What It's All about...
This is my first blog here, so let me explain my intent in The 2nd Reformation.
What has happened to the church over the past few decades is not entirely different than the events preceding the reformation 5 centuries ago. Unlike the church of the Reformation era, however, we have unlimited access to the Scriptures in many media formats. While this is a blessing in so many respects, pride again creates a pitfall. There is no unity of doctrine, and little integrity of exegesis. Many do not interpret the scriptures with biblical principles, but with secular, human, and "philosophical" ones. The pride and narcissism these methods show is a direct indicator of our rebellion toward the Lord. But like a frog in boiling water these and many other principals, which will be discussed in this blog, are indicative of the dire state of the church.
As the church we've lost touch with the scriptures, and failed to interpret, view, and use them as God's Holy and Inspired Word. Many of our clergy (certainly not all) lack a true understanding of scripture and interpret it seeking to support a personal or ideological agenda, rather than truly letting the Holy Spirit lead. Meanwhile the laypeople have minimal or no knowledge or understanding of scripture. They believe what false teachers preach over the pulpit (or lack thereof) what they are told because much of it feels good to hear as it paints God’s love as a sappy, shallow, human contrivance. The arrogance and pride at the high levels of church are also found amongst the laypeople as they feel they are just as qualified, if not more qualified to discern the scriptures than their pastor. Now, we have hundreds of different interpretations of scripture leading twisted doctrines which are no more than the mere doctrines of man. We avoid sorting through them, by claiming that no one interpretation is better than another and that, in love, we should all “just get along”.
Sadly, worse than having liberal, loose, inconsistent, and false doctrines, the head of the church –her husband – Christ Jesus and his atoning sacrifice are not preached. Essentially the good news, the true Gospel is lost, and is replaced with the gospel of health and wealth, the prosperity gospel, and the social gospel. In the preaching of these other “gospels” we have lost the preaching of the law, forgotten we are lost in sin, and that we need a Savior, a mediator between us and God. We have come to believe that the jobs of God and Christ are to help us pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps and “live better lives”. When this happens, when we willfully refuse to punish and remove false teachers, when the pure teaching of the Gospel is lost, the church becomes the false church, an abominable abuse of the name of Christ. And this is the bottom line; No Christ, no true church. We must come before the Lord, humbly asking his forgiveness for this grievous error. We need a second reformation. We need the Gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ. That he, sent by His Father, laid down his life, accepted our deserved and just punishment from God. In doing so he made us right with God, set us free from the tyranny of the devil, and gained, for us, eternal life. These are the basics. This is where our journey begins.
This is my first blog here, so let me explain my intent in The 2nd Reformation.
What has happened to the church over the past few decades is not entirely different than the events preceding the reformation 5 centuries ago. Unlike the church of the Reformation era, however, we have unlimited access to the Scriptures in many media formats. While this is a blessing in so many respects, pride again creates a pitfall. There is no unity of doctrine, and little integrity of exegesis. Many do not interpret the scriptures with biblical principles, but with secular, human, and "philosophical" ones. The pride and narcissism these methods show is a direct indicator of our rebellion toward the Lord. But like a frog in boiling water these and many other principals, which will be discussed in this blog, are indicative of the dire state of the church.
As the church we've lost touch with the scriptures, and failed to interpret, view, and use them as God's Holy and Inspired Word. Many of our clergy (certainly not all) lack a true understanding of scripture and interpret it seeking to support a personal or ideological agenda, rather than truly letting the Holy Spirit lead. Meanwhile the laypeople have minimal or no knowledge or understanding of scripture. They believe what false teachers preach over the pulpit (or lack thereof) what they are told because much of it feels good to hear as it paints God’s love as a sappy, shallow, human contrivance. The arrogance and pride at the high levels of church are also found amongst the laypeople as they feel they are just as qualified, if not more qualified to discern the scriptures than their pastor. Now, we have hundreds of different interpretations of scripture leading twisted doctrines which are no more than the mere doctrines of man. We avoid sorting through them, by claiming that no one interpretation is better than another and that, in love, we should all “just get along”.
Sadly, worse than having liberal, loose, inconsistent, and false doctrines, the head of the church –her husband – Christ Jesus and his atoning sacrifice are not preached. Essentially the good news, the true Gospel is lost, and is replaced with the gospel of health and wealth, the prosperity gospel, and the social gospel. In the preaching of these other “gospels” we have lost the preaching of the law, forgotten we are lost in sin, and that we need a Savior, a mediator between us and God. We have come to believe that the jobs of God and Christ are to help us pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps and “live better lives”. When this happens, when we willfully refuse to punish and remove false teachers, when the pure teaching of the Gospel is lost, the church becomes the false church, an abominable abuse of the name of Christ. And this is the bottom line; No Christ, no true church. We must come before the Lord, humbly asking his forgiveness for this grievous error. We need a second reformation. We need the Gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ. That he, sent by His Father, laid down his life, accepted our deserved and just punishment from God. In doing so he made us right with God, set us free from the tyranny of the devil, and gained, for us, eternal life. These are the basics. This is where our journey begins.
posted by T.A. Groenendyk at
9:26 AM
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