Peter W. Gilroy: Another Gospel, or No Gospel at All?

The increasing crisis in the Anglican Church and EC-USA is a sad situation, and it is not going to get better. It is further lunging Anglicanism headlong into schism. The ordination of women bishops is (going to be) another unwise step that puts the final nail in the coffin of the Anglican Communion as a united body, which has been a tenuous situation in the past few decades anyway.

More here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/07/12/ncofe12.xml

The timing of this new proposal about women Bishops is a further underlining of the mess that certain, fuzzyheaded Bishops have descended into, and another sign that they have lost the plot entirely. I am not even sure that I am against women Bishops per se, but it is the path they have taken that has brought them to pursue this course, and other more tendentious steps, that really should trouble any right-minded believer. There is a theological flabbiness gathering steam underneath these issues, a corrosive 'leaven that leavens the whole lump" and leads to a deadly weakening of the Church, and more than a hint of heresy and apostasy is still simmering on the stove.

A quote will suffice for you to see what kind of leaven is already baking in the ovens:

"The persistent claim of these movements [women's liberation and gay rights] is that a greater fulfillment can be achieved when one is freed from the mundane concerns of ordinary family life. The Playboy mentality, which sees females as bunnies, playmates or sensual toys, is joined by feminists and gays offering an alternative to family life. And it is not only that alternative lifestyles to marriage and family should be acceptable [among Protestant clergy], but more often than not, there is a desire to embrace the alternative lifestyles as positively superior because they do not lock the human spirit into humdrum sex, unrewarding labor, and the unexciting relationships that characterize family life."

Excerpted from Against the Protestant Gnostics (OUP) by Philip J. Lee:

http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/

One of the most telling indicators of false teachers and false prophets is that they will inevitably give themselves away by two things: 1. Immorality, (e.g., bishop Robinson living in sin with another man); and, 2. They will speak in contradiction to the revealed will (Word) of God, (i.e., the new revelation on homosexuality that Liberals espouse as being inspired by the same Spirit, who has clearly condemned the sin, but not the sinner). Take note that the first departure, usually flows from the second error, therefore, doing violence to Scripture - which always leads to darkness and bondage.

The most scurrilous behaviour of recent note must be the actions of the ultra-liberal Bishop of Connecticut, Andrew Smith, who broke into St. John’s parish without permission, and then proceeded to lock out the rector of this growing, and well-run parish in Smith’s Diocese, against the will of the congregation. While undertaking this disgraceful, “fascistic” work, the Bishop is reported to have broken into the Church computer, containing confidential files about members of the Church, and which is quite illegal. Tolerant, inclusive and loving? I think not! This terrible abuse of power is merely indicative of the depths to which these kinds of heretics (what other word can one use?) have sunken. As Bishop Allison noted so well, heresy always leads to cruelty.

More info here: http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2768

What we are seeing is, in reality, a conflict between those who have departed from the Faith for a perversion of Christianity, and which cannot now, in any meaningful sense, be called a Christian Gospel, and those who remain true. Those who continue faithful in the Gospel (and are accountable to it), and will brook no compromise with the Faith as supported by the Bible itself, and which is supposedly repugnant to the world, must make a stand for the truth for the sake of the world, even in spite of rejection. I would maintain that, so called, Conservative believers are not a breed of cave-dwelling, bible thugs, (notwithstanding the "bible-olatry" of some insecure souls, who pale before any intelligent questioning), but they are mainly orthodox Christians who recognize both the Gospel, and the need to present it a way that is intelligible; not altering it into something else. Take heed when men say all kinds of goods things about you and praise you! Lk 6:26; - You are becoming more like them (rather than Christ) than you realize!

What I am NOT talking about is: hating homosexuals, or unmarried people who engage in sex; this is about Christians who have shipwrecked their faith and are in the process of bankrupting the faith of others. A good question for the remainder of us always is; how do we reach out and share the love of Christ to all kinds of sinners, without falling prey to the above deviations from the Gospel? But that will have to be another post!

The so called, Liberals, are not proposing a (new, better, enlightened) version of Christianity, but a replacement of it. A wholesale accommodation to Western culture and mores - it is not the Gospel of the Son of God, who lived, died and was buried, and was raised to glory in a literal and historical sense. What they espousing is a saviourless humanism of peace and harmony, without scruples over what sin and truth are, in favour of some touchy-feely, wooly intellectualism, with just a few trappings of tradition; enough to keep them in purple and presbytery - for the moment. It is a hermeneutic of accommodation, not a proclamation of salvation in Christ alone. They are the blind leading the blind. It is no wonder their Churches are being deserted in droves.

What these Liberals affirm in man is not goodness; what the bible actually calls sin is being overlooked, without really offering people any real hope, freedom, and a new life in the power of the Spirit. They welcome people in sexually immoral lifestyles (which they condone), re-naming the behaviour as “loving”, while castigating the closed-mindedness of the Apostles, Fathers and Saints of the Church, and give such departures from morality a benediction from the corpus of Eastern philosophy and humanist ruminations, tinged with existentialism, while trying to atone for the guilt for the sins of the West, real or imagined. The only sin they recognize is intolerance; and the Gospel is its first target – tolerance? I think not. To borrow a phrase from Mark Driscoll: "Liberal Christians run the risk of loving their neighbors and their brothers at the expense of loving their Lord." http://www.christiancounterculture.com/articles/reachingout.html

However, Jesus is not a way, as they would suggest, but "the Way" - they have it backwards, and even, upside down. Their Jesus is not The Son of God, but a guru among the gods of the East, sanctified by psychology (which has its uses, otherwise) and as promulgated by Oprah (who probably does more good than many of their dodgy Bishops). They are scared to call sin, "sin"; they are loath to denounce false religion, terrorists, and display a silver-tongued eloquence in a spin of lies. Nevertheless, the articulate exposition of a fallacy does not make it the truth! One only has to compare Scripture with the tenets of this Christ-less faith. They say that they love Him, (Christ Jesus) and follow His example, but where are the standards of holiness; the denunciation and overt rejection of sin, the hatred for hypocrisy and stand for truth, and His warnings about hell? They do not believe these things; they are in opposition to the Word and message of Christ, for they have superceded it with another message. (They might as well work for the United Nations instead of misrepresenting Christ, His Gospel, and His Church). An imaginary saviour can only bring an imaginary salvation, so it is with the watered down Christ of the liberal mind. It is not a new Gospel; it is no Gospel at all.

Let's just review what the Apostles have to say about the enemies and false preachers of the Gospel (including the Gnostics, ancient and new!):

Seeking to be wise them become fools, and substituted the Truth of God for a lie. Rom 1:22;

“Another Gospel” is preached, but without Christ and His work at the core, our only hope for salvation and life. Gal 1:7; 1 Cor 15:1-6; 12-19;

Seeking after knowledge, but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. 2 Tim 3:7;

Having the form of Godliness, but denying its power. 2 Tim 3:5;

They would consort with other faiths, playing the harlot with other philosophies, pretending to be Apostles of Christ. They would preach themselves, take advantage of others, and line their own pockets, rolling about in sentiment and fornication in the name of "love" and tolerance. Sounds very familiar. Mat 7:15; 24:11; 1 Cor 5:9; 2 Cor 11:13; Phil 3:17-19; 2 Tim 3:6; 2 Pet 2:1; 2 Jn 1:7;