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Before I started blogging I had arrived at the perspective that all faiths were equal.
Note the ‘before’ in the sentence, which implies that there is an ‘after’: this blog and my own journey in Christ which — through His grace — I undertook and continue. What I’ve learned along the way has come through grace, personal reading and prayer — not sermons from the pulpit and church involvement.
The next few sentences describe where I was. I knew very little about what the actually Bible said. I ‘knew’ (wrongly) that grace was a state one slipped out of relatively quickly after receiving Communion. I didn’t understand grace and I’d never heard of sanctification. I thought I was saved but wasn’t sure because I probably wasn’t ‘doing’ enough. Anyway, I figured that all faiths are works-based and so was mine. The difference was Jesus Christ, but it was clear that I didn’t really understand the full implications of His life, death and resurrection. Church was about keeping the congregation happy, along with a few Scripture readings that punctuated the service. Christianity was a works-based, achieving faith — just different to Judaism or Islam. Which of these groups would do best in achieving a good life well lived? Because I thought in my ignorance that these faiths are all about works, coupled with not knowing the Bible, I put Christianity on a par with other world faiths. In that respect, I am not alone.
What I needed — and received through God’s grace — was some way of making Christianity come alive. Plus, I had a lot of questions I couldn’t answer. Somehow, in response, I happened upon Reformed websites and books which did just that. My apologies to other denominations (including my own Anglican Communion), but none have opened up Scripture to me as Reformed pastors and elders have. For their wisdom and God’s guidance in this area, I am grateful. I’ve since read the Bible once and am now going back to studying it more in depth. I’ve barely started this journey and sincerely apologise for the imperfect and frequent use of the first-person pronoun thus far.
It is His grace which enables and directs our paths, but how many Christians actually understand what that really means? Undoubtedly, there are millions the world over who are no doubt where I was.
What follows is Mockingbird’s Episcopalian view of semi-Pelagian Evangelicalism. (Yet, the Episcopal Church is full of the same, only from a socio-political works perspective.) Some will like Mockingbird’s ministry and site, although, unfortunately, there is no Bible in it whatsoever.
That said, their post — ‘Reflections on a Midwestern Church’ — will no doubt ring true for many readers. Excerpts follow, emphases mine:
It meets in a old, charming church building, not an office park or a bar or a towering arena in the suburbs. Red bricks overshadowing gothic archways suggest a Methodist or Baptist past. From the lunch hall opposite the sanctuary one can almost smell the aroma of a thousand pots of coffee brewed and numerous potluck dishes served through the decades …
Liturgically, there are no surprises here. Two worship songs with an acoustic drum band. An offering. Long announcements. Prayer. Another worship song out of the unwritten youth group hymnal. An air of lightness fills the sanctuary. Smiles and good humor abound …
There is no fire and brimstone here. No politics, no cultural reactionism, and, thankfully, no yawn-inducing victimhood. The people are courteous and thoughtful, refreshingly unconcerned with my line of work or the clothes I wear or the people I know …
Discipleship Is Not for the Timid
An usher hands me a paper bulletin, which outlines the elders’ vision for the church. They envision this church composed of “two communities.” Of one community this church “makes not a single demand.” These people are the despondent, the hurting, the outcasts of the world and from other churches, the dazed and confused, and the angry. Members of this community need only come to church and receive comfort.
Of another community the church “demands all.” This is the “community of disciples.” Each disciple makes “an intentional commitment to serve God and others.” Discipleship is not for the timid, the lighthearted, the fickle, or the capricious,” the bulletin explains.
I doubt the authors considered the syllogism this manifesto implies. It sounds as if a disciple cannot be despondent, hurting, outcast, dazed, confused, or angry. That a disciple cannot come to church casually. Instead, the disciple comes clothed in the antonyms of the non-disciple: fearless, grave, loyal, an insider, pacific. Church, it would appear, does not exist to comfort the disciple. The disciple exists to serve the church, exclusively.
Jake, the church’s young pastor, steps up to the stage. Jake is lively and passionate but not garish. He is effortless in his energy and his love for the Bible, along with his ability to look in a person’s eyes and convince the person of his worth …
Today’s sermon is part of a series detailing the church’s “Bedrock Principles.” This morning’s bedrock principle is “The Next Step”—that is, the next step in discipleship. Discipleship is concerned, Jake explains, with “the steps each of us need to take to be more like Jesus” …
The disciple is “not perfect,” Jake explains, but he keeps his eyes open to his heart, always seeking out a better knowledge of God, which comes principally through consistent study of the Bible …
… what God wants is discipleship, for you to be more like Jesus. It’s simple but tough …
In its essentials, Jake’s sermon reminds me of what I heard every Sunday growing up in the Shangri-La of Evangelicalism. Absent from Jake’s address is the proposition, proceeding from a certain anthropological conviction, that a disciple remains in part—in large part—a person whose desire lies in indulging himself. I suspect Jake believes that the disciple’s self-indulgent tendency wanes after he becomes a Christian. He could marshal biblical support for refusing this conviction (“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ . . .”). Once “saved,” the pastor assumes, a disciple is no longer powerless against crucifying Jesus with his sin; he is empowered to follow his Lord closely.
“Seek.” “Act.” “Read.” “Pray.” “Join.” “Get in the habit.” “Follow.” Emphasis indicates ideology. Repetition makes explicit the implicit. The repeated structure of Jake’s sentences—in which the disciple is the subject, and action verbs are profuse—reflects an ideological judgment about the post-conversion individual, a conclusion based on his own empirical observation. Jake’s heavy emphasis on obedience is the natural outgrowth—in fact, the only morally responsible outgrowth—of a theology that dismisses the disciple’s continuing addiction to his own indulgence …
We should not call Jake’s theology—with its faith in words, rationality, and the disciple’s will—something that it is not. It may be sincere, and it may be well-intentioned. It may even be coming, by and large, from a place of love. But it is a kind of Christian ethics. It is graceless sanctification. It certainly has no root in the Reformation. It is a prehistoric pattern of thought impliedly formalized into a new theology—described as Protestant, but in fact neither Protestant nor Catholic. Its repeated emphasis on the decision to obey provides far more insight than its doctrinal statements or its organizational manifestoes. Justification by faith alone and sanctification by works alone is what this sort of Evangelicalism proclaims.
The chain linking Evangelicalism as an association of churches is the elevation of self-will. And a chain it is. In this particular strain of its theology, Evangelicalism shares an activating conviction about the capability of the will with Wayne Dyer, Mohammed, Emerson, Rousseau, and others. It stacks Bible verses on this conviction, setting it apart from the foregoing and lending it unassailable credibility …
The Inquisitor
Poor Jake! Like me, Jake is hypnotized by the inquisitor inside, who convinces us that we are capable of sustained obedience … The inquisitor carries an endless “To Do” list for Jake and me. And as much as he insists that we may follow him unconditionally, he will tell Jake and me to try harder, to keep on keeping on, to check off each task from the list. The inquisitor never makes a move in my direction; he only drags me along reluctantly. I must make myself fit to approach him, but try as I might, he’s always just out of reach. The inquisitor wears sandals and an old Arab robe. He has long hair and a beard, and Evangelicals frequently refer to him as “Jesus.”
… graceless sanctification … exacts a particularly severe cost from the disciple programmed in his fallen state to treat approval like heroin—the anxious, the child of the alcoholic mother or demanding father, the adult who subliminally associates his well-being with his moral compliance or practical industry …
The Evangelical account of discipleship weighs on the anxious disciple … because it borrows the logic governing the rest of this merciless world: for the businessman, a promotion is success; for the child, obedience is success; for the socialite, high demand; for the sexual animal, the bigger number of partners; for all, the more and the greater and the higher. And for the religious, the more steps he takes in following Jesus. But … seeing human nature for what it is, and the anxious disciple, seeing himself for what he is, expect that striving to end in failure …
But even if a member of the discipleship community is not decimated by the Evangelical ethic, he suffers a loss. This disciple fails to experience the relief of learning that God has known all along how ethically bankrupt the disciple is. He fails to experience the exhilaration of a momentary desire to act altruistically. He fails to experience the delight of learning, like late-breaking news that class is cancelled, that he need not do anything for approval. He fails to experience the terror and, from time to time, joy one receives by answering the question, “What do you want?” He fails to experience Jesus as anything other than a bland, humorless older brother with an endless “To Do” list. He fails, in other words, to experience beauty.
More importantly, he fails to experience the free gift of God’s grace, love and forgiveness — which we receive in spite of ourselves.
Unlike Mockingbird, I do not criticise pastors for encouraging their congregations to read the Bible, which is the key to understanding Christianity, supplemented by confessions of faith. The important thing is that we understand what Scripture says in toto.
However, very few pastors preach this message. Very few explain the Gospel and that the Old Testament points from the beginning to Jesus Christ. Very few preach about the perfect love God extends to all those who imperfectly love His Son. Very few discuss the freedom we have in Christ. Very few deliver the Good News in a positive way; there’s always a qualifier. My vicar said to me out of the blue, ‘There’s so much you can get involved in — we have so many church programmes’. He didn’t mention Scripture or faith. The New Perspectives on Paul, church growth, the social gospel and toxic churches represent varying degrees of this semi-Pelagianism and absence of divine grace.
So, is it any wonder then that many Christians in a multifaith world fall away from the Church because something doesn’t add up, yet they cannot put their finger on it. For them — as was true for me — there is no difference between Christianity, Judaism or Islam; all are based on works, legalism, collectivism and, for Christianity and Islam at least, punishment.
More to follow on this topic.
Tomorrow: A young man criticises the Church
Following a recent news round-up on Ace of Spades, part of the open thread discussion involved one about the best Bible versions. From there, as you see below, it morphed into one about TEC — The Episcopal Church, which not too long ago was known as the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of America.
I hope they don’t mind if I borrow their quotes, but I cringed whilst reading the following comments about TEC, as any faithful Episcopalian — and Anglican — should. See what you think (emphases mine):
157 Hey! There’s something we haven’t shot longbows at each other about – KJV vs. all other translations.
I grew up reading NKJV and had that up until a couple years ago.
Found out that the New American Standard (NASB) has made the strongest effort to translate from the original languages.
I’ve also heard the New International (NIV) has some questionable theology. Such as not highlighting the Virgin birth. - Scott J at December 05, 2011 10:56 AM
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159 ‘I’ve also heard the New International (NIV) has some questionable theology. Such as not highlighting the Virgin birth.’
Ummm… I’ve never noticed that. How did you want it highlighted, except by, you know, it being included?
I’m most “comfortable” (read: it’s what I had growing up) with the NIV. I like the NASB, and the New Living Translation. Nothing beats the KJV and NKJV for reading the Psalms, though.
– AllenG (Dedicated Tenther) says ‘No’ to RINO Romney at December 05, 2011
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166 What version does the Episcopal church use? I get the impression that it’s more like a cross between Choose-Your-Own-Adventure and Mad Libs, where you can just fill in the morality blanks and if you don’t like the ending, turn back to page 68 and choose another version. – Empire of Jeff at December 05, 2011 11:05 AM
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226‘What version does the Episcopal church use? I get the impression that it’s more like a cross between Choose-Your-Own-Adventure and Mad Libs …’
THIS! THIS times 100,000,000,000,000.
I’m a cradle to “last straw with the church was my Priest brother-in-law’s affair with a parishioner” Episcopalian. – ParanoidStillAGirlInSeattle at December 05, 2011 11:46 AM
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234 226 I left the Episcopalians. They’re all obamabots now anyway. We live immediately adjacent to the last episcopal seminary and somehow get their magazine. I sometimes read it to see how far off the reservation they’ve gone. They’ve already surpassed Arianism and are headed into some other heresy that satisfies their kinky weirdo libtard changable morals. The priest-tard that married us and said we were not a good match ended up divorced … – dagny at December 05, 2011 11:52 AM
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237 234 Satan laughs. – steevy at December 05, 2011 11:55 AM
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248 The priest-tard that married us and said we were not a good match ended up divorced ...
There’s a lot of that that goes around …
- ParanoidStillAGirlInSeattle at December 05, 2011 12:02 PM
Granted, this is only an informal online discussion with just a few comments, however, they all pointed to moral relativism and apostasy. Very sad.
‘Satan laughs’.
Indeed.
To illustrate that Semi-Pelagianism is alive and well in today’s Church, here is an example from The Episcopal Church (TEC).
Not Another Episcopal Church Blog — by Underground Pewster, also known for calling our attention to omitted Lectionary verses — brings us news of the Episcopal Church Socialist League in the Diocese of Minnesota. Stand Firm, an Episcopal forum, was quick to pick up on his blog entry.
Underground Pewster writes:
The “Episcopal Church Socialist League” will meet on Nov. 7, 2011 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on-the-Hill. An Episcopal Socialist League? What will they come up with next?
The announcement states,
“This group has grown organically at St. Paul’s out of a deep desire to ground the transformation of society both in the liturgical life of the church and her rich history in this area. Our next meeting will be on Monday, November 7th at 7:15pm at St Paul’s Episcopal Church on-the-Hill. All are welcome to come bring their ideas on what action they would like to see the ECSL engage in this upcoming year”
He points out the Radical Hospitality plank of their ‘vision as a Christian community’, the others being ‘Inspiring Worship’, ‘Spiritual Formation’ and ‘Passionate Advocacy’. There is much more eagle-eyed analysis in the Underground Pewsitter’s post — well worth a read.
I browsed through their newsletters and saw these two items on page 15 of their May 2011 edition (p. 15):
- Statehood Day Vigil for Justice and the Common Good [May 11, 2011]: … Responding to the proposed service reductions that will impact our most vulnerable neighors, the faith communities will pray for our elected officials and encourage them to find a more generous and balanced public stewardship of the state budget. The Statehood Day Vigil for Justice and the Common Good will begin in the Capitol Rotunda at 2:30 p.m.
- Planning for LGBT Pride Weekend [June 25-26, 2011] In order to reach a goal of increasing the visibility of open and affirming Episcopal churches within the Episcopal Church of Minnesota, the community at St. Mark’s Cathedral invite you to join them in any of a variety of activities during LGBT Pride weekend, including marching in the LGBT Pride Parade, representing the Episcopal Church in Minnesota in a booth in Loring Park, advertising in Lavender Magazine, or participating in a worship service at St. Mark’s Cathedral …
As Pewsitter rightly observes (emphases mine):
I do not doubt that St. Paul’s on-the-Hill is full of loving people who are unaware that they have been occupied by not only socialists but by Biblical revisionists.
Someone on Stand Firm points out that Minnesota was the first US state to have a Communist mayor — Karl Emil Nygard of Crosby, MN — way back in the 1930s. The rest of Stand Firm‘s comments are equally illuminating.
However, there is a history of Christian Socialism in the Anglican Communion, as I discovered on St Paul’s site. One of their inspirations is the early 20th century Bishop of Zanzibar, Frank Weston, more about whom on Monday.
Continuing with excerpts from the late Lutheran pastor Richard Wurmbrand‘s Marx and Satan, what follows are glimpses into the lives of children and Christians under Communist regimes.
Wurmbrand also explains why the language of Marxism and its offshoots is so complex. It’s meant to confound and confuse. Therefore, if you don’t fully understand their theory after reading them over and over again, consider yourself fortunate. Marx called his own books ‘swinish’ and his ‘criticism’ a ‘nonsense’.
This post is not for those of a sensitive nature — or young children. However, once again, I cannot express how important it is for high school and university students to read this text, whether at home or as part of a church youth group. Marx, Communists, Socialists and theorists (e.g. Fabians and the Frankfurt School) are only attacking God. They don’t really care about building a better, more equal world. Destruction and death are part of their goal — just for the sake of it. What they propose and encourage us to do around the world is nothing short of criminal. Wurmbrand calls it demonic, as it revolves around blasphemy. The economic and social theory is a mere mask. You’ll find out more in this chapter. Unfortunately, many of us have been lured to accept Marxism as something benevolent and loving for mankind. Wurmbrand even gives statistics from the late 20th century showing how many American clergymen find it compatible with Christianity! What a mistake!
Those interested in regression ‘therapy’ may also find this chapter of use to see how the Soviets deployed what Wurmbrand refers to as ‘occult’ techniques.
Excerpts are taken from pages 48 – 54 of the text, which can be found in full on Scribd. Subheads are in the original. Emphases in the text are mine.
Chapter Six – A Spiritual Warfare
The Little and the Big Devils
According to current official Marxist doctrine, which, as has been illustrated, is only a disguise, neither God nor the Devil exists. Both are fancies. Because of this teaching, Christians are persecuted by the Communists.
However, the Soviet newspaper Kommunisma Uzvara (April 1974) reported that many atheist circles were created in Red Latvia’s schools. The name given the children in the fourth through sixth grades was “little devils,” while seventh graders were called “servants of the Devil.” In another school eighth graders had the name “faithful children of the Devil.” At the meeting the children came clothed as devils, complete with horns and tails.
Thus, it was forbidden to worship God, though devil worship was openly permitted and even encouraged among children of school age. This was the hidden objective of the Communists when they seized power in Russia …
The Communists consider it wrong to believe in God. For this “crime,” many children were separated from their families and kept in special atheist boarding schools.
Incredibly, the Communists even wanted to make Satan-worshipers of church leaders. A Russian Orthodox priest named Platonov, an anti-Jewish agitator, went over to the side of the Communists when they came to power in Russia. For this, he was made a bishop and became a Judas who denounced members of his flock to the Secret Police, well knowing they would be severely persecuted …
Pravoslavnaia Rus writes:
The Orthodox cathedral in Odessa, so much loved by the Odessites, became the meeting place of Satanists soon after the Communists came to power…. They gathered also in Slobodka-Romano and in Count Tolstoi’s former home.
Then follows a detailed account of Satanist masses said by deacon Serghei Mihailov, of the treacherous Living Church, an Orthodox branch established in connivance with the Communists. An attendant describes the Satanist mass as a “parody of the Christian liturgy, in which human blood is used for communion.” These masses took place in the cathedral before its main altar …
Religious Obscenities
It might be in somesense “logical” that Communists would arrest priests and pastors as counter-revolutionaries. But why were priests compelled by the Marxists in the Romanian prison of Piteshti to say Mass over excrement and urine? Why were Christians tortured into taking Communion with these as the elements? Why such an obscene mockery of religion? Why did the Romanian Orthodox priest Roman Braga, whom I knew personally when he was a prisoner of the Communists, and who presently resides in the U.S.A., have his teeth knocked out one by one with an iron rod in order to make him blaspheme?
The Communists had explained to him and others: “If we kill you Christians, you go to heaven. But we don’t want you to be crowned martyrs. You should curse God first and then go to hell.”
… Some prisoners were compelled to take off their trousers and sit with their naked bottoms on open Bibles.
Marxists are supposed to be atheists who believe in neither heaven nor hell. In these extreme circumstances, Marxism has lifted its atheistic mask to reveal its true face, the face of Satanism. Communist persecution of religion might have a human explanation, but the fury of such perverse persecution can only be Satanic.
In Romanian prisons and in the Soviet Union as well, nuns who would not deny their faith were raped anally, and Baptist girls had oral sex forced on them.
Many prisoners who were so treated died as martyrs, but the Communists were not satisfied with this. Using Luciferian techniques, they made martyrs die blaspheming because of the delirium provoked by torture …
Torture is productive, it leads to ingenious inventions– this is all Marx had to say about the subject. No wonder Marxist governments have surpassed all others in torturing their opponents! This alone displays the Satanic nature of Marxism …
Satanist desecrations of Catholic churches occurred in the 1970s in Upyna, Dotnuva, Zanaiciu, Kalvarija, Sede, etc., localities in Lithuania. One about which we know happened in Alsedeai on September 22, 1980.
In his book Psychiatric Hospital 14, Moscow, Georgi Fedotov tells of his conversation with the psychiatrist Dr. Valdimir Lwitski about a Christian named Argentov who was detained there. The physician says, “You are pulling your friend Eduard toward God and we toward the Devil. So I’m using my rights as a psychiatrist to deny you and your friends access to him.”
The Christian Salu Daka Ndebele was interrogated by the Secret Police of Maputo in Communist Mozambique. The officer said to him, “We want to kill your God.” He raised his gun toward the head of the prisoner and declared, “This is my God. With this I have the power of life and death. If your God comes here, I will shoot Him dead myself.”
In Chiasso, Communist Angola, Communists slaughtered animals in a church and placed their heads on the altar and pulpit. A poster proclaimed, “These are the gods whom you adore.” Pastor Aurelio Chicanha Saunge was killed, together with one hundred and fifty parishioners.
When the Catholic Lithuanian priest Eugene Vosikevic was killed, his mouth was found to have been filled with bread, an apparent Satanist ritual.
Vetchernaia Moskva, a Communist newspaper, let pass a Freudian slip of the pen:
We do not fight against believers and not even against clergymen. We fight against God to snatch believers from Him.
… We do not wonder at these words in a Soviet newspaper. Marx had said it already in his book German Ideology. Calling God “the absolute Spirit,” as his teacher Hegel had done, he wrote, “We are concerned with a highly interesting question: the decomposition of the Absolute Spirit.”
… In Albania a priest, Stephen Kurti, was sentenced to death for having baptized one child. Baptisms must be performed in secret in many Communist lands, including North Korea …
In the former Soviet Union baptisms could be officiated only after registration. Persons wishing to be baptized or to have their child baptized presented their identity cards to the representative of the church board, who in turn reported them to the state authorities. The result was persecution. Kolkhozniks (workers on collective farms) had no identity cards and could therefore baptize their children only secretly. Many protestant pastors received prison sentences for baptizing people.
The Communist fight against baptism presupposes belief in its value for a soul. Religious people in Israel or Pakistan or Nepal oppose baptism in the name of their own religious outlook, because it is a Christian seal. But for atheists– as Communists clearly declare themselves to be– baptism should mean nothing. Supposedly it neither benefits nor harms the baptized. Why then do these Communists fight against baptism? It is because Communists “fight against God to snatch believers from Him.” Their ideology is not really inspired by atheism, but by a fervent hatred for God.
“Among other purposes,” said Lenin, “we created our party specifically for the fight against any religious deceiving of the people.”
Occult Practices
More about the relationship between Marxism and the occult can be found in Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain by Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroder. It is highly significant that the Communist East had been much more advanced than the West in research about the dark forces manipulated by Satan …
In Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, etc., the Communist Party spent huge sums on secret investigation into this science. They hid from the West information about what happened in the twenty parapsychological institutes located in the Soviet Union.
Komsomolskaia Pravda (Moscow) published a lengthy article about hypnotists who help people “regress to past lives.” For the induction process they use the following suggestions:
You descend into earth, deeper, even deeper. You and the earth become one…. You are deep in the earth. You are surrounded by thick darkness…. Around you is eternal night…
Now we approach a spot of light far away… nearer and nearer. We sneak through a small hole to the sky, leaving our own body deep in the earth…. We overcome the frontiers of time … and we return to your past….”
Soviet writers said clearly that this “time machine” was not science fiction. “Transpersonalism” offered this voyage in time.
In the Satanist black masses, all prayers are said from the end to the beginning, and the priestly robe is worn inside out. Inversion is the Satanist rule, and this is applied even to the doctrine of reincarnation. Whereas Indian devotees are concerned about their future reincarnations and try to better themselves by obeying what they believe to be God’s commandments, the Satanists offer a return to former incarnations. They care nothing about a better future in eternity.
Marxism as a Church
… Volume 2 ofThe Works o f Marx and Engels opens with Jesus’ words to His disciples (John
6:63), as quoted by Marx in his book The Holy Family: “It is the spirit which gives life.” Then
we read:
Criticism [his criticism of all that exists] so loved the masses that it sent its only-begotten son [i.e., Marx ], that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have a life of criticism. Criticism became masses and lived among us, and we saw its glory as the glory of the only-begotten Son of the Father. Criticism did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made itself of no reputation, taking the form of a bookbinder, and humbled itself up to nonsense– yes, critical nonsense in foreign languages.
Those knowledgeable in Scripture will recognize this as a parody of Biblical verses (John 3:16; 1:14; Philippians 2:6-8). Here again, Marx declares his own works to be “nonsense,” as well as “swinish books.”
Marxism is a religion, and it even “uses” Scripture. Its main work, The Capitalle by Marx, is called “the Bible of the working class.” Marx considered himself “the Pope of Communism.”
Communism “has the pride of infallibility.” All who oppose the Communist “creed” (this expression is used by Engels) are excommunicated …
Those who die in the service of Marxism are feasted as “martyrs.” Marxism also has its sacraments: the solemn receptions in the toddlers’ organization called “the Children of October”, the oaths given when received as “Pioneers”, after which come the higher grades of initiation in the Komsomol and the Party. Confession is replaced with public self-criticism before the assembly of Party members.
Marxism is a church. It has all the characteristics of a church. Yet, its god is not named in its popular literature. But, as seen by the proofs given in this book, Satan is obviously its god.
It is strange that though Marxism is clearly Satanic, it is not seen as a threat by many churches in the free world. Some illuminating statistics on this are available.
Seminary professors in the U.S.A. were asked, “Can an individual consistently be a good member of your denomination and adhere to Marxism?”
Below are the percentage figures of those who answered Yes:
Episcopalian – 68 %
Lutheran – 53 %
Presbyterian – 49 %
Methodist – 49%
Church of Christ – 47 %
American Baptist – 44 %
Roman Catholic – 31 %
How sad that those who follow the Truth are duped by those who serve the father of lies.
Tomorrow: Chapter Seven – Marx, Darwin and Revolution
We are in an era when animals are becoming equal to humans within social constructs and, in some cases, within the law.
Many Christians wonder — and hope — that they will be able to be reunited with their pets in Heaven. (Photo of the adorable basset hound comes courtesy of sharenator.com.) This was less the case when I was growing up and I recall being chewed out in class by a (politically liberal) nun who said uncategorically that pets would not inherit eternal life. My dad had told me that pets went to Heaven, but after this incident said that he was just trying to make me feel better about animals when they died. Needless to say, in the 1960s, this created a bit of a flap at the next private parent-teacher meeting. ‘Is that what you’re teaching Churchmouse? The Catholic Church does not teach that — anywhere. Animals do not have souls.’
Today, I imagine the dialogue in the classroom and with parents is quite different, adopting the zeitgeist of equality of all things.
Below are statements from the main Protestant denominations on animals and heaven. Emphases mine.
The clearest statement comes from the United Methodist Church. The Revd Dan Benedict of the Center for Worship Resources and General Board of Discipleship states:
With other Catholic and Protestant denominations, we United Methodists do not teach that animals have souls and therefore need redemption and forgiveness or heaven in the same way that humans do.
However, we do teach that “All creation is the Lord’s, and therefore we are responsible for the ways in which we use or abuse it [including the animals and diverse forms of life on the planet].” (¶ 160, 2004 Book of Discipline)
Further, “We support regulations that protect the life and health of animals, including those ensuring the humane treatment of pets and other domestic animals, animals used in research, and the painless slaughtering of meat animals, fish, and fowl. We encourage the preservation of all animal species including those threatened with extinction.” (¶ 160C, 2004 Book of Discipline)
We include in our Book of Worship a liturgy for the blessing of animals and we see animals as companions and “friends” to humans and believe that all of them belong to God.
The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS) states (citing the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, or WELS):
In the “Q&A” column of the January 1995 issue of the Northwestern Lutheran (the official periodical of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod), Rev. John Brug gives the following helpful response to the question, “Will there be animals in heaven?”
Since animals do not have immortal souls, we might think the answer is no. Several facts, however, make one hesitant to be satisfied with a simple “no.” Our eternal home is a new earth (Isaiah 65:17ff, 2 Peter 3:13, Revelation 21:1). Isaiah 65:25 speaks of it as a place in which the wolf and the lamb live together peacefully.
This may be figurative language, but one other passage suggests animals might be in our eternal home. Romans 8:21 says that “the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage.” In this present, sin-cursed world, we inflict suffering on animals, and they inflict suffering on us. At Christ’s coming, when this world is freed from the effects of sin, animals, too, will be freed from suffering.
That text also says the creation will be “brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” That might mean there may be plants and animals in the new earth as there were in the first earth. If there are animals on the new earth, they will be good creatures of God as the animals of the first earth were.
In short, the answer is a cautious “maybe.”
Lutheran pet owner and LCMS pastor, the Revd Walter Snyder, elaborates:
We do know that humans are the only creatures on earth who were made in the image of God. This sets us apart from the animals more than logic, planning for the future, or anything else that behavioral scientists and biologists might indicate.
Perhaps heaven will have its share of animals. Still, the only “animal” definitely mentioned in heaven is the Lamb — who is, of course, Jesus Christ. I guess that you could also say that the “sheep” get to heaven, while the “goats” are definitely culled out. We do know that a new heaven and a new earth will be established. How the new life will be populated — except for God, the heavenly beings, and the saints who were saved by faith in Christ — we aren’t told. It could be that earthly animals will be replaced by something else altogether. Maybe only certain creatures will be introduced into the new creation.
It may be that animals, while they glorify God by their very existence on earth, are destined to pass away at the end of time. Pets may be part of God’s providence to a world filled with sin and sorrow.
A 2005 paper from a Reformed (Calvinist) author, Johan Tangelder, explores this question in detail:
[page 3] The humanization of animals and the belief that they go to heaven raises many questions. Historically, people didn’t always view animals in a positive light. Negative qualities of animals are often mentioned in reference to humans such as “as evil as a hyena,” “as sly as a fox.” In the early fourteenth century, Dante had condemned to the eighth circle of his Hell those guilty of “the sins of the wolf”: seducers, hypocrites, conjurers, thieves and liars. In the Bible there is also a reference to animals capable of being possessed by an evil spirit. For example, Jesus allowed demons to enter a herd of pigs who rushed into the lake and were drowned (Mark 5:1-13).
[page 4] Man can verbalize his thoughts in speech. The uniqueness of human language reveals man’s intellect, will, emotion and general ideas about space and time, and abstract concepts. It is man’s key to communicate concerning the past, the present and the future. Calvin brings human speech in its proper Biblical framework. He notes, “The use of the tongue and ears is to lead us into the truth by means of God’s Word that we may know how we were created incorruptible and that when we are passed out of this world there is an heritage prepared for us above, and in short to bring us to God.”
… the Bible does not say that animals have souls. But neither does the Bible deny this. The question whether animals have a soul is not new. The medieval theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas (1224/5-74), decreed animals were soulless, and graded them according to their utility to people. Wolves, bears, hairy beasts, useless to human comfort, were demonic. The twentieth century Reformed theologian, R.C. Sproul, observes: “Traditionally many have been persuaded that there is no future life for animals. The Bible does not teach that animals go to heaven. One of the key arguments against the idea that animals do not survive the grave is the conviction that animals do not have souls. Many are convinced that the distinctive aspect that divides humans from animals is that humans have souls and animals do not.”
Will animals be with the Lord in the intermediate heaven, the stage of eternal life before the coming of the New Heaven and Earth? An animal is not religious. Man is incurably religious. Even in his denial of God, man struggles with the God question … “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Our Lord Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44). These texts do not include animals being drawn to the Father through Jesus Christ. Only man is capable of having a personal relationship with the infinite personal triune God.
[page 5] The Bible affirms the dignity of man. Man is sharply distinguished from the rest of God’s creation. He is unique! He has a very special place in God’s creation. Nothing in creation can be greater or have more dignity than man, for God alone is greater (Ps. 8). Man is neither junk nor animal. He is different from all other creatures; he is created in the very image of God. Man, as God’s image bearer, is elevated above animals and destined to have dominion over all the world (Gen.1:16, Ps. 8:5-9). Of all God’s acts of creation recorded in Scripture, this is the only one preceded by the statement that God, as it were consulted Himself, before acting, “And God said, ‘Let us make man’”, (Gen. 1:26). This formal fact, alone, is of great importance because it shows that this creative act differs from all the others. It is the fact that God created only man and woman in His image and likeness (vv.16-27). In the New Testament mankind is also referred to as being “made in God’s likeness” (Jam. 3:9). The apostle Paul describes Christ as the perfect image of God. He says, “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18) …
Scripture also shows that people are allowed to use animals as work animals and for food (Gen. 9:3). Man is the scientist at work in God’s laboratory – earth. People may speculate whether animals go to heaven. But Scripture shows that the world is to be understood only in relation to man. Calvin notes, “The Lord Himself by the very order of creation has demonstrated that He created all things for the sake of man.” The world created and endowed as a habitation for man in such a way as to serve his true destiny in the worship and adoration of God. The first question of The Westminister Larger Catechism asks, “What is the chief and highest end of man” The answer? “Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully enjoy him for ever.”
[page 6] Isaiah anticipates an eternal Kingdom of God on the new earth. He describes the glorious future which God’s people prayerfully and eagerly anticipate. He points to a time of the renewal of the old paradise where predator and prey will lie down together and be at peace. “‘The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox…They will neither harm nor destroy in all my holy mountains,’ says the Lord” (Isa. 65:25).
Will there be animals on this new world? Apparently there will be plants, rocks, trees and animals on the new earth. But ask what it will be like, we cannot say because Scripture has not revealed it to us.
Charles Colson, representing the Evangelical perspective, observes and warns us about taking empathy for animals further than we should:
Five years ago I warned … about an aggressive animal-rights movement that seeks to blur the distinction between animals and humans. Since then it has gained steam, even unwittingly drawing some Christians into its orbit.
I know of a Bible study group in Los Angeles that recently laid hands on a sick dog, praying God would heal her—and if not, receive her into heaven. A Christian veterinarian administers healing sessions for patients. And dozens of websites offer biblical “proof” that animals are resurrected, as if Christ’s atonement somehow included them …
Of course, Christians have a specific command to care for the creation. Genesis records that God, after forming every living creature and calling this “good,” entrusts to Adam the task of ruling over them in a responsible way … we should delight in the unique joy that animals bring, and support the work of local shelters that care for abused and abandoned animals …
Christianity teaches that humans are unique in all of creation: we are conscious of our existence, aware of death, capable of works of great creativity, and the only part of creation that bears the image of God. Humans alone have eternal souls, which confers unique moral status.
Many animal-rights activists dismiss any distinctions between humans and animals as “speciesism,” which Princeton professor Peter Singer defines as “a prejudice” that favors “the interests of members of one’s own species … against those of members of other species” …
The Scriptures tell us that animals are soulless creatures, and will perish with the rest of creation. We will not see them while our souls rest with God; when Christ returns and our bodies are resurrected, we will live in the new heavens and new earth—where there may be new, not resurrected, animals.
If we fail to understand our own doctrines, more and more Americans will begin to accept the idea that animals and humans are morally equivalent—and animal-rights activists may press on to their ultimate goals: eliminating animal agriculture and banning scientific research that uses animals—jeopardizing the development of life-saving medicines. And, as Singer proposes in his utilitarian system of ethics, activists would seek to allocate scarce resources fairly among animals and humans. (Fido’s operation will create greater happiness than keeping Uncle Ben on life support.) …
An Orthodox perspective briefly reviews the above points and adds:
When the holy God-seer Moses wrote that we were created by God in His “image and likeness,” it means that God shared with us some of His own characteristics (some actual, some potential), one of which is immortality. I’m sure that your pet is wonderful (mine was!), but you are more than wonderful — you are a child of God, created in His own image and likeness, created to share immortal life with Him in His kingdom.
In closing, this is what one Episcopalian — Veronique — says, which is pertinent to those who are upset at the thought they might never see their pet again after it dies:
God will make us perfectly happy by the perfect relationship we will enjoy with him; the need of companionship that we have on earth, and that may be filled by a pet here (or a plant), will be completely fulfilled in our perfect communion with God. As someone else said, whatever is not there will not be missed.
Tomorrow: Christians and meat
The Church in Tunisia is small — 25,000 people, or 1% of the population — yet it comprises Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox churches.
The blog on John Piper’s Desiring God site had what seemed to me to be an overly optimistic post-uprising entry:
Through our international outreach initiatives the Lord has brought into our network many good friends, including a family and ministry working to spread the gospel in this North African country. We were relieved to receive this report from them and continue to be amazed at how the Lord is building his church around the world even in the midst of great turmoil.
God is doing great things in Tunisia! The Tunisian people are celebrating the end of years of political repression and lack of freedoms. Amid all the turmoil of police violence and looting from criminal elements, we are trusting that the Lord is opening doors in this country for true freedom; internet sites created to share the Good News to Tunisians, that had been blocked almost as soon as their inception, are now opened …
We are hoping to inspire [our congregation] to think biblically about how eternal freedom in Christ relates to earthly, temporal freedom in society. These are huge challenges for our little flock! They have no background for it, no culture of real democracy from where to begin. Pray that the church stands for truth and justice and is a light against oppression.
We are praying that all believers here may be salt and light in this society and we may build a positive future. Pray for the struggles of the coalition government as they work together to put true democracy in place. This is a key and historic moment.
Whilst we should pray for a freer society in Tunisia, it seems unlikely that Christians will be given instantaneous liberty for the Church to increase. Mission Network News reports (emphases mine):
Todd Nettleton with Voice of the Martyrs says it’s hard to say what will result from the hurried changes, however, “I don’t think we can anticipate a positive change, at least in the short term. This is a country with less than half a percent of the population as Christian. It’s pretty unlikely that suddenly those believers are going to be celebrated by their government or by their countrymen.”
While it seems that the community of believers is a little larger than thought previously, the attitude of the authorities has changed. Foreign Christian residents experience more inspections and suspect their phones are tapped.
“They have said, ‘We’re not going have a law that is in opposition to Islam.’ It’s unlikely that the new government, whenever that gets situated, is going to change that policy. So I think that we need to pray for the believers.”
According to Open Doors’ World Watch List–a compilation of the top 50 countries where persecution occurs, pastors of expat churches are watched and the materials they use are monitored closely. Nettleton says, “Voice of the Martyrs is involved, but I can’t say much more than that. Because there are so few Christians in Tunisia, anything we say publicly about what we’re doing there can end up in them being targeted.”
The Barnabas Fund provides us with background on the Church in Tunisia:
Until the 7th century AD Christianity was widespread throughout the region of today’s Tunisia. It produced famous Christian thinkers and leaders such as Tertullian and Cyprian. But five centuries later, after Arab tribes had conquered the land and established themselves as rulers, Christianity was extinguished.
Even today the number of Christians in this majority-Muslim state is tiny, and most are foreign residents. There are believed to be a few hundred indigenous Tunisian Christians, all of them converts from Islam. Within this small number are a wide range of theological beliefs, making unity difficult to achieve. Furthermore, many of the Christians are isolated and fearful of persecution by a society in which leaving Islam is generally considered equivalent to treason.
An Episcopal bishop, the Rt Revd Bill Musk, is currently in Tunisia. In February 2011, he gave an interview to the Church Mission Society (CMS) in which he said:
In the new, emerging polity, can there be a place for Tunisians who are Christian by choice? The assumption is that all Christians are foreigners. Very few here I guess even know that there are Tunisians who are believers. A few Tunisian Christians took to clearing up rubbish from the main streets in centre of Tunis after the revolution. They were met with curiosity and were filmed/interviewed by some TV crews; they also met with some hostility …
We cancelled one Sunday’s worth of services, all homegroups (in fact the homegroups meetings are still not back to functioning because people here need to be off the streets by 9pm still – out of choice). In some localities that were not affected by the worst of the looting and shooting, and where people lived in proximity of one another, people got together to eat and pray. We tried to give moral support to those who decided that for them, getting out of the country was the response they wanted to make. We phoned others who were in “hairy” areas and very frightened. We prayed …
As I said, the scariest for us personally was the immediate nights of breakdown in law and order. My wife and I were for several nights alone in the house next to the church …
The indigenous church is too tiny to register as part of the makeup of a new Tunisia I suspect. One of its few significant leaders is currently out of the country. Tunisian Jews are recognised as forming part of the population here – at the moment there has been a demonstration by about 40 Islamists outside the one synagogue in Tunis chanting offensive stuff. On the other hand, when the RC Silesian missionary was found murdered … As it turned out, the investigators and, after them, the RC authorities here, believe the Father was murdered by a contractor/employee whom the Father had challenged about taking money and not completing a job at the school where he worked ...
Certainly Tunisians look for (in the majority it would seem) a society in which abuse of people for whatever cause is not to be accepted. Whether the new Tunisian Constitution identify the nation as “Muslim” or “Islamic” remains to be seen. There is a strong, though probably no more than 33 per cent maximum, minority Islamist perspective here. The leaders of that perspective are at the moment presenting themselves as enlightened, generous and willing to work with others of different views in forming a new polity for Tunisia.
So, it remains to be seen what happens. Although the Christian population there is small, let us pray that their future is free of suspicion and surveillance from the authorities. May they be able to share a peaceful Easter in worship together.
Today’s post continues (see yesterday’s about Eckhart Tolle) with excerpts from the South African blog Waak en Bid (Watch and Pray), which offers sound scriptural guidance to those entertaining the idea of attending an emerging church.
In Tom Lessing’s post entitled ‘Doctrines of Demons and E-Church Heresies’, he uncovers more false teachers — Ron Martoia and Cynthia Bourgeault. You might say, ‘Churchmouse, I’ve never heard of them.’ Perhaps this is true today, but you never know what tomorrow could bring.
Ron Martoia’s Transformational Trek Tribe tells us (emphases mine):
The church, one of the primary institutions charged with changing lives, hasn’t and can’t. The statistics are everywhere. As one of my first leadership mentors said, ‘Mediocrity is the standard of excellence for the incompetent’. I fear mediocrity might be the kindest word we can find.
Strong words. Consider the people who have filled the pews not only in Europe but around the world for the past few centuries. Not only have they attended services faithfully each week, but they have also built churches, funded pastoral discretionary funds for those in need and kept the local congregations alive — and, until recently, in faith. Apparently, that’s not enough, even though it is in the spirit of the Epistles and the Book of Acts.
So, Martoia proposes
new maps.
For a new century, you understand. Because a new age demands them. You can read more at the link, especially the comparison between the ancient 17th century and the current age.
Tom Lessing of Waak en Bid (Watch and Pray) explains (emphases in the original):
Faith in Jesus Christ and his immutable doctrine is OUT. Experiencing, sensing and being is IN.” What are the practices designed to bring about a metanoic awareness (a bigger mind) and to experience and sense the larger invisible reality? How do you become a part of something that changes the game and how do you determine who may partake in the “pretty big shift” in consciousness. In the very last paragraph of his manifesto Ron Martoia gives the answer (emphases his):
Their religious or lack of religious affiliation does not matter at all. This tribe will be composed of all sorts of people, many considering themselves spiritual but not religious.
This explains why Ron Martoia says that “we will not be believing our way into this reality – we will be practicing and experiencing it. No bible studies or small group meeting will help.” Faith in Christ Jesus, his cross and the Bible is a stumbling block to peoples’ of other faiths and the irreligious but spiritual people. So there must be another way we can assemble peoples’ of all faiths into one big united and loving tribe — MEDITATION!. Yep! MEDITATION in all its various formats, i.e. contemplative prayer, meditation (insight meditation), stillness and even yoga, is supposedly the doorway that leads to God’s Kingdom on earth here and now where people of all religious persuasions may partake of the benefits of the new golden age as one united tribe.
There is absolutely no difference between Ron Martoia, his e-church buddies in South Africa and New Agers who follow Eckhart Tolle’s teachings.
But, there is another New Age Teacher, Cynthia Bourgeault, an American Episcopalian who believes (emphases mine):
Whatever form of meditation you practice, it is in essence simply a method for detaching yourself from thinking (which tends to reinforce the egoic process) long enough for you to begin to trust this other, deeper intelligence moving inside you. It provides you with another way to think: from “beyond the mind” — which, incidentally, is what the word metanoia, usually translated as “repentance,” actually means.— Cynthia Bourgeault, Mystical Hope
Tom Lessing clarifies this for us:
The “deeper intelligence” moving inside you is not the “higher self” or “the real essence of your own godhood” (aka Eckhart Tolle) which you encounter when you do your metanoiac meditations. They are demonic entities with whom you come into contact when you deliberately shut down your divinely given faculty to think and reason actively and not passively. Passivity brought about by stillness or any form of meditation is very dangerous. In fact, most of the doctrines of demons are transmitted or channeled through meditation.
Tomorrow: global utopianism
My sincere thanks to Christian Research Net, Watcher’s Lamp and Discerning the World for picking up my post from October 10, 2010, ‘Rick Warren’s Global Network‘.
Watcher’s Lamp and Discerning the World noted my mention of Warren’s fulsome address to the 2009 Islamic Society Convention in Plainfield, Illinois — a pleasant semi-rural town not far from Joliet.
Watcher’s Lamp has more about the ISNA, the organisation behind the conference (italics in the original):
According to the Investigative Project On Terrorism, The Islamic Society of North America, ISNA “is one of America’s most prominent and active Muslim organizations.
As the information detailed in this report will show, ISNA’s ideology has been rooted in radicalism since its foundation.
Among the findings:
- ISNA remains an unindicted co-conspirator in the Hamas-support prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), despite its appeals to the court to remove that status.
- ISNA was created by members of the Muslim Brotherhood – a radical Egyptian
movement that seeks to spread Shariah law globally – in the U.S. Many of those founders remain in leadership positions with ISNA. - It invites controversial speakers to its nationwide conferences, including some of the world famous Islamists and advocates of Jihad.
- Speakers at ISNA conferences make radical statements, often in contradiction of ISNA’s cultivated public image.
Discerning the World concluded their post with a 2006 article from Amil Imani, originally from Iran and now resident in the United States. Mr Imani cautions us on our approach in ‘Islam’s Useful Idiots’, which originally appeared in American Thinker. Excerpts follow (emphases mine):
The Useful Idiot may even engage in willful misinformation and deception when it suits him. Terms such as ‘Political Islam,’ or ‘Radical Islam,’ for instance, are contributions of the Useful Idiot. These terms do not even exist in the native parlance of Islam, simply because they are redundant. Islam, by its very nature and according to its charter—the Quran—is a radical political movement. It is the Useful Idiot who sanitizes Islam and misguides the populace by saying that the ‘real Islam’ constitutes the main body of the religion; and, that this main body is non—political and moderate.
Regrettably, a large segment of the population goes along with these nonsensical euphemisms depicting Islam because it prefers to believe them. It is less threatening to believe that only a hijacked small segment of Islam is radical or politically driven and that the main body of Islam is indeed moderate and non—political.
But Islam is political to the core. In Islam the mosque and state are one and the same—the mosque is the state. This arrangement goes back to the days of Muhammad himself. Islam is also radical in the extreme. Even the ‘moderate’ Islam is radical in its beliefs as well as its deeds. Muslims believe that all non—Muslims, bar none, are hellfire bound and well—deserve being maltreated compared to believers.
No radical barbaric act of depravity is unthinkable for Muslims in dealing with others. They have destroyed precious statues of Buddha, leveled sacred monuments of other religions, and bulldozed the cemeteries of non—Muslims—a few examples of their utter extreme contempt toward others …
Almost three decades after the tragic Islamic Revolution of 1979, the suffocating rule of Islam casts its death-bearing pal[l] over Iranians. A proud people with enviable heritage is being systematically purged of its sense of identity and forced to think and behave like the barbaric and intolerant Muslims. Iranians who had always treated women with equality, for instance, have seen them reduced by the stone-age clergy to sub-human status of Islamic teaching. Any attempt by the women of Iran to counter the misogynist rule of Muhammad’s mullahs is mercilessly suppressed. Women are beaten, imprisoned, raped and killed just as men are slaughtered without due process or mercy.
The lesson is clear. Beware of the Useful Idiots who live in liberal democracies. Knowingly or unknowingly, they serve as the greatest volunteer and effective soldiers of Islam. They pave the way for the advancement of Islam and they will assuredly be among the very first victims of Islam as soon as it assumes power.
Lane Chaplin published what John Gresham Machen had to say on interfaith activity and also added a YouTube video from Todd Friel, which I’ll get to in a minute. First, here is an excerpt from Machen’s What is Faith? (1925). Italics in the original:
It is a very real obstacle, though at times it seems to be not a bit practical. It is the old obstacle truth. That was a great scheme of Lessing’s Nathan der Weise, to let Judaism, Mohammedanism, and Christianity live peacefully side by side, each contributing its quota to the common good of humanity; and the plan has attained enormous popularity since Lessing’s day by the admission, to the proposed league of religions, of all the faiths of mankind. But the great trouble is, a creed can be efficient only so long as it is held to be true; if I make my creed effective in my life I can do so only because I regard it as true. But in so doing I am obliged by an inexorable necessity to regard the creed of my neighbor, if it is contradictory to mine, as false … Consequently, despite all that is said, the creeds, if they are to be held with any fervor, if they are really to have any power, must be opposed to one another; they simply cannot allow one another to work on in peace. If therefore, we want the work to proceed, we must face and settle this conflict of the means; we cannot call on men’s beliefs to help us unless we determine what it is that is to be believed. A faith that can consent to avoid proselytizing among other faiths is not really faith at all.
An objection, however, may remain … If, therefore, faith in such diverse and contradictory things brings results, if it relieves the distresses of suffering humanity, how can we have the heart to insist on logical consistency in the things that are believed? On the contrary, it is urged, let us be satisfied with any kind of faith just so it does the work; it makes no difference what is believed just so the health giving attitude of faith is there; the less dogmatic faith is, the purer it is, because it is the less weakened by the dangerous alloy of knowledge.
Plausible are the ways in which men are seeking to justify this circulation of counterfeit currency in the spiritual sphere; it is perfectly right, we are told, so long as it is not found out …
Such counterfeits should be removed, not in the interests of destruction, but in order to leave room for the pure gold the existence of which is implied by the presence of the counterfeits … Now we Christians think that we have found faith in what is true when we have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as He is offered to us in the gospel. We are well aware of what has been said against that gospel; we are well aware of the unpopularity that besets a man the moment he holds any one thing to be true and rejects as false whatever is contradictory to it; we are fully conscious of the risk that we are taking when we abandon a merely eclectic attitude and put all our confidence in one thing and one thing only. But we are ready to take the risk. This world is a dark place without Christ … There are … voices within us that whisper to us doubts; but we must act in accordance with the best light that is given us, and doing so we have decided for our part to distrust our doubts and base our lives, despite all, upon Christ.
Sadly, not everyone sees the interfaith gestures as flawed as Machen did 85 years ago. Here’s a clip from The Way of the Master Radio on a Christian 2007 Yale Center for Faith and Culture statement responding to a letter which over 100 Islamic clerics and scholars signed proposing that Muslims and Christians work together for greater mutual understanding. It’s about the ‘love’, ‘common ground’ and so forth that the two faiths seemingly share, especially the ‘belief in one God’. Hmm.
And who signed it? Not only Rick Warren, but also Richard Mouw, President of Fuller Theological Seminary; other Fuller professors; Tony Jones; Brian McLaren; Robert Schuller; The Episcopal Church; United Methodist Church; National Association of Evangelicals; faculty from Wheaton College; faculty from Biola University and — John Stott. Yes, that John Stott.
Our local Catholic diocese has been promoting interfaith dialogue and work for the past few years, apparently upon instruction from the Vatican. This is no doubt a global directive.
Please avoid programmes promoted at your church in the name of ‘unity’. It is a false and spiritually dangerous unity.
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. (John 10:9)
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: (John 11:25)
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)
And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, [even] in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life. (1 John 5:20)
Over the past few days, I have seen several searches for my Mariology dossier from November 2010. No one has found all of them, so to make things easier, here are links to the entire set.
Informative and educational, these will no doubt answer a number of questions you might have about how Mary is viewed within Christianity:
A summary of Mariology and the Church – November 17, 2010
John MacArthur on Mariolatry – Part 1 — November 18, 2010
John MacArthur on Mariolatry – Part 2 — November 19, 2010
Emotion, sensation, Mary and ecumenism = One World Religion — November 21, 2010
Apologies, Lutheran bloggers and readers, for the parlous state of The Episcopal Church (TEC), which used to be known as the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of America (PECUSA) but has since been rebranded in a simplistic and pedestrian way.
This search for the pedestrian and quasi-secular continues with embarrassing news stories, such as the recent lesbian clergy wedding by Massachusetts Bishop Thomas Shaw. Dr Gregory Jackson of Ichabod featured this story in his post of January 13, 2011, ‘They Used to Call This a Boston Marriage’. He gives us the report from Virtue Online, complete with pictures. It’s embarrassing for orthodox Anglicans reading this thinking, ‘Oh, dear — what must the Lutherans must think of us?’ That was my reaction, anyway. Then again, I’m waiting for a similar event to occur in the liberal branch of American Lutheranism, the ELCA, which partners with TEC on various initiatives.
I stopped reading Virtue Online several months ago, having read from some of his commenters elsewhere that David Virtue is particular about the niceness and tone of his readers’ reactions. Fortunately, he has allowed a range of spiky and informed comments about this unbiblical event, a few of which follow:
Mike4winns: ‘By using the words like marry, first lesbian marriage and marriage ceremony, the normalization of this sinful behavior continues.’
marinemama: ‘… it has seemed inevitable for a long time that the radicals would take over. TEC is not a god; unity is not a god. Unity may be a good thing, but it’s not more important than truth; it’s not more important than the word of God …’
AnnoDomini: ‘Well, the Episcopal Divinity School used to be headed up by Carter Hayward, who lived on campus with her same-sex partner. This is the divinity school where one of the women priestesses in training gave a homily on how the Eucharist was like forced oral sex — and was applauded for it. That was decades ago. The rot has long since completely destroyed the once-beautiful Anglican faith.’
My reaction is that the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Synod should declare TEC anathema and expel them from the Anglican Communion. It’s called church discipline — they’ve had too many aberrant clergy and apostate goings-on over the years. However, the Druid poet Rowan Williams, supporter of the emergent church and all things touchy-feely, would never even think of such an action.
This inaction upsets many Anglicans. So does the lack of biblical preaching and doctrinal instruction. As a result, a number of Anglicans have moved to other Protestant denominations. Case in point is Pastor Mark Henderson, christened and raised an Anglican. He is now a pastor in the Lutheran Church in Australia and describes himself as an Anglo-Lutheran.
This is his experience as described in his Glosses from an Old Manse post entitled, ‘Machen on the Grammar of the Gospel‘:
I was trying to figure out why the Anglican Church of my place and time did not believe or teach the 39 Articles.
Many will agree. Eventually, Pr Henderson:
joined the Lutheran Church by profession of faith (16 years ago), after discovering that all that is best in the Anglican 39 Articles of Religion finds fuller and clearer expression in the Augsburg Confession. I’m still fond of the Anglican Church, but often perplexed by it …
Many of us are.
In any event, Pr Henderson credits the founder of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC), John Gresham Machen, with bringing him to understand the error in the modern Church:
Since I was recently accused of being crypto-Reformed I thought I might as well go the whole hog and recommend a book by a Reformed author. “Christianity and Liberalism” (published 1923) is the book and J. Gresham Machen* (1881-1937) is the author. I’ve been re-reading it while on holidays (as I get older I find it less important to read “the latest”, and more beneficial to read and re-read what is best from the past) …
… this book is an incisive study of the differences between orthodox Christianity and liberal Christianity on several crucial doctrinal topics – God, humanity, the Bible, Christ, salvation and the church. This was actually one of the first Christian books I ever read … I’ll forever be grateful to Machen for innoculating me against liberalism. Of course, there’s been a lot of water under the bridge since 1923, but it’s surprising how little of what Machen has written could be discarded as irrelevant today, which is probably why this book has remained constantly in print for 80+ years while other books on the same subject from the period have passed into oblivion.
Tomorrow, inspired by Pr Henderson’s post, we’ll begin taking a look at John Gresham Machen along with Christianity and Liberalism.
