Puritan wrote:
We must never abstract the operation, the revealing of God by the Spirit, from the infallible and sufficient rule of practice in the Word even if we deny that God is directly speaking to us, we must also forbid to follow “feelings,” “impressions,” or “convictions,” even the “peace” that some believers say that they have after making certain decisions.
Disregarding this is the tip of the root of the Charasmatic movement, in my opinion, which produces many who are just as happy to make do with a "God Told Me" supposition. They generate a jillion buffed and polished preachers every year who have this same disregard for "The Word".
I've known a bunch of otherwise humble men called to serve as ministers that were very puffed up by their knowledge. They were quite happy to wave around their doctorate or their masters degrees as if the breeze they generated could blow away the problems the church was having.
Pilgrim wrote:
Of course Baptists like to think that with few exceptions everyone they dunk is saved.
I've done a little reading on this--recently. Mostly thanks to some excellent links I've found here and some nudges I got from SemperReformanda and others. Plus I go to a Baptist Church. I think the reason they do this is because they've become too enchanted with man's contribution to Salvation. It's all all about me and Jesus. Good ol' God, my buddy. Like he comes in boxes of a dozen and don't forget to order enough for every one from the Baptist Bookstore, or Lifeway.
Most are still attached enough to the real roots of Baptists to be wary of admitting that someone could
lose their salvation but close enough to the edge that when someone quits the church or is caught in some heinous sin that they think, "Wow, he must not have ever been saved." Looking back over the years I am very surprised at how much has been done by churches where I was a member that was based on this sort of thing. "I've got a real feeling about this." The days when you could be sure that the church was being moved by the Holy Spirit are becoming a rarity.
Gang, the problem is that it's stopped being about God. And this may be a no brainer to you all but when I look at this in light of some of the Bible study I've done over the past week or so its pretty obvious even to me. Even though--and I am sick of this but I'll put it in here--the first sentence of the first chapter of Rick Warren's
Purpose Drivel Church book is "It's not about you," it IS becoming more and more about man. It's all about making man happy because thats were the money comes from, right? And MONEY is MINISTRY right? Of course not.
I'm reminded of a huge old red oak I once saw in a friend of mine's yard. It was a huge old thing--probably six feet in diameter at the base. But when you walked around the other side it was hollow and burned out. Looking closer you could only see a few branch tips budding out--the rest of the branches were dead. It was alive but just barely. And all around there were others sprouting.... My hope is that somehow, even if the damage can't be undone in the church, that at least the new ones can be saved and grow into the strength that is their heritage.
Of course we shouldn't be surprised that the church is full of heresy but I think that we should do our best to stand against it. I'm not sure how, but thats what I believe.
