Truth is ancient; it's grey hairs may make it venerable;
it comes from Him who is the ancient of days. --Thomas Watson

 

1 October, 2005   comments: (0) Changed Message   The Real Danger, Found Only In The Fine Print A friend emailed me this photo of a sign created by somebody with an odd sense of humor. It contains multiple warnings that have been woefully mis-prioritized. The trivial warning of the sign's "sharp edges" is emphasized in BIG LETTERS, while down in the fine print - it warns of a far greater danger, a bridge out ahead! This is exactly what is happening in so many "user friendly" (pragmatic) churches now days. Whatever warnings are given, usually relate to the danger of missing-out on a more fulfilled life, or the risk of never realizing "your purpose". Meanwhile the greater danger, the bible's warning of eternal destruction, is minimized or not mentioned at all. I remember my years in the pews of a Seeker Sensitive / Purpose Driven church, hardly ever hearing anything about Hell. After a while, I think the pastor was catching so much heat from the few remaining conservative bible believers in our church, that he finally gave-in and preached a "hell sermon". In the true fashion of the Seeker paradigm however, the sermon was preached in front of a low-budget "set" (red lights shining on aluminum foil) that was supposed to look like Hell. In the weeks that followed, I had an informal conversation with our pastor in the church's Cappuccino Cafe, about the "Hell sermon". He was almost apologetic about the whole thing, indicating how unfortunate it would have been had some unbelievers been visiting the church for the first time that day. His concern being the "negative impact" on them, hearing about something as ominous as eternal destruction. This is the mindset of modern pragmatism. The idea is to avoid negative topics like depravity, self denial, and Hell; seeking to evangelize with the good news only. John MacArthur is so prolific on this subject, and so I turn to him again for a few of his collected newspaper clippings: I once read through a stack of newspaper and magazine articles that highlight a common thread in the user-friendly phenomenon. These observations from newspaper clippings describe the preaching in user-friendly churches: "There is no fire and brimstone here... Just practical, witty messages." "Services at [the church featured in the article] have an informal feeling. You won't hear people threatened with hell or referred to as sinners. The goal is to make them feel welcome, not drive them away." "As with all clergymen [this pastor's] answer is God - but he slips Him in at the end, and even then doesn't get heavy. No ranting, no raving. No fire, no brimstone. He doesn't even use the H-word. Call it Light Gospel. It has the same salvation as the Old Time Religion, but with a third less guilt." "The sermons are relevant, upbeat, and best of all, short. You won't hear a lot of preaching about sin and damnation, and hell fire. Preaching here doesn't sound like preaching. It is sophisticated, urbane, and friendly talk. It breaks all the stereotypes." "[The pastor] is preaching a very upbeat message... It's a salvationist message, but the idea is not so much being saved from the fires of hell. Rather, it's being saved from meaninglessness and aimlessness in this life. It's more of a soft-sell." . John MacArthur's book sheds light on the signs of compromise all around us: Numbers have become more important than the message. Churches are offering up "Show-Time" religion instead of the "Old-Time" religion. Pastors have turned to the marketing industry to help them draw people in rather than relying on the power of God. So the new rules may be summed like this: Be clever, informal, positive, brief, friendly, and never, never use "the H-word". The pastors and leaders in the church-growth movement certainly wouldn't portray their own ministries in that way. In fact, they would probably laud their success in drawing people into the church without compromising the message. But they fail to understand that by decentralizing the Scripture and avoiding hard truths, they are compromising. "For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels" (Luke 9:26). If the design is to make the seeker comfortable, isn't that rather incompatible with the Bible's own emphasis on sin, judgment, hell, and several other important topics? The gospel message is a confrontational message. When you remove the confrontation - or soften, downplay, or bring it in through the back door - you have compromised the message. The modern pulpit is weak, not for a lack of witty messages, but because men fear to speak the hard truths of God's Word powerfully and with conviction. An opposite approach can frequently be found on the pages of church history. An example is one of the most famous sermons in American History. Preached by Jonathan Edwards in 1741, it was called "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God". The sermon sparked revival in Enfield Connecticut, an area that had been largely untouched by the Great Awakening up to that point. Read "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" online at: http://www.jonathanedwards.com/sermons/Warnings/sinners.htm Or listen to this sermon online (audio): http://sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?sermonID=770213541 Posted by: Jim B.   Link: http://www.oldtruth.com/blog.cfm/id.2.pid.62   Be the first to post a comment about this article        Home  |   About  |  Videos   |  Calvinism