judgement

Scott Sauls: Compassion, Judgement, and the Insufficiency of “Progressive Christianity”

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A great word from Scott Sauls

Compassion, Judgment, and the Insufficiency of “Progressive Christianity”

BY SCOTTSAULS | JULY 19, 2021

In my sermon on July 18, 2021, I shared some thoughts on a movement within the church called “Progressive Christianity.” Among other doctrines, proponents of this movement have questioned the long-held belief, as quoted in the Apostles’ Creed, that Jesus “will come to judge the living and the dead.” Efforts have also been made to re-interpret Jesus’s teaching about hell and judgment, which he spoke of even more than he spoke of love. Following is my attempt to explain why such “progressive” thought does not represent progress, but rather a major step back — not to mention a step away from orthodox belief.

One of the greatest stumbling blocks to Christianity, especially among those who are drawn to the idea of a loving, compassionate God, is the Bible’s teaching on judgment. As the Apostles’ Creed says, at the end of history Jesus “will come to judge the living and the dead.”

Jesus, who was full of compassion and gave his life because God so loved the world, spoke more about judgment than he did most other subjects. He could not have been more clear that an excluding verdict awaits those who, in pride and self-sufficiency, exclude themselves by dismissing his generous offer of salvation by grace through faith (Matt. 5:22; John 3:16-18).

And yet, with an even greater intensity, the same Jesus got sideways with pious religious people who wished judgment on others (Luke 9:51-56). Though divine justice demands payment for sin, he desires that all would turn to him and find shelter from the wrath to come. He takes no pleasure in the death of anyone, including “the wicked” (Ezekiel 18:23).

Jesus, at whose cross “heaven’s peace and perfect justice kissed a guilty world in love,” perfectly balanced judgment with compassion.

Read the full article here

Crocodile Tears Over Burning Building

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This morning the news was all about the fire at Paris’s Notre-Dame Cathedral. Journalists and the various “experts” they talked to were in shock over this great cultural loss.

I say to them:

Woe to you hypocrites who mourn the loss of a place of faith but you spent the last decades defaming and hating the people of faith. You care about a Catholic cathedral, but loathe the Church the building represents.

Woe to you hypocrites who weep over a burning church that was empty but ignore the daily burning of christians inside their places of worship.

Woe to you hypocrites who marvel at the faith and vision of christians half a millennium ago to build a place of worship, but condemn those of faith and vision today who speak words you do not want to hear.

Woe to you hypocrites who wail at the loss of material objects which you can see but ignore your own souls which you cannot see.

Woe to you who live only for your own pleasure.

Your salvation is in Jesus Christ alone who forgives our sins and rescues sinners from the fires of hell.

Sodom & Gomorrah Feel Hard Done By.

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From The Babylon Bee:

Sodom, Gomorrah Wondering Why America Hasn’t Been Obliterated Yet
December 19th, 2018

AFTERLIFE—Former residents of Sodom and Gomorrah, speaking to reporters in the afterlife, recently questioned why the United States hasn’t been wiped off the map by Almighty God yet.

 

Those who once resided in the notoriously sinful cities are beginning to complain that America is still in existence, despite its senseless slaughter of the unborn and unquestioning acceptance of activities that were considered unthinkably perverse just a decade or two ago.

“Yeah, we were pretty jacked up—but have you seen some of the stuff that goes on in America nowadays?” one man said, shaking his head, which was on fire. “People are letting their kids dress up as drag queens and dance for money in gay bars. They literally kill hundreds of thousands of babies a year. They bomb foreign countries 24/7. We did bad stuff, sure, I’m not denying that—but come on! Even I can see the nation needs a hearty helping of fire and brimstone.”

“I mean, He can do what He wants, but if I were in the US right now, I’d be heading for the hills,” he added, shrugging. “And I wouldn’t be salty about it either—wouldn’t even look back.”

They also pointed to the fact that The Big Bang Theory has been running for over ten years.

Jon Bloom: Leave Your Secret Sin Behind Today

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Jon Bloom from Desiring God Ministries warns all christians, but especially leaders that we are in a time of judgement and it is time to leave our sins behind.

Today is a day of reckoning. A wave of judgment is sweeping leaders from their high positions of cultural, political, corporate, and religious power because they used those positions to indulge their self-centered sexual appetites on subordinates.

Things that in the dim, hidden realms of their imagination and control looked deceptively like perks of privilege and sexual entertainment — pleasures they pursued without giving serious thought to how the human objects they used would be damaged — now look lurid, foul, abusive, pathetic, and shameful when dragged out into the bright light of public exposure.

Victims are speaking out, many for the first time. Their anger is justified and palpable, and their words are carrying real consequences to their once-insulated abusers. So far this has been a very good thing. It would be a great mercy if lasting cultural intolerance resulted in the balance of power changing between lecherous leaders and vulnerable subordinates.

Is Your Heart Being Hardened?

But God is doing far more than exposing the sin of leaders. He is showing again how deceitful and desperately sick the human heart is (Jeremiah 17:9) apart from Christ, and reminding us that we have such evil blood still coursing in our veins, so prone to be “hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:13).

And for those who will hear it, God is offering us total forgiveness and freedom. He has sent his Son into the world precisely to liberate us from our sick hearts and sin’s slavery, no matter how lurid and shameful. There is an escape; there is a safe place.

But the time is urgent and short. God can turn a day of reckoning into a day of amnesty. But he’s calling today, “Today, if [we] hear his voice, [let us not] harden [our] hearts” (Hebrews 3:15).

Read the full article here