Satan's Greater Masterpiece
The following quote is from an article entitled "Apostasy" by David N. Samuel, which was posted on the Banner of Truth website:
"The Protestant Churches, having largely abandoned the biblical doctrines of the Reformation, which were their raison d'être, are capitulating to the leadership of the papacy and to Roman Catholic doctrine. There are, indeed, other ways that men and Churches may apostatise from the faith - into liberalism, for example, or other faiths - but Rome remains the great threat to the Protestant churches, Satan's great masterpiece, his counterfeit Christianity by which he deceives the nations."
Is Romanism Satan's great masterpiece? Or has he devised an even greater one?
Suppose that there was a false form of Christianity which, superficially, had an appearance of orthodoxy that sects such as Romanism, Mormonism, and the falsely-named Jehovah's Witnesses lacked. Unlike the Romanists did for so many years, it did not attempt to keep the Scriptures from the hands of the people. Unlike the Mormons, it did not add additional writings to the Word of God. Unlike the Watchtower Society, it did not openly deny fundamental teachings of the Bible such as the deity of Christ or the Holy Trinity. And unlike all of them, it did not preach a gospel which contains an element of salvation by works. It professed accurate Biblical doctrine on many points. But it preached a gospel which omitted the negative elements of truth and thereby failed to produce the repentance which is necessary to bring salvation to its adherents; it led its followers into compartmentalizing the teachings of the Bible down to a very limited religious sphere while ignoring the commandments of God in their daily lives; and it deluded its disciples into a false sense of security by convincing them that they were saved from the wrath of God though they had not repented of their sins, and they continued to pursue their own self-serving desires and ambitions, while bearing no fruit of holiness, suffering no losses, making no sacrifices, and enduring no persecution.
Now also suppose that this false form of Christianity had manifested itself in many different forms and was dispersed among hundreds of organizations and thousands of independent congregations all representing themselves to be Christian churches. But though it appeared in a multitude of variants and under many different names, it was, in essence, the same beast bearing the same fundamental characteristics of preaching a false feel-good gospel, giving mere lip service to some (or even many) Biblically orthodox doctrines, and reducing the worship of God to a few hours of ritualistic devotions while partitioning off the Bible from the rest of life.
This is a description of modern Evangelicalism. And is this not a much more dangerous and deceptive counterfeit of Christianity than Romanism ever was?
"The Protestant Churches, having largely abandoned the biblical doctrines of the Reformation, which were their raison d'être, are capitulating to the leadership of the papacy and to Roman Catholic doctrine. There are, indeed, other ways that men and Churches may apostatise from the faith - into liberalism, for example, or other faiths - but Rome remains the great threat to the Protestant churches, Satan's great masterpiece, his counterfeit Christianity by which he deceives the nations."
Is Romanism Satan's great masterpiece? Or has he devised an even greater one?
Suppose that there was a false form of Christianity which, superficially, had an appearance of orthodoxy that sects such as Romanism, Mormonism, and the falsely-named Jehovah's Witnesses lacked. Unlike the Romanists did for so many years, it did not attempt to keep the Scriptures from the hands of the people. Unlike the Mormons, it did not add additional writings to the Word of God. Unlike the Watchtower Society, it did not openly deny fundamental teachings of the Bible such as the deity of Christ or the Holy Trinity. And unlike all of them, it did not preach a gospel which contains an element of salvation by works. It professed accurate Biblical doctrine on many points. But it preached a gospel which omitted the negative elements of truth and thereby failed to produce the repentance which is necessary to bring salvation to its adherents; it led its followers into compartmentalizing the teachings of the Bible down to a very limited religious sphere while ignoring the commandments of God in their daily lives; and it deluded its disciples into a false sense of security by convincing them that they were saved from the wrath of God though they had not repented of their sins, and they continued to pursue their own self-serving desires and ambitions, while bearing no fruit of holiness, suffering no losses, making no sacrifices, and enduring no persecution.
Now also suppose that this false form of Christianity had manifested itself in many different forms and was dispersed among hundreds of organizations and thousands of independent congregations all representing themselves to be Christian churches. But though it appeared in a multitude of variants and under many different names, it was, in essence, the same beast bearing the same fundamental characteristics of preaching a false feel-good gospel, giving mere lip service to some (or even many) Biblically orthodox doctrines, and reducing the worship of God to a few hours of ritualistic devotions while partitioning off the Bible from the rest of life.
This is a description of modern Evangelicalism. And is this not a much more dangerous and deceptive counterfeit of Christianity than Romanism ever was?
posted by Stuart DiNenno at 11/20/2004 10:21:00 PM
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