Posted on 08/22/2009 5:15:57 PM PDT by rhema
The thing is, it's not like the truth goes out one day and homosexuality is beating down the door the next day. The truth has been dying the death of a thousand cuts for at least thirty years. I remember in the 1970's people teaching me man-centered unbiblical things in our LCA church. My dad tried to fight it for a while, and eventually we left in the 1980's shortly after the merger that created the ELCA.
But try and fight these things in the early stages, and you are labeled divisive and 'critical.'... and they drive out those who would teach and promote sound doctrine, and then wonder why years later, sin is rampant in the church.
"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." 2Tim 4:3-4
Many have already left for the AFLC (another halfway decent one) and LCMS and WELS.
However, since they could not see fit to leave until BLATANT sin was in their midst, they are surely bringing a lot of doctrinal baggage that the LCMS, WELS, and AFLC are going to HAVE to actively confront in order to weed it out and prevent it from doing its natural message-diluting work in those denominations. I suspect, like most church bodies, that confronting false teaching and its effects will be a very hard job and most people in those denominations won't have the stomach for it. People are the same all over.
“Christ promised, in a high priestly prayer spoken the night before He was crucified, that His Church would be unified (Jn 17:1-26). Jesus is perfectly righteous, so His prayers for His Church will be answered. He said the world would know His Church by the unity of His disciples (Jn 17:21).
There are well over 20,000 Protestant denominations. Where is the unity there?”
What about the schism that divided the Church into Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox? Also, the Protestants were originally Catholics, if I’m not mistaken. Also, what about Pope JPII’s struggles with Liberation Theology, or the disputes with the Traditionalists?
“The essential nature of Protestantism is to attempt to bring renewal through division and fragmentation (protest). This is unscriptural. Jesus, Paul, and John ask for unity and beg members not to let divisions occur.”
No. The Protestant Reformation happened (at least in part)because of corruption within the Catholic Church back then. And the people apparently felt that trying to work within the system wasn’t doing much good.
“Only the Catholic Church claims Christ as its founder; all other Christian religions claim Christ as their head, but a human as their founder.”
What about the East Orthodox Church? :-) But some might say that the Roman Catholic Church, at least as a formalized entity, was bascially created by Constantine’s edict. He not only legailzed Christianity, but also made it the state religion.
I’m not trying to bash anyone’s religion, just that I’m happy with mine. And I believe in live and let live.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.