The DeGRAFF FREE
State Route 235/
Phone: (937) 585-4463
James R. Roby, Pastor
www.degrafffreewillbaptist.com
THE NEW JESUS
AND A LOVE CALLED TOLERANCE
By Paul Proctor
Have
you heard? There's a new Jesus in town and he brings with him a NEW gospel
message. It is a message that teaches a permissive kind of love...a love
called "tolerance"...a love that hears no evil, sees no evil and frankly
never brings evil up for discussion lest the offenders become the offended.
Discussing the evil in our world that is the sinful nature of
man, is a risky venture nowadays, especially for any Christian or church seeking
to be loved and accepted BY the world. But then that's not really the
great commission, is it...that you and I go out into the world and seek its
love and acceptance in the name of Jesus? No, the bible assures us that because
of Christ the world will hate us.
John
15:19 says: "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because
ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore
the world hateth you."
We
cannot pursue both the love and acceptance of the world and be the "living
sacrifice" God calls us to be. That's two entire different agendas. If we
try to carry out both simultaneously the two will eventually conflict
forcing us to choose between them. Today's seeker-sensitive church growth movement is, in my estimation, the unfortunate
result of such choices. A healthy church simply preaches repentance and faith
in Christ and trusts God for the outcome.
"And
He said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and
preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." (Mark
16:15)
You
see the great commission involves a good news/bad news kind of message. To
preach repentance we have to make perfectly clear what it is God expects man to repent of. We can no longer assume that the
lost know they are sinners, especially among today's adolescents who are
growing up in an increasingly scripture-free environment. Yet, more often
than not, that is exactly what we do. We forget that today's young are
coming of age in a much different world than most of us did...a country
where biblical instruction like the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the
Mount have been strategically replaced with a multicultural value system.
Multiculturalism basically means almost anything and everything is
permissible.
So,
how can one repent of sin if he or she is never taught what sin is? This is the bad news part of the message we are called to
proclaim and more often than not what makes being a faithful witness for
Christ in this day and time such a challenge. After all, there's really
nothing that dangerous or difficult about telling someone "Jesus
loves you", especially if you're
talking about the NEW Jesus. But, those who endeavor faithfully to present the
bad news concerning "the wages of sin", as well as the good news
about "The Way the Truth and the Life", will likely be marked
and marginalized as narrow-minded extremists who "promote
negativity" and intolerance. Unfortunately, these accusations come
not just from secular society but
from those who embrace the new Jesus and preach
the gospel of tolerance. This, I believe is why the church is in such a
decline today, because we don't want our relationships, our reputations
and our rosters to suffer over an ugly little three letter word called
"sin", even for the cause of Christ.
Unfortunately,
without the bad news the good news has little or no effect. That is the
primary reason for the Law and the prophets and men like John the Baptist
who preceded our Lord's coming with stern and intolerant warnings like,
"Repent ye, for the
receive the Lamb of God and must continue to prepare His way in our sermons,
our Sunday schools, our bible studies and our personal witnessing so that the
Good News of God's forgiveness in Christ Jesus will be recognized for the
Amazing Grace that it is. Like my pastor says, "you can't know you're saved
until you know that you're lost" and it is those intolerant
Commandments
that have become increasingly ignored over the last half of the 20th century
that show the lost just how lost they really are.
These divine precepts were specifically designed by God to prick the conscience
of fallen man and inform him of his sinful condition under the power and
influence of the Holy Spirit so that somewhere down the road of life he might
turn to Jesus Christ for a salvation he could not earn. We already know as
believers that trying to keep those laws as a means of
salvation is erroneous and impossible. That's legalism...the failed
religion of the Scribes and Pharisees. However, if the lost are never
confronted with God's absolutes how can they know they've erred? How can
they understand their separation from Him? It is an exercise in futility
to offer forgiveness to someone who is ignorant of his or her own guilt. One
cannot begin a relationship with Christ under an assumption of innocence.
This
is why we have such insanity in our schools today and why Jesus is mocked
by the MTV generation. Young men who commit heinous crimes like those of
anymore for young people like these to refer to. The bottom line is; they're
simply not exposed to anyone or anything that provides moral boundaries and
statutes for them to follow and learn right from wrong, which probably explains
why we see so little grief or remorse on their faces when they turn schoolyards
into killing fields. Life is just meaningless entertainment to
them...an interactive game of mock survival where right and wrong simply doesn't
exist. As most of you know a concerted effort was made decades ago to
remove the Ten Commandments from every schoolhouse and courthouse in
just being intolerant!
You
see, the workers of iniquity who planned this culture of death we now find
ourselves in didn't busy themselves trying to rid the world of Jesus back
there in the 60's although they did manage to re-fashion him into something
of a flower child. They concentrated on getting rid of the word "sin",
making it a socially unacceptable word so that eventually our society as a
whole would see no real value in the forgiveness that comes through Christ.
After all, who needs grace when there is no sin? And if there is no sin,
then there must be no Hell. So, if there is no Hell then why should we fear
God? As a result, being the "salt of the Earth" is now viewed as a threat
to the unity and diversity of our culture...a culture that is drowning in
an artificially manufactured self-esteem based on moral relativism. To be
intolerant of another's sin is now considered to be the greatest sin of
all...if not the ONLY sin. But you see, that's just what the NEW Jesus is
all about...tolerance...a tolerance that embraces almost any behavior and
lifestyle...that celebrates a diversity of beliefs for the purpose of
promoting a convoluted unity that brings anyone and everyone together
under a universal god...a god that recognizes EQUALLY, Jesus, Allah,
Buddha, Krishna, Isis, Lucifer and even the god of self...whatever might
stimulate the senses or stir one's emotions in some meaningful way. Sound
good? It does to the carnal man...the man whose passion is peace and prosperity.
This is the NEW Jesus and the new gospel called "tolerance". The "old" Jesus...the TRUE Son of God, said,
"If ye love me keep my commandments".
We
see the new Jesus everywhere. He's on our television set manifesting himself
through the feelings, imaginations, experiences and emotions of celebrities,
psychologists, talk-show hosts, authors, musicians, spirit guides and
psychic readers. He's in the movies sensualizing the
faith of Christians with a narcissistic philosophy that re-interprets
scriptures
like: "I can do all things through Christ" so that it means, "I
can do anything that makes me feel good in Jesus' name". This NEW
Jesus teaches that the end justifies the means...that whatever we say or
do that attracts people to us or our church MUST be God's will...because
what's good for the numbers is good for God. So we end up telling the lost
what they WANT to hear instead of what they NEED to hear and then call
THAT "love". But, Proverbs 14:12 reminds
us:
"There is a way which seemeth right unto a man,
but the end thereof are the ways of death."
Here's
what the Apostle Paul had to say about the NEW Jesus in 2nd
Corinthians 11:2-4:
"For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one
husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to
Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through
his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted
from the simplicity that is in Christ." For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached,
or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel,
which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him."
You
see...Paul was telling them that he was concerned that this NEW Jesus, this
NEW spirit, this NEW gospel that some were preaching might actually carry
them away. Why would he be concerned? They knew better. Paul taught them
better. He was concerned because they tolerated it. They held their peace,
listened to the lie, voiced no opposition and took no stand against it.
And it is a proven fact that if you lie about
something long enough people will eventually believe it, no matter how
absurd that lie is. And, I submit to you that many Christians in
"...If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have
received, let him be accursed" (Galatians
1:9)
