I suppose it is of man to swing on the pendulum of extreme.
Christianity is not without our own.
There is on one side the extreme of Calvinism and on the other the extreme of Arminianism.
There is the extreme of an election that says only those special chosen go to heaven and everyone else goes to hell on one hand and there is the extreme that says God must be too loving to allow anyone to go to hell.
Mega church pastor Rod Bell has caused quite the stir with his new book that addresses his extreme view that God has means of "saving" even those who don't get saved so that hell is not a reality. People have been writing in favor of his teaching with such sentiments as "this is what I always thought but was to afraid to say out loud."
Of course it is what people have thought. Adam and Eve insured we would think differently than God when they obeyed the serpent in the garden. What we think is dangerous. That is why God gave us His Word. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.
And then there is the extreme of the doctrinal conservatives with cultural liberty.
The Mark Driscoll and Perry Noble's may be the most dangerous of the apostates because they fain to know a God who is true and awesome and (in the Biblical sense) terrible. They preach him thus. But then they betray their true heart convictions of a man centered religion with their abandonment of separation from worldliness. They profess to know God but their deeds prove otherwise. Their application if Scripture demonstrates the old Garden problem; we believe we can decide what is good and what is evil. God's ways are also higher than ours.
I propose another kind of extreme. I propose we practice the extreme of good old fashioned obedience to the Word of God. I propose we practice the extreme of not attempting to attract the world with our extremes instead, but extremely obey God as He has revealed himself in the Word of God.
Let Him build His church as we seek its purity, not its popularity in this world.
Now that is extreme.
Marvin McKenzie
In the fields
Christianity is not without our own.
There is on one side the extreme of Calvinism and on the other the extreme of Arminianism.
There is the extreme of an election that says only those special chosen go to heaven and everyone else goes to hell on one hand and there is the extreme that says God must be too loving to allow anyone to go to hell.
Mega church pastor Rod Bell has caused quite the stir with his new book that addresses his extreme view that God has means of "saving" even those who don't get saved so that hell is not a reality. People have been writing in favor of his teaching with such sentiments as "this is what I always thought but was to afraid to say out loud."
Of course it is what people have thought. Adam and Eve insured we would think differently than God when they obeyed the serpent in the garden. What we think is dangerous. That is why God gave us His Word. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.
And then there is the extreme of the doctrinal conservatives with cultural liberty.
The Mark Driscoll and Perry Noble's may be the most dangerous of the apostates because they fain to know a God who is true and awesome and (in the Biblical sense) terrible. They preach him thus. But then they betray their true heart convictions of a man centered religion with their abandonment of separation from worldliness. They profess to know God but their deeds prove otherwise. Their application if Scripture demonstrates the old Garden problem; we believe we can decide what is good and what is evil. God's ways are also higher than ours.
Let Him build His church as we seek its purity, not its popularity in this world.
Now that is extreme.
Marvin McKenzie
In the fields
