Ye Shall Know Them By Their Words?
One of the errors of modern Evangelicalism is that it measures apostasy by its own man-made standards, rather than by Scriptural standards. And its standards are almost always based on the doctrines one professes rather than the life one lives, which is entirely opposite to the Biblical measure of faithfulness. Witness the following typical statements taken from the website of a professing Evangelical church:
"There is a time for division in the body of Christ. When an individual or a church group is denying clear scripture and remains unrepentant after being admonished, then it is time to break fellowship with that group."
The author of this statement goes on to give several examples of "liberal" churches which have apostatized due to the fact that they openly deny Scriptural doctrines, and he also says the following:
"The Christian Church does not include the Mormons, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the New Agers, the Muslims, the Buddhists, the Atheists, etc. These groups deny the true God and/or serve false gods."
The above statements are true and it is obvious that those who openly deny the Bible are not worthy of fellowship. But while the author labels some of the institutional churches as apostate, he counts others to be within the visible church because he largely bases his measure of a faithful church on whether it professes adherence to certain foundational truths of the Bible, as is evident by this statement:
"we have the body of Scriptures which tell us the essentials of the faith and deviating from these essentials means to be outside the camp of Christ. It is the essential doctrines that we must know and unite in."
Is this a biblical standard for fellowship? Is mere affirmation of "essential" biblical truths, or even thorough intellectual comprehension of them, the sign of faithful Christians? Never is it said to be so in the Scriptures. And is that a Christian church which consists of people who profess allegiance to a few basic scriptural doctrines and show up at a building once or twice per week, but continue to live for their own pleasure and gain, and entirely fail to conform their lives to Biblical precepts? Not according to the Bible. But does this description not fit the overwhelming majority of today's Evangelicals? And if so, what right do they have to call themselves Christians? And by what authority do the pastors of Evangelicalism set aside God's standard of determining who is worthy of Christian fellowship (i.e., practical holiness), and replace it with their own standard of giving mere lip service to doctrine?
"There is a time for division in the body of Christ. When an individual or a church group is denying clear scripture and remains unrepentant after being admonished, then it is time to break fellowship with that group."
The author of this statement goes on to give several examples of "liberal" churches which have apostatized due to the fact that they openly deny Scriptural doctrines, and he also says the following:
"The Christian Church does not include the Mormons, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the New Agers, the Muslims, the Buddhists, the Atheists, etc. These groups deny the true God and/or serve false gods."
The above statements are true and it is obvious that those who openly deny the Bible are not worthy of fellowship. But while the author labels some of the institutional churches as apostate, he counts others to be within the visible church because he largely bases his measure of a faithful church on whether it professes adherence to certain foundational truths of the Bible, as is evident by this statement:
"we have the body of Scriptures which tell us the essentials of the faith and deviating from these essentials means to be outside the camp of Christ. It is the essential doctrines that we must know and unite in."
Is this a biblical standard for fellowship? Is mere affirmation of "essential" biblical truths, or even thorough intellectual comprehension of them, the sign of faithful Christians? Never is it said to be so in the Scriptures. And is that a Christian church which consists of people who profess allegiance to a few basic scriptural doctrines and show up at a building once or twice per week, but continue to live for their own pleasure and gain, and entirely fail to conform their lives to Biblical precepts? Not according to the Bible. But does this description not fit the overwhelming majority of today's Evangelicals? And if so, what right do they have to call themselves Christians? And by what authority do the pastors of Evangelicalism set aside God's standard of determining who is worthy of Christian fellowship (i.e., practical holiness), and replace it with their own standard of giving mere lip service to doctrine?
posted by Stuart DiNenno at 11/18/2004 10:41:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home