In a previous article (The Renewing of Our Minds), I kind of implied that the lack of good Biblical education and quality Bible study habits by many in the Church laity was in large part at fault for the heresies being introduced and practiced in many of the traditional mainstream protestant churches. I think now is the time to say it out right. If every day, average Joe Christians had been picking up and reading their Bibles daily, taking God’s word to heart and then living out those commandments it would have been a lot harder for the invaders from secular society to infiltrate the Church. By not truly knowing or understanding what Christ’s message is and relying solely on someone at the pulpit to educate the masses then the curse of false doctrines taking hold within Christianity was inevitable. The divide that we now see between those who adhere to the gospel as it came down from Christ Jesus though the Apostles and those who claim that God is doing some previously unannounced “new thing” was inevitable.

Those of the secular liberal clergy who lead many of the churches realize that anyone who has or gains an understanding of Biblical teaching and principles will be able to challenge the authority of the minister’s words using sound Scriptural arguments. Paul verified this when he wrote to Timothy, “All Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16). To counter this, the first thing that worldly Church leaders tend to do is question the true authority and authenticity of Scripture and when they deem that the time is right they replace Scriptural authority with Church traditions which are open to a more ambiguous interpretation by clergy. Once again in Scripture the apostles warned of this the author of Jude reminds us, “They said to you, ‘In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.’ These men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the spirit.” (Jude 1:18-19). What these supposed servants of the Lord are saying is “the Bible got some stuff wrong and we will tell you what it really means based on what the Church believes.” Because many Church goers have been relying on the pulpit to explain things to them for so long they do not question this heresy or even see it as a heresy. It is just the status quo to them. Just sit in the pews and let the minister tell them what is and is not God’s will.

Now this is where the worldly fun begins as the liberal clergy starts looking around at society and examining what is going on. Their efforts here are to make the Church conform to societal norms and worldly behavior. When the world decides that killing the unborn is a good thing then the worldly church leaders jump on the band wagon. Many farfetched claims are made to justify what many consider out and out murder. They claim that it is better to terminate the child than to have it grow up unwanted in an abusive environment. They claim the mother will have a better life if left unimpeded by a child that will bring her standard of living down.

One I hear a lot is that the fetus is in reality just a parasite in the woman’s body. It is a simple clump of cells that use the woman for nourishment and development and are doing this against her will. Funny but I’ve never heard of a parasite that contained half of the host’s DNA and the other half being generally a voluntary donation to the mother’s reproductive system. I am no biologist but I don’t think that this fits the true definition of a parasite. Anyways, they cannot have a bunch of pious Christians running around talking about sin and damnation and pointing out to everyone that abortion is an abomination in the eyes of God. It is murder of the innocent and anyone who has any honest understanding of Scripture will know this.

How a Christian Church, a place where God’s word should reign sovereign, could consider this abominable doctrine a valid Christian belief and then preach it to its members as something acceptable to God is beyond me. Even more astonishing is that many people who claim to be members of the Body of Christ can accept this deviation from God’s law as a valid exception to the “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13) commandment. Admittedly I’ve only been studying the Bible for a couple of years but I have yet come across any exceptions or mention of extenuating circumstances in which God will authorize the breaking of one of the commandments in the Decalogue.

Another area where the Church has looked over society and said this is good is the area of same sex marriages. When society seeks to establish same sex marriages then the secularly led Church must seek to do the same and looks first for ways in Scripture to justify this. The Lord, however, is very specific when it comes to marriage. He tells us in the opening chapters of Genesis, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). Since that will not work they look to science and genetics and tell us that since people are genetically predisposed to homosexual behavior then God the Creator must approve. After all He created the DNA that caused someone to become a homosexual. We are told that if Moses had known about genetics when he wrote Leviticus then he never would have put the prohibitions on same sex sexual relations in the law. Moses may not have known about genetics and DNA but I’m fairly certain that the Holy Spirit did as He guided Moses in the writing of the Pentateuch and moved Moses to include restrictions on this type of behavior.

Still many mainstream Churches are telling us that we are not behaving as Jesus would have us behave. We are not being tolerant of our homosexual brothers and sisters and we should welcome them into the Church with open arms and tell them that it is just fine and dandy if they want to participate in an act that God has strictly forbidden. They do not have to repent from such behavior because even though God told us that it was wrong He apparently was only kidding because He genetically made them to desire this sort of activity. I hate to break the news to the heretics but science it determining that God seems to have made alcoholics and drug addicts genetically predisposed to over indulging in alcohol and drugs but they are still expected to repent, ask forgiveness of their sins and renounce the sinful behavior. I do not think that the Holy Spirit would be able to live and function in a practicing alcoholic. Once the alcoholic repents and renounces his sin the Lord removes the urge to drink and strengthens him to remain alcohol free.

God seems to have created all of us with various difficulties in our nature that He expects us to overcome in order to show Him our love and to bring Him glory. For some it is lust, for others it is alcohol and drugs and for others it is homosexual desires. God is not telling homosexuals that they are barred from the gates of Heaven. He is simply telling them to renounce their sinful nature, give it to God for Him to deal with and “go forth and sin no more”. The Lord expects the same thing from all sinners who seek the grace and forgiveness of God. No one is exempt for this, “Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: ‘If any man would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me’” (Mark 8:34). Christ is telling us that we (the Church) must be more like him.

Somehow the liberal clergy got things turned around. Instead of the Church being a example of Christ’s virtue and a witness to the world, the Church decided that its views and behaviors should closely reflect that of society at large. The Church was supposed to remain separate from the world even at the risk of persecution. Christ told us “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” (John 15:18-19). Lately, however, the Church’s response to this seems to be to pull away from Christ and seek for the love and adoration of the world. This is a true heresy and the path damnation. Unfortunately an uneducated laity does not know any better and responds to the liberal Church’s heresy with acceptance and approval.

Now what is left to do? It will be difficult of not impossible for even the regenerate to change the direction that the visible Church is now taking. Many have accepted the heresy and pronounced it good. The liberal clergy have embraced the very things that the Lord our God warned them not to and now teach that these things are in harmony with the will of God. However they cannot produce the Scripture that validates this interpretation. They tell us it is ‘a new thing’ given to us by the Holy Spirit but Paul warned us about new things that have no Scriptural basis. He reiterated, “As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned” (Galatians 1:9). If it were just the teachers of heresy who were bringing eternal condemnation upon themselves that would be one thing. Unfortunately a lot of people will be taking the fall with them. Oh for the want of a desire to read and study the Bible, the souls that could have been saved.

What is left to do? We regenerate are limited in our abilities. God, however, is not so constrained and may have ideas of his own…

The Lord says:
“These people come near to me with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
is made up only of rules taught by men.
Therefore once more I will astound these people
with wonder upon wonder;
the wisdom of the wise will perish,
the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.”
Isaiah 29:13-14