IR-Relevant Half-Truth

What's up.. here's another side of the multiple personalities the good Lord saw fit to give me. Forget the smooth talk, here's the real talk, the simple talk. Guess it's cuz' I'm listening to Lecrae's new cd, 'after the music stops' found HERE. This is really in response to reading the article about the Emergent 'theology' found in Hank's post earlier today from another blog.

Aight, so I read the stuff written and I've read other stuff written. The truth is, the church as an organization has done a lousy job RELATING to culture in the last.. century? So, like everything else that brings HORRIBLE doctrine (they probably reject that word in the emergent church) into the church people have gone to the opposite extreme. Look at every single doctrinal error and it comes from the same problem. People are upset with sin within the church, they move toward perfectionist theology. People see the results of hyper-Calvinism and move to semi-Pelagianism. People don't see the gifts manifested in the church so they start their own church and only focus on the physical manifestation of gifts. Here's the problem. People model their lives after the lives of other PEOPLE, they model their thoughts after the thoughts of other PEOPLE, they model their beliefs after the beliefs of other PEOPLE and they RESPOND to the errors of other people by taking the things they feel they are missing and center their theology on that. You want to make people think? You want to bring more people into the kingdom? You want to expand the kingdom? The kingdom is expanded by people submitting to the Lordship of Christ not by people praying prayers to 'accept Jesus' or by people giving intellectual assent to an idea of Jesus that is completely non-Scriptural. Belief in God does not save you and belief in Jesus doesn't save you. What a horribly foolish idea with incredibly grievous consequences.

You don't believe in the continuation of the gifts, you do or don't believe in tongues, you are pre-trib or post-trib or mid-trib, dualist or tripartite, fine whatever. We may disagree but it's cool cuz we can discuss it in heaven. Not a huge issue, let's work together and tell people about the Kingdom of God. That's the small stuff, the side issues. You don't believe in the Deity of Christ, the sufficiency of Christ, that He is God's Son, died on the cross and rose from the dead? You're going to Hell. That's a big thing.

How are we saved? Romans 10:9-10, "..confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For the with heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved."

Confess Jesus is Lord. Believe in your heart. As the brother on the blog Hank linked to pointed out you have to believe in the right Jesus because if not your belief is Misplaced. In fact, you aren't even believing in Jesus anymore, you are believing in an idea or expression of Christ and that doesn't cut it. 'Depart from me, I never knew you.' That's the statement that awaits those who place their trust in a false god. That's really all it is, a false god and idol in man's image made to fit and idea. I understand the need to relate to culture, to be 'relevant' but is a lie really ever relevant? Telling people part of the truth is not relevant to their lives. Sure they relate to it because it doesn't require the spirit. It's a philisophical ideal. It's post modern jibberish. The Gospel is ETERNAL TRUTH. Change the style, adapt to the culture but don't change the truth. Compromise? That's a word for relationships between men. It shouldn't ever be used in relation to foundational doctrinal truths. Gays, lesbians, murderers, sex addicts, drunkards; Jesus' message to them was CHANGE. Religious people, moral people, follower of the law, smart, dumb; Jesus' message to them was.. CHANGE. The message of the Kingdom, the gospel of the Kingdom is come, submit yourself to the rule of the Lord Jesus and you will be CHANGED.

But that's not what they want to preach. Post-modern, non absolute truth ideology is a POWERLESS Gospel. People aren't changed. They feel loved, they feel accepted. That's great, that's fantastic, but guess what? "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, not adulterers, not men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." -1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Key words? Let me break this down real quick.
1. Unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God
2. Righteous will, but Christ is the only one righteous (the divine Son of God who died on the cross and rose again conquering sin, death, and Satan) so we have to go through Him
3. Homosexuality is a sin and so are the rest of the things mentioned.
4. 'And such were some of you.' The word 'were' here is past tense. That means 'in the past' as in prior to God's regeneration, our justification and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

The kingdom brings change. It's that simple. Sometimes it's a slower change, but it brings, at the least, a heart bent towards conforming to the image of Christ. Addictions, homosexual lifestyles; these things are serious issues and in most cases change doesn't come overnight, but it DOES START overnight. An openly gay and unrepentant homosexual or adulterer or alcoholic 'Christian' is an oxymoron. For the kingdom of god does not consist in talk but in power (1 Cor. 4:20). There is power to affect change in a person's life. Will the homosexual struggle with homosexual thoughts? Sure, just as the person who has premarital sex will struggle with those wounds from the past and the alcoholic may struggle with alcohol and the gambling addict with gambling. The difference is the HEART. And it is with the HEART that you believe and are justified. If you are not repentant of those things, then your HEART HAS NOT CHANGED and if your heart has not changed, you are NOT justified. That's what the Word says.. clearly.

Aight, speaking of changing medium to relate to the culture that's good and I've seen it all over. Lecrae says, 'you listen to everything from rap to gospel, but I bet you never heard anybody rap the gospel.' We have Christian hip-hop (the best theological lyrics. Modern day hymns), different instruments for worship in every culture, different styles of worship, different ways of dress, different media and mediums, but the MESSAGE is the SAME. REPENT FOR THE KINGDOM of HEAVEN IS at HAND. The Truth of the gospel is always relevant because it has not changed.

What the world needs now is a dose of reality/ eyes wide shut to spirits and principalities/ mentality that says, I can't know the truth/ and all of this debate is just a hopeless feud// I know it's you, devil with your smoke and mirrors/ twist the thoughts of men when there hope's sincere//but sins here even if you want to brush it under/ til the skies torn back with loud peals of thunder/ whole earth torn asunder, spirits kill and plunder/ preach a kingdom, but no power well then it's no wonder// people get confused and think Jesus is weak/ sittin' up in heaven, so mild and meek/ I hope he turns the other cheek on the judgment seat// well ain't that sweet, I guess that we forgot the sword/ the one he'll carry on his horse when he comes back for war/Dear Lord, I pray You would change these minds/ of men who have placed all their faith in time/ and it's ability to make grand truths from lies/ with ideas that change like skies and tides/ peculiar eyes, view this world with skewed worldviews/so I pray You'd reveal to the chosen few/ those whom You have known since eternity past/ the Truth of Christ before the time's elapsed/ and hold them firm in Your grasp/ speak through them Father so the world will ask/ how do you perform such signs? how do the lame now walk?/ how do you know my mind? what's made the dumb to talk?/ what's made the drunkard sober, made the addict clean?/ what's made the atheist soldier worship Christ as King?/ what's made the racist hatred, change to brotherly love?/ what's the made the homosexual man marry a woman he loves?/ what's made the miser, giving, what's made the prostitute change?/ what's made the dead now living?? that was Jesus man...

Peace in The Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ
-EP