We live in an immoral world resembling the decadent days recorded in the Book of Judges, “when everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). The 450-year cycle of debauchery God’s people Israel had fallen into is hard to conceive. Yet, we see the same level of evil and rebellion against God’s moral laws increasing today in America.
Even as we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence, our nation is deeply divided politically, culturally, racially, and certainly, spiritually. Some ministers have said, and I agree, that we are in a battle for the soul of the nation. And I believe this battle for the nation is mirrored by the battle for the Church to uphold the purity of Scripture and the unity of the Christian faith. There can be no true unity if it means sacrificing biblical truth. The progressive socialism we see rising in the nation is dangerous enough, but the progressive brand of Christianity infiltrating the Church is more alarming to me.
There are Americans who want to dismantle our history instead of shining the light of truth in its darkest places for all to face, reconcile its wrongs, and forge a fairer future. Some want to destroy the foundation of our republic, a form of government the founding fathers modeled after Scripture (Isaiah 33:22), and allow unruly groups to seize power and dictate to elected authorities their demands with threats of violence. These exist in many flavors and ideologies whose proponents believe their causes are right. Sadly, some just causes have been hijacked, leaving the path of honest democratic dissent for radical avenues that perpetuate and exacerbate division. In many cases, the pendulum of injustice has swung to the extreme opposite, polarizing Americans of every ilk. If and when the divisionary dust settles, much of the good and godly things that made America great will be swept away along with the wrongs and evils that needed to be eradicated.
And looking on the landscape of the American Church, I fear they will include orthodox teachings from Scripture that have defined God’s moral laws for life and human sexuality since Moses’ Torah writings and Paul’s epistles to the Church.
How can the Church stand against and vote against liberal laws that threaten ministers for preaching from Romans 1, 1Corinthians 6, and Revelation 22:15 that states no homosexuals will enter the gates of Heaven, when whole denominations no longer uphold these? When homosexuals are being ordained and same-sex marriages are taking place in churches? When ministers are sympathizing with transgenders, buying the lie that goes against science, that God made a mistake, and they need to fix it. They accept the lie of the world and not the truth of the Creator’s Word that He created mankind in His own image, male and female (Genesis 1:27). Paul wrote in Romans 1:25, “They changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator.” This may be worse than the homosexual acts themselves, “because God is not a man that He should lie” (Numbers 23:19). “Let every man be a liar, but let God be true” (Romans 3:4).
According to research by George Barna, 90% of pastors know what the Bible says about these issues, but less than 10% teach what the Bible says about them. Another Barna study revealed 76% of Gen X Christians, ages 13-18, who attend church, believe homosexuality is okay.
How can we protest the killing of the innocent pre-born when some in the Church support abortion, even boasting they are doing God’s work? When female ministers have said that they are glad they had an abortion, because it freed them to do God’s work.
“It is time for you, Lord, to work: for they have made void your laws” (Psalm 119:126).
Much of the Church is leaving the doctrines and principles it was founded on. One popular TV minister said that the Ten Commandments do not apply to Christians. Jesus said that it would be a wicked and adulterous generation. Getting rid of the 7th commandment, “You shall not commit adultery” would be convenient for them. However, Jesus not only taught this commandment, He beefed it up, raising the bar of accountability (Matthew 5:27-28). Another popular TV pastor said that he does not speak about homosexuality because Jesus did not talk about it or define it. But Jesus clearly defined marriage in Matthew 19:4-6, citing Genesis 2:24: “Have you not read that at the beginning, the Creator made them male and female, and said, For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they two shall become one flesh?” To this He added the warning: “What God has joined together, let no one put asunder.”
Paul stated in Ephesians 1:22 and Colossians 1:18 that “Jesus is the head of the Church, over all things.” Therefore, as the Head, only He can determine the doctrines of the Church. The liberal doctrines being taught today that conflict with Jesus’ teachings are unauthorized by God.
It seems this new brand of progressive Christianity has declared its own declaration of independence from Scripture when it condemns the sins which they mitigate with the worldly mantra God is love, as though God’s love and His nature of truth and justice are mutually exclusive. God said that He anointed His Son Jesus above all, because He loved righteousness and hated sin (Hebrews 1:9).
What is Truth?
In today’s secular world, there is no fixed law of righteousness, no moral standard to obey. Instead, everyone speaks and follows his own truth, no matter how skewed or absurd it is: You do “your truth,” and I will do “my truth.” God commanded in Deuteronomy 12:8: “You shall not do every man whatever is right in his own eyes.” When truth becomes subjective and defined by individual opinion, it is merely personal preference—not truth. Ultimately, these multi-opinionated “truths” will clash and crash, because they are not the truth.
How can the Church embrace that which categorically denies the truth of God’s Word? Yet more and more, we see denominations and ministries becoming independent of orthodox Scripture—“the faith that was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3). The original Greek language says, “that was delivered once and for all,” meaning firmly and irrevocably. God will not be issuing any amendments or abridged versions of His Word. And Jude opened his epistle, “It was needful for me to write unto you, and to exhort you, that you should earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints.” “To contend for” means as a combatant.
For the next 16 verses, he described the ungodly who “turn the grace of God into lasciviousness” (a license to sin), “denying the Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.” Let it be known, when a person denies and rejects the commandments of God’s Word and the teachings of Jesus, he has in effect denied God. He charts his own course, declaring his independence from declared Scripture. Jude said, “They separate themselves (cause division), sensual, having not the Spirit” (vs.19). Jesus said that it is the Spirit who will lead and guide us into all truth; for He is the Spirit of truth.
In verse 20, Jude exhorted the saints, “Building yourself up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.” This refers to “the faith once delivered unto the saints”—the teachings and doctrines of the New Testament. This is the faith that I believe, will stand upon, and will earnestly contend for, regardless of the pushback.
I hereby proclaim my “Declaration of Dependence” upon the immutable, unchangeable, unimpeachable Word of God. I of my own self can do nothing. I am totally dependent on the power of my God and the anointing of His Spirit. I do not think more highly of myself than I ought, but I do know “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!” (Phil.4:13). Because I know that He uses the weak things to confound the mighty and the foolish things to confound the wise, I know He can use me (1Cor.1:26-27).
My dependency on Him is my greatest asset: “Who also has made us able ministers of the New Testament…” (2Cor.3:6). “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us” (2Cor.4:7). I declare that I am dependent on the anointing of God: ‘But you have an unction from the Holy One, and you know all things…. The anointing which you have received of him abides in you, and teaches you all things, and is truth, and is no lie…” (1John 2:20, 27).
As Paul exhorted, I am “holding fast the faithful word as I have been taught, that I may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince those who contradict it” (Titus 1:9).
This is my Declaration of Dependence!
Is your church becoming influenced by Progressive Christianity? What to look for:
https://decisionmagazine.com/five-signs-your-church-might-be-heading-toward-progressive-christianity/
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