swanson, Apostate – The Men who destroyed the Christian West, (Parker, Colorado: Generations with Vision, 2013), p. 19.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Larry G. Johnson, “The Growing Apostasy in the Last Days– Part IV,” culturewarrior.net. June 3, 2016. https://www.culturewarrior.net/2016/06/03/growing-apostasy-in-the-last-days-part-iv/
[5] Swanson, p. 20.
[6] Ibid., p. 34-35.

The America Church – 2 – Knowing God

Posted by :admin On : September 11, 2015
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Category: American Church, Archives, Truth

To know God is the universal and unending quest of all mankind. No culture or age is exempt, whether ancient or modern. In man alone among all of God’s creation there exists an incompleteness which compels him to seek solace. Earthly things do not satisfy, and man’s gaze is inevitably drawn to the heavens which stir in him vague memories and ancient voices from the past that pierce the soul and hint of a time when he was whole. It is God whom he seeks and must know to assuage the loneliness and emptiness of his existence.

Ancient man knew there were “…things, not of this world, but mysterious and superior, and worthy of being sought to the exclusion of everything else.”[1] And through religion he sought to know his Creator. Speaking of a time before God revealed himself to the ancient Hebrews and first century Christians, the Apostle Paul wrote of this perceived truth.

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse; for although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles. [Romans 1:19-23, RSV]

The perceived truth of which Paul spoke, those things not of this world, are the norms, the permanent things, to which mankind must adhere in order to live. It is a moral order that transcends time. It is not instinct or learned behavior through time. Those norms or permanent things are applicable to all of mankind and to all ages. Following the fall of man and separation from God, men knew of good and evil.[2] But as time advanced man’s understanding of good and evil diminished.[3] Recorded over a 1,600-year span of time, the revelation to the Hebrews and the first century Christians brought illumination, order, and meaning to those pre-revelation norms or permanent things and which mankind had forgotten but perceived and endeavored to know. Man could not only know of God’s power and deity, they could know Him as Father God.

J. I. Packer asks a question and then answers it with regard to the purpose of mankind: “What were we made for? To know God.”[4] John the Apostle gives the answer as to “why” knowing God is the most important quest of one’s life. “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” [John 17:3, KJV] It is only through knowing God, not just knowing about Him, that we can have eternal life with God. And we can only know God through knowing his Son Jesus Christ the mediator for “…I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the father but by me.” [John 14:6, KJV] To know God is to repent of sin and accept Jesus Christ as one’s Lord and Savior. Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross bridged the chasm caused by man’s broken relationship with God. This is the only remedy that will provide solace for lost man’s loneliness and emptiness in this life and eternity hereafter.

The essence of God is truth. To know God is to know truth. Christ came to earth as man but also God incarnate to testify unto the truth. The night of his betrayal, Christ stood before Pilate who asked Jesus, “…‘Art that a king then?’ Jesus answered, ‘Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice.’” [John 18:37, KJV] [emphasis added]

For 2000 years this has been the goal of the faithful who claim to hear his voice: to know God and therefore to know truth. Why is it then that the various branches of the church who claim to know God preach truths that point in so many different directions? Several answers suggest themselves: man is a fallen creature and has a corrupt nature, man has freewill, and there is tempter who seeks to strike at God through destruction of His creation. And every generation of the church (the people of God) have faced Satan’s snares and deception in their quest for truth.

Every generation since Christ’s crucifixion has faced the same difficulties. Even the apostles and early giants of the church encountered dissension and corruption while sorting out truth under the direction and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps one of the most important disputes within the early church is recorded in Acts 15 and Galatians 2.

The dispute arose over some men who came from Judea to Antioch and taught that unless the Gentile brethren were circumcised as commanded by Jewish law that they cannot be saved. Paul and Barnabas took great exception to this teaching and traveled to Jerusalem to meet with the apostles and elders regarding the matter. The essence of Paul’s argument was that nothing, be it circumcision or anything else, was necessary for justification other than faith in Christ Jesus. James and the other apostles readily agreed with Paul and sent letters of instruction to the Antioch church that circumcision was not a requirement of salvation. [Acts 15]

These instructions were compatible with an earlier revelation to the Apostle Peter while visiting Simon the tanner whose house was next to the seaside in Joppa. After falling into a trance, Peter had a vision that challenged his Jewish conception of the larger issue of who could be a part of God’s kingdom. Somewhat doubtful of the message brought by the vision, God had arranged a divine appointment for Peter with a Roman army officer by the name of Cornelius, a Gentile but a devout man who feared God. Through this encounter Peter recognized that Gentiles were to be included in Christ’s kingdom. [Acts 10]

Even with all of his faults and impetuousness, Peter was the pre-eminent disciple of the twelve. Deeply emotional, he was passionate in his love and devotion to the Savior. It was to Peter that the Father revealed Jesus as “…the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” [Matthew 16:15-17. KJV]

Paul, having neither Peter’s spiritual credentials nor having been a disciple when Christ was on the earth, counted himself unworthy to be called an apostle because he had persecuted the church of God. Yet, he was bold in his proclamation of the truth and not apologetic about his labors. “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me.” [1 Corinthians 15:10, RSV]

In his letter to the Galatians, Paul spoke of his encounter with Peter when he came among the Gentiles at Antioch. At first, Peter fellowshipped and ate with the Gentiles. But when other Jewish Christians from Jerusalem arrived, Peter feared their disapproval and separated himself from the Gentiles. Because of his stature and influence in the church, other Jews and even Barnabas followed Peter’s example (see Galatians 2:11-13). Commenting on Peter’s cowardice in the face of possible criticism from other Jewish Christians, Matthew Henry wrote of “The weakness and inconsistency of the best of men, and how apt they are to falter in their duty to God, out of undue regard to the pleasing of men,” and of “The great force of bad examples, especially the examples of great men and good men.”[5]

Led by the Spirit, fearless Paul rose to the challenge and publicly rebuked Peter, his elder in age and prestige, because of Peter’s actions and example and the others for following him (see Galatians 2:14). This was a monumental moment in the history of the church because the whole course of Christianity and the way of salvation were at stake and depended on the correct understanding of truth. Peter’s actions and example could not be ignored for the sake of unity or the greater good. If one accepts that all scripture is inspired by the leading of the Holy Spirit, Paul’s account of the confrontation in his letter to the Galatians is divine affirmation of Paul’s understanding of the truth and is also consistent with Peter’s earlier acknowledgement of the inclusion of the Gentile’s in Christ’s kingdom.

The modern evangelical church in America is in great distress and suffering attack from within and without. In the following chapters we shall briefly survey the history of the church down through ages. With this foundation as a guide, we shall extensively examine the afflictions and failings of the evangelical church over the last 125 years that have led to its demise as a moral force necessary to stem the decline of American culture. These afflictions have arisen over the centuries because the church has made its authority the equal or superior to the Bible in many areas, has absorbed the spirit of the world, and has misinterpreted its proper role and relationship with government and other spheres of life.

Christians must once again plumb the depths of truth found in the unadulterated Word of God and follow the examples of Paul and others of the faithful from generations past who faced persecution and death as they spoke truth in the face of error, heresy, weakness, worldliness, and inconsistencies within the church. The revival of the church rests on knowing God. And knowing God begins and ends with the sola scriptura—the scriptures only.

Clarification of the meaning of truth

In the following chapters we may speak of biblical truths, scientific truths, or attach some other adjective to truth or truths. This is done for purposes of narrowing the discussion and illumination of the topic under consideration. However, these various labels applied to truth are not meant to imply that there are categories or types of truth in which each stands alone. This is what modern secular society does when it compartmentalizes truth and labels each compartment as containing a different kind of truth. For example, the world classifies scientific knowledge as fact which is binding on everyone. Such truths are termed rational, objective, and universally valid and apply to science, economics, politics, and the rest of the public arena. The remainder is consigned to religious truth deemed to be personal preferences, feelings, and individual choices which are non-rational, subjective, and relative only to particular groups. One of the consequences of this dichotomy is that religion is no longer considered a source of objective knowledge and therefore does not have a voice or authority in other realms of society. Thus, values are detached from the realm of true and false.[6] But as Francis Schaeffer points out, there is only one truth.

Christianity is not a series of truths in the plural, but rather truth spelled with a capital “T.” Truth about total reality, not just about religious things. Biblical Christianity is Truth concerning total reality—and the intellectual holding of that total Truth and then living in the light of that Truth.[7] [emphasis added]

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:

[1] Larry G. Johnson, Ye shall be as gods-Humanism and Christianity-The Battle for Supremacy in the American Cultural Vision, (Owasso, Oklahoma: Anvil House Publishers, 2011), p. 77.
[2] Genesis 3:22, KJV.
[3] William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, Vol. 1-Book I & II, (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1910), pp. 25-28; Acts 17:30, RSV.
[4] J. I. Packer, Knowing God, (Downers Grove, Illinois: IVP Books, 1973), p. 33.
[5] Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, ed. Rev. Leslie F. Church, Ph.D.,(Grand Rapids, Michigan, Zondervan Publishing House, 1961), p. 1840.
[6] Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth, (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2004, 2005), pp. 20-21
[7] Ibid., p. 15, quoted from Francis Schaeffer’s address at the University of Notre Dame, April, 1981.

The American Church – 1 – Love letters to my family

Posted by :admin On : September 4, 2015
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Category: American Church, Archives, Truth

Following the feast of the Passover the night Jesus was betrayed, He spoke to his disciples of a new commandment.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another. [John 13:34-35. RSV]

Clearly, Jesus intends for there to be a special love between all true Christians by which is meant everyone in the world who has been born again and walks in the historic biblical faith regardless of denomination or fellowship. This special love binds the church in oneness or unity as expressed by Christ when he prayed for the church.

I do not pray for these only (the disciples), but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them, and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me. [John 17:20-23. RSV]

We Christians haven’t done a very good job of becoming “perfectly one” before a watching world, especially when differences arise within the church. But differences will always occur within the body and must be resolved. It is how those differences are addressed that determines our witness before the world. If there is a lack of true love one for another, those differences will lead to great strife, turmoil, and bitterness. To achieve God’s standard of oneness requires Christians to simultaneously practice God’s holiness and God’s love. God is holy and God is love. Love without holiness is compromise. Holiness without love leads to harshness, strife, and discord.[1]

So how does the church and individual Christians do a better job of addressing their differences before a watching world? Francis Schaeffer believes that we must obey the Bible equally in doctrine and the way we live in all facets of life.

But if we truly believe this, then something must be considered. Truth carries with it confrontation. Truth demands confrontation; loving confrontation, but confrontation nevertheless. If our reflex action is always accommodation regardless of the centrality of the truth involved, there is something wrong.[2] [emphasis in original]

I have titled the first chapter on the American evangelical church as “Love letters to my family.” They are love letters which I write with a grieving heart. I love the evangelical church and all of my born-again brothers and sisters in Christ. But today’s evangelical church is not simultaneously practicing God’s holiness and God’s love, and we are at a time of confrontation. There are many godly men and women who are far superior to this author in biblical knowledge, Christian love, and spiritual maturity but who also believe it is a time to confront the spirit of the world that has invaded the church.

In the first part of this book we shall briefly survey the history of the church since its inception two thousand years ago. Understanding the central themes, successes, and failures in its history is important and will give insight and perspective to the issues faced by today’s Christian church. More importantly, we shall extensively examine the infiltration of the modern church by the spirit of the world which has led to its demise as a moral force necessary to stem the decline of American culture.

The spirit of the world

Over the course of its history, the church has suffered attack from within (theological compromise) and without (cultural compromise), but the principal thrust of both attacks can be described as nothing less than the diminution and final abandonment of biblical truth. As will be seen in the upcoming chapters, this diminution and abandonment of truth has occurred because the church has failed to recognize and resist the spirit of the world which has invaded the church.

To recognize the spirit of the world is to know that it is the complete antithesis of the nature and character of God. Where God is truth, it is a lie. Where God is just, it is injustice. Where God is love, it is hate. Where Godliness means life, it leads to death. Where God is goodness and mercy, it is sin and cruelty. The spirit of the world is Satan’s chameleon—always refining its outward allure to match the demands of a culture but remains unchangeably corrupt within. The spirit of the world has plagued mankind since Satan tempted Eve in the Garden. It has been Satan’s tool of choice by which he attempts to destroy the church.

The spirit of the world during an age of rampant humanism has redefined and compartmentalized the meaning of truth in all spheres of American life. Decades of this humanistic view of truth has been absorbed by most Christians and evangelical churches. They now unconsciously accept the heresy that there are two sources of truth—religious truth and all other truth newly enthroned by the enlightened age of science and reason. In one half of the dichotomy are matters of science and reason. This truth is considered to be public truth and applies to all individuals and to all spheres of public life including the physical sciences, social sciences, politics, economics, and the arts. The other half of humanism’s dichotomy of truth is limited to religious truth which is oriented toward religion and involves matters of personal opinion such as the existence of God, values, and morality. Since these are deemed to be personal beliefs, they are considered as being non-rational, subjective, and have no basis in fact in the natural world and therefore privatized which is to say they have no voice in the affairs of the other spheres of American life.[3] Particularly since the age of Enlightenment and its codification of the humanistic philosophy, this false dichotomy of truth is the modern veneer which covers the unchanging spirit of the world present since the fall of mankind.

However, biblical truth can never be shoved into a compartment in which religious matters are only allowed to contribute suggestions as to values and standards of morality in a pluralistic, independently functioning culture. To the contrary, the biblical revelation is the only correct answer to the scientists’ perpetual quest for a “theory of everything.” The Bible gives truthful answers as to where man came from, describes what went wrong with the world, and tells man how he can get out of the mess man he has made. Nevertheless, many evangelicals have bought into the humanistic dichotomy of truth, and it has been a catastrophe for the church and culture in America.

The evangelical church has been especially susceptible to the humanistic spirit of the world for two reasons. One is theological and the other is cultural.

Biblical illiteracy

Within the theological realm, the evangelical church has exhibited a marked growth in biblical illiteracy in the last decades of the twentieth century and continues to the present day (by which is meant a remarkable lack of familiarity with the Bible and its central themes and teachings). In the spirit of the age, consistent and thematic biblical teaching has substantially declined in many evangelical churches. Here we speak of the decline in Sunday school training for all ages and the discontinuance of children and youth organizations within the church that promoted scripture memorization and biblical knowledge for decades.

At the same time, there has been a significant decline in expository preaching as preachers began emphasizing the therapeutic realm of personal relationships and feelings. This has led to a drift away from preaching the great organizing themes of the Bible such as the nature and character of God; the creation, fall, and redemption; the historical narratives of the Old and New Testaments; and the Christian walk in a hostile world.[4] There is a time for pulpit teaching on topical and peripheral subjects, but for many it has become the rule rather than the exception. An excess of topical preaching leads to fragmentation by which is meant fragmentation of the Christian worldview. Furthermore, fragmentation of the Word causes man to descend from the glorious heights from which one can clearly see truth to a forest of facts and minutia that hide truth and ultimately destroys within men’s minds the concept that truth exists. Fragmentation tends toward relativism in which selected facts are arranged to fit the desired outcome and results in loss of context.

Evangelicals must evangelize, and it does not occur under sterile laboratory conditions but in a messy, hostile culture residing in Satan’s domain. To effectively evangelize is to spread the gospel message but not in a hit and run fashion. We have a responsibility to engage individuals and the culture by being prepared to give reasons which support the credibility of the Bible, especially when challenged by skepticism and pagan philosophies.

In the early part of the twentieth century, the fundamentalists effectively disengaged from and abandoned the culture to the secular humanists and their toady colleagues in the liberal churches. Later mid-twentieth century evangelicals once again began engaging the culture to counter the spirit of the world. But following the tumultuous 1960s, the last three generations of the evangelical church have retreated and failed to adequately defend the culture from alien philosophies such as humanism and false religions in a skeptical, post-modern age. Even when past generations of evangelicals knew their Bible exceptionally well, historically they were not well-versed in apologetics, the history of the church, and the wisdom of the great Christian thinkers and writers of the past. As a general rule, evangelicals have never fared well in presenting and defending their faith when challenged by skepticism and hostile ideas and ideologies. This must change.

Accommodating the spirit of the world

On the cultural front, the evangelical church has not only not countered the spirit of the world but accommodated much of it in the church. Instead of evangelizing the world, the world has evangelized the church. Many in evangelical leadership will vehemently deny this assertion and point to their success in reaching out and being relevant to the culture in which we find ourselves. We cannot dispute the fact that the church must translate unchanging Christian theology into the contemporary language of each generation. But irrespective of the claims of many in evangelical leadership, there is a difference between evangelism through accommodation of the spirit of the world occurring in many evangelical churches today and that of earlier eras when evangelism meant an uncompromised presentation of the word of God in the face of ridicule and rejection by a hostile culture. While the evangelical churches proudly boast of their effectiveness in fulfilling the great commission by winning the lost, such conversions accomplished through accommodating the spirit of the world ring hollow when large numbers of those converts do not subsequently exhibit commitment to a Christian lifestyle.

To a significant extent, the modern church has not stood against the spirit of the world in the church or in the public arena. Whether occurring through compromise, adding to, taking away, misinterpretation, disregard, neglect, or ignorance, the process of accommodation, however subtle, has diminished the authority of scripture. Writing thirty years ago, Schaeffer succinctly describes the importance of fidelity to scriptural authority in both word and deed.

What seems like a minor difference at first, in the end makes all the difference in the world…in things pertaining to theology, doctrine, and spiritual matters, but it also makes all the difference in things pertaining to the daily Christian life and how we as Christians are to relate to the world around us. In other words, compromising the full authority of Scripture eventually affects what it means to be a Christian theologically and how we live in the full spectrum of human life.[5]

Schaeffer points out that the pre-Reformation church believed in the inerrancy of scripture, but they had allowed many non-biblical theological ideas to infiltrate the church. These ideas were placed alongside of the Bible and in some instances were regarded as superior to the Bible. Eventually, these non-biblical teachings and practices led to abuses which brought about the Reformation.[6] Likewise, many of today’s evangelical churches are allowing questionable practices to infiltrate their churches which are contrary to both the words and meaning of the scriptures. Although the statements of faith of many evangelical churches proudly list the inerrancy and authority of the scriptures, their preaching and practices say otherwise.

In summary, the diminution and/or abandonment of the Bible as the infallible and inerrant truth of God is occurring in varying degrees in many evangelical denominations, churches, fellowships, and organizations. It occurs because of a growing ignorance of evangelicals in Bible knowledge and accommodation of the spirit of the world within the churches.

Evangelical churches arose during the First Great Awakening and have been at among those at the forefront of all that has been good in the church world and America for over three hundred years. They are not perfect and never have been, and they will continue to make mistakes. But the evangelical church must continually examine itself and make necessary course corrections when error enters in order to avoid those heartbreaking words spoken by Christ in the Sermon on the Mount.

Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many works in your name? And then will I declare to them, I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers. [Matthew 7: 21-23. RSV]

Larry G. Johnson

Sources:

[1] Francis A. Schaeffer, The Great Evangelical Disaster, (Westchester, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1984), p. 168.
[2] Ibid., p. 64.
[3] Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth, (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2004, 2005), pp. 20-21.
[4] Ibid., p. 301.
[5] Schaeffer, pp. 44-45.
[6] Ibid., p. 45.