Beware of false teachers...

"For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine.

Instead, to suit their own desires,

they will gather around them a great number of teacher to say

what their itching ears want to hear.

They will turn their ears away from the truth and 

turn aside to myths."

2 Tim. 4: 3-4

I have spent much time over the past six month reflecting upon the state of the church in America and the West.  I have read broadly.  I have engaged with the news of the day.  I have sat with folks with whom I disagree about the proper and biblical way to deal with our current cultural directions.  I have tried to understand.  I have come to a conclusion.  

The defining issue in today's church 

remains the doctrine of scripture.

Do you believe that God has spoken clearly to reveal His character and will?  Do you believe that God's will on most moral issues is knowable?  Do you believe Jesus is who He said He is?

Why?  I can hear people saying (and I have as I have listened carefully), "It is all about Jesus.  All you have to do is believe in Him.  All this other moral and ethical teaching of scripture is not important.  It is all about Jesus."

Well, I could not agree more.  The problem is that many take Jesus so lightly!  Even among those who say it is all about Jesus there can be a dismissal of Jesus' life and teaching.

Jesus was all about promoting human flourishing.  He understood that humanity was in need of complete and total redemption.  He understood the sinful human condition.  He came to speak into that condition.  He came to live a perfect life and die an undeserved death to answer the greatest need of sinful humanity.  He came to define human flourishing in relationship to God and God's glory.  The result was incredible.

In Jesus is forgiveness, but also a changed heart.

Changed.  Transformed.  Made new.  Renewed.  Revived.  Restored.

Don't those words sound great?  Jesus came to give us grace to live a life of human flourishing.  A life that we were meant to live.  A life of meaning and purpose.  A life in line with how we were created to be.

The question is what does such a life look like?

Here is the rub.  Here is where the importance of scripture comes in.  I have heard often, "It is all about love."  Well, love needs some definition.  Even as a culture, we have defined that "controlling" love can be abusive.  So, what is true love?  What are proper expressions of love?

Jesus defines love and he affirms that scripture defines 

the proper expressions and understanding of true love.

Jesus began his ministry by affirming the importance of scripture.  To deny the authority of the bible is to deny the authority of Jesus.  As he states in Matthew 5: 17-18

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets;

I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, 

not the smallest letter,

not the least stroke of a pen,

will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

The winds of cultural thought have turned against the authority of scripture to define love, marriage, truth, and righteousness.  As a culture, we will reap the whirlwind from these cultural tides.

What I don't get is how churches and many "religious teachers" think they should join in our cultural destruction.  God is not mocked.  In other words, 

beware of any church or teacher that does not take scripture seriously.

In our fallen condition, even believers might differ in interpretation.  Yet, truly redeemed folks agree on 98-99% of all doctrine.  Those minor points in which we disagree are really not important.  They are like an intramural scrimmage.  We have way more important things to deal with.  Our culture, our friends, our families are not flourishing.  We cannot encourage people to walk deeper into sin.  We cannot approve of what scripture defines as sin.  These are the marks of a false church and false faith.  Doing so it not loving.  It is the opposite of love.  

It is time for the Church to be the Church.  It is time for believers to be believers.

                                                    "Jesus and the Pharisees"
                                                    Jacob Jordaens 1593-1678