Thursday, March 1, 2012

Church in need of Reformation

In the year 1517, something amazing has occurred. An Augustinian monk by the name of Martin Luther nailed the Ninety-Five Theses to a church in Whittenburg, Germany. What this sparked was the Protestant Reformation. It led to erroneous doctrine of the Catholic Church to be exposed and the restoration of Biblical truth. Today, the church of America needs reforming. False theology of the Word of Faith movement, the therapeutic Gospel, and the Emergent church are rampant in churches from sea to shining sea. Another thing that most Christians, including Calvinists, seem to miss is the involvement in reforming the culture. As one can see; there are abortion clinics opened all around, homosexuals are pushing for their “right” to get married, and elements of God and Christianity are gradually being removed from the public square thanks to intimidation from liberal/ atheistic groups. If the church in America is going to be reformed, it needs to get themselves outsides of the walls of the church and involved in reforming and evangelizing society.

4 comments:

  1. Is that the goal of reformation? To put down homosexuals, force God into our buildings, and to make sure everyone accepts Christian ideology?

    Or is the goal of the reformation to put God back into *the Church*, make sure its members understand the Truth of the Gospel, and to kindly share the Gospel with desperate souls--not so that we live in a pure society, but so that they might know Christ and escape the doom they are headed toward.

    Here's the bottom line: no matter what we do through government, this world will *never* be holy before God. Having statues of the Ten Commandments and banning gay marriage does nothing. Even after our nation was founded, it was no "Christian" nation. Jesus asked us not to force our faith through government, but to share the Gospel with those around us.

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  2. I never said it was going to be through the government. It can only happen from the church and from God through his sovereignty. It starts when the church realizes its sins and repents from it.

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  3. Feel free to correct if you think this is blatant heresy or what not. But I might want to clear up some misconceptions.

    1. Reformation and revival will never occur from the top-down. The Roman Catholic church has done it and it resulted in people not knowing anything about the Bible or salvation.

    2. Reformation can never happen in our own strength. It really is a work of God.

    3. I am not downplaying evangelism. I believe it is a critical part of "bringing" reformation.

    Hope this helps.

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  4. It starts with the church looking at her sins and weakness and depending on the Lord for the change that can only come from Him. The church needs to be healthy before it can be effective in influencing society. A culture that is opposed to the standards of righteousness is a reflection of a church that is not growing in holiness (not perfection). A church can only grow in holiness if it grows in its love for the Lord, and the truth He has revealed. Jesus said that His followers will be light and salt before others. Only when this happens will the standard of God come back up and people will know the difference between right and wrong. Also, No person can actually attain God's standard. Only One ever did, and it is through Him that we can ever be credited with righteousness and have the power to defeat sin.

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