An Excuse for Sound Doctrine
It is very perplexing to hear things like, “Well it is giving us the opportunity to have the discussion.” I am hearing this a lot lately when church leaders are asked what they think of Rob Bell’s latest book, “Love Wins.” Instead of taking a stand for righteousness and declaring the work heresy; it sounds as if they are saying that heresy is an excuse to talk about sound biblical doctrine. Really, I thought we were supposed to be teaching sound doctrine all along? My friends if there is no hell, then why did Jesus have to die for my sins? (For a great review on the book, “Love Wins” look here.)
Ben Patterson declares, “We must practice the discipline of saying both yes and no, it is hard, it’s not fun, and it doesn’t usually preach to packed houses. But believers in every age have had to learn it or lose the faith.” (The Art & Craft of Biblical Preaching pg. 254-255) Patterson uses an example of a church whose new pastor led the church into serious theological error. This was strange considering the previous pastor was a godly, beloved man who led the church for three decades and never preached anything but gospel truth. When Patterson asked a friend who knew the church what had happened she said, “He told them the truth all those years. What he didn’t tell them was what wasn’t the truth.” Patterson says that the pastor said the yes, but he never said the no and because of that the people never really understood the yes.
Dallas Willard says, “It is almost universally conceded today that you can be a Christian without being a disciple.”[1] I would like to ask those in the church, “Why do we need an excuse to learn about the doctrines of the church or learn how we should be living in regards to these beliefs? Where are the strong voices of yesteryear who would stand up for righteousness and declare heresy when they saw it?”
Willard goes on to say, “Nondiscipeship is the elephant in the church. It is not the much discussed moral failures, financial abuses, or the amazing general similarity between Christians and non-Christians. These are only the effects of the underlying problem. The fundamental negative reality among Christian believers now is their failure to be constantly learning how to live their lives in The Kingdom Among Us. And it is an accepted reality.”[2]
It is funny that when I bring up the problems I see with where the postmodern church is going, I am lectured about being negative or out-of-touch with what is going on with today’s generation. Yet these same folks are quick to say to me, “What the church needs today is a serious paradigm shift in its thinking; change or be left behind.” They have no problem telling me I’m negative, but then they fail to see their own offense toward those who have serious concerns; what arrogance!
God forgive us for being silent on the heresy that is coming out of some streams of the emergent church, because we have been told we are outdated in our thinking. We do not need an excuse to have a discussion on what You have given to the church of Jesus Christ as the instruction for daily living.
2 Tim 4:1-5
4:1 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2 Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage — with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine . Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
NIV
[1] Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God (New York: HaperCollins Publishers, 1997), 282.
[2] Ibid, 301.
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