WHATEVER CHRISTIANITY - Part 2

(Here is part 2 of a post I originally listed on my blog on 11/11/06. As I mentioned in my introductory comments then, this comes from an article from News With Views. Again, let me say that I do not agree with all the content from this conservative editorial news source or its authors, but from time to time they do make some good points which need to be shared with others. Please click the link above to see the complete article.)

Scripture twisting has become an art form. This is not just a problem in America. All over the globe false teachers are pulling Christians into their web of deception. (Personal comment from me; although scripture twisting has gone on from the garden of Eden, I believe this practice has grown immensely with the introduction of so many different bibles in the market place today - please check out the shelves of your "Christian" bookstore today to see if this is true - bringing confusion to man, exactly what Satan has desired to do. Christianity and the church is watered down as the words of God in today's modern bibles have been watered down. The bible was originally changed by man to make it easier to understand, and it has been changed many, many times since then. However, today here in the US, looking from generation to generation, we as a nation are by far a vast majority biblically ignorant.)

There’s so much unorthodox teaching going on that it’s impossible to expose all of it. Flawed “theology” should be obvious to Christians who are biblically literate. I’m not talking about Bible scholars; I’m talking about your average Jack and Jill Christian who study the Bible for all it’s worth. What results from a diligent study of God’s Word is discernment. Even so, false teaching blended with truth is sometimes hard to detect, even for the discerning mind. Which is why false teachers have been so successful at making their mark on the Church, and marketing their made up Christianity.

Don’t think for one minute that these men and women are unaware that what they’ve been feeding the gullible sheep is not only unorthodox, it’s heretical. Many of them know perfectly well that they’re preaching a different gospel. But they don’t care! In Part one, I used Robert Schuller’s “Theology of Self-Esteem” as an example. Rev. Schuller is the epitome of a false teacher who is preaching another gospel to millions of people. What is the true Gospel? Christ crucified. Schuller is more concerned with people’s “self-esteem” than with their eternal souls.

What this all boils down to is that the Church can’t make up its mind! Why? Because liberals, liars, low-lifes, losers and lunatics have infiltrated Christendom and made it one unholy mess! Is it any wonder that the younger generation want nothing to do with organized religion? Who can blame them!

Progressives would have us believe that Jesus is not divine and there was no resurrection. Scripture was written by men, not by Divine inspiration, the Bible is a book of myths and fables, full of contradictions, open to interpretation, holds hidden meanings only the “enlightened” know about. God loves, doesn’t judge, hence no Hell. And heaven’s for all! Triniterianism is out, modalism is in. Sodomy? No sin there! Fornication and cohabitation? Who cares! Abortion? My choice! Pretty much everything is acceptable in our post-modern church, including outright heresy.

Jesus commands believers to follow His way. Certainly the unsaved can follow Jesus’s way without becoming a Christian. Following Jesus’s is to love your neighbor as yourself. But loving one’s neighbor is not what saves a person! The Bible has guidelines on how to live the Christian life -- and God expects His people to obey them! Being obedient is important, it’s not what gets a person into heaven. To be an advocate of tolerance and social justice is admirable but it won’t get one single soul beyond the pearly gates. In other words, a “good deed doer” gets zero points with God. Put your faith in Jesus Christ, and the gates will be thrown open, the trumpets will sound, and the celebration will begin!

What I’ve described in this two part series is just the tip of the iceberg. False teachers and progressives have twisted sacred Scripture into a theological pretzel. Douglas Groothuis, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Denver Seminary, entreats “I believe that, more than anything else, the church is imperiled by its own failure to teach, to believe, and to live out the great truths of the Christian faith in a way that pleases God. This is true not only of theologically liberal congregations--which essentially abandoned the Bible long ago--but also of too many evangelical churches and institutions. When "truth stumbles in the public square" (Isaiah 59:14, NSRV), when the church succumbs to the larger culture’s trivializing of life’s greatest questions, then the gospel and all the truths of the Bible go unheeded. People lose their way and call good evil and evil good (Isaiah 5:20). As Jeremiah lamented, "Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips" (Jeremiah 7:28).”

In John 8:31 Jesus said, " If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Clearly, Jesus expects His followers to hold to His teaching. To know the truth. And there’s only one truth. God’s truth. Play it safe. Remain within the pale of orthodoxy.