http://thinktheology.co.uk/blog/article/in_defence_of_the_ea
So I loved the poignancy of this article. Apparently the EA (Evengelical Alliance) addressed a false teaching, by removing that teacher (Steven Chalke) from their organization. His teaching (and he’s not alone) being …..the church needs to accept the homosexual lifestyle not as sinful, but as a legitimate lifestyle and norm of our culture. But, Mr. Chalke, norms, do not righteousness make.
In an article written by Steven Chalke, he compares homosexuality with the current, norm of accepting women as teachers in the church. Clearly, that is like comparing apples and oranges.
(http://www.christianitymagazine.co.uk/sexuality/stevechalke.aspx ) Steven Chalke’s article
Or he suggests. …..since slavery once was endorsed by scripture, but was put to an end by Christian abolitionists, why shouldn’t we view the normalization of homosexuality the same way?
Or shouldn’t forgiveness be doled out to same sex relationships that are on going, in much the same manner as the church extends grace and mercy for past Divorcees?
After all isn’t the church supposed to be inclusive?
Yes, I would say we as believers should be lovingly and caringly accepting of all as they are, but not willing them to continue in their folly, but to grow and nurture them in truth! In my experience, that truth though, is not inclusive, and often leads to those who are not wanting to accept the truth, excluding themselves from the communion of believers! Not the otherway around!
So do we change the truth?
Mr. Chalke’s, “Inclusive theology”, seems to have glossed over Christ statement,
13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy[a]that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
Matthew 7:13-14(ESV)
That doesn’t sound inclusive to me? Perhaps that’s because I’m just a Bloomin Idiot!?!
The following is a blog with the same perspective as Chalke:
In this Chalke supporting view, the writer (Alan Molineaux) also, claims the EA is Exclusionary, ……
Wouldn’t you expect that from followers of an Exclusionary God!?! He himself says, many more will choose distruction instead of life!
These guys take issue with that!
Molineaux, says this exclusion is a tool to silence dissenting voices.
Dissenting to Who’s view? The EA’s? Not quite….. I believe the correct answer would be…………. God’s!
I suppose this is a strange concept to many, since this is an issue…….. but, there are many other dissenting views out there, as well…..dissenting against……….. The Word of God’s teaching.
And when we get to the bones of the faith, what holds it all together, dissenting on the location of a femur or saying it flat out doesn’t exist, ceases to make a complete body! It leads to disfunction and disability, in the Body. Christians are members of the Body of Christ, certain bones have to be exactly where they are meant to be! A femur can’t be a hair follical.
The Christian bones of our faith have been set! These cornerstones of our faith are true in all cases or you aren’t part of the Christian body and thus not part of the Christian faith!
We are not just any faith, but a faith based on the Word of God, the revelation of who God is, given to man by God himself!
A God who has revealed Himself to be;
14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’
Exodus 3:14 (NIV)
And
8Yeshua The Messiah; He is yesterday, today and forever. 9Do not be led to strange and changeable teaching, for it is good that we strengthen our hearts by grace and not with foods, because those who have walked* in them have not been helped.
Hebrews 13:8-9 Aramaic Bible in plain English
And
“For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.
Malachi 3:6 ESV
And not to
mention….
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the
Almighty.
Revelation 1:8 (ESV)
That’s just a few…..
That testify to who God is and that He doesn’t change!
Saying you are a Christian, doesn’t make you one., …...Accepting Christ‘s sacrifice for you, worshipping Him as He is, not as you wish, doing what he says, to the best of our fallible human frailty allows, does!
Again, perhaps I’m too simplistic, I might gave missed the deeper theology behind the words and between the lines!
God came here to earth, to show us how to live,and explain that we needed to accept His way, to be restored in a good relationship with Him once more, otherwise, we would remain apart from God for eternity. He suffered as we suffer, He knows how we struggle, and He promises to help us! Oh God can be known, He wants to be known!
Why do theologians such as Chalke try to complicate things, to the point of utter confusion? Is this God’s way?
Could it be as simple as these simple truths……
Jesus said;
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 14:6 (ESV)
And this pretty important truth……..
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”
John 14:15
And this as well……hmmmmmm?
3 To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.4 And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them.
John 10:3-6
So God, who never changes…… Expects us to follow Him, and do what He says!!?
YES!!!
Maybe, I’m just crazy! Could Jesus actually have been talking about sheep and not people as I suppose!?!
Apparently as I’ve read, the EA conducted a survey as to how it’s members behaved and acted, and came away from that survey that homosexuality is always wrong…..even though 27% of EA members weren’t sure or disagreed.
Molineaux claims the EA thus dismissed a quarter of their surveyed,
“21st century evangelicals”
…….and are disregarding or silencing the views of quite a large group within their organization.
Not that a survey should have anything to do with the church’s conclusion, on the Biblical teaching of what is and isn’t sin!??
But the EA has led the sheep of Christ correctly, claiming the truth of the whole of scriptural teaching, on this matter.
Those who have a problem with that, don’t have a problem with the EA, but with GOD!
Chalke is not a stranger to controversy. He rejects the view that the Bible is either inerrant or infallible. In, ‘The Lost Message of Jesus’, he rejected the idea that Jesus died for the sins of humanity, calling that idea “cosmic child abuse”.
Regarding the EA’s decision to remove him from the EA, Oasis, Chalke’s organization released this statement, “We still regard ourselves as being part of the evangelical tradition. Steve still regards himself as an evangelical Christian,”
The EA may be an organization, in that it is Denominational, but it is first and foremost part of an Organism……..The Body of Christ! And perhaps Oasis and Chalke wish to claim they are traditional evangelical Christians, but in that regard the actions and teachings being presented need to be consistent with the faith, as found in scripture.
As such, the EA and Chalkes, burden must be to do as it’s founder, Jesus (remember Him, you know God Incarnate) commanded.
The EA has acted in compliance with scripture based teaching, that is scripture based teaching, prior to the modern theologist’s meddling ways.
Chalke and many modern theologists, love to hang their hat, for changes in basic faith understandings, on hermenuetics.
“Exegesis and hermeneutics are two essential tools for understanding the Bible. But while exegesis analyses the actual structure and meaning of the text itself and looks at the nuances of the linguistics, hermeneutics digs deeper to unearth what’s behind it, as it explores the cultural and social perceptions of the writer and their hearers.” ~Steven Chalke, The Bible and Homosexuality, Premier Christianity, May 8, 2014.
That’s right, let’s not look at what was actually said, but let’s try and figure out why, let’s dissect it with what’s not written, the stuff between the lines and behind the words!
I don’t believe we should parse scripture as though parsing Bill Clinton’s, “Depends on what your definition of is, is?”, statement.
Frankly though, God didn’t put His Word in some unknowable code, left up to our ever gyrating, numerous, systems of human interpretation! ………No, God wants to be known, and all this hypothesizing is just man’s attempt to justify his own unjustifiable sin.
To engage in, or allow false teaching to abound and be accepted, jeopardizes the souls of those, who may adhere to that teaching! The very souls the church is charged to save!
Chalke’s, teaching that; Sin isn’t sin, Christ didn’t die for the sins of humanity, and the Bible isn’t the “trustworthy” Word of God, slaps the very face of Jesus Christ Himself, and makes our Lord out to be a liar!
Yet, Chalke still desires to be considered a Christian, and provide inclusive teaching. Well, that may be an all warm and fuzzy love fest, but if he truly feels Christ didn’t die for our sins, he’s sending people to a very uncomfortable eternal damnation. If his teachings do just that, is that loving? Allowing people to comfortably, continue on to their eternal destruction?
Wouldn’t the enemy of our souls. …..Satan……be amused, and ever so pleased, about “Christians”….. debating, or dissenting on The Word of God in such a way as that!
I’m thinking….. that’s what Satan does. ….he injects doubt to dissuade, and then enslave the creation of God, to sin and death!
We certainly can have differences of opinion about certain subjects in The Bible, but not the bones of the faith. Seeking to excuse sin through this kind of mumbo jumbo, not to mention these other false teachings, and in the process deceivingly condemning souls, is not one of them.
Yes I said mumbo jumbo.
Ponder this as you consider your faith; Is your faith stable, built on The Rock, that never changes, or just on some mumbo jumbo, that just changes with the times, the cultural norms. Like a house built on shifting sands.
Depending on your view, it could make all the eternal difference.
Thee Bloomin Idiot 