Friday, August 17, 2007

Spineless Christianity

One does have to applaud Thomas E. Trask for some of his recent comments at the 52nd General Council in Indianapolis, where he made an emotional plea to tens of thousands of "brothers and sisters" not to let a 'Spineless' Christianity enter the Assemblies of God. But he is sadly mistaken if he thinks that it isn't already in his denomination, though it may not be in the form of a seeker-friendly, liberal, or social gospel as he clearly described, but any form of Christianity that lives in direct opposition to the Word of God is a Spineless Christianity.

"Many churches in America today are offering ... new religion that guarantees no hell, requires no holiness, It is a limp, Spineless Christianity that does not confront sin for fear of being judgmental. It is an impotent gospel that tells people everything is okay." Thomas E. Trask
Trask listed several causes of what he calls 'Spineless' Christianity one of these issues is situational ethics in which biblical absolutes are rejected. How ironic that the general superintendent of the largest Pentecostal denomination in the nation would point to what is running so rampant within his on denomination to describe what 'Spineless Christianity' is and then denys it by saying "May it never ... invade this church!", this reminds me of Luke 6:42 "How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,' when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye?"

If Pentecostals truly want to kill 'Spineless' Christianity they might want to start with purging their own churches of 'Word Faith' false teachings and expose all the heretics that parade the 'Prosperity Gospel' on TBN who attach themselves to the Pentecostal statement of faith. Second it would also be a bright idea to condemn Roman Catholicism as a false religion, even if they do claim to speak in tongues. Third they should repent of allowing women to take the role of pastoral leadership in the church as 1 Corinthians 14:33-34 says "for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. The women are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the Law also says." Fourth they should stop being unequally yoked with unbelievers as they tend to align themselves with Roman Catholics, but 2 Corinthians 6:14 says "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?". Fifth they should stop teaching a second helping of the baptism which divides Christians into the haves and have not's and elevates some Christians into 'All Star' status. I truly believe Trask statement was dead-on describing a 'Seeker Friendly' gospel but not to the extent that it should have be directed to the Pentecostal denomination, their issues were not addressed at all.

2 comments:

Rick Jones said...

One would have to ask himself what "church" exactly is Trask talking about if he is not talking about AG. AG is one of the most liberal and socially open denominations today.

The Bororean said...

I agree with you Rick, its quite clear that Trask doesn't believe that the AoG has doctrinal issues as he never addressed the issues within the AoG, but rather clearly pointed out the 'Seeker-Friendly' church that runs rampant within the Baptist denomination.