The Pugnacious Irishman has some thoughts on it.
Here’s the problem he ran into at church last week:
The message today was a message that contradicts the biblical witness, yet it is a message I hear frequently in the 21st century. I cannot see Jesus proclaiming the message that was proclaimed today.
[…]Our pastor’s main intention was to press home that our actions need to match our beliefs.
[…]Things started going off the rails, though, when a very obvious second message was proclaimed: the whole “actions-proclamation” dichotomy.
[…]Here’s why I say that: I thought I was just reading into the message, but that was put to rest when I heard the worship leader’s application: “go out and proclaim the gospel at all times. Use words if necessary.” He got it loud and clear. When we got to my car, my wife, who is not an apologetics freak like myself (she’s normal, thank God!), turned to me and said, “I know what his intentions were, but do you get the notion that he was saying that you don’t need to talk to others about Jesus?”
Go here to read Rich’s answer to the problem.
I will surprise no one by stating that it is impossible to preach the gospel without using words, which is why Jesus used them, and why we have people writing letters, preaching sermons and disputing in public throughout the New Testament. In fact, it is literally impossible for someone to be saved without hearing about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The propositional content about these events is required, not optional.
Basically, the message of Christianity is that we are all sinful, and in need of a Lord and Savior so that we can be rightly related to God again. Works are just epiphenomena that occur after you have already been saved, showing that you really are saved. The message of the feminized church, on the other hand, is “do nice things because it makes you feel good, and it makes other people feel good – and that’s what Christianity is about”. So, saying things that make non-Christians feel bad, or that imply that they should be studying to change their beliefs is intolerant or harassment or a hate-crime.
Well, I haven’t been snarky, since, oh… yesterday. So let me tell you exactly why people in the feminized church emphasize actions instead of words, by referring to some of my favorite posts from way back when the blog started. That way, all you new readers can read stuff from back when I actually wrote really good posts on Christian apologetics, instead of really bad posts on politics.
Here are some of my thoughts on why people in church want to do nice things instead of telling others the good news and defending it against attacks. (If you only have time to read one of them read this one)
- People in church today think that the Bible teaches that faith is not grounded on rational arguments and evidence.
- People in church think all religions are the same – they all have the same goal and none is really exclusively true.
- People in church think that any religion is valid if it makes people do nice things and feel happy feelings.
- People in church think that religions are just personal preferences and cannot be tested to see if they are true.
- People in church don’t really believe that it is a sin not to know God’s existence and character, so they don’t even try.
- People in church don’t really believe in Hell, so there is no reason to be urgent about telling others about Christ.
- People in church believe that the purpose of Christianity is to make them act nicely and have happy feelings.
- People in church don’t believe that God feels bad when his reputation is maligned in public by non-Christians.
- People in church struggle to work Christianity into conversations in the places they live and work.