Category — orthopraxy

It sits at the corner where it has sat for 75 long years. The name is unimportant as well as who is Pastor, for this church is not just one simple country church, it’s also a well established main street church, it’s a mega church, it’s every church in America and as such, they all have something unique about them, they are all beginning to accept that which many years ago they would never think to accept – sin.

In many churches across America, from the largest innercity one to the smallest rural setting, there’s a common bond between them all, that bond is homosexuality. For many years, the church has faced many problems within it’s walls, from gossip to adultery to divorce, problems of the flesh have always seemed to challenge the Church and yet the Church has remained strong. But now that strength which has endured for centuries against every demonic force from hell, is giving in toward something more destructive and almost no one is voicing a concern.

There is a policy among many within the church that is nothing more than what I would call a “conspiracy of silence” among leadership – and for good reason. The statistics of people involved in homosexual sin are growing at an astonishing rate among believers and the question needs to be asked as to why? And why is leadership protecting this behavior?

In 2009, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America adopted a resolution which allowed openly gay pastors to serve within their churches in their organization to the dismay of many faithful and long time members. The stunning resolution adopted by the ELCA made the radical step possible to ordain and establish the long time evangelical group, the first “gay” friendly Christian Organization.

On top of the defense of homosexuality within the church by the Lutheran’s, came another sad aspect to the downward slide to depravity, and that was the recent revelations of several popular evangelical Pastors whom publicly denounced such sins, yet were privately living the lifestyle.

The recent acknowledgments of Jim Swilley, Pastor of the mega church in Georgia, the past indiscretion(s) of Ted Haggard and the most recent charges against Bishop Eddie Long, the fact that these prominent and celebrated leaders within the evangelical church whose personal morality have been tainted with moral intrigue should cause all of us to examine what is truly happening in the body of Christ and more importantly, what are we willing to do about it?

A recent poll among evangelical Christians showed an interesting move away from views that were once considered the issue of the day, to a more liberal, broader view. In a recent 2008 poll of those asked what the current issue(s) for the church were, surprisingly it had nothing to do with immorality or sin, but secular issues. The top issues for those Christians polled were; personal indebtedness (81%) followed by poverty (78%) and illegal immigration (68%) [ source.]

Christians have made a significant change in their views on morality and this new ideological change has seemingly pressed itself into the church and it’s acceptance of things which are forbidden by God. This is the result of the religion of tolerance which, among young people, many are embracing and why those within the Christian community is failing to rectify this problem.

Which brings me back to my original point of this article, the church today has changed her appearance and resembles nothing of her former self. The modern church is becoming a haven of immorality and abomination. The current gospel of wealth and self-esteem has replaced her original message of repentance and holiness and it has made her sick and weary. If she does not reject the current messages that run rampant within her many pulpits across this nation and the world, her impact will become less effective.

Pastors, youth pastors, choir directors, church staff, are all becoming active roles for many within the gay movement. Even in contemporary Christian music, we are beginning to see the fruits of tolerance teaching and the acceptance of alternative lifestyles and disturbing even more is the mood of many within the vast denominations who simply turn their head out of ignorance and impartiality. The truth remains the same, the church is facing it’s own cultural war and from the recent events in Christian circles of those believers coming out of the religious closet, she’s losing this battle.

The apostle Paul made it perfectly clear when he warned of what would occur in these last days when he wrote, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;” (2 Thess. 2:3)

A falling away from what? From the truth. When Christians no longer view immorality and idolatry as their top concern but instead focus on the things of the world that are but temporal and meaningless, then something is wrong at the core. Our desires have changed to reflect more of a cultural relativism than a Biblical perspective and in so doing, we have allowed diversity, immorality and social apathy to be our guide. This is not the commission of a Christian.

In order for us to salvage our message, there must be a call to repentance within the body of Christ. Our ways have become deluded with the cares of this world and not a desire to see lives changed. We have become tolerant to sin and immorality and this must change, even if it means the removal of those who are in authority who have ushered this sickness in. Our mandate, our spiritual life depends on it if we are ever going to survive the coming challenges which lay ahead.

God give us leaders and spiritual warriors who will not bow at the altar of tolerance and acceptance, but will lead the church into her finest hour. The bride is still worth it.

Juanita Bynum can keep her sheets. But please mam, for God’s sakes stop the madness.

Unfortunately,  there’s scant evidence to suggest she will. So here we go again with “No More Sheets”.  And look who’s joining her to tell us all that all we  need is a good dose of celebrating ourselves.

Jonathan Nelson who recently appeared with inclusion heretic Carlton Pearson

Dorinda Clark Cole of the How Sweet the Sound controversy.

Darrell Hines. Cant help but be disappointed in this after the “holiness is right” speech on TBN. Et tu Bishop?

Is it the money? Do these people not care about what Juanita Bynum is doing and saying? Are they in agreement with her lunacy? Are they in such a deep vacuum of seclusion they have not seen and heard?

Do they just need to keep their faces out in the public with these appearances to help sell CDs and products? All of the featured faces except Woods has a new CD product on the market. Is this just one big CD sellfest disguised as a conference about dealing with sexual issues or whatever it is Miss Bynum is hawking now? Notice there’s no scripture references on the flyer. That’s so the tag is open to whatever interpretation you think it means. A scripture would add restrictions.

And the “preferred seating” thing still is just so very weird for a church gathering.

My brethren, you must not make distinctions between one man and another while you are striving to maintain faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our glory. James 2:1

This conference is aping the new american religion with its  ” its all about you” message.  Its a trending favorite of all the preachers turned life coach gurus. I was at a seminar last weekend and heard a term I’d never heard before describe the state of American Christianity. Its called Moralistic Therapeutic Deism and is defined by researchers thusly:

1. “A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.” 2. “God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.” 3. “The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.” 4. “God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.” 5. “Good people go to heaven when they die.”

Infused with a new world ethics of diversity and inclusion, people conclude that no one is in a position to judge anyone else. Thus, we are all left to determine what is morally right for ourselves. Add to that the idea that religion’s goal should be to make a person happy. Any talk of suffering, responsibility, self denial, sexual morality or sin is rejected because such things inhibit one’s “personal happiness”.  The new cosmopolitan belief that God can only become involved in our lives when we want him to seals this false construct becoming so prevalent in the church today.  God  becomes God only by default. He is viewed almost like Santa Claus, rewarding good people when they die with heaven. Hell (if it exists) is for those who don’t want others to be  good, loving and happy by telling them they cannot live in whatever way makes them happy.

Listen closely and you will hear these ideologies rehearsed over and over in popular Christian/gospel music, sermons by popular Christian speakers, in books by popular Christian writers and in conferences by popular conference conveners like Juanita Bynum.

Thats why blogs like GCM Watch is hated by the lovers of moralistic theraputic deism.

It also explains why people can call themselves Christians and at the same time promote concepts and ideologies contradictory to biblical orthodoxy (right belief) and orthopraxy (right conduct). And why so many of the conferences and “sermons” we hear today are me-centered. God wants you happy, God saw the best in you, live your best life now, be a better you, “love yourself”, “do you”, ad naseum.

Watch Jaunita Bynum talk more religious goobley-gock where she says Prince, DMX and Michael Jackson had a “prophetic anointing”.

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. 1 Tim 4:3 NIV

[An elder] must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. Titus 1:9 NIV

You must teach that which is in accord (in harmony with) sound doctrine. Titus 2:1

There is no way we can accurately ascertain the scope of God’s will and then live out the will of God without an balanced and consistent understanding of his word. That balanced and consistent understanding is given to us primarily through the teaching of sound doctrine. Sound doctrine accomplishes two things: (1) it guards against deception, and (2)it guides others into spiritually healthy men and women of God (Ephesians 4:14-15).

Paul instructed both Titus and Timothy to be careful not to change what he had taught them and to anticipate that some in the church would depart from the faith and pay attention to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. And consequently, reject sound doctrine.

The word “sound” comes from the Greek word hugiaino translated as “hygiene” or “health.” This obviously has a medical aspect to it. So in short sound doctrine is healthy doctrine. The opposite of healthy its unhealthy. Thus, we can conclude that not everything which sounds good to the ear or feels good to the body, is healthy for the soul.

What we need today if we are to be effective and remain steadfast in the work of the Lord is a radical return to God’s word and the foundations that produce good, healthy fruit.

Doctrine has gotten a bad rap in the contemporary church. Its been compared to heartless dogma and legalism which restricts and controls people unnecessarily. The truth is that doctrine is simply a body of principles presented for acceptance or belief. But not all doctrine is good doctrine.

How do we convey sound doctrine?
The primary tool of conveying sound doctrine to others is through teaching because teaching is about the how and the why. Its instruction that must be given carefully and received with diligence. Thus, the best way for you to show me properly is to teach. Remember the old saying “If you give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day. But if you teach a man to fish, he’ll eat for a lifetime.” Its the same with sound doctrine. If you really want me to become a healthy, fruit-bearing follower of Christ, you will teach me sound principles. If you want to keep me locked into a unhealthy co-dependency on you do the opposite. And that’s exactly what false teachers do.

The word “teach” occurs twenty times in Matthew alone, and Jesus is called Teacher there about ten times. If we look at the whole NT, the two nouns for teaching or doctrine occur over fifty times, while the verb to teach occurs over ninety times. The word teacher appears at least fifty-eight times. Half a dozen other related words appear on another twenty occasions.

When Paul urges Titus to “refute” (this is what I consider polemics) those who oppose sound doctrine, we must take it seriously and do it. One tactic used by those who oppose balanced healthy teaching is the “mystery” approach. In essence, they claim no one can really know the truth, so we are responsible for finding and living our own truth. Judges 21:25 gives us insight on such a teaching: In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
Dr. Bob Wright of Denver says this is a mockery of Christian maturity:

We do not need answers; we need to grow up and learn to accept the paradoxes of life! True Christian maturity is said to be measured by our commitment in the face of final paradox rather than by any kind of knowledge. People who want answers are just immature, that’s all.
Our faith is recognized by specialists in comparative religion as being by far the most intellectual religion of all; that the New Testament puts a heavy priority on the regeneration of the intellect that the Bible in both the Old Testament and the New makes it perfectly plain that the term heart means the seat of the intellect, or the mind as our capacity to reason; therefore all the problems we face are to be solved first by allowing the Bible to change our minds about the truth, and then by learning what God’s answer is to our problem, as God defines and explains both problem and answer.
The results are predestined to be successful and to infallibly meet the needs of the believer sooner or later. The Bible itself calls this process “making disciples,” and the primary method is said to be by something called teaching.

Sound doctrine and homosexuality
The teachings of homosexual affirming theology stands against much of the cornerstone tenets of our faith.

• Teaching that same gender sexual expression is normal opposes the creative nature of God (Col 1:16, Romans 1:25)
• Teaching that homosexuality is acceptable by God opposes the biblical definition and penalty of sin (Dan 9:5, 1 John 3:4)
• The teaching that Christ was ignorant of contemporary homosexual relationships, thus silent opposes the divinity of Jesus Christ specifically his omniscience. (John 8:58, Ps 33:13-15) (
• Teaching that homosexual have no need to repent opposes the authority and applicability of the Word of God. (Mt 4:4)

Homosexual affirming doctrine isn’t different from other unhealthy teachings, it is unhealthy teaching.

Just happened on this series of audio teachings courtesy of  The Master’s Seminary.

The instructors provide excellent insight and indepth teaching on these various aspects of homosexuality from a biblical worldview.  The Master’s Seminary opened its doors in Fall 1986 under the leadership and vision of Dr. John MacArthur, known worldwide as a master Bible expositor, church leader, and author.

For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee. (Prov 23:7)

In my opinion, Proverbs 23:7 is almost always taken out of context to serve our own self interests or perhaps to explain something about someone else that may or may not necessarily be true. If the statement is to be contextually understood, the latter portion of it must be included as there is no period after “he” but a colon. This simply means what follows the first part proves and explains it. In this case, the point is more about hypocrisy than destiny or character. Taken out of context, the meaning can travel to Jupiter and back.

My point? Getting an understanding of things is very important if we are to rightly divide the word of truth not only for the edification of each other but to an unbelieving world we are called to witness to. Notwithstanding the Spirit of God giving what to say “on the spot”, we should avail ourselves to further study. The false prophets of our day are smart and glib of tongue. That’s a potent factor in deception.

The power of words, the meaning of words

There’s a growing lexicon of terms related to understanding or explaining religious concepts out there. This can be attributed to in part to the conflict over truth. Some terms describe false concepts which are popping up in churches everywhere. Others describe biblical perspectives which are embedded essentials of our faith. Then too, some may help to explain some of the perspectives that are espoused on this blog from time to time by non-believers who object to our biblical conclusions about homosexual conduct.

I decided to make a post highlighting the most prominent of them. Most  have the “ism” and “ology” subtext. Hopefully, as you hear these terms being dropped here and there in your studies you will have a working man’s knowledge of what they mean and its applicability. While I believe etymology is important in most cases, we have to be careful that etymology doesn’t eclipse other factors associated with a particular word because there are many. Primarily, their placement in scripture (or their inference in scripture) along with the Holy Spirit’s “illumination” is important. But even that has a check and balance. No meaning claimed to be derived from the Holy Spirit’s leading can conflict with other scripture particularly when the meaning is clear. The Word of God is one complete and harmonious system of doctrine. Thus, etymology is not an end all, but rather an appropriate starting point.

I’ve also linked scripture references for your consideration. If you know of any additional ones, please drop it in the comment section (with a working man’s definition) and I’ll add it.

antinominanism – taken from Greek: anti nomos “against the law”. In this case it is against God’s laws regarding sexual conduct, the promotion of lawlessness in the church. A belief which manifests in several different forms but mainly exalts one’s personal experience or ” the spirit” over scripture. Psalms 19:7-9
Determinism – a philosophical doctrine which holds that every state of affairs, including every human event, act, and decision is the inevitable consequence of a previous event or series of events. Philippians 2:13
heterodoxy – any doctrine at variance with an official or orthodox position. Not to be used as a weapon against credible revelation, but as a deterrent against false teachings which have no root in established biblical doctrines.
perfectionism – the idea that once one has been saved, it is impossible or inadmissable to commit sin or sins. 1 John 1:6-10
existentialism – A philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness of individual human experience in hostile or indifferent environments. It regards human existence as unexplainable and thus allows for one to claim human sovreignty; the “little god” teaching.  Eccl 12:12-14
epistemology – the study of how we know what we know
justification – the legal act where God declares the sinner to be innocent of his or her sins. Its not that the sinner is actually sinless, but that he is “declared” sinless. Justification is granted by God alone and only by faith. Romans 5:1
fallibilism – a philosophical doctrine that all claims of knowledge could, in principle, be mistaken. Colossians 2:2-3
fatalism - a philosophical doctrine holding that all events are predetermined in advance for all time and human beings are powerless to change them 2 Kings 20:1-6
Nihilism – a radical doctrine that advocates destruction of the social system for its own good; annihilate Psalms 24:1
probability – part philosophical, part theoretical teaching that a random sampling process will result in all outcomes equally likely to happen solely based on chance. Romans 8:28-30
solipsism- a philosophical teaching that the self is all that you know to exist  Jeremiah 17:7-9;  Colossians 2:8
apologetics – defense of the Christian faith or its biblical doctrines from external enemies 1 Peter 3:15
polemics – defense of the Christian faith or its biblical doctrines from internal enemies. 2 Cor 11:13-15; Jude 3
theology – the study of the nature of God
christology – the study of and proper understanding of Jesus Christ as revealed in scripture 2 Pet 3:18
monergism – the doctrine that the Holy Spirit is the only efficient agent in an individual’s “new birth”. Monergism (Gkmono ergon “the work of one”) holds that the human will possesses no desire to holiness until it is born again, thus there is no pre-existing cooperation in regeneration.”
fundamentalism – a belief that every word in the Bible should be interpreted as literal truth. 2 Timothy 3:16-17
monogenes – a belief which suggests derivation, creation, origination of Christ. Rev 1:8
diaprax – the belief that Christian unity should and can be achieved without doctrinal consensus. Amos 3:3-7; 1 John 5:7-8
orthodoxy – can be applied across the spectrum of beliefs. In terms of Christian faith, it is adherence to a right set of beliefs as outlined in scripture.
orthopraxy – places emphasis on right conduct, both ethical and spiritual but not necessarily in opposition to faith and grace.
eschatology – The study of end times. A doctrine concerning the ultimate or final destiny of humanity and the earth including Christ’s second advent and God’s final judgment. 2 Peter 3:7-10

Easter is more about the easter bunny than the supernatural resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Christmas is more about presents from santa than celebrating the supernatural arrival of the Messiah

Thanksgiving seems to be more about what’s for dinner than giving honor to God.

Are we slowly but surely losing our foundations? Some churches have begun competing with halloween by holding “hallelujah nights”. One pastor said “the kids need something to keep their attention”.

Just a few holiday examples, but is it a sign of what’s to come? Many Christian churches incorporate the more secular components of the holidays or “Holy Days” in order to appeal to people who arent religious. However, some believe that this is only helping to hasten the time when our faith will be a footnote of a period of intolerance and exclusion.

Just this week, the American Religious Identification Survey released their findings which revealed continuing declines of  people who self identify as “Christian” or “evangelical” while those who claim no religion at all and those who embrace pagan religion, have risen. Pentecostal religion grew by 3.5 percent.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair told a UK paper  that Christianity is at risk of being sidelined in England’s increasingly secular society. Charisma Magazine reported Blair ”said he agreed with church leaders that Christianity is in danger of being viewed as a “personal eccentricity” rather than a significant influence on the nation.”

In short, Christianity is in danger of becoming a something akin to women who still like to wear their hair big like in the 80s.

True and given, God has a remnant that “hasnt bowed the knee to Baal” and his word will never fail. But what of this organization called the Christian church? Is it destined to be swallowed by a one world system?

In an earlier report, we looked at how the harlot church is developing right alongside the true church and at some points threatning to overshadow it.  Many false ideologies are  slowly merging with biblical concepts and creating a new thought stream throughout the church. Like the holidays mentioned, these concepts sound good, feel good and even look good on paper, but where is it leading us?  In recent years, we’ve experienced surges of extentialism, humanism, hybrid ecumenicalism, extreme pacifism, universalism and diaprax. That’s just to name a few. Some of  them are old heresies with new names. Though there are many questions, what’s clear is that we’ve got much to contend for as well as against.