The latest Pew Poll is out and again there is more falling away from the “old paths.” America has just celebrated their 233 birthday, farther removed than ever from her founding fathers. Men may debate the Christianity of our forefathers. Were they Deists or Christians, etc? What we all know and is not debatable, is that they all exhibited a tremendous amount of God-consciousness. Every where you look, you find the hand of God recognized by our forefathers. The majority of them recognized Jesus Christ as the Son of God, Who died, was buried and rose again. The footprints of such beliefs are found all over our nation at its inception.
The first Bibles printed in America were distributed in the schools. In my generation we have taken both prayer and the Bible out of our public schools. None of our forefathers rebelled at calling God our Creator. Today our educational system must teach evolution to our children. Evolution is simply accusing the Bible of lying, i.e.,
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Genesis 1:1
Evolution is as big a fake as global warming, or vice versa. No facts, no proof, nothing substantial, yet we are asked to believe something as preposterous as “Nothing exploded and made everything!”
Every direction we turn today, it seems to contradict God’s word. I think we can safely say that America is farther from God than she has ever been. All denominations are losing members, the liberal and the fundamental. The mega churches have grown because they are in fast growing metropolitan areas. Their agendas are mostly man centered instead of Christ centered. They have changed the message and well as the methods. Most have changed their names. I have no problem with that, unless it is done to disguise the message.
Let me make a few comments about all the church “name changes” that are going on. I have never been a stickler for any denomination or a specific name. I know of individuals that demand the name Baptist be used. Believe me, the name has nothing to do with the churches spirituality. The last time I looked, there were 77 different kinds of Baptist, so don’t think it means exclusively anything.
Every church that has changed its name knows why it did so.
Was it done to remove a stigma caused by the old name? Did the church have a history of feuding or problems? Did some new people want a new start with new leadership?
Was it done to remove the present church from the reputation of the old church? If the old church was a monument to sound doctrine, hard preaching and a fervent stand for the basic fundamental truths of scripture, you would certainly want to change the name if you were liberal and modernistic. Was it done because the church relocated? The First Street Methodist Church would sound awkward if they moved to Maple Avenue.
Was it done because the doctrine or practice was changed? The First Baptist Church would need to change their name if they changed from immersion to sprinkling. Some have argued that the word Baptist speaks to the doctrine of the security of the believer. It doesn’t to the Free Will Baptist.
Was the name changed for deceitful or underhanded reasons? As a rule, the liberals are not church planters. They are more like church “perverters.” They bring in new bibles, new music and new dogmas. I cannot recall people infiltrating a church to make it sounder in doctrine or to raise the standard of the people’s lifestyles. It always works opposite. Charlatans come in sheep’s clothing and begin their takeover. I have never seen a liberal church messed up by the fundamental crowd. There are many churches today that have split or are in shambles because of those who came in to change them. They changed the music, the message, the methods and ran the elderly off. A funny thing happened when they got rid of that group; things got bad. If you feel that you are smarter than the Bible and know more about “pastoring” and church business than God does, go for it, but don’t destroy other people to do it. You can entertain the goats someplace else; leave the sheep alone!
I do think there should be some identification in the name, though. Many churches are non-denominational churches, meaning they are affiliated to no denomination. If the name is Harvester Grace Church, you know two things; it is a church and it will probably emphasize grace in its message. If you lean toward the grace message you would have no qualms about visiting it, if you didn’t lean toward that message you would not visit it. If the name was Westside Bible Church, you would know two things; they are a church and emphasize the Bible in their message.
Churches with non-identifying names usually carry that principle all the way through the pulpit. They don’t identify with much there either. Why be sneaky about it?
We now have the merging church movement. Just another change, which really isn’t another change; just another twist of the same old wiles of the devil (Ephesians 6:11.)
The modern Pharisees say you can’t do things the way you used to. Question? Are they referring to the old Bible ways or the old technological ways?
What failed with the Bible way of doing things? Was the failure due to the lack of obedience on man’s part or did God’s system just not succeed? Did prayer fail? Did Bible study become the cause of one falling behind in today’s world? Did personal witnessing have no effect? Were power point presentations or drama the only method drawing men and women to Christ? Question? How does living like the unchurched cause the unchurched to want to attend church? Question? How does using worldly entertainment to draw the young people help the young people spiritually?
It seems that today’s flourishing merging churches may have Lot’s experience:
“And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city. BUT HE SEEMED AS ONE THAT MOCKED unto his sons in law.” Genesis 19:14 (caps mine)
Keep Looking Up!
Leland Maples
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