I am an evangelical. So let me for the moment confine my remarks to fellow evangelicals. If you are a non-evangelical, but want to read on, hopefully you will benefit from this as well. I wish here to simply offer an indictment on the evangelical church.
Let me first say that there are many fine evangelical Christians doing many fine things for Christ and his kingdom. There are many unsung heroes in the Body of Christ who are faithfully serving Christ and working their tails off for the Kingdom of God.
They will get their reward and I applaud them. But can I tell you a sober truth: they are in the minority. They are amongst the few and far between. They do not represent the majority of evangelical Christians today. They are, sadly, the exception to the rule.
And in one sense this should not surprise us. As both Scripture and church history testify, it is always a remnant that God uses. The majority seldom seems keen to obey and serve God. So it is almost always a small handful that actually takes the Lordship of Christ seriously and gets the job done.
Jesus spent a lot of time challenging the religious community of his day. He even spent large hunks of time pronouncing woes on the religious leaders of his day. Whole chapters of the gospels are devoted to this. See for example Matthew 23 and Luke 11.
If Jesus came to our comfortable, pampered, lazy, mollycoddled, apathetic, worldly, selfish, compromised and lukewarm evangelical churches today, he would have plenty of woes to deliver. He would be astonished at how we have wasted two thousand years of our Christian heritage.
He would be amazed at how far we are removed from New Testament Christianity. He would be amazed at how dead and cold and hard our hearts have become. He would be amazed at how much we have compromised the gospel, watered down the truth, and made our bed with the world.
Indeed, one is reminded of Luke 18:8: “However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” One could so easily hear him saying something like this today:
-Woe to you evangelicals, for you are awash in material abundance while people throughout the world are starving and lacking in basic necessities.
-Woe to you evangelicals, for I have given you so much (Bibles, teaching, seminars, conferences, books, etc) yet you are so spiritually impoverished.
-Woe to you evangelicals, for all around you the world is in degradation, corruption and desperation, yet you refuse to speak out or get involved.
-Woe to you evangelicals, for I have entrusted you with the sacred gospel to proclaim, yet you keep it to yourselves.
-Woe to you evangelicals, for millions of my most precious ones – the unborn – are slaughtered every year yet you will do nothing to rescue them from the slaughter.
-Woe to you evangelicals, for you pride yourselves in your biblical knowledge, yet you won’t even apply it to your own lives.
-Woe to you evangelicals, for you have rejected my prophets, spurned my watchmen, and chastised my servants who warn of danger to come.
-Woe to you evangelicals, for you are paralysed by the fear of man, political correctness, and not wanting to offend anyone.
-Woe to you evangelicals, for you have become steeped in apathy, indifference and lack of concern.
Just consider that last woe for example. This may be the most apathetic generation of evangelical Christians on record. Nothing seems to move us, nothing seems to stir us up, nothing seems to motivate us. Let me offer just one example of this.
Years ago I wrote about the sex pervert Kinsey, and his horrific sexual experiments on children. This in part is what I said:
“In Table 34 of his Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948), Kinsey sought to show that the youngest of children could be sexually active. He said that even ‘the youngest males, as young as 5 months in age, are capable of such repeated reactions [orgasms]’ In the table, four-year-old boys, for example, were sexually stimulated for 24 uninterrupted hours. A five month baby is said to have produced 3 orgasms in an unspecified amount of time.
“An eleven month baby is reported to have had 14 orgasms in 38 minutes. The book also examines some of the reactions to such ‘experimentation.’ These ranged from ‘extreme tension with violent convulsion … gasping, eyes staring … mouth distorted, sometimes with tongue protruding … whole body or parts of it spasmodically twitching … groaning, sobbing, or more violent cries … more or less frenzied movements … extreme trembling, collapse, loss of color, and sometimes fainting … of subject.’ These reactions, recorded with cold, clinical precision, are nothing less than descriptions of criminal child abuse.
“Remarkably, however, the study of the reactions concludes by noting that the subject ‘will fight away from the partner and may make violent attempts to avoid climax, although they derive definite pleasure from the situation.’ Does that sound like pleasure? It sounds like child sexual assault of the worst kind. And as one paediatrician noted, ‘these children had to be held down or subject to strapping down, otherwise they would not respond willingly.’ Thus it is amazing that Hollywood should come out with this hagiography on Kinsey.”
This alone should shock and motivate any person – whether or not Christian – to action. Yet this was first documented by people like Judith Reisman in her important 1990 book, Kinsey, Sex and Fraud. Why was there no outcry about these revelations? Where were the Christians who should have been speaking out about this?
Why do we not seem to give a rip about anything except our own personal comfort, ease and wellbeing? Just what will it take to shock us out of our apathy and carelessness? Sure, some brave souls, like Reisman, Michael L. Brown, Jack Sonnemann, and a few others, have been warning us for years about these very things.
But where is the evangelical church? As I have documented in my last two articles – and in my new book – paedophilia is on the rise all over the Western world. Just as homosexual activists managed to convince us that their “sexual orientation” is legitimate and should be publically promoted and endorsed, now the paedophiles are calling for the very same thing.
Where is the outrage over all this? Why don’t evangelicals give a rip about any of this? Do we not care one bit about our own children? Are we so spiritually dead and morally numb that we cannot rouse ourselves to action here? When will the evangelical church become de-iced and thawed out?
If Jesus were here today he would likely say to the evangelical church: Woe to you, for you care nothing about the things I care about. Your heart is not broken over what my heart is broken about. Because you are lukewarm, you do not deserve to bear my name. I will cast you out of my presence.
Of course the Churches remain silent – so many of them are receiving funds from the Government for their ‘Social Justice’ programs that they just are unable to say when things are wrong in case they lose that money. Some of the Churches have succumbed to the ‘Green’ philosophy and appear to be more concerned about their ‘carbon footprint’ than about spreading the truth of the Gospel to the people around them. Still others have fallen prey to the homosexual agenda and are unable to say too much about sin as they are too busy sinning themselves.
Thankfully, there are still the remnants (of which you are one), and they will indeed work faithfully to establish the Kingdom of Christ.
Keep up the good work!
Joan Davidson
Bill
I must say I was surprised to read your revelations about the majority of Evangelical Christians. Apparently I was under a misapprehension that they were not trendy. I have come in contact with only a few of them in my time. Unfortunately many Christians are fooled with the false argument that they are behind the times if they don’t take on board all the latest tripe that some know-nothing likes to peddle. When you consider the problems in the world today, even in the so-called “free” world, what intelligent being would go out of their way to be part of that mess.
Frank Bellet, Petrie Qld
Where are the ‘evangelicals’ truly walking with Jesus and obeying His commandments? Many ‘evangelicals’ though approved by their denomination, they are not scriptural in their daily living and teaching.
Church leadership has allowed satan to ravage their flocks because they refuse to teach Bible truth. Whether because of fear, compassion or ignorance the results will be horrendous for all concerned.
Bill, stand strong and firm to Bible truth and continue to speak Bible truth.
Judith Bond
Bill, the one time I heard you preach, you played a song by Keith Green during the sermon. It was called – Asleep in the Light. I didn’t know much about Keith Green then, except I had heard his songs and I knew that his life was cut short quite early. However, I recently came across a book his wife, Melody co-authored. It’s called No Compromise – The Life Story of Keith Green. I’m half way through at the moment. It’s enjoyable and easy to read, but it carries an extremely challenging message to the church. I highly recommend it to any Christian. Keith seemed to have grasped so much, so early in his walk with God – A message to us all.
Annette Nestor
Thanks Annette
Yes just after posting my article it occurred to me that I should post the video clip. Thanks for the reminder. Here it is:
Please, everyone should watch this and let God break your hearts.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Great expose, Bill. The Kinsey stuff is utterly horrific. I wonder who knew those ‘experiments’ were going on at the time. I would guess that it’s not just the evangelicals who are lukewarm but the majority of the Christian church, sadly. I would say that most people don’t want to know because they don’t want to have to make the effort to do something and they’re vaguely unsure what they could do if they did. What we can do, apart from what you’re doing, is to pray and join lobbying groups to add to the numbers. I’m sure there are other things too if we are open to the Lord’s leading. Will this state where only a tiny ‘remnant’ are obedient to the Lord’s will change? I would say that according to status quo, no. But with God, you never know what could come around the corner and I’m believing that we have yet to see an earth shattering move of God that will awaken the church (as in Joel).
Dee Graf
Hi Bill,
As a mum of four children under five, I’m quite often smirked at even by my christian family for having ‘so many’ children. Yet, I see it as my contribution to the war that’s raging on for the souls of all children.
It’s difficult to read your article and feel like I’m really doing something, but it takes all my energy to raise (what I’m praying hard will be) four well-balanced, selfless christians.
In this decaying society, our children will (tragically) be streets ahead of other children simply because they know Jesus loves them and that my husband and I love them and each other deeply.
As an ex-primary school teacher, it’s heartbreaking to know that the few tragic childhoods I’ve seen are just the tip of the iceberg.
Until starting to read your blog a month or two ago (and Andrew Bolt’s), I’ve felt unable to speak up and quite discouraged mostly due to a lack of good preaching from the pulpit and the ridiculous MSM……but thanks to your refreshing articles, I’m encouraged and not feeling so alone in my opinions about the hot topics – same-sex marriage, climate change, the increasing sexualisation of childhood, etc.
So, even in my busyness of mothering, I’m completely inspired to use what I have (my evenings spent bouncing my baby to sleep with my trusty laptop beside me) to speak up on my facebook page, my blog, use my time to email my MP’s and educate myself about the truth behind what we’re expected to swallow from the Left.
Thanks so much for the inspiration and the truth you speak.
Julie Lawson
Thanks Julie
You are already doing the most important job you can: raising godly children and preparing the next generation. So it is not folks like you that need to be challenged, but many others who are doing next to nothing for Christ and the Kingdom.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
tell me Bill why is it that the Church that many evangelicals in years past criticised – THE Catholic Church – making a great deal of protest against the current moral and cultural morass, along with the minority of evangelicals such as yourself?
Wayne Pelling
Hi Bill,
I must say I was unaware of the agenda of paedophiles until I read your articles, and googled some information on Kinsey. I doesn’t seem to be in the public eye yet. What do you suggest we do to stop it’s progress in Australia?
Lily Ratcliff
Wayne,
It would be great if it were true. But I’m a Catholic and our parish priest has recently been arrested on child-exploitation charges. The church itself is embroiled in pedophilia worldwide. We can hardly point the finger of judgment elsewhere when we have such evil in our midst.
Murray O’Brien, Brisbane
Thanks Wayne and Murray
I have of course chosen to concentrate on my own Christian tradition, but I would argue that every other one also can be described in the way I did in my article. I don’t know of any Western church or group or denomination that can hold its head up high and claim that it has it all together. I think we are all a pretty miserable lot, spiritually speaking, and we all need to take the first steps to getting right with God. Repentance is the first order of the day for all of us.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
If you look at Operation World for Australia or the UK we see the non-Christian proportion of the population has been growing over the last 50 years. In Australia it is around 25% and in the UK it is around 40%. We are in this position because a large part of the population does not accept biblical values. The church has lost credibility because it mostly doesn’t believe its own book.
In my mind the Evangelical church has lost the intellectual battle in the west (actually there was no battle–they just gave in) because the church has departed from the Word and accepted the secular creation myth–evolution. I think this is one of the biggest issues because the secularists use science as a club to discredit Christianity.
And the saddest thing is that the mainstream evangelical academics are mostly siding with the atheists in their acceptance of the godless theory of evolution. See God Science. It’s mental schizophrenia where they think they can believe what the atheists say about the Bible and still remain good Christians. Where is the evangelical theologian in Australia who will say, “The Bible says it. That settles it. God made this world by His power in six-days some 6,000 years ago”?
Tas Walker
great article Bill.
when will the true christians stand up and reach the lost.
i meet so many christians on the street that cant even find much time to read their bible, let alone shine their light for the lost. Pastors need to rise up and teach their flock to walk in the fullness of God – freely as you’ve received freely give.
i am thankful to be a part of a ministry that strives to live the whole bible uncompromised, knowing that the heart of God is to see the lost come home.
Michelle Mahon
I applaud you Bill. We are active as a family because of you. Our western church has many politically correct mice in the house. Not many lions. Pulpit people wanting to play it safe are saltless. Personal testimonies like Julie’s above are encouraging. Those who want reality are reading blogs such as yours and working hard behind the scenes with whatever resources they can muster. Being aware and dedicated Christian parents in that precious season of life is a massive part of fighting to keep this nation free. Good job Julie and her husband!
Jamie Bowman
Bill, one of the reasons why the evangelical church falls into silence is that they no longer believe in an offensive (in both senses of the word) Gospel. Desiring to save the world, they refuse to create a stink in the marketplace, and peddle only a very truncated Gospel which is all love and forgiveness and most certainly non-judgmental of sin. At the same time they sit back in their passive pietistic pews and await the LORD’s return to clean up this mess. Sorry, He won’t until we do clean up the mess and fulfill our original dominion mandate. We do this in the full power of His Word and Spirit.
Steve Swartz
Thanks Bill for once again saying it as it is.
I find myself in a strange dilemma presently and have decided that it is actually causing me spiritual ‘harm’ to continue going to my church. My minister refuses to ever say anything that will offend anyone. He refuses to ever bring up issues like homosexuality, abortion, same sex adoption or any current issue whatsoever. Yet, week in week out we hear sermon after sermon about living wholeheartedly for God, not being like the unfaithful Israelites, honouring God in our lives yet somehow we never hear any application or connection made to the ‘real world’ and the myriad of evil goings on and ways we can do something.
After failing to convince one single person from my church (of over 120 members) to join me to come to Canberra for the National Marriage Day – and after many other attempts to rally Christians to take some action for a number of other things- for my own sanity, encouragement and spiritual wellbeing, I no longer think my church is a good place for me.
Unfortunately – I don’t know where else to go?
Annette Williams
Good article Bill.
Unfortunately most instances of child abuse occur within families, e.g. fathers molesting daughters, and we know that there is a tendency for the wife to cover them up for fear of retribution from the husband. That’s why many such instances only come to light when the child reaches adulthood.
I wonder sometimes whether evangelicals are ill-advised to promote male headship in the family because it makes wives submissive, too meek, too fearful, and too dependent on their husbands to report abuse.
I am at a bit of a loss for ideas on what we can actually do about evils in the world apart from set a good example for our own children. Everyone here speaks about problems in the churches and exhorts others to do something, but where are the practical ideas?
Daniel Runcorn, Qld
Thanks Daniel
But you are actually very wrong on the issue of child abuse. The social science data is overwhelmingly clear: the safest place a child can be is with his or her biological parents. It is the non-biological father (live-ins, boyfriends, step dads, etc) that account for most of the abuse. For documentation on all this, see my article here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2009/07/21/child-abuse-and-family-structure/
But you are right that we need to be setting a good example in our own homes. That is vital. But there is far more that we can do. If there are active political and social moves underway in these areas, then we need to fight them in the political and social arenas. We have been far too uninvolved in these areas, and we are now paying the price for it.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Thanks guys
Many of you rightly are crying out in despair, ‘But what can I do?’ Simply having that attitude is a great start. My first answer to all this is that we need to get on our faces before God and repent, and cry out for his mercy. Whenever we encounter God or get his heartbeat, the first response is being aware of our own sinfulness. When Isaiah saw the Lord he could only say, “Woe is me, I am a man of unclean lips and we are a people of unclean lips” (Is. 6:5). That is always the response we find in Scripture. So a place of brokenness, humility and repentance is always our first duty. That is the only true beginning point to turn things around.
But there are many practical things we can do as well. Indeed, the sky is the limit. There is no shortage of practical steps we can take. See here for example for lots of tips on practical action: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2009/02/02/what-can-we-do/
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Bill, I have to say I think you’ve over-stated your case, as well as made an illogical connection to the success of the Homosexual agenda.
Most people– whether “Christian” or not or, whether Evangelicals or not– don’t know the first thing about Kinsey. To lay at the feet of “Evangelicals” the responsibility for Kinsey and his ilk being able to advance their agenda, is profoundly unfair. Many Evangelicals are on the front lines of the cultural battle every day, whether dealing with the Homosexual agenda or other issues– so much so that we’re reviled and dismissed by Secularists simply for _being_ Evangelicals. They spare no effort in trying to silence us.
Our responsibility though is to fight the battle– not to win it. You cannot condemn Evangelicals for the fact that the Homosexual lobby appears to be winning.
Not only that, but I’m sure you know that there are some wonderful Evangelical churches that teach and practice the truth and encourage their members to truly live for Jesus. However, it is true that, in all kinds of churches, many people are not mature enough yet to examine their own lives and fully bring them under the Lordship of Jesus.
Rather than condemning the true church as if Jesus were speaking to the FALSE religionists of his day, the Pharisees and Sadducees, a much more fitting rebuke would be Jesus’ message to the twelve churches in Revelation chapters 2 and 3. He knows them and loves them, even though he has “a few things against” them.
Unfortunately, many in the Evangelical church are shaped much more by their culture than by their savior. But our response should be to challenge them to “return to their first love”, rather than condemning them.
Ronin Akechi
Thanks Ronin
Thanks for your thoughts. But can I respectfully say that when I wrote this piece, I suspected that there would be two general sorts of responses. Some believers would be of kindred spirit and say yes, we are so far from where we should be, and yes we need to repent and get back to first things. Yes, we have been unfaithful servants – we have only done that which is our duty. Their hearts would be soft and tender, open to becoming more like Christ. That is the place we all should be at before God. That was my desired outcome for this piece.
But other believers would sadly basically reject the spirit in which this was offered, and seek to argue that things are not so bad or we are not so bad. Instead of trying to get the spirit of what is being said here, they will instead seek to argue and debate. They will unfortunately miss the very point and spirit of what I was on about here.
I am with you: I certainly do hope I have overstated the case. But when I read the 7 letters of Jesus for example I see much stronger warnings and rebukes and calls for repentance. You seem to not only miss the spirit in which I presented this, but you unfortunately make a number of incorrect remarks. I of course did begin by saying that many evangelicals are doing a great job. Nowhere did I deny that much good is happening in the evangelical world.
And I of course nowhere in this article said that the rise of the militant homosexual lobby is directly and solely the fault of lazy evangelicals. I did say that we are far too apathetic, indifferent and unaware of what is going on around us. That is simply an empirical observation which can hardly be denied. Being totally unaware of who Kinsey is, is just one small example of this.
I recently posted elsewhere a comment (and I was also attacked for this, as people again missed the spirit in which I gave the comment), which says the same thing you are saying. I quoted Mother Teresa who said “We are not called to succeed, we are only called to try”. Anyone who reads my articles knows that this is the view I hold. We do all we can and leave the results up to God. The question is, are we doing all we can for Christ and his Kingdom?
And I have always said that there is a combination of factors contributing to our current malaise: activist minority groups pushing their agendas, as well as a lazy, apathetic and worldly church. I have never said it is just one or the other, but both. Both need to be challenged. But as Peter reminds us, “Judgment must begin with the household of God” (1 Peter 4:17). Thus this article.
And of course it should be clear that what I was doing in this article was calling all of us back to our first love. The only sensible response from anyone of us is not to live in denial, or to try to justify our poor condition, or seek to get into yet more arguments, but to get on our faces before God and repent. That is my heart here, and that was my purpose in this article.
If you consider that to be condemnation, then I am sorry you took it that way. When I read the prophets I don’t see ‘condemnation’ but a call to repentance and getting back to our first love. That is what my desire is. I hope all Christians will join with me in this. This is the most pressing need of the hour, and that was all I was trying to do in this article.
If you took offense here when none was intended, then I apologise. But thanks for sharing your concerns. And please pray for me that I get it right. There is nothing worse than misrepresenting our Lord. I don’t ever want to do that.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
What is wrong with us? We need to lift our act!!
I suggest reading Sinners in the hands of an angry God by Jonathan Edwards. We need more preaching on hell.
Jeremy Woods
My take on this is that, as the saying goes, “God has no grandchildren” – but the churches I have been in are full of large families of three or four generations. With all due respect to the younger ones, I think it is often the case that they know all about Jesus but don’t KNOW Him. They have never entered into a personal relationship with Him. Large parts of the church are spiritually dead and need to acknowledge their spiritual poverty and need of a Saviour before they can be powerfully effective for the Lord. For this I am praying.
Debbie Ryan
People can debate how far either way you have gone in your observations Bill but that aside, what you have written is basically correct! We need to do what the Bible exhorts – watch our lives and doctrine closely and examine ourselves to see that we are in the faith and if we make it a serious mission in our lives to do these things then we will be on the way to attaining what your article points out. We all have many distractions but we have to make God’s word a priority in our lives, I try to read a chapter a day and admittedly, there are some days I get bone lazy and either switch off the light or read something else. I think Debbie Ryan has a point in relation to the younger ones, we have a Saturday night service and usually there is at least 200 young people, I sometimes wonder how many of them as Debbie points out, actually know Jesus as opposed to knowing about Him. I only pray and hope that I KNOW him more than I know about Him.
Steve Davis
Murray that is very true, and I know that the current Pope has done more to combat this issue than his predecessor. But it is not only the catholic church.
I also know that recently some, Mennonites in South America, have been found guilty of rape against women and children.
As the Bible says “judgement begins in the House of the Lord”, and this included repentance.
Wayne Pelling
Bill,
What an excellent expose! There are some practical issues that prevent a pro-active evangelical church, as I see it:
1. There is still a barrier between proclaiming the Gospel and becoming socially or politically involved among church leadership. The latter is not seen as core theology with being salt and salt Christians.
2. There is too much in-house infatuation with contemporary worship and rock ‘n roll Christianity (you know my era). Internal focus prevents external involvement. My wife and I have recently located to the northern suburbs of Brisbane and finding an evangelical church with biblical content in worship songs has been an impossibility, except for two (Petrie Presbyterian & Anglican), but the focus is often internal.
3. When it comes to Christian involvement in presentations and writing, most people in our churches are not as gifted as you are in these areas. But the added problem is that equipping the saints for the work of ministry as a cultural apologist (that seems to be your role) is not high on the evangelical church’s agenda. I know of some of the hostile flack I get when I write letters to the local newspaper. Most people in the evangelical pews do not know how to respond to such. I really think it’s an equipping issue that is married to church leadership that does not see the cultural crisis as you and I do.
Spencer Gear, North Lakes Qld
Hi Bill,
Thanks for another timely, inspiring article. I’m greatly comforted by the comments of the other mothers on here who despair of being able to do enough for God as the task of raising children in this culture is so all consuming. I find with each child that, our relationship with God deepens. I think that this is simply his reward for being open to his gift of life, as our culture is so opposed to this gift. Also God takes our tiny, weak, pathetic efforts, as long as we offer them to him, and makes miracles with them. I heard someone say recently that Christ longs for us to be truly good, but knowing the weakness of our nature doesn’t expect us to be, he simply delights in our continuous efforts to keep getting up.
Catherine Dodd
The modern evangelical Church has its roots in the fundamentalist-modernist controversies of the 1910s and 1920s. The major issues then, upon which evangelicals took a stand, were:
– the inspiration and infallibility of Scripture
– the virgin birth and deity of Christ
– the authenticity of the gospel miracles
– the atoning death of Jesus
– the literal resurrection
(J I Packer, Fundamentalism and the word of God, 28)
The battle today is largely the same, and the only way to recover the health of the evangelical church is to return to core doctrine. True evangelical men of faith are needed to assert key doctrinal truths that are under fire from liberals, as well as modernisers and “progressives” within evangelical ranks.
These key truths are:
1. the inerrancy of Scripture and its authority over every area of life, including moral behaviour
2. the deity of Christ and his exclusive Lordship over all world religions
3. penal substitutionary atonement (contra the other, watered down theories being promoted by progressive evangelicals) and the literal resurrection
4. salvation only through conscious faith in Jesus Christ (contra inclusivist theories promoted by evangelical progressives)
5. salvation and justification as spiritual & personal realities first and foremost (contra the socio-political definitions promoted by evangelical progressives)
6. the reality of unending punishment in hell (contra annihilationist and universalist ideas becoming increasingly popular)
7. the priority of evangelism over social action (while not neglecting the latter)
8. God’s approval of sex only within marriage between a man and woman
Evangelicalism survived the modernist controversy a century ago only because, in God’s providence, men of faith took an uncompromising stand on the fundamentals that were contested in their day. It is safe to predict that today we are likewise doomed if we do not take a strong, united and vocal stand on these core doctrines.
Jereth Kok
Hi Jereth,
The evangelical movement certainly did a lot of good in refuting the particular heresies you list. But I’m with Tas Walker in thinking that its great weakness was its failure to take a stand against atheists masqerading as scientists and affirm what the Bible says: “God made this world by His power in six-days some 6,000 years ago”.
I think this mental schizophrenia (as Tas puts it) of publically affirming the inerrancy of Scripture while denying the historicity of Genesis is a major cause of the movement imbibing worldliness and losing its potency.
If the Evangelical church is to be revitalised, its leaders will have to swallow their pride and admit they are wrong in effectively saying that the Bible’s teaching on origins aren’t important.
Mansel Rogerson
To Catherine Dodd, thank you for sharing that last sentence in your post, it is very encouraging!
Steve Davis
As you say Bill, repentance is necessary before any effective change can begin to bring renewed faithfulness. Without an understanding of the nature and reality of sin there will be no repentance so please keep up your good work! And hey, let’s have no interdenominational finger pointing out there! Let’s just acknowledge that “All have sinned and fallen short etc.” and get on with the task at hand.
Anna Cook
What does the church promote?
A non-confronting comforting ritual.
A women’s club.
The answer?
A mission focused challenging church.
Discipleship.
Daniel Kempton
As in all things, godly balance is important. We will not be effective in the kingdom if we are working outside of the work that God has prepared for us to do. This is very difficult in our modern age where we can know what is happening around the world within the hour. Much discernment is needed to work out what we are supposed to do, for many causes are clamoring for our attention and the risk is that we try to do too many things and they end up not getting done well as a result. “Unauthorised works” might be the term here. It is not the wheat’s fault how many tares are in the field, though we are our brother’s keeper, we can not make his decision for him.
As for creation, I agree with Tas, it is vitally important that creation is preached as part of redemption, for unless God has created us, what “right” does he have for our allegiance? It would be so easy to say for people shopping around in the market place of ideas and religion as they are able to do these days because of multi faith, multi culture, multi everything etc. “How nice of Jesus to die for the sins of some, but thanks I’ll find my salvation another way”. It is only when it is made absolutely clear that the God of the Bible, the Living God is the only God who made everything that there is that people might understand a need for them to come to God His way, not their way. It is interesting to note that when the angel proclaims the gospel in Rev. 12 I think it is that redemption is not mentioned but the call is made the give God the creator the worship due to Him and that He will return as judge.
Many blessings
Ursula Bennett
Well, here’s something everyone can do. Start praying peacefully outside your local abortion clinic and offer women practical help. Oh…you meant you wanted to do something else didn’t you? Something where you wouldn’t be spat at, sworn at, hated in your community…like Jesus. Well, I’m sure you can find something else to do. Give money, pray at home or at church. That’s safe.
Anna von Marburg
Bill, thanks for the revelations about Kinsey – I had not heard about these vile sex experiments on infants, in all those decades since the Fifties, and it seems these atrocities were nodded through under the auspices of the Rockefeller Foundation Research and Medical Council, and enthusiastically embraced by the film industry with hardly a peep of dissent.
He paid criminal underworld types to carry out his experiments on children they had access to and then tick boxes in a pseudo scientific table to measure the results, in a manner worthy of any Nazi war criminal such as Mengele. Anyone who forces multiple orgasms on a baby and then ticks a box is no longer human, and is diminished to sack of excrement status. If he wanted orgasms he could have as many as he liked all by himself without the need to slake his perverted curiosity on anyone else.
As you say, it is against the law to have sex with a minor and a minor means someone under age 16. In prisons paedophiles are hated as pariahs and there are always prisoners who wouldn’t hesitate to take one out, especially if they have nothing to lose and it might be the best thing they ever did. Paedophiles who violate the innocent new born shall find no quarter within the human race.
Rachel Smith, UK
Paedophiles need to be conditioned to understand that the forceful invasion of a minor’s private space constitutes the criminal offence of Statutory rape. No one owns another person,or has the right to interfere with another person. The paedophile’s use of babies, small children or anyone under 16 years of age as a commodity to satisfy their sadistic desires is a form of sex slavery and a gross violation of the minor’s human rights.
Rachel Smith, UK
Of course the Churches remain silent – so many of them are receiving funds from the Government for their ‘Social Justice’ programs that they just are unable to say when things are wrong in case they lose that money. Some of the Churches have succumbed to the ‘Green’ philosophy and appear to be more concerned about their ‘carbon footprint’ than about spreading the truth of the Gospel to the people around them. Still others have fallen prey to the homosexual agenda and are unable to say too much about sin as they are too busy sinning themselves.
Thankfully, there are still the remnants (of which you are one), and they will indeed work faithfully to establish the Kingdom of Christ.
Keep up the good work!
Joan Davidson
Bill
I must say I was surprised to read your revelations about the majority of Evangelical Christians. Apparently I was under a misapprehension that they were not trendy. I have come in contact with only a few of them in my time. Unfortunately many Christians are fooled with the false argument that they are behind the times if they don’t take on board all the latest tripe that some know-nothing likes to peddle. When you consider the problems in the world today, even in the so-called “free” world, what intelligent being would go out of their way to be part of that mess.
Frank Bellet, Petrie Qld
Where are the ‘evangelicals’ truly walking with Jesus and obeying His commandments? Many ‘evangelicals’ though approved by their denomination, they are not scriptural in their daily living and teaching.
Church leadership has allowed satan to ravage their flocks because they refuse to teach Bible truth. Whether because of fear, compassion or ignorance the results will be horrendous for all concerned.
Bill, stand strong and firm to Bible truth and continue to speak Bible truth.
Judith Bond
Bill, the one time I heard you preach, you played a song by Keith Green during the sermon. It was called – Asleep in the Light. I didn’t know much about Keith Green then, except I had heard his songs and I knew that his life was cut short quite early. However, I recently came across a book his wife, Melody co-authored. It’s called No Compromise – The Life Story of Keith Green. I’m half way through at the moment. It’s enjoyable and easy to read, but it carries an extremely challenging message to the church. I highly recommend it to any Christian. Keith seemed to have grasped so much, so early in his walk with God – A message to us all.
Annette Nestor
Thanks Annette
Yes just after posting my article it occurred to me that I should post the video clip. Thanks for the reminder. Here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik-XOVZcwow
Please, everyone should watch this and let God break your hearts.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Great expose, Bill. The Kinsey stuff is utterly horrific. I wonder who knew those ‘experiments’ were going on at the time. I would guess that it’s not just the evangelicals who are lukewarm but the majority of the Christian church, sadly. I would say that most people don’t want to know because they don’t want to have to make the effort to do something and they’re vaguely unsure what they could do if they did. What we can do, apart from what you’re doing, is to pray and join lobbying groups to add to the numbers. I’m sure there are other things too if we are open to the Lord’s leading. Will this state where only a tiny ‘remnant’ are obedient to the Lord’s will change? I would say that according to status quo, no. But with God, you never know what could come around the corner and I’m believing that we have yet to see an earth shattering move of God that will awaken the church (as in Joel).
Dee Graf
Hi Bill,
As a mum of four children under five, I’m quite often smirked at even by my christian family for having ‘so many’ children. Yet, I see it as my contribution to the war that’s raging on for the souls of all children.
It’s difficult to read your article and feel like I’m really doing something, but it takes all my energy to raise (what I’m praying hard will be) four well-balanced, selfless christians.
In this decaying society, our children will (tragically) be streets ahead of other children simply because they know Jesus loves them and that my husband and I love them and each other deeply.
As an ex-primary school teacher, it’s heartbreaking to know that the few tragic childhoods I’ve seen are just the tip of the iceberg.
Until starting to read your blog a month or two ago (and Andrew Bolt’s), I’ve felt unable to speak up and quite discouraged mostly due to a lack of good preaching from the pulpit and the ridiculous MSM……but thanks to your refreshing articles, I’m encouraged and not feeling so alone in my opinions about the hot topics – same-sex marriage, climate change, the increasing sexualisation of childhood, etc.
So, even in my busyness of mothering, I’m completely inspired to use what I have (my evenings spent bouncing my baby to sleep with my trusty laptop beside me) to speak up on my facebook page, my blog, use my time to email my MP’s and educate myself about the truth behind what we’re expected to swallow from the Left.
Thanks so much for the inspiration and the truth you speak.
Julie Lawson
Thanks Julie
You are already doing the most important job you can: raising godly children and preparing the next generation. So it is not folks like you that need to be challenged, but many others who are doing next to nothing for Christ and the Kingdom.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
tell me Bill why is it that the Church that many evangelicals in years past criticised – THE Catholic Church – making a great deal of protest against the current moral and cultural morass, along with the minority of evangelicals such as yourself?
Wayne Pelling
Hi Bill,
I must say I was unaware of the agenda of paedophiles until I read your articles, and googled some information on Kinsey. I doesn’t seem to be in the public eye yet. What do you suggest we do to stop it’s progress in Australia?
Lily Ratcliff
Wayne,
It would be great if it were true. But I’m a Catholic and our parish priest has recently been arrested on child-exploitation charges. The church itself is embroiled in pedophilia worldwide. We can hardly point the finger of judgment elsewhere when we have such evil in our midst.
Murray O’Brien, Brisbane
Thanks Wayne and Murray
I have of course chosen to concentrate on my own Christian tradition, but I would argue that every other one also can be described in the way I did in my article. I don’t know of any Western church or group or denomination that can hold its head up high and claim that it has it all together. I think we are all a pretty miserable lot, spiritually speaking, and we all need to take the first steps to getting right with God. Repentance is the first order of the day for all of us.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
If you look at Operation World for Australia or the UK we see the non-Christian proportion of the population has been growing over the last 50 years. In Australia it is around 25% and in the UK it is around 40%. We are in this position because a large part of the population does not accept biblical values. The church has lost credibility because it mostly doesn’t believe its own book.
In my mind the Evangelical church has lost the intellectual battle in the west (actually there was no battle–they just gave in) because the church has departed from the Word and accepted the secular creation myth–evolution. I think this is one of the biggest issues because the secularists use science as a club to discredit Christianity.
And the saddest thing is that the mainstream evangelical academics are mostly siding with the atheists in their acceptance of the godless theory of evolution. See God Science. It’s mental schizophrenia where they think they can believe what the atheists say about the Bible and still remain good Christians. Where is the evangelical theologian in Australia who will say, “The Bible says it. That settles it. God made this world by His power in six-days some 6,000 years ago”?
Tas Walker
great article Bill.
when will the true christians stand up and reach the lost.
i meet so many christians on the street that cant even find much time to read their bible, let alone shine their light for the lost. Pastors need to rise up and teach their flock to walk in the fullness of God – freely as you’ve received freely give.
i am thankful to be a part of a ministry that strives to live the whole bible uncompromised, knowing that the heart of God is to see the lost come home.
Michelle Mahon
I applaud you Bill. We are active as a family because of you. Our western church has many politically correct mice in the house. Not many lions. Pulpit people wanting to play it safe are saltless. Personal testimonies like Julie’s above are encouraging. Those who want reality are reading blogs such as yours and working hard behind the scenes with whatever resources they can muster. Being aware and dedicated Christian parents in that precious season of life is a massive part of fighting to keep this nation free. Good job Julie and her husband!
Jamie Bowman
Bill, one of the reasons why the evangelical church falls into silence is that they no longer believe in an offensive (in both senses of the word) Gospel. Desiring to save the world, they refuse to create a stink in the marketplace, and peddle only a very truncated Gospel which is all love and forgiveness and most certainly non-judgmental of sin. At the same time they sit back in their passive pietistic pews and await the LORD’s return to clean up this mess. Sorry, He won’t until we do clean up the mess and fulfill our original dominion mandate. We do this in the full power of His Word and Spirit.
Steve Swartz
Thanks Bill for once again saying it as it is.
I find myself in a strange dilemma presently and have decided that it is actually causing me spiritual ‘harm’ to continue going to my church. My minister refuses to ever say anything that will offend anyone. He refuses to ever bring up issues like homosexuality, abortion, same sex adoption or any current issue whatsoever. Yet, week in week out we hear sermon after sermon about living wholeheartedly for God, not being like the unfaithful Israelites, honouring God in our lives yet somehow we never hear any application or connection made to the ‘real world’ and the myriad of evil goings on and ways we can do something.
After failing to convince one single person from my church (of over 120 members) to join me to come to Canberra for the National Marriage Day – and after many other attempts to rally Christians to take some action for a number of other things- for my own sanity, encouragement and spiritual wellbeing, I no longer think my church is a good place for me.
Unfortunately – I don’t know where else to go?
Annette Williams
Good article Bill.
Unfortunately most instances of child abuse occur within families, e.g. fathers molesting daughters, and we know that there is a tendency for the wife to cover them up for fear of retribution from the husband. That’s why many such instances only come to light when the child reaches adulthood.
I wonder sometimes whether evangelicals are ill-advised to promote male headship in the family because it makes wives submissive, too meek, too fearful, and too dependent on their husbands to report abuse.
I am at a bit of a loss for ideas on what we can actually do about evils in the world apart from set a good example for our own children. Everyone here speaks about problems in the churches and exhorts others to do something, but where are the practical ideas?
Daniel Runcorn, Qld
Thanks Daniel
But you are actually very wrong on the issue of child abuse. The social science data is overwhelmingly clear: the safest place a child can be is with his or her biological parents. It is the non-biological father (live-ins, boyfriends, step dads, etc) that account for most of the abuse. For documentation on all this, see my article here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2009/07/21/child-abuse-and-family-structure/
But you are right that we need to be setting a good example in our own homes. That is vital. But there is far more that we can do. If there are active political and social moves underway in these areas, then we need to fight them in the political and social arenas. We have been far too uninvolved in these areas, and we are now paying the price for it.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Thanks guys
Many of you rightly are crying out in despair, ‘But what can I do?’ Simply having that attitude is a great start. My first answer to all this is that we need to get on our faces before God and repent, and cry out for his mercy. Whenever we encounter God or get his heartbeat, the first response is being aware of our own sinfulness. When Isaiah saw the Lord he could only say, “Woe is me, I am a man of unclean lips and we are a people of unclean lips” (Is. 6:5). That is always the response we find in Scripture. So a place of brokenness, humility and repentance is always our first duty. That is the only true beginning point to turn things around.
But there are many practical things we can do as well. Indeed, the sky is the limit. There is no shortage of practical steps we can take. See here for example for lots of tips on practical action: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2009/02/02/what-can-we-do/
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Bill, I have to say I think you’ve over-stated your case, as well as made an illogical connection to the success of the Homosexual agenda.
Most people– whether “Christian” or not or, whether Evangelicals or not– don’t know the first thing about Kinsey. To lay at the feet of “Evangelicals” the responsibility for Kinsey and his ilk being able to advance their agenda, is profoundly unfair. Many Evangelicals are on the front lines of the cultural battle every day, whether dealing with the Homosexual agenda or other issues– so much so that we’re reviled and dismissed by Secularists simply for _being_ Evangelicals. They spare no effort in trying to silence us.
Our responsibility though is to fight the battle– not to win it. You cannot condemn Evangelicals for the fact that the Homosexual lobby appears to be winning.
Not only that, but I’m sure you know that there are some wonderful Evangelical churches that teach and practice the truth and encourage their members to truly live for Jesus. However, it is true that, in all kinds of churches, many people are not mature enough yet to examine their own lives and fully bring them under the Lordship of Jesus.
Rather than condemning the true church as if Jesus were speaking to the FALSE religionists of his day, the Pharisees and Sadducees, a much more fitting rebuke would be Jesus’ message to the twelve churches in Revelation chapters 2 and 3. He knows them and loves them, even though he has “a few things against” them.
Unfortunately, many in the Evangelical church are shaped much more by their culture than by their savior. But our response should be to challenge them to “return to their first love”, rather than condemning them.
Ronin Akechi
Thanks Ronin
Thanks for your thoughts. But can I respectfully say that when I wrote this piece, I suspected that there would be two general sorts of responses. Some believers would be of kindred spirit and say yes, we are so far from where we should be, and yes we need to repent and get back to first things. Yes, we have been unfaithful servants – we have only done that which is our duty. Their hearts would be soft and tender, open to becoming more like Christ. That is the place we all should be at before God. That was my desired outcome for this piece.
But other believers would sadly basically reject the spirit in which this was offered, and seek to argue that things are not so bad or we are not so bad. Instead of trying to get the spirit of what is being said here, they will instead seek to argue and debate. They will unfortunately miss the very point and spirit of what I was on about here.
I am with you: I certainly do hope I have overstated the case. But when I read the 7 letters of Jesus for example I see much stronger warnings and rebukes and calls for repentance. You seem to not only miss the spirit in which I presented this, but you unfortunately make a number of incorrect remarks. I of course did begin by saying that many evangelicals are doing a great job. Nowhere did I deny that much good is happening in the evangelical world.
And I of course nowhere in this article said that the rise of the militant homosexual lobby is directly and solely the fault of lazy evangelicals. I did say that we are far too apathetic, indifferent and unaware of what is going on around us. That is simply an empirical observation which can hardly be denied. Being totally unaware of who Kinsey is, is just one small example of this.
I recently posted elsewhere a comment (and I was also attacked for this, as people again missed the spirit in which I gave the comment), which says the same thing you are saying. I quoted Mother Teresa who said “We are not called to succeed, we are only called to try”. Anyone who reads my articles knows that this is the view I hold. We do all we can and leave the results up to God. The question is, are we doing all we can for Christ and his Kingdom?
And I have always said that there is a combination of factors contributing to our current malaise: activist minority groups pushing their agendas, as well as a lazy, apathetic and worldly church. I have never said it is just one or the other, but both. Both need to be challenged. But as Peter reminds us, “Judgment must begin with the household of God” (1 Peter 4:17). Thus this article.
And of course it should be clear that what I was doing in this article was calling all of us back to our first love. The only sensible response from anyone of us is not to live in denial, or to try to justify our poor condition, or seek to get into yet more arguments, but to get on our faces before God and repent. That is my heart here, and that was my purpose in this article.
If you consider that to be condemnation, then I am sorry you took it that way. When I read the prophets I don’t see ‘condemnation’ but a call to repentance and getting back to our first love. That is what my desire is. I hope all Christians will join with me in this. This is the most pressing need of the hour, and that was all I was trying to do in this article.
If you took offense here when none was intended, then I apologise. But thanks for sharing your concerns. And please pray for me that I get it right. There is nothing worse than misrepresenting our Lord. I don’t ever want to do that.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
What is wrong with us? We need to lift our act!!
I suggest reading Sinners in the hands of an angry God by Jonathan Edwards. We need more preaching on hell.
Jeremy Woods
My take on this is that, as the saying goes, “God has no grandchildren” – but the churches I have been in are full of large families of three or four generations. With all due respect to the younger ones, I think it is often the case that they know all about Jesus but don’t KNOW Him. They have never entered into a personal relationship with Him. Large parts of the church are spiritually dead and need to acknowledge their spiritual poverty and need of a Saviour before they can be powerfully effective for the Lord. For this I am praying.
Debbie Ryan
People can debate how far either way you have gone in your observations Bill but that aside, what you have written is basically correct! We need to do what the Bible exhorts – watch our lives and doctrine closely and examine ourselves to see that we are in the faith and if we make it a serious mission in our lives to do these things then we will be on the way to attaining what your article points out. We all have many distractions but we have to make God’s word a priority in our lives, I try to read a chapter a day and admittedly, there are some days I get bone lazy and either switch off the light or read something else. I think Debbie Ryan has a point in relation to the younger ones, we have a Saturday night service and usually there is at least 200 young people, I sometimes wonder how many of them as Debbie points out, actually know Jesus as opposed to knowing about Him. I only pray and hope that I KNOW him more than I know about Him.
Steve Davis
Murray that is very true, and I know that the current Pope has done more to combat this issue than his predecessor. But it is not only the catholic church.
I also know that recently some, Mennonites in South America, have been found guilty of rape against women and children.
As the Bible says “judgement begins in the House of the Lord”, and this included repentance.
Wayne Pelling
Bill,
What an excellent expose! There are some practical issues that prevent a pro-active evangelical church, as I see it:
1. There is still a barrier between proclaiming the Gospel and becoming socially or politically involved among church leadership. The latter is not seen as core theology with being salt and salt Christians.
2. There is too much in-house infatuation with contemporary worship and rock ‘n roll Christianity (you know my era). Internal focus prevents external involvement. My wife and I have recently located to the northern suburbs of Brisbane and finding an evangelical church with biblical content in worship songs has been an impossibility, except for two (Petrie Presbyterian & Anglican), but the focus is often internal.
3. When it comes to Christian involvement in presentations and writing, most people in our churches are not as gifted as you are in these areas. But the added problem is that equipping the saints for the work of ministry as a cultural apologist (that seems to be your role) is not high on the evangelical church’s agenda. I know of some of the hostile flack I get when I write letters to the local newspaper. Most people in the evangelical pews do not know how to respond to such. I really think it’s an equipping issue that is married to church leadership that does not see the cultural crisis as you and I do.
Spencer Gear, North Lakes Qld
Hi Bill,
Thanks for another timely, inspiring article. I’m greatly comforted by the comments of the other mothers on here who despair of being able to do enough for God as the task of raising children in this culture is so all consuming. I find with each child that, our relationship with God deepens. I think that this is simply his reward for being open to his gift of life, as our culture is so opposed to this gift. Also God takes our tiny, weak, pathetic efforts, as long as we offer them to him, and makes miracles with them. I heard someone say recently that Christ longs for us to be truly good, but knowing the weakness of our nature doesn’t expect us to be, he simply delights in our continuous efforts to keep getting up.
Catherine Dodd
The modern evangelical Church has its roots in the fundamentalist-modernist controversies of the 1910s and 1920s. The major issues then, upon which evangelicals took a stand, were:
– the inspiration and infallibility of Scripture
– the virgin birth and deity of Christ
– the authenticity of the gospel miracles
– the atoning death of Jesus
– the literal resurrection
(J I Packer, Fundamentalism and the word of God, 28)
The battle today is largely the same, and the only way to recover the health of the evangelical church is to return to core doctrine. True evangelical men of faith are needed to assert key doctrinal truths that are under fire from liberals, as well as modernisers and “progressives” within evangelical ranks.
These key truths are:
1. the inerrancy of Scripture and its authority over every area of life, including moral behaviour
2. the deity of Christ and his exclusive Lordship over all world religions
3. penal substitutionary atonement (contra the other, watered down theories being promoted by progressive evangelicals) and the literal resurrection
4. salvation only through conscious faith in Jesus Christ (contra inclusivist theories promoted by evangelical progressives)
5. salvation and justification as spiritual & personal realities first and foremost (contra the socio-political definitions promoted by evangelical progressives)
6. the reality of unending punishment in hell (contra annihilationist and universalist ideas becoming increasingly popular)
7. the priority of evangelism over social action (while not neglecting the latter)
8. God’s approval of sex only within marriage between a man and woman
Evangelicalism survived the modernist controversy a century ago only because, in God’s providence, men of faith took an uncompromising stand on the fundamentals that were contested in their day. It is safe to predict that today we are likewise doomed if we do not take a strong, united and vocal stand on these core doctrines.
Jereth Kok
Hi Jereth,
The evangelical movement certainly did a lot of good in refuting the particular heresies you list. But I’m with Tas Walker in thinking that its great weakness was its failure to take a stand against atheists masqerading as scientists and affirm what the Bible says: “God made this world by His power in six-days some 6,000 years ago”.
I think this mental schizophrenia (as Tas puts it) of publically affirming the inerrancy of Scripture while denying the historicity of Genesis is a major cause of the movement imbibing worldliness and losing its potency.
If the Evangelical church is to be revitalised, its leaders will have to swallow their pride and admit they are wrong in effectively saying that the Bible’s teaching on origins aren’t important.
Mansel Rogerson
To Catherine Dodd, thank you for sharing that last sentence in your post, it is very encouraging!
Steve Davis
As you say Bill, repentance is necessary before any effective change can begin to bring renewed faithfulness. Without an understanding of the nature and reality of sin there will be no repentance so please keep up your good work! And hey, let’s have no interdenominational finger pointing out there! Let’s just acknowledge that “All have sinned and fallen short etc.” and get on with the task at hand.
Anna Cook
What does the church promote?
A non-confronting comforting ritual.
A women’s club.
The answer?
A mission focused challenging church.
Discipleship.
Daniel Kempton
As in all things, godly balance is important. We will not be effective in the kingdom if we are working outside of the work that God has prepared for us to do. This is very difficult in our modern age where we can know what is happening around the world within the hour. Much discernment is needed to work out what we are supposed to do, for many causes are clamoring for our attention and the risk is that we try to do too many things and they end up not getting done well as a result. “Unauthorised works” might be the term here. It is not the wheat’s fault how many tares are in the field, though we are our brother’s keeper, we can not make his decision for him.
As for creation, I agree with Tas, it is vitally important that creation is preached as part of redemption, for unless God has created us, what “right” does he have for our allegiance? It would be so easy to say for people shopping around in the market place of ideas and religion as they are able to do these days because of multi faith, multi culture, multi everything etc. “How nice of Jesus to die for the sins of some, but thanks I’ll find my salvation another way”. It is only when it is made absolutely clear that the God of the Bible, the Living God is the only God who made everything that there is that people might understand a need for them to come to God His way, not their way. It is interesting to note that when the angel proclaims the gospel in Rev. 12 I think it is that redemption is not mentioned but the call is made the give God the creator the worship due to Him and that He will return as judge.
Many blessings
Ursula Bennett
Well, here’s something everyone can do. Start praying peacefully outside your local abortion clinic and offer women practical help. Oh…you meant you wanted to do something else didn’t you? Something where you wouldn’t be spat at, sworn at, hated in your community…like Jesus. Well, I’m sure you can find something else to do. Give money, pray at home or at church. That’s safe.
Anna von Marburg
Bill, thanks for the revelations about Kinsey – I had not heard about these vile sex experiments on infants, in all those decades since the Fifties, and it seems these atrocities were nodded through under the auspices of the Rockefeller Foundation Research and Medical Council, and enthusiastically embraced by the film industry with hardly a peep of dissent.
He paid criminal underworld types to carry out his experiments on children they had access to and then tick boxes in a pseudo scientific table to measure the results, in a manner worthy of any Nazi war criminal such as Mengele. Anyone who forces multiple orgasms on a baby and then ticks a box is no longer human, and is diminished to sack of excrement status. If he wanted orgasms he could have as many as he liked all by himself without the need to slake his perverted curiosity on anyone else.
As you say, it is against the law to have sex with a minor and a minor means someone under age 16. In prisons paedophiles are hated as pariahs and there are always prisoners who wouldn’t hesitate to take one out, especially if they have nothing to lose and it might be the best thing they ever did. Paedophiles who violate the innocent new born shall find no quarter within the human race.
Rachel Smith, UK
Paedophiles need to be conditioned to understand that the forceful invasion of a minor’s private space constitutes the criminal offence of Statutory rape. No one owns another person,or has the right to interfere with another person. The paedophile’s use of babies, small children or anyone under 16 years of age as a commodity to satisfy their sadistic desires is a form of sex slavery and a gross violation of the minor’s human rights.
Rachel Smith, UK