THE SEEKER FRIENDLY CHURCH

These are some things Flip asked me to write for him since he is not where he can write them. Pray for our team as they fight the good fight of faith and run the race that is set before them. In our Lord Jesus, Becky

THE SEEKER-FRIENDLY CHURCH
New Age or Old Age?

      The seeker-friendly church is paving the way for us to be comfortable in our sin rather than recognizing our sinfulness and our need for repentance and genuine faith. Flip spoke of Pastor Kyle, who began and ended his service with the song "When a Man Loves a Woman." The message in between was superficial and shallow. An elder of the church alluded to the Lord’s Supper as nothing but a chicken wing, and a lady in the church said that all were welcome to partake of this sacred ordinance, both lost and saved. He also told us about the pastor of a large Assembly of God in Great Bend, Kansas, who told our team that they were worse than the sin of abortion because they were driving people away from the gospel.

      The fear of driving people away causes the "seeker-friendly church" to speak of another Jesus, a different spirit, and a different gospel. Paul wrote of this in his second letter to the Corinthians: "But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough." 2 Cor. 11:3-4. The word translated "other" is allos in the Greek, meaning "another of the same kind." The word translated "different" is heteros in the Greek, meaning "different" as it is exactly stated.

      There are those who speak and preach of the same historical Jesus but a different representation of him. This is a different spirit and a different gospel. The church that embraces homosexuality, abortion, or pluralism of faith is preaching another Jesus and a different gospel. The pastor or teacher who omits the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith is like the blind leading the blind. They dispense a false mercy leading many astray. Jesus said they shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. They themselves do not enter and they do not let those enter who are trying to. "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are." Matt. 23:15. This is no gospel at all and has no power unto salvation. There is no salvation apart from repentance. Genuine faith results in repentance. Faith without deeds is dead!

      This is not a "New Age Movement." Jude writes, "For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign Lord." Jude 4. Jude calls them scoffers following their own ungodly desires, men who will divide you and follow their mere natural instincts. They do not have the Spirit. The Apostle Peter says that they are blots and blemishes. They revel in their pleasures while they feast with us, and their eyes are full of adultery. They never stop sinning. They are springs without water and mist driven by a storm. Both Jude and Peter state that blackest darkness is reserved for them. This is another Jesus, a different gospel, and a different spirit.

      Paul told the Corinthians, "You put up with it easily enough." We are the children of light. If the light within us is darkness, how great is that darkness. We must love enough to confront sin. We must love as Jesus has loved us. If the ministry of death is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry of life? The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. It is required of us: "To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8. Let the Law of God condemn that men may find mercy and live in His grace. We have been promised to one husband, Christ Jesus. May those who keep watch over our souls present us as a pure virgin to Him. Brethren, we ought not to be deceived as Eve was deceived, being led astray from our pure and sincere devotion to Christ. "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." Romans 1:16.

      Let us walk in a manner worthy of our calling. "Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks the cup…. But if we judge ourselves, we would not come under judgment." 1 Cor. 11:27-28,31.