DISMANTLING UNIVERSALISM

Date: Sun Feb 14 21:47:20 2010

There are several cancers in the modern church which threaten to progressively reduce the authentic witness of Jesus Christ in the earth today. It is essential for there to be healing from cancer, as it takes over more and more territory unless it is stopped.

One is immorality. In the world, there is often an expectation of sexual relations on the first of second date. Among Christians, rather, than NO expectation until marriage, there is often an expectation that this will occur as the relationship matures a bit. Faithfulness in marriage is also not absolute, and divorce is far too frequent. In the Southern Baptist Church, the divorce rate is actually HIGHER than the world.

Another is Biblical Authority. In an increasing number of churches and Christian institutions of higher learning, the Bible is not believed absolutely. Genesis, the foundation of faith that is referred to throughout the scriptures, is explained away, and instead of the Bible being our fount of knowledge, the world and its teachers, often people with no fear of God and who trust the shifting sands of man's knowledge, cause many to "reinterpret" the Bible in ways that do violence to it. More and more professors defer to "science" as opposed to God, even though all true science agrees with the Bible, as God is Lord over science. Not helpful is the fact that most churches teach Bible "stories" as opposed to teaching the Bible as science, geology, anthropology, history, psychology, and economics. The Holy Spirit is infallible in all these areas, but so often kids shed their belief in "stories" they learn in church not long after they stop believing in Santa Claus. The cancer of eroding confidence in the accuracy of the writings of the Holy Spirit has been catastrophic for the church. I go to a lot o churches, and I am sad to say I have not been in even ONE where there is not some deviation from he Word of God. Some are much more faithful than others but deviations occur with great regularity, an it is not a good witness to the world. If CHRISTIANS do not believe the whole Bible, why should THEY?

The idea that all roads lead to heaven is one that Christians have long resisted. That is why Larry King asked Joel Osteen SEVEN times about it when Joel refused to say that all who reject Christ would go to hell. Larry knew that true Christians believe that, so he was incredulous. Now Joel may believe that but just clammed up - I mean we all have failed in being bold for the Lord. However, if you read his books, there is an awful lot of general inspiration that is not distinctly the gospel itself.

This soft attitude has infiltrated Christian college after Christian college and church after church. People are saying that God will be "fair". They ignore what Jesus Christ said about hell and who would be there. In fact, Jesus talked a whole lot about hell, though you would think his main subject was getting rich or how to make God your servant or lapdog. What folly! Jesus Christ came as a SERVANT and taught us to be servants as well. We are here to serve God - God is not here to serve us!

This cancer of universalism where Jesus is my Savior but where we allow for other ways to God or for simple annihilation must be dismantled. We cannot accede to political correctness and the increasing moves to marginalize, censor, and even silence true Christians at the highest levels of government.

Pastor Chapman at Zion Baptist Church in Ambler, PA, said recently while teaching Psalm 23 that it says "THE Lord is my Shepherd..." Not A Lord - we are not talking about George Harrison's Khrishna or any other so-called lord. We are talking about THE Lord of hosts. We need to teach Apologetics to the whole church - so many have no clue how to defend the veracity of the Word of God despite God's COMMAND that we be prepared to give an answer. The people have to understand why there is only one way in SO MANY areas of life. Try reaching any destination without following precise instructions. Even with Mapquest, the slightest deviation will get you lost. If you buy a piece of furniture from IKEAm just try not following the instructions PRECISELY. Putting in just one screw out of order can force you to take the whole thing apart and start all over! NARROW is the way that leads to eternal life (read my post on that on this blog - Nov. 2008 archives - the Narrow Road - for an article on just that subject).

We need to preach the BIBLE, just simply our ideas. The Biblical pattern is salvation comes from hearing THE WORD OF GOD. We need to preach the Word without compromise, and never cede an inch to those who say, "That is fine for you, but you have no right to impose your way on others!" The facts are that the world does nothing BUT impose their way on others. The world system controls the universities, and at a major university in Texas, they want all candidates for medical school to put in writing that they believe in the hypothesis of evolution. Never mind that a professor a one of the best medical schools in the country, Washington University Medical School in Louisville, KY, says that in thirty-four years of being a professor, there has not even been ONE instance where evolution was needed to understand a theory or practice useful in being a Doctor or understanding academically what you need to know. Teachers in a California school forced children to pretend they were Muslims including praying to Allah. Mandatory sex "education", which is more often instructions on how to be immoral, is forced on people. Now there is a move to force those in the military to be in close proximity (ask anyone who has been in the military about the rows of toilets without partitions. Godly men would be forced to let OPENLY homosexual men gaze at them in their most intimate and vulnerable state.

The world is MADLY believing that their way is the only way, and that way changes by the whim of the moment and the "cause du jour". On the other hand God NEVER changes, and his word endures forever. We must be kind, but we cannot be wimps! We must have the guts of Elijah in these evil days is we are to face down the Baals! I pray aggressively for the destruction of evil. We cannot play with Satan. Jesus Christ is supreme. All WILL bow before him.

Slavery, child labor, and all sorts of ills were opposed by Christians and were defeated. Did you know there are slaves in 2010? In Asia and northern Africa principally there are STILL people in bondage. There are even some in the US - primarily Eastern European and Asian women brought here under false pretenses and made into sex or sweatshop slaves in New York and other bug cities. There is still Child Labor in the world in 2010. The good in ANY country is there only to the extent Christ is honored! No matter WHAT the accomplishments of any country, without Christ, evil will resurrect itself and tear down righteousness.

We must insist on the truth, making sure we are walking in it ourselves! We need to teach our families and our churches the truth without compromise and be prepared to defend it by the Word of God.

Beyond that, we have o be unapologetic about preaching the gospel to lost, whether they be nominal "Christians", Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Secular Humanists, New Agers, Cultists, Agnostics, and Atheists. God loves them all, but has provided only one door into the ark - the ark Christ Jesus. THE Lord said, "If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto me."