Can you picture this -- a big pile of logs the supplier has just dumped at your front door. Now all you have to do is carry them to the back yard and neatly stack them for this winter's fire.

Can you picture this -- a big pile of logs the supplier has just dumped at your front door. Now all you have to do is carry them to the back yard and neatly stack them for this winter's fire.

Pictue that pile in the front yard, logs going every direction. Some of them not really part of the pile, just laying there by themselves.

Do you see this as a picture of God's church at the end of June 2006? 

I do. 

Scritpure talks of the early church as being of "one accord." This phrase shows up through out the book of Acts. The church works together as a single unit to accomplish its goal(s). Seems to me that the commissions of Matthew 28:19-20 and Acts 1:8 call for the church to present the Gospel message of salvation to as many people as possible and then, after they have accepted the Gospel (believed in/on Jesus as Lord and Christ), the church is to disciple them.  The concept of discipleship means teaching the new converts enough of the Gospel so they can go forth and repeat the process -- get souls saved and disciple the new converts.

In the meanwhile, as I have noted in several previous posts, the church remains under persecution. The Family Research Council's news letter of a couple of days back carries a note about Maryland Governer Erlich having fired a high ranking staff member due, at least implicitly, to his conservative, biblical views, while appointing a new gay judge to the bench. To quote a small piece of the article:

His firing of Mr. Smith is an assault on religious liberty and on freedom of speech. His election-year conversion to champion of gay issues is pandering at its worst.

The next day's Washigton Post contained an article describing an ultimatum delivered by the Anglican Church to the American Episcopalian Church to clean up its act. This action arises from the ordaining of a gay bishop some three years ago. The ultimatum essentially calls for the Episcopal Church to move its act away from all of its liberal tendencies. 

This is nothing new. At the turn of the century way back in the time span of 1800-1900, the church fought a battle against the invasion of liberal theology into the church. One of today's "socially incorrect names," namely fundamentalist, arose from this century old controversy. Those supporting Christ's church printed a series of apologetics (arguments in favor of the Bible and the Gospel) under the name The Fundamentals. These essays set forth five baseline values that must be met to be a true Chrsitian. One of these is that the Bible is God's ture and inerrant Word. Another portion is that Jesus was born of a virgin.

The liberals denied supernatural acts. While liberalism as a true movement died in the church, as an underlying philosophy it lives on in a variety of manners. One of these is the need to support politically correct positions, even when they differ from the Bible.

Over the past fifty years, and particulary the last fifteen, most of the major denominations have faced the question of women pastors, gay pastors, and related issues. They will continue to face these questions since society believes it is correct and women and gays should have the same rights as everyone else. All the rest of us are fundamentalists who have our heads in the sand and are out of step with time and society.

Trouble is, the Bible declares we fundamentalists are correct and society is wrong. As a result, the persecution of the church will continue from inside the church as liberal believers who declare themselves to be Christians will push the church toward socially correct positions, positions that do not stand up to the statements of Scripture.

I see all of the mainline denominations having massive in-house fights which will ultimately result in denomination splits. There well be two versions of Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, and so on. There may be more than two as the positions shake out.

So, does the church resemble that wood pile in your front yard?

Sadly, the answer is yes.  It is time for all good believers to pull together and as a body attempt to seek that one accord of the early church. The answer to this will be found in the pages of the Bible. Believe what it tells us -- not just the story of love the liberals find in the New Testament, but the story of salvation, of sin, of judgment, of holiness to be found in the pages that commense at Genesis 1:1 and end with Revalation. It is all true. It is all God's Word. It will all happen.

God is holy. His church is to be holy as well.  The final church will be holy. You should be holy -- now!

Jim A