Last weekend we went to an art boutique at a local church to check if it is feasible to sell our candles there next year as they have this event yearly. It was a good event and there were many people there. What is interesting is that the church is a result of two congregations merged together – one of the United Methodist Church (UMC) and the other one of the federated United Church of Christ (UCC). Both UMC and UCC are two of the most liberal mainstream denominations in the US.
Many of our friends and family members in Indonesia go to liberal churches. We are saddened by this fact, and we pray that by the grace of God they will be brought back into the narrow path-a path not many people choose to travel because it is dusty, narrow, ugly, and dry.
What is theological liberal? You may ask. In a nutshell theological liberal person is committed to the fundamental belief that either there is no supernatural being (or beings) or if there is a supernatural being it is impossible to know about such supernatural being. “Wholly Other” as Karl Barth said. Most of these liberals will reject the Genesis account of creation. “There was no real historical Adam” they will say. They will also dismiss the flood as merely myth. Almost universally they will say that there’s no miracle in Jesus feeding 5,000 men with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. If it was a miracle, at best it was the “miracle of sharing.” For them Jesus was not bodily resurrected from the dead. Yes, Jesus was resurrected they will argue, but spiritually. These liberals will also reject the exclusive claim of salvation through Christ alone.
For theological liberal humanity greatest problems are social, economics, and political. When they read the Bible they use the Bible as merely a commentary on psychology, politics, economics, and social issues, or a handbook on moral. To proclaim to them that the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is about Christ and it is inspired by the Triune God and that the content of the Bible is revealed for the purpose of reconciling fallen human beings to the offended Creator, to proclaim these things to theological liberal is to speak in myths, fables, and fairy tales.
Most lay people who are not diligent in their study, or those who don’t really know what they believe will not be able to discern the teaching of liberal churches. For them, as long as the preacher reads a portion of the Bible and the sermon is “applicable in daily life” then it must be true. Not so fast! While it is true that most of these churches still read the Bible and preach life application sermons they’re not preaching the Gospel. These churches had betrayed their calling to preach Christ and him crucified alone. They preach on moral, social, economics, psychology, and political issues, but not on the crucified Son of God. When they occasionally encounter Jesus in their sermon they wouldn’t proclaim, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” No, they will not proclaim that! Instead you will likely hear them preach, “Be like Jesus so that you will become a better person, a better neighbor, and a better citizen of this world.”
My greatest wound is to see loved ones being led astray by apostate preachers. We continuously pray that God will grant them understanding and lead them back to the correct path. While I often spent many sleepless nights thinking about this, I am learning to rest on the Sovereignty of Christ who will take every single one of his elect people into his Heavenly Sabbath rest. Take comfort, O my soul, in this assurance.