“Let’s take stock of ourselves: Why is the divorce rate among Christians no better than among unbelievers? Is the “Gospel” preached in your church? What is the status of Biblical literacy in your fellowship? Is our Christianity lukewarm?”
“There are many who lay the blame for the astonishing and sinister years of the Holocaust in Germany in the 1940s at the feet of the silent pulpits in Germany. Let’s take stock of ourselves: Why is the divorce rate among Christians no better than among unbelievers? Is the “Gospel” preached in your church? Can you even define it? (1 Cor 15:1–4). What is the status of Biblical literacy in your fellowship? Is there an effective program underway to improve it? (We could continue to explore the impending enslavement of America, but that’s a topic for another article!)
We can’t help but notice the silent exodus of people slipping out the back doors of many churches almost unnoticed: attracted but not retained; interested but not inserted into fellowship; touched but not transformed. They looked in briefly but were disappointed in what they saw. We also notice that many serious believers shun the label “Christian”; they meet during the week in study groups, but have not found a Sunday fellowship they find fruitful or challenging.”
Excerpt from Khouse.org article
The popular view—fostered by liberal preaching—clings to several
equivalent paths:
The Psychological Gospel
• Popular psychology: “How to overcome…”; “How to think
creatively…”; “How to think affirmatively or positively”; “We’re
on our way, upward and onward forever.”
• The desperate decay of our society speaks for itself.
The Social Gospel
“A sermonette preached by the preacherette to Christianettes.”
— J. Vernon McGee
“Good is better than evil because its nicer and gets you into less
trouble.”
“A church made up of a mild-mannered man standing before a group of
mild-mannered people, urging them to be more mild-mannered.”
Jesus to the church at Laodicea:
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert
cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot,
I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased
with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou
art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel
thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white
raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness
do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open
the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To
him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also
overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an
ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
Revelation 3:15-22
This seems, indeed, to describe the church in America. The seven “overcomer” promises need to be studied, and understood… The 20th verse—so often used in an altar call—is actually a most disturbing indictment of all: Jesus is outside trying to get in! (In contrast to the other six churches profiled in His seven letters…))
Christian Socialism
The modern church preaches more on social relations, pacifism, social justice, et al., and is really an instrument leading to Christian socialism. In contrast, when the True Gospel is preached, men come to Christ and become members of God’s forever family. The real solution to man’s problems can come only through the grace of God.
God creates out of nothing. Until man is nothing, God can make nothing
out of him.
—Martin Luther
The Coming Apostasy
An ominous cloud is on the horizon—both in this epistle and on our own! Apostasy is not due to ignorance; it is deliberate error and heresy. It is intentional. An apostate is one who knows the truths of the gospel and the doctrines of faith and has repudiated them. Apostasy = “total desertion of the principles of faith.”
“When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Lk18:8). The Greek grammatical construction requires a negative answer…
Excerpted from an exposition on the pastoral epistles compiled by Chuck Missler.