The United Church in Toronto has been running television commercials which are somewhat disingenuous.
The commercial begins with a service in a huge church, and there is a woman holding a crying baby. The entire congregation gets annoyed at the noise, and then the woman and baby are ejected out of the church via an ejector seat. They go straight through the roof.
Then, the camera zooms in on an a couple with their faces loaded with pins and needles, just many different piercing, and they also get ejected.
Next, and old couple get ejected. The camera zooms in on a gay couple, and they get shot through the roof also.
Now the commentator pipes up how, God doesn't reject people, and neither do we (the United Church)
Now this is very dishonest. I don't know of any Bible believing church that stops anyone from walking through their doors. All are welcome. What the United Church, and others are leaving out, is the fact that they will accept most moral sins, and they preach that Jesus loves us all for who we are. In other words, there is no sexual sin that God rejects, and everyone will be accepted into Heaven.
This is an evil, and extremely dangerous preaching. How many people are going to lose their eternal salvation because they are being taught homosexuality, and adultery are not sins?
This is an excellent example of just how extremely cunning satan is. satan is a powerful. intelligent, miraculous being. I think we as Christians are really failing to get this truth out to people. I think there are lots of Christians, and seekers who have this false idea that satan was put out of action at the cross.
satan is not defeated yet, he has been banished from God's realm in Heaven, but he is just as powerful and cunning as he ever was. he is God's greatest created being!! Take that in for a moment...God made satan into a perfect, highly powerful, ultra super intellectual angelic being! We are defenceless against him, unless we have Jesus. But, we must always be aware of satan my friends. It is very important that we relay this truth to others, and especially seekers.
When we neglect our duty of informing others of just how powerful and cunning he is, we have failed them, we have failed Jesus, and we have failed ourselves.
I don't believe The United church began like this. I believe they ignored satan for so long that they forgot about how dangerous he actually is. Inevitably, satan has gotten a strong foothold in these churches, and as a result, these churches are now run by men who also ignore satan. Now we have churches who make broad brush strokes in relation to serious sins such as homosexuality, bisexuality, pre-marital sexuality, and adultery, by stating that "Jesus loves us as we are friends" and people buy into that. It sounds right doesn't it? Jesus does loves us for who we are, but he hates sin!
I often get responses to this subject like..."well, Jesus stopped an adulterous, prostitute from being stones, and that was the Biblical punishment for that sin." These people alway neglect to tell the entire story - Yes, Jesus did do that, BUT He also told that woman to
stop sinning. That incident is almost an encapsulation of why Jesus came and did what He did.
He came to die in our place, so we could be forgiven for our sins. We must accept His gift, and there are conditions we must obey in order to be forgiven. We MUST REPENT of our sins.
Does that mean we must be perfect? no. Does it mean we can not ever sin again? No. Jesus knows we will continue to sin. Jesus expects us to try with all we have to refrain from sinning (repent) Jesus knows when we are trying, and Jesus knows when we are lying!
The major problem with sexual sin, and more specifically homosexuality, is these people don't want to repent. They want to continue the lifestyle (sin) and a lot of them want God's blessing to continue this sin. It's not going to happen!
satan has really made this a muddled up issue, when it is actually quite simple...
Lev 18:22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it [is] abomination.
Lev 18:29 For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit [them] shall be cut off from among their people.
Lev 18:30 Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that [ye] commit not [any one] of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I [am] the LORD your God.
There are more verses, but they're not needed.
Anyone can read these verses. Likewise, anyone can attempt to put their own spin on these verses, but in doing so, you have chosen your own path. God has warned of what will happen, He has given us all the same free will to comply or deny. Don't cry foul when you are face to face with the Master!
Any preacher who lays in bed with satan shall lay in a lake of fire with him also.
Let's try our best to make the enemy known my brothers and sisters. he is a master deceiver, and our fellow brothers and sisters need to know who he is, and what he is all about. If we ignore him, it will be to his pleasure, and great advantage.
We don't need to get obsessed, but we must be aware, and make others aware when the opportunity is right to do so.
John
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