Sunday, December 04, 2011

The Seducing Spirit of Our Age

Following my last post on Francis Schaffer's quotes from The Great Evangelical Disaster, I thought I would repost this with a few updates.  This was originally posted in November 2006.

There is a seduction and deception going on in churchdom in America today. It is reminiscent of the admonition that Paul gave the Corinthians in II Corinthians 11:3-4. This seduction is to be relevant to the culture, to be radical or primal to win people to Christ. While these may sound good on the surface the reality is that the church is being deceived into accepting another gospel. Without going into all the ways this other gospel is being perpetrated on the church I want to give some keys so that people can recognize when their church, pastor, or leadership is succumbing to the seduction of this spirit of our new age.

1. When "evangelism" is touted over theology
2. When confrontation is traded for comfort
3. When results are more important than truth
4. When sin is relabled as poor choices, bad decisions, falling down, failure, shame,
     or having problems
5. When requiring commitment is exchanged for providing convenience
6. When preaching/teaching becomes speaking or conversation
7. When pastorisms are substituted for Scripture
8. When doing it because it is right is replaced by doing it because it works
9. When research and response dictate the church service instead of Scripture
10. When fellowship becomes community
11. When the sacred becomes like the secular
12. When being relevant is more important than being righteous
14. When being distinct gives way to blending in with the culture
14. When books, or movies, or current events are sermon topics instead of the Bible
15. When it becomes all about life change instead of becoming like Christ
16. When worship becomes man-centered entertainment instead of
      God-focused exaltation
17. When offending the saints is okay, but offending the sinner is not
18. When the church corporate is put ahead of the church as a body of believers
19. When individual Christians are deemed expendable for the sake of the
      church corporate
20. When sin is ignored or tolerated among church members by its leadership
21. When more emphasis is put on telling people that God loves and accepts
      them like they are, instead of telling them that Christ died because of their sin
22. When video clips of movies, television shows, or youtube spots are used to
      make a point in the sermon instead of the Scriptures, therefore elevating secular
      entertainment to being equal with Scripture
23. When secular songs are used as worship music
24. When attendance numbers are used to justify what is being done or to bless
      what is being done
25. When there is an attitude of good riddance when people leave, instead of remorse
26. When there is no thought about God liking what is happening, but every care
      given to the seeker/unchurched/community liking what is happening
27. When the staff/leadership substitutes pleasing God with pleasing men

The thing that is disturbing is that all of this is being done in the name of Christ while He is being denied His rightful place of preeminence.


2 comments:

bmorris80 said...

with respect to #7, do i hear "taughtisms" ?

Steve said...

When truth becomes relative, not absolute.