UNDERSTANDING THE TIMES: 2002/04-05
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The Newsletter of Contend for the Faith, Inc
1 Chronicles 12:32
APRIL - MAY 2002
Spong is Wrong, and So Are His Supporters
SPONG CONTROVERSY
On April 8, 2002, The Charlotte Observer ran a viewpoint article I wrote in response to the visit of Bishop John Shelby Spong to a Charlotte church in March. I praise God and I thank all of you who prayed that this article exposing Spong’s teachings would be seen by thousands of people. I have included a copy of the article from the newspaper with this newsletter.
The response has been fascinating. I received about 50 emails concerning the column, with about 80% thanking me for it and about 20% disagreeing with it. Thank you to all of you who sent me words of encouragement after the article appeared.
The emails in support of the article were a great blessing to me, especially in light of the fact that EVERY letter the Observer printed in response to my column was critical of what I had written. If I went by that public response, I would feel very alone.
Let me share some of the responses with you:
I heard from many members of Methodist churches who were angry and/or embarrassed that a church in their denomination would actually invite an open heretic to speak from the pulpit. One man wrote,
“I was most disturbed that the Spiritual authority in my own denomination chose to remain silent. . . . We are too concerned about inclusiveness, diversity and tolerance and not enough about confessing and professing our faith. . . . There is a real spiritual authority vacuum in the United Methodist Church.”
A member of the church at which the Bishop spoke who did not attend the lectures said,
“I also found disconcerting to hear the oft-stated view that those who disagreed with Spong's views were closed minded, ignorant and perhaps even bigoted. There was never any serious effort to present an effective rebuttal to Spong's views in the sermons and sessions that I attended [prior to the visit].”
A pastor of a Methodist church commented that “dying churches do strange things.”
A man who disagrees with my article but who is an “active and committed member” of a local Presbyterian church said,
“I was raised on a steady diet of fundamental Protestant theology but can no longer, in good conscience, accept the beliefs I was taught to accept on faith. I will not embrace a religion that expects me to believe in magic and superstition. . . . I, and millions of others, can no longer accept what is taught in most churches. Unless the church opens its mind and changes, it will be gone in another century.”
I heard from a few relativists. One wrote that rather than morality being absolute and coming from God, “it is ultimately a matter of what the public will accept that determines what is moral and what isn't.” Another said, “who is to say who is right and wrong?” His point is that we cannot know which is correct – the historical church or Bishop Spong. So just have faith in whichever view appeals to you.
It is sad that any church that calls itself Christian would invite an unbeliever to preach from the pulpit, and it is tragic that so many who were raised in or still attend Christian churches would accept Spong’s false teaching. Truly there is much work for Christians to do in contending for the faith among unbelievers inside of our churches.
PRAYER REQUESTS
On May 6th I will be meeting with a young lady who recently became a Mormon. Her Baptist parents are greatly troubled by this. Please pray for her heart to be open to truth and that I will represent Christ well.
Please also pray that:
We are able to teach several College Survival Classes this summer The Lord would provide for much-needed new computer equipment We would receive more in monthly support so we can minister full time very soon.
CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH
UNDERSTANDING THE NEED FOR SOUND DOCTRINE
Every Christian is, to some extent, a theologian.
That is to say, every believer has some understanding of theology, be it rudimentary or extensive, basic or complex. So the question every Christian needs to ask himself or herself is not “Do I want to have a theology?” but “Do I have a sound theology?”.
We are bombarded daily with situations and examples of poor reasoning and false claims, both in the secular world and the religious, that demonstrate the need for Christians to understand and embrace sound doctrine. From state universities to Christian seminaries, the historic faith of the church is being attacked.
CONFUSION ABOUNDS
Consider an article written by Alison Hornstein, a student at Yale University, which appeared in Newsweek last December. She laments the fact that the most troubling question she and her classmates wrestle with in the aftermath of 9/11 is “Did somebody do something really bad here?”
As stunning as it may seem, the current crop of college students seems either unable or unwilling (or perhaps both) to make a definitive moral judgment condemning these acts of terrorism. She writes that it is “apparent that my generation is uncomfortable assessing, or even asking, whether a moral wrong has taken place.” Why is this so difficult? Because they have been raised all their lives to be “open-minded,” “tolerant,” and “non-judgmental.”
Alison recognizes that this is a problem. So with all the boldness she can muster she declares, “we should recognize that some actions are objectively bad, despite differences in cultural standards and values.” So far, so good. But then, like a young bird that cannot fly too far from the nest, she returns to the relativism of her upbringing. “To me, hijacking planes and killing thousands of civilians falls into this category.”
Malcolm Muggeridge, the English journalist, once said concerning the sad state of our society “We have educated ourselves into imbecility.” This is what is going on at Yale, Harvard, and scores of other institutions of “higher learning.” They are producing educated imbeciles whose minds are trapped in an intellectual and moral maze from which they cannot escape.
This is why there is a desperate need for equipped Christians who can explain to the Alison Hornsteins in our society that morality is objective, that it is appropriate (even required!) for us to judge certain actions to be evil, and that the God who created us and loves us can help us to both love the sinner and condemn the sin.
CHRISTIANITY ATTACKED
The secular campus is not the only place where confusion rules.
Churches that call themselves Christian are inviting men like John Shelby Spong to preach from their pulpits (see enclosed article) and allowing Muslim leaders to promote Islam as a “religion of peace” within the church because “we pray to the same God.”
Many seminaries have become citadels of unbelief with professors openly teaching theological treason. The latest rage is “open theism,” the assertion that God is not omniscient, unable to know with certainty future events, because if He did human freedom would thus be restricted.
In an editorial in Christianity Today magazine David Neff left the door open toward acceptance of open theism. In a statement which, in my opinion, demonstrates appalling ignorance, Neff declares, “There is no more boring concept of God than that traditionally presented by philosophical theism.” If he understood the nature of God as demonstrated by classical philosophical theism, he would recognize that the God of philosophical theism and the God of the Bible are one and the same. A sound philosophical grasp of God does not create problems like open theism, it solves them.
A pastor in a large evangelical church, lamenting the fact that most people in the pews have a poor understanding of the fundamentals of the faith, recently commented to me, “The problem is the church is not teaching enough doctrine.” I could not have agreed with him more. This is precisely why this ministry exists: to be a help and a resource to the church in teaching sound doctrine so the saints will avoid the confusion and be ready and able to contend for the faith.
Jude 3,
Dave
