Since sending "Divorced FROM Church?" to our email subscribers on January 17, we have received a steady stream of comments and response. Rarely has an email update or newsletter struck such a chord. Many of you who read my thoughts in "Divorced FROM Church?" have experienced the pain of watching your local church and even your denomination implode theologically. (If you have not read "Divorced FROM Church?" I encourage you to do so. Click Here.) In the early days of my walk with God, Melanie and I experienced this and, even though I was certainly a babe when it came to understanding doctrine and theology, I vividly remember what it feels like to be ostracized by others who had drunk the kool-aid of spiritual liberalism and who were trying their best to give me a sip.

 

For a season we stood, prayed and dialogued with many in that first church we were a part of. I can't say how much progress we made there but I cared enough for the people that I wasn't going to give up and just go away, as I'm certain some there would have liked. I had blindly gone into Christianity thinking that, if a church, book store, radio station or individual claimed to be Christian, then they actually were Christian. In the message "The MOST Dangerous Cult" I tell how we were called by God and how at the same time I came face to face with the realization that not everything that says "Christian" is deserving of that title.

 

I was certainly "wild fire" in those days but I knew the Jesus who had miraculously delivered me from years of drug abuse and, though I had yet to read the entire Bible through, God was as real as anything I knew in the natural realm. Regardless of how green I may have been in the faith, I was His and He was mine and nobody - especially those who were claiming beliefs against the Cross, the resurrection and this wonderful salvation - was going to separate us. (Read my testimony "How I Came 'From Rock to Rock'" here.)

 

I have said all of this to say that I truly understand how each of those whose letters appear below have felt. Space limitations here will not allow me to reproduce all of the correspondence we have received on this but allow me to share just a few at random. Some of you reading this will surely appreciate the fact that you've been shielded from having to experience what some others have experienced because of devilish doctrines being promoted and accepted all around us. As you read the letters below, I encourage you to consider just how you would handle the situation if you and your family and friends were to encounter the false teaching and false teachers about which the New Testament constantly warns us. They are indeed going to be more pervasive throughout the professing Church as the end-times proceed.

 

 

Parishioners aren't the only ones feeling alone. Just imagine yourself a God-fearing, biblically-minded pastor who is watching as his once-solid denomination theologically goes down in flames. Countless leaders are feeling relentless pressure to acquiesce to the likes of Emergent, "seeker" and Purpose Driven philosophies as their congregations and other local church leaders are drawn like moths to an open flame to these unsound and unbiblical ideas.
 
Even the best are affected adversely. After all, when denominational leadership, peers and even the Bible college or seminary you've attended seem intent on forwarding the theology and philosophy of Emergents like Brian McLaren, it is bound to be disconcerting at very least. Some react almost subconsciously by slowly moving away from staunch biblical standards. Others resign their positions rather than be associated with the "new" Christianity. And still others are forced out of their churches by those demanding a shift from the authentic to what is nothing less than fraudulent religion.
 
Believers in the know must support godly pastors and staff, realizing that though they (and we) are not perfect, their job in proclaiming the unadulterated truth is getting harder and harder as the end-time deception deepens.
 
Two passages come to mind as I close.
 
2 Timothy 4:1-4 exhorts leaders what they must do and prophetically assures us that the very syndrome I've discussed here was indeed bound to proliferate through the Church in the end-days. Though we are instructed to carefully execute the preaching and proclaiming of the truth, many will reject the truths of Christianity and install people into leadership to tell them what they want to hear ("fables" i.e. myths) - instead of what is accurate and legitimate.
 
Paul writes: I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but aftertheir own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
 
Secondly, for the many that have written or called us expressing how lonely their stand for truth has been, don't despair! As you can see from just these few letters, you are not alone.
 
Elijah mistakenly thought he was the only prophet - perhaps the only Israelite - who had not forsaken God and His truths. However, God brought him reassurance that, instead, he was not alone. I Kings 19:18 says:
 
Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.
 
Indeed, Church, there are many in the Remnant who are refusing to bow to false religion and embrace its worthless gods! To them we say a resounding "AMEN!"