Far
too many churches today can no longer reason themselves
according to the bible. Common sense has been thrown to
the wind and caution has been abandoned for anything that
"sounds right" to the ears. The politically correct
nonsense of the world has crept into the church to the point
that Christians cannot discern truth from error.
It
is my desire in this topic to admonish and exhort the church of
the living God to return to Sound Biblical Reasoning and
Thinking. It is one thing to be blind, yet quite another
to be willingly blind! The lackadaisical attitudes
of some in the church today is ushering in the era of apostasy
more rapidly than one could have imagined. Considering
this complete abandonment of reason, it is little wonder that
Jesus said he would come "in an hour when ye think not".
Allow me to climb upon my proverbial soapbox and bring to you my
thoughts concerning both the problem and the solution.
There has never been more nonsense and suspension of sound
judgment and reasoning as there is within the "politically
correct" circles of the church today. Though the body of
Christ cannot stop the world from acting like and from literally
being "the world", the church must not and cannot become as the
world is. Unfortunately, for many evangelical, charismatic
and Pentecostal circles today, this is exactly what has
happened.
The
church has capped it's salt-shakers and has blown out it's
candles. Once this is complete, that man of sin will have
a very easy time of convincing the church that he is the Messiah
to come. That could never happen you say? There was
a time when the church would have NEVER bought into anyone
telling you that we are "little gods" or that we are "God"
because Christ is in us, yet that damnable lie is being
propagated by mega-ministries today such as the Copeland, Capps,
Hagin, and Hinn ministries.
Hinduism, Buddhism, Shamanism and Mysticism have
all crept into the church and people are eating it up like
candy.
John Arnott, Rodney Howard-Browne and John
Kilpatrick and others arose over the past few years with the
practice of Kundalini Yoga. Peter Wagner had the Kansas
City Prophets, and Benny Hinn attempts to claim that Jesus
Christ is going to appear onstage and in person with him at some
future point. By the shamanism of these men and many
others such as William Branham, W.V. Grant Jr. and E.W. Kenyon
the church has been deceived into following (false) signs and
wonders, yet very few speak out against these men, apparently
because it is not "politically correct" to do so.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for biblical gifts and I do not
believe the gifts ceased with the first church (often called
a doctrine of Cessationism, which by the way is a false belief).
If you'll do your research you'll find that men like
Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, George Whitfield and
D L Moody also believe in the gifts of God for today's saints
and rejected Cessationism. The problem came when churches
left sound biblical doctrine in favor of
sensationalism and it is this sensationalism that is
literally destroying lives due to a simple lack of solid
foundational Christian doctrinal teaching.
I've been called "too critical" by some today because I dare
stand up to say that these movements are false and they are
wrong. That's ok in my book. (I suppose I could
claim that they are "judging" me wrongly, but I'll leave that one alone
for now). Time alone will tell, but of course, by then, it
will be too late because those caught up in such unbiblical
movements,
who are truly looking for the truth of God,
will have lost hope and fallen away.
I
believe the Word of God tells us that we SHOULD be critical
(which by the way does not mean "Fault Finding" as the
politically correct society holds today). The word
critical actually means "to study scholarly" much as the Bereans
did in Acts chapter 17. They searched the scriptures to
see if Paul was in line with the Word of God that had already
been written!
It
is quite tragic that many of today's Christians have never even
been to a bible study in which everyone opens the Word and has a
line upon line, precept upon precept, face to face discussion
concerning the meaning of the Word. Most people today use
the Word of God to attempt to affirm what they already believe.
Friends, this is WRONG. Stop trying to find passages to
see if they line up with what you believe and start studying the
Word of God to see what it actually says!
Yet
another tragedy in the church is that many times it is not the
false teachers who are accused of being divisive, but the very
one who is trying to protect the Body of Christ from them who
receives that accusation!
As we all know, the politically correct crowd is
hard at work redefining words and concepts within our culture.
This redefinition attempt is meant to change your thought
process to one of acceptance of any idea that sounds pleasing.
As a prime example allow me to elaborate for a moment.
When someone stands against the false
teachers and false preachers of today, instead of being what
the Bible calls "discerning", the politically correct crowd
has shifted the entire outlook into that discerning individual
who now is committing the "sin" of being negative or critical.
Truthfully, my dear one, there is NO SUCH THING as a sin of
"being critical" or "being negative" and you don't have one
single scripture that states otherwise. Being critical
or exposing false teachers, false apostles, false prophets and
false doctrines is actually a virtue, according to the Word of
God.
