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There’s no question, when looking at society at large, that something has gone haywire in our modern world. What would have been blushed at a generation ago is openly practiced and talked about. Ancient ideas of morality have been steadily whittled away by modern philosophies and an education system that was long ago hijacked by scoffers of religion. We’ve grown to expect a secular society that grows increasingly hostile to biblical principles. However, the latest news of growing apostasy among those in the church is both shocking and alarming!

In a growing sign of the times, the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA branch) passed a historic measure allowing openly gay men and women to be ordained as clergy on Tuesday, May 10th. The dying denomination might not mean much to most nondenominational believers or more conservative denominations such as the Baptists. Still, PCUSA has a formidable membership of 2.8 million members. To those who have kept informed, the slide into apostasy is no surprise. The latest vote was simply a formalization of a direction the denomination has been leaning for years. In practice, PCUSA has looked the other way for some time when it comes to both gay and adulterous clergy.

In a move taken from the liberal playbook, the leaders of the denomination have spun the bad news into a celebration they refer to as “a move toward the teachings of Christ.” Let’s call it, however, exactly what it is; apostasy. How exactly did a denomination rooted in the best of our Christian heritage slide down this slippery road and what are the implications for the church at large? The first thing the casual bystander must understand is that many in the organization have rejected much of the Bible as the infallible Word of God. The Bible’s miracles are scoffed at as ridiculous myths and tall stories. The Apostle Paul is considered harsh, not compatible to the Jesus they see in the gospels, and thus not scripture. Compassion is enthroned above truth and personal interpretation above sound reason. In short, the conscience of the denomination is held hostage to popular secular culture more than to the Word of God. There are those in the organization who still cling to the truth of scripture who stay, much like the puritans of old did in hopes of transforming the Church of England. The latest vote, however, should be a resounding alarm to abandon ship just as their predecessors were forced to do over three centuries ago. The Bible warns us that in the last days there will be a separation of tares from the wheat and goats from the sheep. As the church, we cannot afford to continue extending the right hand of fellowship to those who call themselves Christians while denying clear Biblical teaching. If history has taught us anything, it is that when the church has lost its way it might as well fold up shop.

The 1930’s Germany stands as a shining example of what happens when the church adopts the beliefs of the secular world around her. Just when the country needed the church most, she was instead caught up in a message of false grace and watered down doctrine. With her conscience stolen by deceitful and smooth preaching from the pulpits, Hitler and the Nazi’s were free to ravage her people and the world! When we no longer stand as a clear voice against the ways of a perverse generation, we have no value to the culture we live in. We are called to be salt and light. If we’ve lost the very essence of our message, then as Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.” (Matthew 5:13)

If all scripture is not the Word of God, then none of it is. No man on earth is qualified to cherry pick what should and what shouldn’t be scripture. The protestant Bible we have today is the same Bible used as far back as the first apostles. Any man who presumes to have the ability to throw out part of the text is both arrogant and ignorant. If a man cannot swallow the miracles, throw out everything. The Bible is meaningless without its miracles. Christ, himself, spoke about the miracles of the Old Testament as if they were true. If those miracles didn’t happen, then Jesus was a sham Himself. And if Jesus did not rise from the dead, it is pointless to be part of the church! Likewise, if Christ taught compassion over truth, than neither truth nor compassion have meaning. Those who spread that type of compassion in Germany proved to be neither compassionate nor Christian when the tally was done. Moving on to the last piece of silliness referred to above; those who reject Paul’s epistles as not scripture must reject Peter’s epistles as well for Peter stated, “And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.” (2 Peter 3:15-16) Clearly, those who rejected Paul’s teachings in that first century were considered by Peter to be ignorant and unstable. Why shouldn’t those in PCUSA who do the same not get lumped into that same category? Let’s not stop there, however. If we can’t trust Christ’s best and brightest pupil to know what He did and did not believe, and who he should and should not put his stamp of approval on, how can we trust in Christ or anything in the Bible? If we can’t trust the Bible to be one inspired book of God’s message to mankind none of it has meaning. That brings me to my last point. If that’s where I stand, I guess I fit in well in PCUSA. Or better yet, why not stop lying by calling myself a believer.

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