Pastor John MacArthur of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, recently gave an interview to The Blaze in which he said that church denominations that have adopted more liberal attitudes to gay marriage and other issues “have no allegiance to the Bible,” describing them as “false churches,” “the apostate church,” and “Satan’s church.” He also described three types of Christianity – true, cultural and institutional. MacArthur said in his interview that cultural Christianity is in decline but I completely disagree with that. Cultural Christianity is growing by leaps and bounds and I believe the liberalization of church doctrine is a huge indication of this. Cultural Christians are those who, when asked, will say they are “Christian” for no other reason than they are American and don’t consider themselves atheist or Jewish. They identify themselves as Christians, perhaps because they do believe in God, but they are not biblically followers of Christ. A type of Christian not mentioned by MacArthur is a congregational Christian. They don’t have a deep commitment, but refer to themselves as Christians because they have some kind of connection to a church, perhaps through a family member or holiday attendance.
The problem with cultural and congregational Christians is they claim Christianity as their faith, but never put it into practice and have no real convictions. Without convictions, their Christianity is false and they leave themselves open to adopting corrupt doctrine and liberalism. Like a cancer, these false Christians infect denominations and steer church teachings to be more liberal, leading to church endorsement of perversion such as gay marriage or leftist ideology like what the Presbyterian Church USA recently approved – condemnation of Israel and solidarity with the terrorist group, Hamas. To my mind, any church that would endorse a terrorist group, let alone condemn Israel, is Satan’s church and should stop calling themselves Christian.
True followers of Christ could never endorse gay marriage. This moral issue was settled by God and any attempt at man-made revision is a testament to false doctrine. How could it possibly be that the Church was wrong about gay marriage for two thousand years?
To reject the morality given to us by God is to adopt moral anarchy and open the door to all kinds of perversion. Without an authoritative standard when it comes to morals, what right does anyone have to say that something someone else does is immoral? How can a church that reject’s God’s morality still claim the authority to condemn pedophilia, incest or bestiality? When God’s moral standards are rejected, all we are left with is judging others by our own subjective ethics. As society becomes more immoral it seems that some churches will adopt less moral attitudes. And let’s be clear, those less moral attitudes are what people want to hear at church, not what God says their morals should be. A church that adjusts its doctrine to mirror societal standards is no longer a church, but a social gathering of people fooling themselves.
Homosexuals, bisexuals and transgendered people used to be considered perverse by societal standards. Now they are celebrated, given parades, special protection and rights from the government, prominence in movies and television shows and their lifestyles are indoctrinated into schoolchildren as being normal and healthy. And now even churches celebrate these perversions, perform gay marriages and endorse these lifestyles as normal and biblically acceptable.
What will these false churches do when other perversions demand acceptance and endorsement? Incest, for example. Not long ago a judge in Australia said that adult “incest may no longer be a taboo and the only reason it is criminal is potential birth abnormalities, which can be solved by abortion.” So, churches that endorse gay marriage, would you endorse a brother and sister getting married? With subjective ethics, you have no right to say no to them.
There is a growing movement among leftist psychiatrists that pedophilia is not a choice or a perversion, but a lifelong sexual orientation. As this idea grows and takes hold, will these false churches also endorse pedophilia as normal and biblically acceptable? Outrageous you say? But why? Just a decade or two ago who would have thought there would be mainline Christian denominations that endorse gay marriage and perform gay weddings in their churches?
The perversions that have infected our society are creeping into our churches. A church without Godly morals as its doctrine is simply a heresy. It is a sad thing to see so many that were once stalwarts of Christianity become false churches doing Satan’s work.
Our churches should be holding the line against the perversions we see in America. Sadly, many of them are embracing the evil that is upon us. For this, America may very well be judged harsher than for anything else she has done.
I believe we may be experiencing some of that judgment already. It could very well be that, as a country, we have been turned over to ourselves and we are now reaping what we have sown.
That could very well be true and would not be the first time God has allowed it to happen.
[…] that choose to endorse hedonism and be ejected from the SBC. I wrote a post in August titled Church Endorsed Perversion On the Rise in which I outlined the liberalism that is infecting churches and the false Christians who steer […]