Another Christian Sell-out

The New Testament clearly teaches that as we move closer to the end of human history, there will be major cases of apostasy, compromise, and selling out of the gospel. The spirit of the age will slowly but steadily grip more tightly the church and those claiming to be Christ’s disciples, squeezing the biblical and spiritual life out of it.

That is why the NT also spends so much time warning us about not allowing the world to squeeze us into its mould. We are to resist the world and its ungodly and anti-God directions and agendas, and not accommodate ourselves to it, or seek to work for peaceful coexistence with it.

Yet everywhere we see signs of the church caving in, selling out, and running away from its clear biblical mandate. Entire denominations are involved in compromise, carnality, and corruption. Churches, church leaders, and Christian organisations are all capitulating and abandoning biblical absolutes, all in the name of getting along, appearing to be tolerant and non-offensive, and to win favour with the world.

A lengthy article in a major Christian media outlet offers us another clear example of this. Indeed, the article has already been updated and supplemented, presumably to allow the offending party to offer more of a rationale for what it is doing.

I refer to the US World Vision which has now caved in on the issues of homosexuality and homosexual marriage. Although they claim they have not caved in at all, it is hard to see this in any other light. The piece opens with these words:

“World Vision’s American branch will no longer require its more than 1,100 employees to restrict their sexual activity to marriage between one man and one woman. Abstinence outside of marriage remains a rule. But a policy change announced Monday [March 24] will now permit gay Christians in legal same-sex marriages to be employed at one of America’s largest Christian charities.

“In an exclusive interview, World Vision U.S. president Richard Stearns explained to Christianity Today the rationale behind changing this ‘condition of employment,’ whether financial or legal pressures were involved, and whether other Christian organizations with faith-based hiring rules should follow World Vision’s lead. Stearns asserts that the ‘very narrow policy change’ should be viewed by others as ‘symbolic not of compromise but of [Christian] unity.’ He even hopes it will inspire unity elsewhere among Christians.”

You can read the lengthy article for yourself. The head honchos at WV bend over backwards to argue this is no biggee, that they are still great Christians, and that there is nothing wrong with this approach. Well I for one disagree big time.

Stearns said this as a summary of their position: “We feel positive about what we’ve done. Our motives are pure. We’re not doing this because of any outside pressure. We’re not doing this to get more revenue. We’re really doing this because it’s the right thing to do, and it’s the right thing to do for unity within the church. I’m hoping this may inspire unity among others as well. To say how can we come together across some differences and still join together as brothers and sisters in Christ in our common mission of building the kingdom.”

Um no. It is never the right thing for Christian bodies to effectively give endorsement of and approval to what the Bible clearly calls sin. That is never right and that can never be done by those who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ. And that is just as true of parachurch groups as it is of churches.

The claim that WV can do this because they are a parachurch group just does not wash. They are claiming to be a Christian parachurch group. They are claiming to represent Jesus Christ and biblical values. By giving implicit if not explicit endorsement of homosexuality and homosexual marriage, they are saying they prefer to tell God that he is wrong, and they prefer to reject the Word of God as authoritative and normative.

And why in the world is the sin of sex outside of marriage still forbidden, but the sin of sex in homosexual relations is now seen as peachy keen? Can anyone explain this to me? The Bible is overwhelmingly clear that all sex outside of heterosexual marriage is wrong and sinful – end of story.

There are no biblical exceptions to this – absolutely none. Yet WV now thinks they can make such exceptions. They seem to think that even though God has absolutely forbidden homosexuality and homosexual marriage, they will allow it without any reservations whatsoever. That my friends is a sell-out, pure and simple.

The word “unity” is used often by Stearns and other supporters of this policy. But as I have written elsewhere, Christian unity can never be undertaken at the expense of biblical truth. While we are all to strive for biblical unity wherever possible, it is never to be done by messing with the clear teachings of the Word of God.

But see here for much more detail on this:
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2009/03/16/on-truth-and-unity-part-one/
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2009/03/16/on-truth-and-unity-part-two/

Let me offer just two words of warning here, amongst many that could be appealed to. Charles Spurgeon put it this way: “To pursue union at the expense of truth is treason to the Lord Jesus Christ.” And as Martin Luther said: “Peace if possible, truth at all costs.”

Just getting along, being as non-offensive as possible, and trying to keep everyone happy, are never to be seen as Christian virtues. Indeed, more often than not, they can be downright vices. When we indicate so clearly to the surrounding culture that our fear of offending worldlings is of more concern to us than fear of offending the living, holy God, then we have already lost the plot.

We might as well then just stop pretending we are Christian organisations anymore. Indeed, this is simply compromise and capitulation, designed to show how “progressive” and “tolerant” WV is. It may win them many more non-Christian supporters, but hopefully plenty of biblical Christians will see that other more explicitly Christian charity groups should be supported – those which continue to fully affirm all biblical values, not just some.

If these groups want to self-identify as gay-friendly, world-cosy, and radical leftist, that is up to them. But they should stop claiming to be Christian-based. The truth is, the founder of WV, Bob Pierce, would likely be rolling in his grave now as he sees all these changes, and the move to be more and more like the world of the secular left, than the world of New Testament Christianity.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2014/march-web-only/world-vision-why-hiring-gay-christians-same-sex-marriage.html?start=2&paging=off

[1103 words]

32 Replies to “Another Christian Sell-out”

  1. Good article, Bill. I only hope that World Vision Australia doesn’t go the same way! As you say – don’t call WV a Christian Charity if they are going to compromise God’s Word! Very disappointing!

  2. Typical slippery slope… that’s the reason i prefer to support Compassion and other smaller NGOs not relying on government funding. Even at the field they sometimes do not identify themselves as a Christian organisation or give aids accordingly, just “humanitarian” comes first.

  3. Another one bites the dust. I wonder now if there’s a statement from World Vision Australia on the issue?

    I guess because SSM is not legal here, they can avoid the issue for a time.

    Let’s see.

  4. Marxism has infiltrated every section of society from the most lowly to the most powerful.
    The aim of the Frankfurt school was to appropriate the language so that words like tolerance, equality, diversity, inclusion and equality etc., are merely packaging but whose contents can be changed according to political correctness. World Vision is no exception, it has been appropriated by Marxists like Barack Obama

    http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2009/10/19/rohrabacher_obamas_world_vision_comes_from_a_marxist_background.html

    Like wise our churches are modelling themselves on the emerging church. Listen to the lesbian Pro – Vice Chancellor. Elizabeth Stuart, of Winchester University, UK, talking about getting rid of gender differences. Her vision is to live in a world devoid of complementary masculinity and femininity. What better weapon for that than homosexuality.

    http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/culture/religious-studies/video-interview-catholic-bishop-elizabeth-stuart

    David Skinner UK

  5. I suppose they believe that God has “changed his mind” about gays; that’s the trouble. They see governments all round the world sanctioning and legalising gay marriages and, somehow, thus believe that the majority-thinking must be right because “everybody’s doing it”.

    The UK faces this on Saturday, when the gay marriage laws take effect. We will now be expected to bow and scrape to these people as “respectable married couples”.
    I know nothing of World Vision, but if they are in receipt of substantial government funding then that speaks volumes as to why they’ve changed their tune….manipulation at the top. I wonder how many of their current employees they will retain?

    The rate this is going, there will be few God-fearing Christians left; even our churches and associations are deserting us. How then to create “unity”?

  6. I lost interest in WV long ago, swapping to Compassion who weren’t afraid to say they were CHRISTIAN. Overtly Christian, where evangelism is as important as social work. So this is just a logical progression of WV’s softness in the Gospel mandate.

  7. Likewise, I left World Vision decades ago, sick of the celebrity cult. It would be good if Tim Costello could say something Christian on this, not that I expect much.

  8. Ditto on Tim’s comments. I with drew my support for WV a few years ago due what I was hearing and reading.

    There are other organisations more deserving of Christian support. Hopefully at least some will stay the course and not sell out.

  9. Thanks Bill. I think we can safely say that many of the big players in the ‘Christian’ world are quite likely to go this way. As time goes on, more and more places of power are being taken over by the enemy. As David Skinner says, this was a highly orchestrated plan by very patient but determined groups in society like the Frankfurt School and others like them. We Christians need to open wide our eyes, take stock of the world we find ourselves in and plan new strategies for a new world. At the top of those strategies must be prayer. Without it, we’re fried!

  10. I just read the original article and want to add this. Their big mistake is that they want to ‘unite the church’ around helping the poor, instead of uniting the church around the teachings of Jesus. Jesus came not to bring peace but a sword. Who are we to compromise the teachings of the Bible for the sake of simple charity and still go on callling ourselves Christians. Shame!

  11. Tim Costello has already spoken on this issue …

    “TIM COSTELLO: Just after that maybe. I think that certainly tells me that we in the church have said oh this is just some plot of people who have chosen this lifestyle and they’re aiming to break up morality and family is actually wrong and I think the God of Jesus never judges people for things that are predetermined or things that are actually within their own makeup and therefore my position on that is to say in relationships where sexuality is expressed there must be real trust and ultimately real commitment which finally is what marriage is but certainly to actually say there’s going to be a lightening bolt to hit you because you’re gay that’s not the God I believe in.” http://www.abc.net.au/tv/2shot/transcripts/ep11trans.pdf

    And this is why I don’t believe he is my brother in Christ.

    As the minister of my church said to me when I was in my teens “God loves you exactly the way you are, but He loves you too much to let you stay that way.”

    Unfortunately “modern Christians” change that to “God loves you exactly the way you are, so stay that way.” And those modernists are not my Christian brothers and I am not theirs.

  12. Firstly, I don’t think WV would self-identify as a “para church” organisation, but in any case, prior to this post-Christian chicanery, the top brass at WV already approved of donations being used to fund overseas abortions, so I think its safe to say that an organisation orthodox Christians can support WV ain’t!!
    Secondly, I have friends who work in WV Australia who openly fornicate, and since Tim Costello, a leftist cleric who doesn’t believe in the inerrancy and, therefore, authority of the scripture nor the gospel of Jesus Christ, meaning repentance from dead works and faith towards God, obviously is okay with gay marriage and all that attends that.. As does the last congregation he pastored, ie, Collins St Baptist church in Melbourne.
    Thirdly, this shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise as the Salvation Army’s newly opened, flagship “Family store” in Windsor, Victoria, is managed by an openly gay gentleman who came out after cheating on his wife!! I think if anyone would be rolling in their graves it would be the eminent Generals William and Catherine Booth.
    And lastly, what has Christ with Belial or light with darkness. There can never be unity between believers and sinners we are in opposing kingdoms.. Whilst we love and care for the godless, as they are not who we are fighting against, the one we are fighting against is their father the Devil… so all this duplicitous talk about unity is an insult to clear thinking!!

  13. People don’t realise that many so called Christian’s, denominations, apostate ministries such as WV and churches left the Lord years and years ago, the homosexual issue is one that has called them to show their cards that’s all, and for that I thank God.

    Correct yet simple to see Biblical morality is a fundamental tenet of proving you are a true Christian and or organisation or otherwise.

    We are to ‘die’ and suffer horrible persecutions rather than give in to the god of this world and compromise the faith…Jesus told us to be ready to pay such a price. Yet those who love the world…..those to whom the love of the father does not reside within, are exposed by this issue and show who they bow to…the world and the pressure of its views…I can hear many now joining with the crowd in the cry….’Give us Barabbas’.

    When the media came looking for us with all their pompous rhetoric when we stepped out about these subjects, we told them to get stuffed…in the name of Jesus of course lol, and that’s what we have continued to do.

    I don’t give a rip what they or the majority of Australia think, I care about what God thinks…that why I am a Christian….poor little ministers who have no guts, how their western unscriptural views of Christianity has put them to sleep with their lusts and their lay back, backslidden Christianity.

    Where’s the fight, where’s the fire to stand up for the Gospel? Gutless cowards to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for eternity for their being ashamed of the words of Jesus Christ, the day will reveal who is really who and none shall escape.

    Another solid and biblical article Bill, keep em coming as I know you will, thanks for your ministry.

  14. Bill, thank you so much for the extra links. I am relieved that both Franklin Graham (Samaritans’ Purse) and Joe Dallas have not recanted their strong Christian stand, as World Vision has done. We’ve been giving to SP for years now and we stopped giving to one large Childfund group after they decided to remove their “Christian” moniker in order to become more palatable to non-Christians. “…narrow is the gate…”

  15. Thanks Bill, for keeping us informed on these issues.
    I sure do appreciate that there is one more willing to continue to fight for Jesus in these last days!
    God Bless!
    Such a shame to see charities perverting the love of God in His own dear Son’s name.

  16. And Michael Brown offers a hard-hiting article here:

    http://barbwire.com/2014/03/25/apostasy-world-vision/

    He writes: “Is this not the height of self-deception? Does World Vision not realize that they have just exponentially increased that ‘tearing apart’ of believers? Do they actually think that this divisive, destructive policy change will unite Christians around serving the poor? Does their board, which overwhelmingly approved the policy, actually feel that they have not ‘jump[ed] into the fight on one side or another on this issue’? It would be like saying, ‘Because politics can be so divisive and we don’t want to get into the fight, we’ll just vote for the Democrats’.”

  17. Only someone who does not believe in God could actively condone homosexuality. How would it look, in the sight of the Creator God who I believe gave us the gift of life, to see the biological means of procreation perverted for a different purpose? The use of the body’s waste exit canal for pleasurable sex is not supported by evolution, since if everybody indulged in same-sex sexuality, with an equal loathing of sexual intercourse with the opposite sex, the human race would become extinct.

    Sadly Christian ministers are eroding their own integrity in the eyes of the world with their own much-publicised misdemeanours. As an example of corruption within the clergy, look at Britain’s “Crystal Methodist”, the Methodist church minister who was chairman of the Co-op Bank, while having no idea of the bank’s net worth when questioned; who chaired an anti drug charity “Lifeline” while at the same time taking hard drugs such as ketamine and crack cocaine; and hiring rent boys for sex. You can’t claim the moral high ground with that track record – you can only wonder how someone like that managed to become chairman of a bank – which is now in a toxic state.

    As Jesus said, when the scribes and Pharisees brought to him a woman accused of adultery, “Let he who among you is without sin cast the first stone”. When they faded away Jesus said to the woman “Go and sin no more”.

  18. It is no coincidence that homosexuality and homophobia have been ” discovered” at the same time; like Arctica and the Antarctica these are modern discoveries, that no one apparently knew anything about before the late 19th century.

    Whilst (homo)philia in the South is claimed to be genetic, its polarity (homo)phobia in the North is classed as a mental illness

    The Trans-Antarctic cross dressing expedition has discovered huge colonies of gay penguins.

    Whilst their polarities living in the Arctic, suffering from transphobia shun such relationships.

    David Skinner UK

  19. Its not just about serving the poor. Christian charities are supposed to be the Burkean “little platoons”; Christian principles influencing society through the dispersed and decentralised hierarchy of social organisations like this one. This is how Christianity is supposed to influence and act as salt against the moral regression of society. This is a massive reneging of Christian duties.

  20. I want to recommend a book by Stuart Greaves entitled “False Justice: Unveiling the Truth about Social Justice.”

    http://www.amazon.com/False-Justice-Unveiling-Truth-Social/dp/076844196X

    Therein, Greaves offers some hard hitting realities about social justice groups that refuse to deal with the ultimate justice issue, namely that before God we all stand guilty as charged because of our sin and rebellion, not because there are poor people in the world. Without the testimony of Jesus, the social justice movement is powerless and defiant regarding the real issue that God is contending with all humanity about.

    Greaves makes a compelling case that the social justice movements occurring now will actually prepare the poor of the earth to receive the antichrist, just as Communism did and unfortunately continues to offer.

    I would add that with this choice, World Vision are spreading confusion and leading both the lost and gullible Christians into serious compromise and error.

    So much for “uniting the church”! Why should we be united with those who blatantly justify, practise and promote not only sinful action but an encompassing sinful lifestyle?!

    Stuart Greaves’ “False Justice” is a very relevant commentary on World Vision and now more than ever.

  21. Doesn’t WV also encourage use of contraceptive methods that are evil? We were glad the support of our child in India came to an end, because we were so unhappy with this organisation for so long, there are many others that are far better.

  22. Bill, I just went to the barbwire site you recommended and there at the beginning was the post that apparently WV has repented of their just recent endorsement of ssm. I pray that is true.
    Many blessings
    Ursula Bennett

  23. Yes Dee, we are unified under Christ and under all of his teachings held in balance by Him. I wonder if people actually understand what unity means. Paul clearly says that we are to “maintain” the unity, that means it has been given to us by God, we don’t have to make it up. To elevate the issue of poverty above all other things is just as foolish as what Tim Keller sprouted there on that youtube video about the greatest sin being pride and self-reliance. And I had up until just then a lot of respect for Tim Keller, I thought he was a Presbyterian actually, not that this puts him above reproach by say, but I thought that denomination could still be trusted. As I said to elevate one issue above another skews the whole picture not in the form of God’s righteousness but in the form of our individual flavour of unrighteousness, for we are all tainted with it still in spite of our best intentions. EXE 21 or there abouts warns not to make judgements in favour of the poor just because they are poor. To come back to Tim Keller, I think I understand that he is trying to counter balance past irrational or emotional condemnation of homosexuals” per sa, but he is now tipping the balance the other way instead of continuing his argument in a scriptural way, meaning that having established that sin is sin, no matter what flavour it may be, Jesus statements still stand that “if you love me you will follow my teachings” How can you stay or want to stay a homosexual, a greedy person, a racist, a whatever type of sinner you are after you have been born again? The issue is that we are dead and Jesus lives in us, it is no longer I that live, no longer I with my own individual preference for any kind of sin.
    Sorry, I get off my soap box.
    Many blessings
    Ursula Bennett

  24. Praise God, its a good start and certainly forgiveness should be given, however, this issue shouldn’t have happened. This is a fundamental biblical tenet that to get wrong reveals a greater symptom of serious compromise.

    Seriously, how do you one day decide that this is ok? You cant, its like saying we don’t want Jesus in Christianity anymore, we will just substitute him for the term ‘God’ and never mention His name again?!?!?

    The Board should stand down one by one being replaced by uncompromised leaders, as they are sourced, who are solid and unwavering in Biblical morality and they should adhere to proper biblical discipleship once again being proven over time to hold to the Bible, before they take such a leadership position In future.

    This issue should indeed be forgiven, but proper investigation into just how this happened should occur and discipline for a time to ensure these folks are restored to sound and unwavering doctrine is necessary.

    Again, you don’t get this issue wrong, its not up for debate…it’s too clear.

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