The liberal compromise of the church.
Francis Shaeffer, a man greatly used of God, once said this regarding much of the church today: "for the evangelical accommodation to the world of our age represents the removal of the last barrier against the breakdown of our culture. And with the final removal of this barrier will come the chaos and the rise of authoritarianism in some form to restore social order." Now we have gone nearly four decades since this statement was spoken and written down; and we have seen the very prophetic reality taken place in the last several years. The once strongly held beliefs of the church (and while still held in some quarters as it must be) have subtly been replace with what can only be described as worldly philosophies and practices. It may sound harsh; but in all cases it is the truth.
How do I substantiate this claim that much of what calls itself Christianity have abandoned the Faith? Well, think of what it is that most people view as being the church these days: the Charismatic faith-healer types; the purpose driven life kinds; the emergent church kinds and the church of England. Notice this statement on the bishops of the Church of England: "The archbishops of Canterbury and York have apologised after the Church of England declared only heterosexual married couples should have sex, Archbishops Justin Welby and John Sentamu said they took responsibility for releasing their Church of England statement last week which they acknowledged had 'jeopardised trust.'" So you are worried bout offending man rather than the God you claim to serve.
There is a dangerous line which no Christian should ever cross; and that is when one rejects the cardinal truths of the Faith-- while claiming you still are Christians. Christ and the Apostles gives us no ground to redefine the faith according to our every whim.
The argument
Let us note that when it comes to this kind of compromise, we are dealing not with everyday use of the term where two people try to reach a healthy position on an issue such as where one is to shop; but wholesale compromise with biblical truths. In other words, when Christ tells the Apostles to "instructing them to observe all I have commanded" these people want for their particular church to abandon what Christ want for the church; and therefore, they are in danger of becoming what the Church at Sardis became "I know that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead..." (Revelation 3:1). I know in all likelihood that it has come from the desire to be more attractive to the world in order that they can win people to Christ; but it does not work. For all it leads to is someone who does not have anything of real value to give to the soul that is lost in sin.
So what is the argument that is put forth? It is simply this: liberalism. And this is to be free from all entrapments of human tradition and thinking. But in reality all one is doing is enslaving themselves to a false notion that someone else come up with. And why do i say this? because if you do not obey all that Christ taught you are obeying the devil who said: Did God really say that?" Now there is the perfect example of what liberalism is and he is the master of such a philosophy. The scriptures lays out a number of important foundational doctrines which one must accept and believe in order to be a Christian; and like the Devil who enticed Adam and Eve away from the worship of God and unto the deadly result of sin; so he is doing with Christians who hold to this "liberal" understanding of the Faith which is a Faith bereft of the truth.
The Apostle Paul once spoke to the Thessalonian these words which apply today, "for this reason God will send on them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who do not believe the truth, but take pleasure in wickedness." (2 Thessalonians 2:11-12) And so, we have the recipe for disaster-- so to speak. These people were told a lie and believed it; and therefore, God has led them to live in that lie. A deception. Is not that what Romans 1 tells us too? Note the wording: "for they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served a the creature rather than the creator..." (vs 25) There is a progression mentioned in the previous verse which leads to this judgement: (1) futility of the mind. (2) darkening of the hearts. (3) human wisdom and folly. (4) human idolatry. These are the steps. Do you see the nature of this kind of deception? Is it not evident? liberal theology leads to this kind of bankrupt idealism. It is what happens when you adopt a pragmatic approach.
The abandonment of sound doctrine and theology leads to a church that has no real fight in the battle. And this is what led to several great men in the faith penning the treatise the fundamentals. But just before that great work another man of God gave us a great work called old Paths and in the introduction he said that he see no reason to depart from the doctrines which the church has held up as being central in every great period. he states: "they are often sneered at and ridiculed as being old fashioned, effete, worn out, and powerless in the 19th century." And he said to this: "be it so. "none of these things move me."" This was said towards the end of 19th century and rings true even till this day. True Christians must stand firm to the faith once delivered to the Saints (Jude 1:3) No biblical compromise is a good compromise. Which one would you rather hear: well done you good and faithful servant or depart from me you worker of iniquity.
The error
Now at the heart of this movement lies a clear disregard for the truth and its proclamation as the lord commanded us to be doing as his church. The thought, as we have previously noted, happens to be "the biblical doctrines are not working; therefore, we must adapt with the times. what is working today? how shall we incorporate that into the church method? " And there we see the problem liberal theology is essentially pragmatic: if it works then it is true; if does not then it is not true. But the question at this point is this: who gets to judge if something has worked? Surely the only one who knows with infallible knowledge if the gospel has done its work is God. And what we may think as "not working" may in fact be the work of the Gospel itself because it not only does a positive work but also a negative work. It in one person produces faith and hope; and in another it produces condemnation. Therefore, we are not the ultimate judges of whether it has worked.
So what lies behind this ideal? Here is what one man used of God has to say on this idea of liberal theology:
"If the Bible is unable to produce a sound doctrine of Scripture, then it is thus incapable of producing, with any degree of believability or credibility, a doctrine about any other matter. If the human writers of Scripture have erred in their understanding of Holy Writ's purity, then they have disqualified themselves as writers for any other area of God's revealed truth. If they are so disqualified in all areas, then every preacher is thoroughly robbed of any confidence and conviction concerning the alleged true message he would be relaying for God."
In other words, at the heart of this movement is a denial of the clarity and sufficiency of scriptures to give us a clear picture of what God wants us to know. But the problem is that they are starting with a false presupposition; for they do inevitably believe that the scriptures have the function at least to say something in error; even if it is what the true Christian hold to is in view at this point. Therefore, we see that at least a part of the error is that they hold to a self-refuting proposition. To put it in another manner: if the biblical method of doing church is outdated; then such people cannot appeal to the bible in order to reject what the bible tells us. Biblical doctrine is what gives rise to a sound church; and sound life.
Let us look at this biblical statement to get the point:
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. (Hosea 4:6)
How does one gain knowledge from God? there is only one way: by reading; study and believing and obeying the written word in all its has to state. Liberalism denies such a basic point.
Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. Then Ezra blessed the Lord the great God. And all the people answered, “Amen, Amen!” while lifting up their hands; then they bowed low and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, explained the law to the people while the people remained in their place. They read from the book, from the law of God, translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading. (Nehemiah 8:6-8)
According to this statement what is the the churches first priority? To open the scripture; to read it; and give the meaning of its words; and apply it to the hearers that they may know the Lord will in their lives. In other words: the scripture must faithfully expounded before the congregation. And as Acts 17 tells it is the individual Christians duty to make sure this is being done. However, the Christians under liberal teaching are not allowed to do this basic thing.
The solution
Therefore, we must ask: in such a climate what can be done? The line of thought that we must take on this is that while the church as an institution may be compromised by what it teaches and accepts as official; however, this does not deny the fact that there may be many who are truly regenerate and love God's Word. This applies to any kind of situation which such compromises take place. We must acknowledge that God has His people in every place and that include even these ones. Now with this in mind; we can consider the correct response to this kind of thing.
The first step that must be to defect. The one who finds him or herself in this position; after some careful study of God's word and needed prayer, must ultimately walk away from it because the longer you stay the more likely it will damage your spiritual health. This is the vital call of God, whom we are told, will in times of such rank apostasy as we in many church establishments do the following thing:
Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Though I had removed them far away among the nations and though I had scattered them among the countries, yet I was a sanctuary for them a little while in the countries where they had gone.”’ Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries among which you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.” (Ezekiel 11)
But let us not think that this is something that are doing out your "free-will" as many will insist. No, if and when you do defect from such an unhealthy church environment; you must first recognise that God has been at work in you in order that His purpose is accomplished. in other words, it is the result of both God's plan for His people to bring glory to Him; and it is also your own work through much study and prayer that you have come away from such a clear cut example of spiritual danger.
The second step be to denounce. Now I am sure many will ask, why is such a step necessary? It is if you are about the business of the Father in Heaven and that is saving souls from mortal danger which includes false teacher and teachings and defective churches. Doing such a thing serve two purposes: (1) it helps those who are seeking it but have no legitimate means inside the movement to do anything. that is to say, it give them an insiders critique of the movement and its error. (2) it, at the same time, provides a basis for the truth to be declared; and that means that those who are looking for the truth have a place to look. Let us note a passage which helps establish this:
holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict. (Titus 1:9)
Now granted that this comes in the qualification for an elder of the church; but the principle should also apply to all believers as well. For even the churchgoer is told to defend the faith (1 Peter 3:16; Jude 1:3) ; he like wise is told to expose the darkness and do do so by the light (Ephesians 5:11;13) And, he must do so, by means of taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 cor. 10:5-6). The Apostle who penned these last two mentioned scriptures is the same one who penned the statement in Titus. christian believer are told, they must "hold fast to the faithful word" that is be firm on the scriptural foundation; know and understand and apply them. in order to do two things: teach the truth; and refute error. And the ones who were once in error are in position to do this as well.
In other words, we must judge based on the right kind of Judgement as we are told in many places such as John 7: 24 and not based on a hypocritical standard as we are told in Matt. 7:1-6. Let us at this point share an observation from Francis Shaeffer on this matter which is helpful:
We must indeed give a practical demonstration of love in the midst of the differences. but at the same time God truth and the work of Christ's church both insist that truth demand loving confrontation, but confrontation And know that it is not as if we are talking about minor differences. This differences are already there in the evangelical world, and trying to cover them over is neither faithfulness to the truth nor faithfulness to love. (The great evangelical disaster: pg. 142-143)
It is the duty of all Christians to be defenders of the faith.
The end result
In conclusion we must remember that the spiritual vitality of the church is the number one priority; and it's growth must come from a strict raising up on the truth that is found in the Word. This reality was made clear in the words of the reformer John Calvin who stated that in order for man to know Himself truly; He must first know God. And this grand truth was derived from all the scriptures. For example, James said in his first chapter that man's knowledge of himself is dim that it's like he looks in the mirror and the moment he turns away he forgets. its a sobering remind of what sin has done to us. And more importantly, what it has done to our minds.
however, the Christian is given this most precious truth. if he wants to himself he must understand "the fear of the lord is the beginning of knowledge." (Proverbs 1:7)
