By John Lomperis, The Christian Post
Much more than a single article could be written detailing all the ways in which American evangelical Protestantism looks very different from the early church. Certainly not all of the developments in our external circumstances or internal practices have been for the worse.
But one key way in which American evangelicals have not been closely hewing to the faithful biblical example of our spiritual forefathers and foremothers is in the basic attitude and response we often have towards what to do about blatant unfaithfulness within the church itself.
People often romantically long for the purity of “the New Testament church.” But in the New Testament I read, I see a church with some really serious problems.
In the Revelation to John, we see Jesus Christ not giving up on but still loving certain churches, calling them to Scriptural holiness, even when the Ephesian church had forsaken its first love, the church in Smyrna included people devoted to false teaching and sexual immorality, the church in Thyatira tolerated Satanic teaching and a woman leading others into sexual immorality, the church in Sardis was spiritually dead, and the church in Laodicea had not yet repented of being so infamously lukewarm.
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His point seems to be that to be a “New Testament” Christian, you shouldn’t leave an apostate church but continue in the witness at that church. If that’s the point, it is nonsense. However, the point about discipline and stopping false teaching in its tracks is a good one. When a congregation leaves, they are not surrendering everything to “them”, that is the false teachers, as he ways in the second to last paragraph in the article. Discipline has been attempted in the past, and has failed. In the 80’s, a presbytery ordained and isntalled a pastor who didn’t believe in the bodily resurrection, and even with a new hearing, the pastor was eventualy allowed to serve. Maybe discipline should have been applied better in the 1920’s, or 1890’s when the drift may have begun. That is a fair point, but doesn’t help the PCUSA conservatives now. It does, perhaps, help the EPC, PCA, ECO, OPC, ARP, etc. people to remain vigilent about false teaching within their congregations and denominations.
Liberals like to think that because of a name or concept they have captured it all. You can call yourself Christian but if you disregard the essentials of what scripture teaches you may claim a name but it is an empty name. Liberals can capture an institution but like a vampire, when you suck the blood out, you only have a corpse even if you say it still lives and deserves Christian loyality.
When a church has a division between Elders on . .
1. Jesus Christ as the only Savior & Lord, versus,
2. “there are many ways . . . it’s just the words of men” . . .
It is not nonsense, but vital that some members “contend for the faith” in discussions, Emails, Twitter, Bible studies, Sunday schools, etc. Many members are silently enduring & being hurt by the assault on their literal faith in Jesus Christ, and there is a crying need for those who will stand firm on the Word, and encourage those who are being undermined. . . .
There is also the impact on the younger members, teenagers and children. There is a real battleground here to uphold the Canon in your church, even if many of the Elders do not.
It’s highly educated folks like John Lomperis, in religious studies, who have an unnerving concern for others sexuality. Surely during his years of education he took one, or more, courses on human sexuality, psychology, sociology and same gender studies. Surely, he must have one, or more, relatives or friends who are LGBT. Surely, he can have an epiphany and find himself less concerned about what good and happy United Methodists, who happen to be LGBT, do in their private lives. Please get over it and be our friend, not our enemy.