No connection between salvation and the church?
Not often do I get stern about false teachers among us, but yesterday’s Forthright Magazine article, “Pull the Plug on Progressives,” touched on the harm they’re doing in, among other places, Brazil.
• Evangelicals are loathe to see a connection “between soteriology and ecclesiology.” Salvation and the church, never the twain shall meet in the Protestant mind. So they certainly don’t mind making up rules about what you must do to get in their churches. One writer, in an otherwise good article about new members’ classes, doesn’t blink an eye about making such classes requirements for membership. Never mind about binding what hasn’t been bound in heaven, or in the Bible.
• In the Lord’s church, progressives have bought into this evangelical garbage. They are determined to remake the church and get it to swallow this poison. And some supposedly faithful brethren are giving them a hand, holding the equipment as false teachers get the saints to imbibe of it.
• We can’t have it both ways, friends. We will either go the way of the general religious world or we must fight tooth and nail for the truth. It is not a battle we want to fight, but it is one that has been foisted upon us, and we must not shrink from it.
• While the battle seems lost from the start, and the numbers of the enemy swell, we will find strength in weakness and solace in our God that the cause of truth is right and worthy of our every effort.
Related articles
- Salvation chart (fellowshiproom.org)
- Is there no gift of evangelism? (gospelprogress.com)
- How to destroy a congregation (forthright.net)
John Gaines 7:18 pm on August 1, 2012 Permalink |
Thom Rainer has given us a lot of helpful information about church growth, but he is a Baptist. It isn’t surprising that his views about church membership are consistent with those who for many years (and many still do) vote on whether or not to accept candidates for membership. If there is no connection between salvation and church membership, his position is sensible. If it is the case that the Lord adds the saved to the church, then we have no right to add arbitrary requirements.
J. Randal Matheny 7:00 am on September 29, 2012 Permalink |
John, I missed getting in my reply to your comment, and I apologize for that. Your sentiments are dead on. And they call us legalists!