No doubt Christians are straying further from the truth of the Gospels.
Another comparison is with the Christians who in persecuted nations. Every Christian in Pakistan, Viet Nam, Sudan, Eritrea, or North Korea knows that if they abandoned Christ's truth and converted to Islam or became communists their lives would immediately be immensely safer and easier. But they hold fast.
Here, it seems that "Christians" will abandon real Christianity just to go along with the depravity of the leftist religion.
Your comment brings to mind 1 John 2:19 "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us."
In North Korea, the faithful hold fast, even though owning one page of the Bible means that your whole family will be sent to concentration camps for life.
In the West, people abandon the faith, because the are afraid of being called bigots.
Love the sinner, hate the sin. Sounds simplistic, but in reality it is very complex and hard for some to understand. God is love and unity not hatred and division. We should not submit to man made constructs of what religion should be. Remember the most important commandment and that is scripture. Just because we love somebody, we do not have to love their actions /belief system or enable it. Separate the person from the behavior. Jmho
Of course you are absolutely and, pardon the pun, fundamentally correct in your analysis of what is currently happening, and it is simply difficult to comprehend until I realize that the enemy never sleeps, and he prowls around looking for someone (in this case plural) to devour. As he did with Adam and Eve, he offers just enough truth to appear believable, but it is not THE truth, thus are brothers and sisters being deceived.
With regard to Alistair Begg, I too find it amazing that even he is being deceived. Tom Gilson, a senior editor at stream.org, which I read on a daily basis, wrote an excellent article on this subject a few days ago. Here is the link, and I invite everyone to read it. https://stream.org/alistair-begg-was-wrong-condemning-him-is-wrong-too/. One of the major points he makes is how and why Jesus was hanging out with sinners. As he points out in the article cited, "Jesus didn’t show His love by merely being with sinners. He was among them with a message of grace and truth — which necessarily includes repentance."
Timely post, Jim. Roman's 14 discusses how to treat a weaker brother - for example, by not inviting them over for a bbq while preparing meat offered to an idol. That is entirely different then attending a marriage where you say nothing when the pastor asks “Is there anyone here who knows any reason why this man and this man should not be joined in marriage?” Sin always wants you to come down to its level and deems it unloving when you refuse - it offers a no win proposition.
The timing of this article is excellent. I am currently reading Bonhoeffer by Metaxas and learning of an earlier divide in the church. Something that to me became evident during COVID….churches siding with the State or churches standing on the principle of separation of church and state. To me it felt like COVID was a way to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Prior to COVID, we had so many denominations taking a knee to cultural acceptance instead of standing firm on Biblical truth. Just as COVID opened the eyes of many in the world of science to the adulteration of research for the benefit of money and power. COVID has opened the eyes of Christians who have been in these ‘soft’ churches.
My husband and I were some of those people. We left our church with a gay youth pastor to find one teaching God’s word and making no apology for it. Our new church is overflowing from its growth during COVID. Last sermon our pastor highlighted a recent survey pointing to how misguided the evangelical Christians are as he presents 1 John to us over the next several months.
Good for you for finding a good fundamental church. I, too, was at a big church when covid hit, and the insidious virtue signaling and the unwillingness to meet in person at that church caused me to open my eyes and leave it. I finally found such a wonderful church also in May of 2021, and it has been simply life-changing for me. Also, I'm so glad to hear you're reading Metaxas' superior book on Bonhoeffer! I've read it twice already, and at some point I'm sure I'll read it again.
No doubt Christians are straying further from the truth of the Gospels.
Another comparison is with the Christians who in persecuted nations. Every Christian in Pakistan, Viet Nam, Sudan, Eritrea, or North Korea knows that if they abandoned Christ's truth and converted to Islam or became communists their lives would immediately be immensely safer and easier. But they hold fast.
Here, it seems that "Christians" will abandon real Christianity just to go along with the depravity of the leftist religion.
Your comment brings to mind 1 John 2:19 "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us."
The way is too narrow for some.
In North Korea, the faithful hold fast, even though owning one page of the Bible means that your whole family will be sent to concentration camps for life.
In the West, people abandon the faith, because the are afraid of being called bigots.
Love the sinner, hate the sin. Sounds simplistic, but in reality it is very complex and hard for some to understand. God is love and unity not hatred and division. We should not submit to man made constructs of what religion should be. Remember the most important commandment and that is scripture. Just because we love somebody, we do not have to love their actions /belief system or enable it. Separate the person from the behavior. Jmho
Of course you are absolutely and, pardon the pun, fundamentally correct in your analysis of what is currently happening, and it is simply difficult to comprehend until I realize that the enemy never sleeps, and he prowls around looking for someone (in this case plural) to devour. As he did with Adam and Eve, he offers just enough truth to appear believable, but it is not THE truth, thus are brothers and sisters being deceived.
With regard to Alistair Begg, I too find it amazing that even he is being deceived. Tom Gilson, a senior editor at stream.org, which I read on a daily basis, wrote an excellent article on this subject a few days ago. Here is the link, and I invite everyone to read it. https://stream.org/alistair-begg-was-wrong-condemning-him-is-wrong-too/. One of the major points he makes is how and why Jesus was hanging out with sinners. As he points out in the article cited, "Jesus didn’t show His love by merely being with sinners. He was among them with a message of grace and truth — which necessarily includes repentance."
Jesus hung out with sinners because all men are sinners!
Good point!
Timely post, Jim. Roman's 14 discusses how to treat a weaker brother - for example, by not inviting them over for a bbq while preparing meat offered to an idol. That is entirely different then attending a marriage where you say nothing when the pastor asks “Is there anyone here who knows any reason why this man and this man should not be joined in marriage?” Sin always wants you to come down to its level and deems it unloving when you refuse - it offers a no win proposition.
The timing of this article is excellent. I am currently reading Bonhoeffer by Metaxas and learning of an earlier divide in the church. Something that to me became evident during COVID….churches siding with the State or churches standing on the principle of separation of church and state. To me it felt like COVID was a way to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Prior to COVID, we had so many denominations taking a knee to cultural acceptance instead of standing firm on Biblical truth. Just as COVID opened the eyes of many in the world of science to the adulteration of research for the benefit of money and power. COVID has opened the eyes of Christians who have been in these ‘soft’ churches.
My husband and I were some of those people. We left our church with a gay youth pastor to find one teaching God’s word and making no apology for it. Our new church is overflowing from its growth during COVID. Last sermon our pastor highlighted a recent survey pointing to how misguided the evangelical Christians are as he presents 1 John to us over the next several months.
Good for you for finding a good fundamental church. I, too, was at a big church when covid hit, and the insidious virtue signaling and the unwillingness to meet in person at that church caused me to open my eyes and leave it. I finally found such a wonderful church also in May of 2021, and it has been simply life-changing for me. Also, I'm so glad to hear you're reading Metaxas' superior book on Bonhoeffer! I've read it twice already, and at some point I'm sure I'll read it again.
Bonhoeffer is an amazing book!
He was also an amazing man.
I do pray that people's eyes are being opened!
I believe you to be always well intended, that is why I come here.