The Great Divide
Posted by: forthrightmag <forthrightmag@...>
http://www.forthright.net
Going straight to the Cross
Not all that glitters is gold. And not all that
wears a religious garb is from God.
The Great Divide
Greg A. Tidwell
Catholics and Protestants historically divided
over doctrinal issues - the worship of Mary, for
example. A recent trend, however, attempts to blur
the distinctions between the Catholic and the
Protestant religions.
The brushing aside of doctrinal differences is an
outgrowth of a mindset which downplays truth and
accentuates experience. Much of the current
aberration in American religion is a result of
ignoring the truth of what one believes (the
content of faith) and focusing on the experience
of faith itself (how one feels).
Idols of Emotion
This same error is tearing apart the Churches of
Christ as confidence in experience (man-centered
religion) is replacing confidence in revelation
(God-centered religion). A Christian college, for
example, recently offered a class in Catholic
mysticism as part of its annual lecture program.
As the church moves away from obedience to
Scripture, it moves toward the unbelief of
secularism and liberalism or it moves toward
experiential religion - either exuberance as seen
in the Charismatic movement, or ritualism as
presented in various Catholic and Orthodox
traditions.
The Power of Truth
The power of the gospel, however, is not this or
that experience -- it is the truth that Jesus
Christ died, that he was buried, and that he rose
again from the dead according to the Scriptures.
The proclamation of the gospel is not "cultivate a
suitable feeling," but "believe that Jesus is the
Christ and express penitent faith in confession
and baptism." The church must preach genuine faith
in Christ as presented in Scripture, not a
counterfeit faith of human invention.
Only as we return to belief in Scripture alone as
the basis for doctrine, government, and worship
will we be the church which submits to Christ.
Reasserting the basic principles of the
Restoration Movement, with its insistence upon the
foundational doctrine of Scripture alone, we can
stem the depletion of truth which threatens the
Lord's church.