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Matthew 10:35 - For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
Very few things bother me so much as a genuine lack of ardour to a cause, or to put it bluntly, "wishy-washiness"--be the cause anything from nationalism to personal relationships. Personally, I feel that a person should either love something or hate something; "sitting on the fence" is a situation that is best avoided, as it causes not only confusion, but in many cases, a strong sense of apathy.
Of course, one can never get around the fact that some people will be less than partisan with what they believe; people are not perfect, and so they often will not know exactly where they stand. In most instances, this is acceptable; not great, but acceptable. However, a common misconception is that moderation in one's relationship with Jesus is acceptable; nothing can be further from the truth, and that is the issue I would like to address in this rambling of mine.
If one was to walk into an ordinary Christian church nowadays, one would likely come upon three types of people: the fervent, professing, "Bible thumping" Christian, the "lukewarm" Christian, and the non-believer. Of course, we would also find varying degrees of each, but the essence of it would be the aforementioned three. I would go so far as to say that it is possible that the lukewarm Christian is in a more precarious situation than the non-believer.
You see, the non-believer realizes that he has not accepted Christ (yet), and also possibly realizes that he is in need of knowing Christ--thus he is in attendance of the church for a "trial run". The lukewarm Christian, on the other hand, is in a way, oblivious to his or her problem. This may be an arbitrary figure, but the vast majority of people sitting in churches these days are "pew warmers"; they come week after week, listening to their preacher expatiate on and on, never gleaning anything from the lesson, and believing that their soul is safe because they are being "religious". I don't mean to offend, but what a contradiction!
Christians may be loud; they may be quiet; they may smell; they may not be able to read; they may fidget with their hands as they speak--God has given us liberty to do all these things. However, if there is one thing a Christian may not be, it's an irresolute follower of Christ; in fact, a half-hearted "believer"'s salvation may very well be on the line here.
The Bible, God's Word, can't be any clearer that Christians are supposed to "give it all" to Jesus:
Matthew 6:24: No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
Matthew 22:37: Jesus replied: " Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."
Matthew 12:30: He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.
Luke 12:9: But if anyone denies me here on earth, I will deny that person before God's angels.
Luke 17:33: Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.
In summary, we have established that the Lord wants us to follow him wholeheartedly; that means to deny our own lives in this world, to share Jesus with non-believers, and to live God's way, not the way of society.
I would now like to go off onto a different tangent to explore the history of liberalized Christianity. I will not touch on specific issues, like women in the clergy and homosexuality, but will look at the general apostasy (falling away) from Scripture that has become oh-so-prevalent in recent years.
Starting sometime at the beginning of the 20th century, we find a desire to accept people for who they are. This, in and of itself, is not an entirely bad thing; to Christians it is when it extends into matters of "religion". In the 1960s the creed of "tolerance" gained widespread acceptance, and an attitude of moral relativism began to appear. No longer was there any "right" or "wrong", but there was a "right for you" and a "right for me". This dangerous concept, which provides for not only widespread chaos but an overthrow of absolute truth, began to be embraced within the mainline Protestant churches within America.
Things quickly changed within these churches, the sharpest of which was a doctrine "correction" from "The Bible is God's Word" to "The Bible contains God's Word". Upon further analysis, this becomes a startling and very dangerous development. With the latter phrase, the Bible can be changed to man's liking; no longer is the Bible seen as the authority on, well--anything--but it is mutable and malleable like plasticene. With this outrageous modification, what are we to trust in the Bible? Many churches continued to purport that "Jesus Is King", but how can we be sure, when the Bible is fallible? If we can discard the clauses on homosexuality, what's to keep us from laying aside the Resurrection itself? Surely the more "key" issues are no more grounded than the "less key" ones.
As time went on, and the 60s became the 70s, and the 70s the 80s, many things continued to deteriorate. Not only was the Bible "watered down", but other religions were beginning to gain acceptance within "Christian" circles. No longer was Jesus the only way to God; there were "other" ways to get to him as well. This ultimately undermined everything that Jesus accomplished with his death on the Cross--and yet liberals seemed to turn a blind eye; it was, of course, all for the good cause of political correctness.
Now, at the beginning of the new millennium, we see a mounting number of people claiming to be atheists, agnostics, liberals, and "others". A fundamental cause of this is a complete "dumbing down" of Scripture, and the method of Salvation. Many mainline churches, such as the United, Presbyterian and Anglican churches in America, no longer teach Jesus as the way to God; some quickly "gloss over" the issue; others avoid it completely; and worse yet, many ministers (who are not believers themselves) are claiming that every religion could very well be true.
The result of all this is countless people stuck between the crossfire. A number of my friends go to church (or worse, "celebrate Christmas"), but they have no idea of what Jesus did for them on the Cross. Furthermore, when asked if they know the Truth, a quick and evasive response of "oh I'm a Christian--I go to church" is often received. You see, these people don't even realize that they are missing the most important things in their lives: Jesus Christ! For all the good it does, those people are better off sleeping in on Sundays, or even watching the Superbowl! Because unless things change, they'll likely end up in the same place in the end, sadly enough.
If you look in Scripture, you will find that God knew about this long before it was going to happen. In Revelation 3, God condemns the church as "neither hot nor cold", but "lukewarm". In very strong words, God tells the liberals that he wishes they "were one or the other". He goes on to condemn those who halfheartedly follow His Word, exclaiming that he "will vomit [them] out of [His] mouth". Beware: God hates liberalism.
Today, church, in the vast majority of cases, is no longer a house of learning the Gospel--it is a dreaded building where yuppies go to "get religious". No, they don't go to Church to worship God. They don't go there to pray either. They go there because they think that entering that dark and dreary building will rinse them of their sins, and save them in the end. They're likely too lazy to change anything in their lives--they have "commitments", like their jobs, their families, or worse--their boyfriends or girlfriends, with whom they are breaking one of the Bible's commandments each time they see them. They want the best of both worlds--salvation and all the pleasures of this world. Well guess what? Both cannot be had! Either one gets eternal pleasure, or one spends all of his tickets on this hellbound vessel called "Earth"; there is no other way.
The danger today likely will not come from other religions; neither will it come from cults, aliens, or anything else. It will come from within the church, where heathen practices are pushed above everything else, and the Truth is shrouded from those who are in such genuine need of it.
Finally, I would like to ask all of you who feel that you fit the description of the lukewarm Christian to evaluate your faith with Christ. Ask yourself a couple of questions: What does Jesus mean to me? Am I sure that I am following Him with my heart? Would I deny Him if asked about Him by a friend? Would I be in heaven if I died today? If you feel doubt over even one of those questions, then God is desperately trying to get to you--to break the shackled bonds that have been laid upon your heart by the Hated One. If this is you, I pray that you will seek help--whether that is in the form of asking us on the site, reading another one of the articles written for you on the site, or talking to a Christian that you know that you can trust. I give you my word: it's only eternity that we're talking about here.
by AGuyWithHeart (Rob)
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