1 Timothy 4:14 Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you.
The denomination that I belong to finds itself at an unprecedented and unenviable crossroads. Within the next couple of months, the current ordination standards are going to be changed. This means that people who are in an active relationship, whether homosexual or heterosexual, who are not married, can be ordained to ministry if their local presbytery agrees. The only barriers to ministry and eldership will now be academic ones, but even they could be challenged.For the first time in 2000 years, we will effectively be departing from concise biblical standards. Sinful behavior will no longer require repentance. Acceptance and tolerance will be the idols of this new church; contrition and repentance will be cast aside. The slippery slope to secularism will be placed beneath the feet of the faithful and the influence of the denomination will diminish, much like its European counterparts who are already experiencing the failure of Christian faith throughout their society.
The church will never be the same and I believe that the Holy Spirit will leave us to our own fractured state and false free will. We will delude ourselves as numbers decline, churches close, and presbyteries merge over the next 25 years. We will stubbornly refuse to believe that this was the moment when we abandoned God’s will. But by then it won’t matter; we will have reached the point of no return.
The Christian church will flourish elsewhere. Faithful Christian communities will grow and we will watch with enviable eyes as they are blessed. There will come a day when we will curse this moment in our denomination’s history, but the doom will be imminent and by the end of this new century, the denomination will be consigned to the ecclesiastical history books. Our epitaph will be the following:
“For the sake of society, the church was lost. For the want of acceptance, our souls were lost.”
Prayer: Lord Jesus, we are about to reject You, Your Ways and Your Words. We will deceive and delude ourselves about this action as being the right thing to do. Your scriptures warn us that “there is a path that seems right, but it leads to death.” By embracing our society, we are cradling the grave. Forgive us, Lord, for thinking that we know better. In Your Holy Name, we shamefully pray. Amen.
John Stuart is currently the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment or ask questions of today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.
Today’s image is one of John’s latest Good Friday drawings. It’s called “Forgive Them” and depicts the brutal moment when Christ was crucified. If you would like to see a larger view of the drawing, please click on the following link:
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