Some of us on FR are old enough to remember this same crap back in the 60s.
This is from 1966...
Posted on 03/11/2009 8:25:32 AM PDT by anniegetyourgun
Michael Spencer writing for the Christian Science Monitor wrote the article The coming Evangelical Collapse, that was taken from a series he wrote on his website InternetMonk. Spencer would have us believe the basically mainstream Christianity will be virtually gone in ten years and that this is a good thing. In the first sentence he states “ This breakdown will follow the deterioration of the mainline Protestant world…” so it seems that the author ties what he refers to as “Evangelical Christianity” to the mainline protestant world in the West.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
Didn’t we get the same rap from Voltaire?
Long after this twerp is dead, the Body of Christ will exist.
But wait ... come to think of it ... if we are raptured out of here, this creep’s prophecy will come true, but not for the reason he cites.
Yes, they won’t always have believers to kick around. After that, 100% of their hatred will be concentrated on the Jews.
I remember it. However, we aren’t simply “in a cycle”....though there are many who are still sleeping in that notion.
True enough, though the apostate church will be a useful tool as time goes by.
You must be looking at the wrong segments of
Protestant “Christianity.”
Not in my church.
It was pointed out on another thread that the guy is confusing protestant churches dying with evangelical churches which are actually growing.
I am also sick of this phony prosperity Christianity (Joel osteen) though I like much of what Dave Ramsey says and he is a preacher as far as I know. Dave tells people how to get out of debt.
Rick Warren aka author and freind of Obama is another phony. The Episcopalian Church is a joke it is so liberal. Sadly other mainline Protestant churches are following t hem off the cliff or like the Catholic church embracing illegal aliens.
so in order to attract this age, there are programs ... music, missions, movies, lite hearted feel good and little else real teaching occurring. Mo
The worlds attractions ... the iphone, texting, my space, facebook, etc., is getting their attention.
no time left for other stuff. The world and the anything you want to do ... ‘do it attitudes’ are destroying them. MO
I’m not saying all Protestant churches are infected with this disease—but there is not denying many are.
AGREED.
THX.
Romans 1:28 - And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper
Though . . . to be fair . . .
there was . . . uhhhhhhhhhhhhh . . . a more than significant
infection
in the Roman church.
PCUSA has gone bonkers.
What bunch of buffoons... What will be left is the apostate church... ecumenicals, buying and selling penance like Al Gore and his carbon credits scam... smiling and feeling good about themselves while they move headlong straight into the depths of hell and eternal separation from God.
ChristianLite.
I don’t think it will be a collapse, as much as it will be modified, or re-formed.
“...a threat to cultural progress.” It’s hard to believe a sane person could think like this. What we see emerging now isn’t culture, it is anti culture, and even its proponents won’t like it when there is nothing but man’s foolishness standing between man and mankind. Anyone who thinks the anti culture is the way to go hasn’t paid attention to what it has brought us for the past fifty years.
God always works wonders through His ‘remnant’.
Yeah. I know a lot of people who send their kids to Catholic schools, but one won’t trust priests. I know one very devout Catholic woman who goes to Church every Sunday, but calls priests some unmentionable names (won’t repeat here). Some seminaries had (supposedly) turned into dens of homosexuals who were developing their own theology (sin can be eclipsed by “good works”). That PR debacle will likely last my lifetime.
Whether Protestant, Evangelical, or Mainstream........”Christianity” will only exist in this nation for as long as the Lord has purposed for it to exist.
I agree with the gist of Spencer’s article. Of course, the “church,” the body of believers found in Christ will live on for eternity. So, I wouldn’t get too excited. I’d seek the Master.
Note that the author, like George W. Bush, doesn't believe the Bible is the literal, inerrant Word of God. That should help explain his perspective, as well.
Indeed, one could say that America has failed the test of Prosperity - we've become too busy to read and study the Bible, or to train our children properly. The Leftist Colleges and Universities are more than happy (and now the k-12, too) are all too happy to train legions of Marxists minions.
The true Body of Christ is going to probably end up as an unacceptable reminder of the prior light that was once America, unacceptable "salt" in an immoral country, and thus, in need of silencing.
uuuuhhhhhhh.....explain
The Lord has to clean HIS WHOLE CHURCH UP WORLD WIDE . . .
None is totally clean.
None is totally led of His Spirit.
See post 22.
The Church has always managed to survive the human frailty of its clergy. Pope Benedict is an example of this corrective process. Vocations - particularly those in orthodox seminaries - are up. And fortunately, the Church does not depend on PR for its mission.
I’m sure that those that hold this subject as important to them, still study and teach the bible. It’s just that there are many that do not believe the same. Just because someone is exposed to the bible, doesn’t mean that they should automatically believe it. That is where the leap of faith comes in, and this country and the world, is composed of many with different beliefs.
What this thesis omits is the question of whether God watches over His flock. It’s a matter of God’s grace. If a person loves Him and commits himself to Him through Jesus, then God will pour out His grace, and that person and to some extent his church will thrive. If there are enough such persons remaining in a church, God’s grace will spread to others.
I happen to be a Catholic, and I trust in Christ’s promise that the Church will last until the end of time and that the gates of Hell will not prevail against it. We have had bad bishops and bad priests, but the Popes have been faithful to their Master.
But I also see the evident outpouring of God’s grace among Evangelicals and others. Throughout history there have been periods of decline and laxity, always followed by religious awakenings—both in the Catholic Church and later in the Protestant Churches. The awakenings we are most familiar with in America are the Methodist awakening in England, which spread into the Anglican Church, and the Great Awakening here in America. In fact there have been several awakenings here in America.
I grew up an Episcopalian and converted to Catholicism in college. I would say that even the Episcopal Church, with all its problems, is not necessarily dead. It has been betrayed by bad and heretical bishops, who have turned away from God, it has been betrayed by lax members who belong mostly for social reasons, yet there are still faithful members of that church. So even the most troubled of the mainline churches, which have been worst effected by the Countercultural Revolution, are not necessarily hopeless cases, if God chooses to intervene once more with His awakening grace.
The history of Israel suggests that sometimes God rebukes and punishes His children for their sins, and sends them into exile, but that He always remembers them and turns the faithful remnant back to Him, and they spread the word and awaken others.
Are Evangelicals entering a difficult time? I don’t know. I see signs both ways. As it happens, I know a lot of Evangelical academics. On the one hand, they are almost all good people. On the other hand, many of them seem to be confused and too caught up by current academic trends. I don’t know if that is true of Evangelicals in general.
But I cannot believe that God will abandon His people. Difficult times, yes. Destruction, I think not.
Heresies and churches that go too far out from the Truth tend to die, but those who are faithful survive. The one exception to the rule appears to be Islam, which has prospered exceedingly despite the fact that it is fundamentally heretical. I guess that Islam must have Satan working for it, and for some reason God has allowed it to continue to spread while most heresies wither and die.
I agree. Everything happens as God would have it.
Like taste . . .
sometimes, there’s no accounting for brazenly wholesale bias.
Some folks dispute some of your sources.
However, ranting about who’s sins are blacker is a rather . . . futile and crazy exercise.
NO.
NOT ALL the Popes.
By a wide margin.
then why present the argument at all? Is catholic bashing part of your persona? My sources are from the Church Mutual Insurance Company, that has to pay out the cash judgments awarded from these incidents......either way, when my religion is attacked, I will attack back, but not with preconceived notions or bias, but fact....
Rapture isn't scriptural, but a man-made scenario. The sleeping (dead) are raised first, then all are judged and go to Heaven or Hell. That's biblical. Rapture is popular because it tastes better than true teaching, where Christians will suffer in end times.
The coming persecution will purge the church of non-believers. We have a lot of “Churchianity” in America, but very little real Biblical Christianity.
His remnant will persevere to the end, even giving up their lives if He deems it so. The goats, tares, and bad fish will fall away, and His Bride will emerge more beautiful.
And He’ll get glory out of all of it!
Amen!
This is a major piece of the puzzle. Give the homosexuals credit—they figured out that it was easier to just hollow out Christianity from within rather than to try to convince individual believers to turn away altogether. So now we’ve got vast numbers of “Christians” picking and choosing what they think is sin and what isn’t. Ultimately I think the major synods will collapse, but that won’t end Christianity. Instead it will foster a return to Bible-believing fundamental home churches. Christians will forget “official church doctrine” and return to the Word, which will put homosexuality back in its proper context: abomination. Let the liberal church organizations crumble, I say.
THE FOLLOWING IS FOR ANY “CHRISTIAN” IN ANY “CHRISTIAN ORGANIZATION.”
GOD
IS THE ANSWER
NOT RELIGION.
I ask you to examine your priorities as honestly before God as you are able.
1. IS GOD SUPREMELY MORE IMPORTANT TO YOU THAN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC EDIFICE
OR
2. IS THE ROMAN CATHOLIC EDIFICE MORE IMPORTANT TO YOU THAN GOD.
3. Are your words, choices, actions CONGRUENT with your answer regarding 1 & 2 above?
4. Would the 20 folks who see you most minutes in a week agree with your answer in 3?
5. The Good can be a deadly enemy of the BEST.
I have no need to “bash” the Roman Catholic Edifice any more than I do the Baptist, Pentecostal, Lutheran etc. . . . except perhaps that more RC’s are more shrill, more provocative AND MORE PERVASIVELY IN YOUR FACE than most of the others and therefore tend to trigger more of my responses more often.
Satan has been planning the corruptions of this era a very long time.
The usual old ones seem to work exceedingly well for him.
I was speaking of the current crisis in the Church. The Popes for the most part have been outstanding.
In earlier times, of course, there were sinful Popes. But the Holy Spirit prevented even the worst of them from promulgating heresy. They may have had mistresses and illegitimate children, and behaved more like spoiled monarchs than leaders of the Church, but they were kept from promulgating heresy.
There were two or three occasions when Popes seemed on the verge of promoting heresy. But they never did.
1) Jesus Christ is God
2) Jesus Christ founded the Roman Catholic Church
3) I was not in your face, merely responding to your obvious bigotry toward Roman Catholics
4) You need professional help ( anger management )
5) When confronted with facts that dispute your belief system, you resort to temper tantrums, just like a libtard
see ya, pal
And gibberish and ALL CAPS. Lithium deficiency?
Jesus said, “Thou art Peter, and upon this Rock I will found My Church.”
You can interpret that as you like, but it seems pretty clear to me. Jesus chose to transmit His grace through the Church that He founded, as well as to individuals.
Similarly, He told his followers, “Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you shall not have live within you.” Those who heard His words and turned away in disbelief certainly didn’t think that He was being metaphorical. He meant what He said, and they refused to believe it.
Grace is transmitted through the Church and the Sacraments, as well as to individual souls.
In any case, your persistant attacks on the Catholic Church have little to do with the subject at hand.
LOL...... ;)
There once was a time that I would sit idly by while people bashed my belief system....that time has passed...Thank you for your support..
I disagree with your #2. Jesus Christ founded His CHURCH...NOT the “Roman Catholic Church.” Man did that!
OK.
I think the heresy thing is arguable.
However, I appreciate your clarification.
read post #45
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