2 replies to this topic

[Thinker]

Falling from a high place can be injurious and/or fatal. To avoid this we try to stay where we have solid footing. Wise choice! In the Spiritual realm, the stakes are infinitely higher. We seem to be experiencing an Evangelical free fall. Some who claim to be Evangelical are falling from the solid footing of sound doctrine; some even questioning the need of doctrine. We've seen defections on verbal, plenary inspiration; on literal six day creation; some, according to a recent article, even calling into question the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus. There is free fall in other areas, as well. Paul alluded to this problem in II Thessalonians 2:3. Speaking of the Day of Christ, he wrote, "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first...." Our salvation, our service, our walk with God all depend on standing firm on sound doctrine. Who gains by compromise in basic doctrines? Selah! Without sound doctrine, we have no basis for claiming any kind of genuine conversion experience. Thinker  (Ron)

[Julie Daube]

You're right to be concerned, Ron. This is why I was so glad to hear U.S. Alliance President John Stumbo say recently, "Compromise will not take place on my watch." We desperately need leaders who won't compromise.

[Candice]

I like this evening's Spurgeon's devotional which kind of fits this topic of great concern...I guess there's nothing new under the sun. This was going on mid-19th century and in Tozer's time. Just a new spin??
"Who of God is made unto us wisdom."
1 Corinthians 1:30

Man's intellect seeks after rest, and by nature seeks it apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. Men of education are apt, even when converted, to look upon the simplicities of the cross of Christ with an eye too little reverent and loving. They are snared in the old net in which the Grecians were taken, and have a hankering to mix philosophy with revelation. The temptation with a man of refined thought and high education is to depart from the simple truth of Christ crucified, and to invent, as the term is, a more intellectual doctrine. This led the early Christian churches into Gnosticism, and bewitched them with all sorts of heresies. This is the root of Neology, and the other fine things which in days gone by were so fashionable in Germany, and are now so ensnaring to certain classes of divines. Whoever you are, good reader, and whatever your education may be, if you be the Lord's, be assured you will find no rest in philosophizing divinity. You may receive this dogma of one great thinker, or that dream of another profound reasoner, but what the chaff is to the wheat, that will these be to the pure word of God. All that reason, when best guided, can find out is but the A B C of truth, and even that lacks certainty, while in Christ Jesus there is treasured up all the fulness of wisdom and knowledge. All attempts on the part of Christians to be content with systems such as Unitarian and Broad-church thinkers would approve of, must fail; true heirs of heaven must come back to the grandly simple reality which makes the ploughboy's eye flash with joy, and gladens the pious pauper's heart—"Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners." Jesus satisfies the most elevated intellect when he is believingly received, but apart from him the mind of the regenerate discovers no rest. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." "A good understanding have all they that do his commandments."