"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." ~ Matthew 7:13-14
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death" ~ Proverbs 16:25
"The broad way is certainly easier. There is no precipice. There is plenty of latitude for those who want to sample the moral smorgasbord offered by the crowd on this road. You can just stroll and roam. There are hardly any limitations, no curbs, no boundaries. There is tolerance of every conceivable sin- just as long as you say you love Jesus. Or as long as you are religious. Or whatever else you want to be." ~ John MacArthur ("The Gospel According to Jesus")
"Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run, there's still time to change the road you're on." ~ Led Zeppelin ("Stairway to Heaven")
The world wants to believe that all paths lead to heaven. They want options and they despise exclusivity because it goes against human nature; we want everything our own way. The narrow way to heaven is not about rules and legalism; it's about obedience to a new nature. The popular message today is tolerance & acceptance. Within this new attitude, there is no room (or tolerance) for the exclusivity of Jesus Christ. When someone calls themselves a Christian and yet, believes that there may be other ways to heaven besides Jesus, what does that say about their faith?
U2 has had a following of Christians for years because of the spiritual messages behind their songs. Bono has been elevated as a sort of spokesperson for Christianity because of his humanitarian efforts however, his position on the exclusivity of Jesus Christ says something completely different...While performing in concert with U2 back in 2005, Bono wearing a headband with the word "COEXIST" on it, stated the following:
"Jesus, Jew, Mohammed-all true. Jesus, Jew, Mohammed-all true."
Apparently, it's "cool" to be a Christian (like Bono) who accepts that there are other ways besides Jesus. This is the type of non-judgmental Christianity that the world likes unfortunately, it's not true.
How long before this verse is deemed hateful and intolerant?...
"I am the Way the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through Me." ~ John 14:6
~ktf~
John
1 comments:
Hi John, Our church dabbled in the "seeker Sensitive" arena for a while. Hopefully we're done with that experiment. Our pastor's fairly good at preaching the gospel, though he stops short of reformed theology, and we never left the gospel out in our desire to be seeker sensitive. I think Piper said it best in his old utube vid that the prosperity gospel (lumping them all together) just appeals to the 'natural man' and would make perfect sense to a Gentile. How can it be the gospel?
My recent thoughts (from John Robbins) have been that Jesus sent out the 70 disciples before him and when they rejoiced that even the demons were subject to them in His name, Jesus instead tells them not to get excited about such "experiences" (like seeker sensitive services and all the rest of the junk) but in stead to see the glory of God's grace in there election ("their names are written in heaven"). In fact, in a litereal reading of it, Jesus commands them to rejoice in it.
Paul reminds us in Col 1 that he is glad the gospel is spreading amongst us since we first heard it and understood God's grace. That's what is missing from ALL of the false gospels and too many evangelical churches. Understanding God's grace. People want to believe that their faith is up to them, and don't want to see the insanity of God choosing us before the dawn of time, and of course, choosing the rest for damnation. (Ouch). But that's the glory of God's grace, and mercy, how his grace glorifies himself, and missing from most gospels. It's the only truth that makes sense to a believer and is nonsense to the unbeliever. All of the rest of the gospels out there put us in charge of salvation, and all it's benefits, and make perfect sense to the unbeliever, who just doesn't want to change there life to "conform", keep the rules, so churches keep re-packaging it, hoping for success, which would be no success at all.
I enjoyed your posts, and will see you again.
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