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"It wasn't to stop legalism..."
Dear G,
What would you consider to be "legalism?" Does
the term apply to man's made up rules and laws, or is it a term used by
religions to mark those who love God's law?
Much of what plagues "Christianity" today has been brought
upon itself by itself. On the one hand there is the "mystery of iniquity"
at work, which means lawlessness, a rejection of God's laws. On the other
hand, to fill the void, religious groups make up their own laws which are at
variance with the laws of God found in the scriptures. This causes
division in the body of Christ.
--Marlin
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, November 08, 2002 8:20
AM
Subject: [TruthTalk] The New Jesus and a
Love Called Tolerance
The New Jesus and a
Love Called Tolerance
by Paul
Proctor
Have you heard? There's a new Jesus in town
and he brings with him a NEW gospel message. It is a message that teaches a
permissive kind of love...a love called "tolerance"...a love that hears no
evil, sees no evil and frankly never brings evil up for discussion lest the
offenders become the offended. Discussing the evil in our world, that is the
sinful nature of man, is a risky venture nowadays, especially for any
Christian or church seeking to be loved and accepted BY that world. But then
that's not really the great commission, is it...that you and I go out into the
world and seek its love and acceptance in the name of Jesus? No, the bible
assures us that because of Christ the world will hate
us.
John 15:19 says: "If ye were of the world, the
world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have
chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth
you."
We cannot pursue both the love and acceptance
of the world and be the "living sacrifice" God calls us to be. That's two
entirely different agendas. If we try to carry out both simultaneously the two
will eventually conflict forcing us to choose between them. Today's
seeker-sensitive church growth movement is, in my estimation, the unfortunate
result of such choices. A healthy church simply preaches repentance and faith
in Christ and trusts God for the outcome.
"And He
said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every
creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that
believeth not shall be damned." (Mark 16:15)
You see
the great commission involves a good news/bad news kind of message. To preach
repentance we have to make perfectly clear what it is God expects man to
repent of. We can no longer assume that the lost know they are sinners,
especially among today's adolescents who are growing up in an increasingly
scripture-free environment. Yet, more often than not, that is exactly what we
do. We forget that today's young are coming of age in a much different world
than most of us did...a country where biblical instruction like the Ten
Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount have been strategically replaced with
a multicultural value system. Multiculturalism basically means almost anything
and everything is permissible.
So, how can one
repent of sin if he or she is never taught what sin is? This is the bad news
part of the message we are called to proclaim and more often than not what
makes being a faithful witness for Christ in this day and time such a
challenge. After all, there's really nothing that dangerous or difficult about
telling someone "Jesus loves you", especially if you're talking about the NEW
Jesus. But, those who endeavor faithfully to present the bad news concerning
"the wages of sin", as well as the good news about "The Way the Truth and the
Life", will likely be marked and marginalized as narrow-minded extremists who
"promote negativity" and intolerance.
Unfortunately,
these accusations come not just from secular society but from those who
embrace the new Jesus and preach the gospel of tolerance. This, I believe is
why the church is in such a decline today, because we don't want our
relationships, our reputations and our rosters to suffer over an ugly little
three letter word called "sin", even for the cause of
Christ.
Unfortunately, without the bad news the good
news has little or no effect. That is the primary reason for the Law and the
prophets and men like John the Baptist who preceded our Lord's coming with
stern and intolerant warnings like, "Repent ye, for the kingdom of God is at
hand!"
Those warnings and commandments from God were
given to prepare a lost world to receive the Lamb of God and must continue to
prepare His way in our sermons, our Sunday schools, our bible studies and our
personal witnessing so that the Good News of God's forgiveness in Christ Jesus
will be recognized for the Amazing Grace that it is. Like my pastor says, "you
can't know you're saved until you know that you're lost" and it is those
intolerant commandments that have become increasingly ignored over the last
half of the 20th century that show the lost just how lost they really
are.
This is why we have such insanity in our
schools today and why Jesus is mocked by the MTV generation. Young men who
commit heinous crimes like those of Littleton, Colorado have no fear of God
because the world around them has no fear of God even though the bible clearly
teaches that "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge" and "the
beginning of wisdom." So, they act on the values or lack of values that the
WORLD has taught them. In most cases, commandments like "Thou shall not kill"
are nowhere to be found anymore for young people like these to refer
to.
The bottom line is; they're simply not exposed
to anyone or anything that provides moral boundaries and statutes for them to
follow and learn right from wrong, which probably explains why we see so
little grief or remorse on their faces when they turn schoolyards into killing
fields. Life is just meaningless entertainment to them...an interactive game
of mock survival where right and wrong simply doesn't exist.
As most of you know a concerted effort was made
decades ago to remove the Ten Commandments from every schoolhouse and
courthouse in America? There was an agenda at work. It wasn't to stop legalism
or uphold the separation of Church and state. That was merely a front. It was
to undermine the gospel and make the grace of God IRRELEVANT so that one day
when generation X Y & Z came along and someone from your church walked up
to them and said God loves you and wants to forgive you, they'd respond by
saying "FORGIVE ME...FOR WHAT? I didn't do anything wrong. I'm no worse than
anyone else! You're just being intolerant!
But,
Proverbs 14:12 reminds us: "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but
the end thereof are the ways of death."
(condensed from
an online version at:
">http://news.christiansunite.com/news.cgi?cid=69)
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