The centrality of the Word of God has been subtly replaced with inferior but pleasing substitutes. Systematic preaching and teaching of the Bible have been displaced in many churches with entertainment, drama, concerts, comic acts, and the like. For a number of decades psychological theory has been usurping the authority of Scripture. The purpose of many churches is no longer salvation, but therapy. And, increasingly, mysticism and extra-biblical revelations are superseding the Bible.
Gary E. Gilley, Revelation and the Believer, “The Quarterly Journal” of Personal Freedom Outreach, Vol.34, No.2, April-June 2014.
3 comments:
Glenn,
Wow, this quote by Gilley is certainly pertinent today...
Sigh.
-Carolyn
"Systematic preaching and teaching of the Bible have been displaced in many churches with entertainment, drama, concerts, comic acts, and the like." - strangely, I found myself adding 'topical preaching' to that list.
Here's why.
Topical preaching (although good for certain subjects) can also lead towards a very narrow, pick and choose view of scripture, to twist it and make it fit a certain theological viewpoint. This is pretty much what a WOF teacher would do.
Sadly, I don't know of any pastors or teachers who consider it important to preach the entirety of scripture, which is sad because it is profitable for many things (2 Timothy 3:16). I know in our church we have not had a series that looks in depth into a particular book of the bible for years. It's all topics that follow the whole 'build God's kingdom now' and 'you're special/important/valuable' and 'you have a great purpose'.
As anonymous said -
Sigh.
Fortunately, at the assembly we attend, the pastor routinely preaches through books of the Bible. Occasionally he will preach on a topic, but when he does he digs deep in the Scripture. We had heard about this pastor and church almost from the time we arrived in Iowa (December 1995), but since the church was 35 minutes away we decided to try more local churches.
The first one we left after six months because they decided they wanted to be Willow Creek Iowa with their philosophy (they made large additions to the original building, and a couple years ago had to build a whole new monstrosity).
We then "church-hopped" for the summer of 1996 and settled in at a Bible Church in December. That one had a new pastor arrive about when we decided to settle there, and it cause a split as he was bringing in the Toronto Revival stuff. At that point I joined with some of the solid members and we worked to oust him, which happened in Nove 1997, and we stayed there another year trying to get the place stabilized. But when that year was up and they still didn't want a doctrinal statement, we left.
And we still kept hearing about that assembly with the good teaching but still didn't want to do the drive. So we visited many other assemblies and finally in July 1999 were invited to a Plymouth Brethren assembly. While they were pretty good half the time, the other half was hit-and-miss because the men of the assembly did the teaching. An issue of sin in the assembly in late summer 2001 led to five families (including us) leaving the dying assembly.
THAT was when we decided to drive the 35 minutes and have been there ever since.
So there are good assemblies out there, and I know of one in NJ and one in Illinois, and even one in Colorado - but they are few and far between.
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