We live in a society today full of compromise. Absolutes are for the narrow-minded. Morals are relative. Tolerance is the new gospel and being judgmental is a sin.
The recent break of a California diocese with the Episcopal Church is an example of the end result of decades of compromise. The tipping point in that case was over the roles of homosexuals in the Church. But a church body doesn’t just wake up one day and decide to overturn 2 millennia of doctrine; the decision to ordain openly gay bishops comes at the end of a growing influence of liberalism in the church.
An old saying is that people don’t trip over mountains - they trip over molehills. The first compromises are very small. A person might, for example, begin doubting something seemingly benign like the inerrancy of scripture. After all, the Bible was written almost 2 thousand years ago; how do we know mistakes haven’t crept in?
But then how can he know which parts of the Bible are God’s word. Anyone could say of any part of the Bible, “Well, I don’t know if that’s what Jesus really said.”
Next, he begins to let human wisdom trump God’s word. So, if evolution tells us that we descended from lower primates, then that must be how God created us. And God didn’t do it in 6 days; He did it over 16 billion years. I know what He said, but these “scientists” help me understand what He meant.
But then, if someone can’t understand the clear meaning of the words in Genesis, how can he really understand any part of the Bible? “You say that the Bible condemns homosexuality, but that’s just your interpretation.”
Then he begins to make bigger leaps. Was Mary really a virgin? To a liberal, it doesn’t really matter if Mary was a virgin. The importance of Jesus is what He said and did, not if He was born of a virgin.
And if Jesus wasn’t born of a virgin, then He was really just a man like everyone else. He wasn’t Emmanuel, God with us. He was just a good teacher.
But hey, Jesus taught 2,000 years ago. It was a different world then. Perhaps the Bible says that women shouldn’t be pastors but that was just His society. And besides, the Bible’s been rewritten so many times I can’t believe it anyway. And Jesus certainly didn’t understand the importance of inclusion and tolerance. If Jesus were on earth today, He would not condemn homosexuals.
But God doesn’t condemn anybody anyway. Doesn’t the Bible say that God is love? How could a loving God send anyone to Hell?
And on and on it goes....
Have you ever heard anyone make any of these statements? It’s a dangerous road to travel when you begin doubting the Scriptures. I had a pastor who used to say that sin will take you farther than you ever intended to go, keep you longer than you ever intended to stay, and cost you more than you ever intended to pay.
We have to decide here and now where we draw the line. We have to say, “this far and no more.” The future of our country depends on it. We cannot start down that slippery slope.
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