TWENTY-THREE GREAT SINS OF EVANGELICALISM–Why We Must Pray For A Reformation Again.

TWENTY-THREE GREAT SINS OF EVANGELICALISM–Why We Must Pray For A Reformation Again.

Many Christians today are calling for revival. They are mistaken to do so. Revival is the imbuing of what already exists with new life. In the past, Evangelical Christianity has experienced renewed vigor from the Holy Spirit in great moves of God many call revivals. These are times, such as the Welsh Revival, when God, in a special work, in response to the need of the church and the prayers of the saints, breathes into the church and individual saints new spiritual power to live holy lives and to witness.What we need is a reformation much like the Protestant Reformation. God didn’t revive the Roman church. To make it stronger and more powerful would be to aid the kingdom of Satan because its doctrine was Satanic. God called a remnant out of the Roman church to return to biblical doctrine and practice. Thus, Historical Evangelicalism was born. Modern Evangelicalism is not the same. We have gone into sin and lost doctrines that are essential to make biblical faith possible and added others that make biblical faith impossible. We must not seek new vigor for Evangelicalism. We must change it or simply leave it to return to Historical Evangelicalism, that is, the faith once for all delivered.

May it please God, not to revive an old donkey, but to make us a lion again.

1. The Lost Doctrine of Regeneration.
If we aren’t changed, we aren’t saved. Jesus said that if we are His sheep, we will obey His commands and if we don’t, we aren’t His. John 10, Matthew 7:18.

2. The Lost Doctrine of Sanctification.
If we aren’t being made progressively more holy, we aren’t saved. Romans 8:28-29.

3. The Lost Doctrine of Personal Holiness.
If we aren’t radically different than those around us, we aren’t saved. Matthew 10:17 & 16:6; Luke 6:26; Ezekiel 36.

4. The Lost Doctrine of Corporate Holiness.
If our churches and institutions aren’t pure from false teaching, false teachers, and any who hold to false teaching, they are no longer Christian institutions. We must change them immediately or stop supporting them in any way whatsoever and leave them. Deuteronomy 12-13; I Corinthians 5:9-13; Revelation 2:6; 14-16, & 19-24.

5. The Lost Doctrine of the Glory of God.
If we seek our own glory or success, we are sinning. Philippians 1:12-18; Psalm 145. Matthew 23.

6. The Lost Fellowship of Suffering.
If we avoid embarrassment for being Christians, don’t worry. We aren‘t. Matthew 10: 32-33; Romans 10:9-10.

7. The Lost Leadership of Men.
If men don’t act like men again with courage and self-sacrifice, all is lost. Our fathers gave their lives for correct doctrine. Many of today’s pastors and leaders won’t risk being called “insensitive.” Men, let the ladies be sensitive. You be godly. And lead. And die. I Timothy 2:9-3:13.

8. The Lost Doctrine of the Sufficiency of Scripture.
If we read books other than the Scripture for Christian doctrine, we are blaspheming, calling God a fool or a liar. II Timothy 3:16-17. The only two proper uses of other religious works are 1) to illuminate Scripture by way of explanation or example by another more discerning or more familiar than we are, or 2) to research false teaching in order to expose the lie and expel the false teacher for the protection of those weak in the faith and for the preservation of the holiness of each of the saints and for the preservation the corporate holiness of the church, Christian school, or any other Christian institution. I Corinthians 5:9-13.

9. The Lost Doctrine of Truth over Relationship.
If we value anyone, even our families, over being right with God in practice and doctrine, we aren’t saved. This is a call back to holiness and sacrifice, not meanness. Read and take seriously what Moses and Jesus taught in the following references. You will see that following God under either the Old Covenant or the New Covenant meant that many would be separated from families, friends, and loved ones who will not accept the truth. Much false teaching and many other sins in the church are tolerated simply because one brother will not sever ties with another who has fallen. In other words, will you be willing to be divorced by your spouse because he or she will not tolerate God in the house? Pastors, will you jeopardize your career for the gospel? Many will not. This is a disgrace unfit for the kingdom of God. Choose you this day whom you will serve! Deuteronomy 13; Matthew 10:32-39.

10. The Idolatry of Love.
If we worship the god preached in most of Modern Evangelicalism, we are idolaters, because the god of most Evangelicals is only love. The God of Scripture is much more. I John 5:6; Deuteronomy 4:24, 5:9.

11. The Sin of Reproving the Reprover. (The New Phariseeism–Unbiblical Rules Against Telling The Truth.)
If we continue to adopt the unscriptural ethics of the idolaters of love, we will continue to be like the Pharisees of old, adding laws God has never given, and honoring human tradition over Scripture. In our zeal for the soft, the sentimental, and the mediocre, we hate the prophet and make artifical rules to silence him. Amos 5:10 & 14-15; Matthew 11:16-19; Amos 7:10-17.

12. The Idolatry of the Effeminate. (Worshipping the Uber-mommy.)
The American jesus isn’t the Jesus of Scripture. It’s a bizarre mix of god, goddess, man, and an uber-mommy unknown to Scripture. We have idolatrous pictures of this imaginary girlygod standing at a knobless door, unable to conquer the human heart that Yahweh, the true God, created. This contradicts both reason and Scripture. Exodus 20:4-6; Revelation 1-3; Nahum 3:13; Leviticus 19:17-18; II Timothy 2:1.

13. Self Idolatry.
If we continue to preach self-esteem, we deny Christ, Who taught us we are filth. Filth awaiting judgment. Roman 3:23, 6:23.

14. The Idol of the God Who Serves Me.
If we continue to seek earthly blessings from God, rather than self-denial, we continue to indulge our emotions and expect riches and health on Earth, while our souls die. Luke 22:19; I Corinthians 9:27.

15. The Lost Doctrine of the Value of Doctrine.
If we continue to deny the importance of strong biblical doctrine, we are self-contradictory fools, valuing the doctrine that says no doctrine is to be much valued. II Timothy 2:14-18.

16. The Lost Doctrine of the Powerlessness of the Church and Its People.
If we continue to speak as if God cannot act without our cooperation, we will remain idolaters, blaspheming the Sovereign Yahweh, and worshipping a domesticated god we control. Deuteronomy 11:25; John 6:44-65.

17. The Lost Doctrine of Redeeming the Time.
If we continue to spend time in secular entertainment, we will remain unfaithful servants, not evangelizing those for whom God has made each one of us responsible, all the while poisoning our souls with the humor of Satan, the mindset of this world, and the desires of the flesh. Ephesians 5:15-16.

18. The Lie of “Impacting the Culture.” (Whatever That Means.)
If we continue to engage in this and other nebulous doctrinal sophistries, we will go to our graves, not fulfilling the Great Commission, which calls us to the specific task of teaching individuals the Scripture. Culture is the world, and is to be shunned. Learn the customs of politeness and modesty. Avoid the contamination of the values of any human culture. Love not the world. Romans 12:1-2; I John 2:15-17.

19. The Lost Obedience to Witness. (Evangelicals Who Don‘t Evangelize Are Lying!)
If we continue to cower, and not witness, we disobey Christ’s last command on Earth and refuse to disciple anyone as Christ taught us to. All His students were required to witness almost from day one. How have we come to the point at which a man can be called a Christian who isn’t regularly witnessing? It is dishonest. It is disobedient. It is inexcusable. May God damn the preacher who says otherwise. The book of Jude; Ezekiel 33.

20. The Lie of Relevance.
If we continue to attempt to “make the gospel relevant”, we are apostates, leaving the original gospel, which God told us was plenty relevant since it, and only it, is the power to save from eternal wrath. Are we smarter than God? Romans 1:16.

21. The Lost Doctrine of God’s Hatred for the Wicked. (Lost to the people, hidden by the preachers.)
If we continue to speak and preach about the god who is only love and does not hate evil and the workers of evil, we are idolaters and lie to our hearers, damning even our own children to eternal hell unless they rebel against us and return to the God of Scripture Who is loving to the repentant and burning in His anger against the unrepentant. Psalm 5:5.

22. The Lost Doctrine of Repentance.
If we continue to preach belief without Christ’s call to repentance from all known sin, we have another gospel and will spend eternity in hell, with the blood of our followers on our hands. Jude 4; Matthew 4:17.

23. The Lost Doctrine of the Fear of God.
If we continue to tell people that God is to be respected and not feared and that He will not send anyone to hell, we are liars whom God will judge eternally in hell. Most of our preachers have lied to us on this issue. Because we insist upon a god who doesn’t scare anyone we either fail to speak of hell or tell the lie that our god doesn’t send anyone there. Scripture says otherwise. Revelation 14:9-11; Malachi 1:14; Hosea 3:5 , 11:10-11; Daniel 5:25-26; Jeremiah 2:19, 5:22-24, 10:7, 10:14; Isaiah 2:10-19, 33:6, 50:10, 57:11, 59:19, 64:1-2, 6:5; Jonah 1:8-16; Jude 4; Habakkuk 3:2-16; Matthew 10:28.

In Christ,
Phil Perkins.

Who Needs A Creed?…for those who think Creeds are useless (the “No Creed but Christ idea)

Who Needs A Creed?

Article by Mark Johnston  April 2008

When I was at Primary School in the British state school system many moons ago, it was still the norm not only to teach pupils the Apostles’ Creed, but also to have them recite it in class. Looking back on that experience brings many thoughts to mind.

On the one hand, it is almost incredible to think that a state education system could require all pupils to learn such an overtly Christian statement of faith by heart. It would be inconceivable today – as much because it meant learning something by heart as for the fact it happened to be Christian. But on the other hand, the act of standing and reciting the creed had something of the feel of the daily act of pledging allegiance to the flag must have for many American school children. The words rolled of our tongues, but with little or no understanding of their meaning, or true appreciation of their significance. My guess is that the same is true for many churches where the practice of reciting the creed is still in vogue today and that raises the question, ‘Who needs a creed?’

The answer to that question from many in the broad sweep of Christendom, would probably be, ‘Not us!’ Such ancient documents are seen at best as outdated and at worst an irrelevance in an age that is more interested in the present than the past and in which the very idea of beliefs that are fixed is tantamount to sacrilege. That may be the majority view – in a de facto, if not conscious sense – but that does not mean it is right. The church is always confessing its beliefs whether it realises it or not; the issue is whether or not they reflect belief that is authentically Christian. There is a perennial need for such views to be challenged, ultimately for the sake of the gospel.

That has come home to me more than ever in the congregation and community I serve on the edge of inner city London. Within the church there is an entire cross-section of people from all sorts of backgrounds. At one end of the spectrum there are those who are well-grounded in the Faith after years of teaching and study. At the other end are those who come along to Sunday services and mid-week groups who haven’t got the faintest clue of what Christianity is all about. And there is everything else in between! On top of that there is the local parish: a diverse community with all shades of religious belief and none at all. People generally are suspicious about church – especially a church that has the word ‘evangelical’ on its sign. So where does one begin to address such an array of needs? Let me suggest a number of ways the creed can help.

It Helps us Wrestle with the Challenge of Articulating the Faith
The very notion of ‘creed’ immediately suggests the idea of expressing belief. In the barest sense it is an expression of truth in abstraction: ‘This is what Christians believe…’ but historically there was more to it. The Latin verb credo from which ‘creed’ is derived carries a more personal and existential connotation. Hence several major creeds begin with the words ‘I believe in…’ – in the sense of placing confidence in, or relying on particular truths. The Apostles’ Creed spells out the truths a person must believe in if he or she is to be a Christian.

 Its history says a lot about its purpose. Even though legend had it that the original authors of this statement of faith were the twelve Apostles – each one contributing one of its twelve constituent parts – the reality is that it evolved from a number of earlier statements of faith. The main antecedent was the so-called Old Roman Creed; but that in turn seems to have been an evolution of two other documents: the Epistula Apostolorum and what has come to be known as Der Bazileh papyrus – probably part of an Egyptian communion liturgy. Each in their own historical setting was an attempt to articulate the faith crisply and clearly for seekers and catechumens.

Those who framed these various statements of faith were simply following the pattern found in Scripture itself. From the simplest article of faith found in the Great Shema – ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.’ (Dt 6.4) – right through to the Carmen Christi of Philippians, the Bible has multiple examples of its teachings being summarised and confessed. Its teaching has to be systemised if it is to make sense.

Martin Luther commends the Apostles’ Creed by saying, ‘Christian truth could not possibly be put into a shorter and clearer statement.’ Philip Schaff says, ‘As The Lord’s Prayer is the Prayer of prayers, the Decalogue the Law of laws, so the Apostles’ Creed is the Creed of creeds.’ The challenge it presents to the church in the 21st Century is to use it as a framework for expressing these time-honoured truths that are essential to Christian faith for the world of our day.

It Provides a Tool for Teaching the Faith
It has been said that the Apostles’ Creed was the Alpha course, or Christianity Explored course of its day. That isn’t far from the truth. Successive generations have come up with their own tools for presenting the main teachings of the Bible, but the Apostles’ Creed is the mother of them all. It sets the principle and provides a paradigm for what needs to be taught.

J.I. Packer’s book, I Want to be a Christian (1977), is a fairly recent example of how the Creed can continue to function in a contemporary church setting as an effective teaching tool today.  He uses it as a framework for exploring each tenet of faith it contains, in such a way as to lead young Christians to see the essence of what is meant, but at the same time providing pointers to those who want to dig deeper.

At an even simpler level, the simple practice of memorising the creed and reciting it publicly still has enormous merit – especially in an age when memorising anything is deemed passé. In the syllabus of what every child ought to learn by heart, the Apostles’ Creed must take its place alongside the Books of the Bible, Ten Commandments and the Lord’s Prayer as one of its core components. And if adults haven’t got there yet, it’s never too late to start.

The creed is a wonderfully versatile tool for instruction. It has a use with children, seekers, new converts and those who realise that no matter how long we may have been in the faith, familiar truths always have fresh depths to be explored.

It Makes us Focus on the Heart of the Faith
There is always a temptation to get lost in the minutiae of what the Bible teaches – as is seen in all too many of the distractions and controversies of the New Testament Church and the church generally throughout its history.  Nowhere was that more damaging than in the church at Corinth and Paul’s response to their distractedness is timeless. He reminds them of what he had taught them in the first place: ‘What I received I passed on to you as of first importance…’ (1Co 15.3) – here are the core teachings that form the bedrock of the Christian Faith.

So as the Creed spells out the sum of saving knowledge for the early church, it takes us first and foremost to the God of the Bible in all his uniqueness and glory. His uniqueness lies in the fact that he is Trinity and his greatest glory is seen in the salvation he provides at such extraordinary cost through his own Son. Grasping this is the theological equivalent of finding the holy grail of science: the theory of everything.

In an age when evangelical Christianity is rapidly losing its way in a maze of ‘steps to salvation’ and myriad books and sermons on the ‘how to’ of the Christian life, the creed brings us back to the heart of both the gospel and the faith: God himself.

It Guards the Gospel against Distortions of the Faith
Historically, creeds have had a double function: to serve as both a fence and a foundation. They serve as the latter in that they crystallise the essence of all a person needs to know for life and salvation – that inevitably is more than just a ‘simple gospel’. In that sense they provide a foundation for the church, since the church is the community of the redeemed and is built on the teaching ‘of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone’ (Eph 2.20). The Apostles’ Creed encapsulates positively what the essence of that teaching is.

The sad reality of course is that the community of the redeemed has been plagued, not merely from without, but more often from within by distortions of that teaching. So creeds have been formulated to provide a fence to guard the church against such aberrations. It is noteworthy that the most insidious distortions of the faith that threatened the church in the early centuries of its existence concerned the doctrine of God himself – whether as Trinity, or in the mystery of the incarnation. It is understandable, therefore, that the Apostles’ Creed is particularly concerned to secure that fence, given the era in which it was framed.

It would be nice to think that almost twenty centuries later, the church no longer needs to go over these elementary teachings of the faith again; but it does. Whether through the assault of Open Theism or that of well-meaning ignorance, the truths enshrined in the Creed still need to be guarded and the Creed itself continues to be a most effective way to do so.

It Shows the Need for Personal Faith
Perhaps the greatest threat of all to the church and the teachings on which she stands in every generation is that of sliding into nominalism. Paul warns Timothy that the Last Days will be characterised by those (in the church) who have a ‘form of godliness’ but who deny its power (2Ti 3.5). He warns against them in the strongest possible terms.

It’s a danger that lurks most subtly in the Reformed community where we are inclined to lay great store on scholarship and precision. It can be paradise for the kind of people who Paul is warning about – especially those who delight in controversy.  The essence of Christianity that is authentically Reformed is its concern for authentic experience. The experiential Calvinism of the Reformation and Puritan eras was driven by the conviction that all truth leads to godliness. The study of theology can never be merely academic.
 
The first three words of the Creed embed that conviction at the very centre of the truths it goes on to confess. It is only as we declare our belief in this God and all that he has done that we can actually know him along with all the benefits he promises in the gospel. There is a piety reflected in the Creed that is the key to understanding its truths and making them live for the church and all its members. The piety of genuine personal faith.

 Mark Johnston is the Senior Minister of Grove Chapel in Camberwell, London.

A Quick Look at the Doctrines of Grace

If anyone makes the assistance of grace depend on the humility or obedience of man and does not agree that it is a gift of grace itself that we are obedient and humble, he contradicts the Apostle who says, “What have you that you did not receive?” (1 Cor. 4:7), and, “But by the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Cor. 15:10). If anyone affirms that we can form any right opinion or make any right choice which relates to the salvation of eternal life, or that we can be saved by assent to the preaching of the gospel through our natural powers without the effectual work of the Holy Spirit, who makes all whom He calls gladly and willingly assent to and believe in the truth, he is led astray from the plain teaching of Scripture by exalting the natural ability of man, and does not understand the voice of God who says in the Gospel, “For apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5), and the word of the Apostle, “Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God” (2 Cor. 3:5).
Adapted from The Council of Orange (529 AD)

That statement made by the Council of Orange is truly brilliant. It detracts all glory from man and gives it all to God. We, by our fallen proud nature, are naturally inclined to claim it was us who chose God. However a detailed study of scripture from Genesis to Revelation reveals quite the opposite. The question that one must ask his/herself is this; “Am I willing to submit to the Authority of a Holy and Sovereign God in the salvation and redemption of his people, giving all glory to Him for His gift of Faith by Grace through Christ and Christ alone?” My feeling is that we have Christians who refuse to accept and acknowledge this truth and as such this leads to strife, pride and rebellion against God’s Word and effectively God himself. God’s word is final and has full authority over and above man’s tradition or intellect. “The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.””
– Psalm 19:7,8

Check out the following links for a study regarding the Doctrines of Grace

The Cambridge Declaration (1996)
Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals – Embraces the “essential truths of Christianity as those were defined by the great ecumenical councils of the church” and the “solas” of the sixteenth century Protestant Reformation.

Doctrines of Grace – Categorized Scripture List
Nathan Pitchford

The Cause of God and Truth by John Gill
John Gill

Are There Two Wills in God?
John Piper – Divine Election and God’s Desire for All to Be Saved

The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination
Loraine Boettner

Introduction to the Reformed Faith
John M. Frame (.pdf)

By Grace Alone
Jim McClarty (pdf) – A study in the fundamental reformation doctrines, commonly called the Doctrines of Grace.

Why Can’t They See This?
Tom J. Nettles

The Sovereignty of God in Salvation
A.W. Pink

Series on the Doctrines of Grace
Charles Spurgeon

A Teacher’s Manual for the Study of the Doctrines of Grace
Roger L. Smalling (pdf)

Summary of the Sovereignty of God in Salvation
John Piper – The “Five Points” of Calvinism

The Doctrines of Grace
http://www.the-Highway.com – Helpful and Concise Explanation of the Five Points with Scripture

Solus Christus- A Brief Explanation

Solus Christus – Christ Alone

As evangelical faith becomes secularized, its interests have been blurred with those of the culture. The result is a loss of absolute values, permissive individualism, and a substitution of wholeness for holiness, recovery for repentance, intuition for truth, feeling for belief, chance for providence, and immediate gratification for enduring hope. Christ and his cross have moved from the center of our vision.

We reaffirm that our salvation is accomplished by the mediatorial work of the historical Christ alone. His sinless life and substitutionary atonement alone are sufficient for our regeneration, justification and reconciliation to the Father. We deny that the gospel is preached if Christ’s substitutionary work is not declared and faith in Christ and his work is not solicited…God’s grace in Christ is not merely necessary but is the sole efficient cause of salvation. We confess that human beings are born spiritually dead and are incapable even of cooperating with regenerating grace. We reaffirm that in salvation we are rescued from God’s wrath by Christ alone. It is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that unites us to Christ by releasing us from our bondage to sin and raising us from spiritual death to spiritual life in Him. We deny that salvation is in any sense a human work. Human methods, techniques or strategies by themselves cannot accomplish this transformation. Faith is not produced by our unregenerated human nature. – adapted from the Cambridge Declaration of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals

Reformation Essentials by Michael Horton

Preaching Christ Alone by Michael Horton

Solus Christus and the Pastor by Rod Rosenbladt

Christ vs. Moralism by John Hendryx

Jesus Christ Fount of Every Blessing by John Hendryx

Just One Name by Robert Reyburn

The Sufficiency of Christ Alone by John MacArthur

There is Salvation in No One Else by John Piper

The Only Way by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones – Ephesians 6:10, 11

Jesus said “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no man comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6)

Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)

For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5)

He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. (John 3:36 and 1 John 5:12)

Christ Alone by Ligon Duncan Acts 4:12 & John 1:29

There is No Other Name Under Heaven by Dr. Kim Riddlebarger (United Reformed Church)

Jesus, the Only Savior by Gregory Koukl

Is There More than One Way to God? by John Hendryx

In Christ Alone: Living the Gospel Centered Life by Sinclair B. Ferguson (recommended book)

 

 

D.L.Moody said what?

It is a great mistake to give a man who has not been convicted of sin certain passages that were never meant for him. The Law is what he needs . . . Do not offer the consolation of the Gospel until he sees and knows he is guilty before God. We must give enough of the Law to take away all self-righteousness.

– D.L. Moody

1837 – 1899