Sunday, October 24, 2010

6 Dangerous Contemporay Attitudes toward God's Word

Ralph Turk, in his class on Contemporary Theology, outlined 6 dangerous trends in Christianity:
*Don't make love more important than doctrine. A permissive love that neglects the truth is never truly love. Better the wounds of truth than the kisses of error.
*Examine the motives of those who re-investigate or re-examine major doctrines to make them more relevant in our world. Truth is always relevant. Why do I want to question it?
*Question those who preach different messages to different groups. Acceptance, support, or even self-preservation are not suitable motives for changing the truth.
*Beware of those who substitute religious phrases for the Word of God. The Bible is large, rich, and robust. Trite sounding phrases that tickle our ears are no replacement for God's Word. Develop a mindset that everything must be examined in light of scripture.
*Be suspicious of those who do not trust God's Word as their sole authority. They want the Bible to share authority with church leaders, additional writings, or theological traditions. The Bible stands alone as God has put His own integrity in His Word.
*Be careful not to cooperate with just anybody for the sake of the gospel. They must know the gospel as truth and claim it as their own. On theological differences, we can agree to disagree, but we must both use scripture as our source. One or both of us may be wrong, but denying the authority and dependability of scripture is not the way to agree.

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