“A Pastor’s Case For The Morality of Abortion” reads the headline for an article on The Atlantic’s website. In the article, a female “pastor” with The United Church of Christ argues in favor of legalized abortion, citing “reproductive rights” (a euphemism for the legalized murder of unborn children) are a justice issues. Since she believes in justice for all, she also believes abortion for all. “Most U.S. Christian Groups Grow More Accepting Of Homosexuality” reads the headline in Pew Research poll. The 2015 article states 54% of Christians believe “homosexuality should be accepted, rather than discouraged, by society.”1 More specifically; 36% of Evangelical Protestants and 51% of Historically Black Protestants believe homosexuality should be accepted.2 Only few months prior to this blog, the United Methodist Church ordains a drag queen. In 2019 a retired Baptist minister wrote an op-ed piece for USA Today where he contends that Christians “got it wrong on gays and lesbians.” arguing in favor the the homosexual lifestyle. “I fly to Paris and discover how to make love to God” reads a line in the book One Thousand Gifts by best-selling “Christian” author Ann Voskamp; a book which has sold nearly two-million copies and also comes with a study guide companion. She continues; “God makes love with grace upon grace, every moment a making of His love for us. [C]ouldn’t I make love to God, making every moment love for Him? To know Him the way Adam new Eve. Spirit skin to spirit skin?” In his book “The Lies We Believe About God” author William Paul Young (who also wrote The Shack, which sold over twenty million copies) says the following: “Yes we have crippled eyes, but not a core of ungoodness. We are true and right… Blind, not depraved, is our condition.” A Hillsong’s Church Pastor is accused of and admits to sexually preying on women and having multiple affairs. Mega-church pastor Mark Driscol is pressured to resign his position after multiple allegations of engaging in “pattern[s] of abusive and intimidating behavior including domineering leadership, harsh speech, and angry outbursts”. There seems to be no shortage of articles, stories, and videos of professing “Christians” who continually look less and less like disciples and more and more like the world. Something has happened….
We began preaching a gospel that is not The Gospel. A gospel that no longer required people to examine their life for the sin which was besetting them. We stopped wanting to hear about living a holy life. We stopped wanting to hear about a holy God who does and will not wink at our sin. We started telling sinners, enemies of God, as well as our own congregants, they were okay in their current condition without any need for change. We convinced them, that God loves them just as they are, and because of this, they need not concern themselves with sinful lifestyles or behaviors because “Jesus gets you”; that they are nothing more than a product of social constructs. And when that message no longer gave us the results we wanted, we took it a step further and began to redefine sin after our own unrenewed mind. Suddenly homosexuality was not a sin, but exclusion, non-affirming language, and disrespecting “my truth” was. We stopped calling our congregations to prayer, fasting, or repentance and instead told them Jesus suffered and died on the cross so they could live a life of prosperity, health, and wealth. We abandoned the sound doctrine of God-given, God-ordained marriage and family roles, as demonstrated, taught , and confirmed in Scriptures, and instead replaced them with more updated and modern definitions. We labeled Ephesians 5 and 6 as patriarchal, outdated, and no longer necessary; and so we stopped teaching them. We put these roles out to pasture because we had moved beyond this horse and buggy way of thinking. We believed the only thing gained by embracing marriage and family roles, as defined by Scripture, was the marginalization of women, enslaving of children, and placing white men in power.
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word… In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies…. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Ephesians 5:22-26, 28; 6:1-4 – ESV
As 21st century Believers who now understood science and medicine and psychology, we were enlightened. We decided it was time to progress beyond these conspicuously anachronistic ways of reading and applying the Word of God, and instead use our new found wisdom to interpret Scripture through the lens of sociology and psychology. We wanted a new and improved Bible with a new and improved Jesus. A Jesus who was more in line with the current social fashion of the day. A Jesus whose biggest concern was equality of outcome and lifting the marginalized out of their socioeconomic condition. Unambiguous and clearly defined Scriptures became too cumbersome and unnecessarily shackled us to a “patriarchal religious system” which essentially stopped us from exploring worldly philosophies. After all, the world seemed to be doing just fine. They seemed happy. They were prospering and having a good time. We were the ones being denied; or so we thought.
You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God
James 4:4 – ESV
We relinquished our role as Christian parents and told secular education systems and government programs to raise our children. We traded our authority as parents for a shot at the corporate ladder. We told women they can, and should, do everything a man can do. We supported the lie that being a mother was somehow a shallow and subservient role. We maligned women who wanted to leave their careers (or not have a career at all) and instead focus their time and energy into having and raising children; shaming them into submission by branding them as a second-class citizens. We became derelict in our duties as Christian parents and allowed the world into our homes unfiltered. Instead of engaging in the parental responsibilities of protecting and nurturing our children, we became too busy and too enamored with keeping up with the world. We gave our eight-year-olds tablets and smart phones, turned them loose and then told social media celebrities on Instagram and Facebook and YouTube to teach them the values of life. Polity and government intelligence, not sound doctrine, were now directing and guiding our lives. Our faith and allegiance to the Word of God had been replaced with faith and allegiance to our political and social ideologies.
And now we wonder why the world around us continues to deteriorate at breakneck speed. We wonder why we have sexually charged pastors and church leaders who are filled with greed and have no appetite for humility in service, and congregants whose goal in life is to be socially accepted by the world and financially successful. What did we expect? We’ve rejected the truth found in God’s Word and instead embraced “Christian” authors and teachers who depict Jesus as nothing more than a uni-dimensional love machine, whose sole purpose is to make sure all of humanity, regardless of their relationship to him, feels complete and total unadulterated love and acceptance in everything they do. We– we have become the center of our universe and God exists simply to do our bidding and ensure we are living pain-free lives and enjoying our freedom and happiness to its fullest. We wonder why our churches have become less like sanctuaries from the world and instead have mutated into something more in line with Fortune 500 companies who spend their capital on CEO salaries, media campaigns, jumbo-trons, rock concerts and feel good messages. In our smug and arrogant pride, we have deluded ourselves into thinking if Christ were to visit our progressive Evangelical churches today, he would not be making whips and turning over tables.
Why we have come to believe we can add the world and her sensual philosophies to our Christian life, or more importantly to God’s kingdom, and then expect our life or our church to be anything but an impotent institution, remains a mystery. We say we want the power of old. We say we want the respect of the world. But what we actually crave is the affirmation of the world. Our prodigious need for worldly acceptance has blinded us to the reality of the depth of our compromise. And now here we sit, some 2,000 years after our Savior took on our punishment in the most epic death in the history of time; doing so as a substitutionary atonement for our sin in order to restore us back to God, and the church anemic is wondering what happened? She wonders where she went wrong? It’s clear where she went wrong. She took her inheritance and wasted it on whores and drunkenness and now she finds herself eating the slop of pigs. But unlike the prodigal, she has not yet realized her Father awaits her return if only she will reject the world in which she lives and be restored back to her Father.
So it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.
Ephesians 5:14-16 ESV
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2. https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/views-about-homosexuality/
Sanctuary and Stone 