THE CHURCH DOES WELL TO LISTEN

Word from the Center
Written By Peter Scaer

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The church does well to listen to the advice of outsiders, though rarely to take it. Perhaps you have friends who suggest that your church should get with the times. Perhaps it ends with guitars and a stage replacing pulpit and altar. Or it could be Christian colleges hiring DiversityInc. Officers, and submitting themselves to DEI standards, even if those standards are at odds with the Ten Commandments.

 Charlotte Lytton offers up a Los Angeles Times editorial under the title "Churches' acceptance of gays latest bid to remain relevant." Lytton comes to help: "Keep up with the times or die out completely." She cites church attendance statistics and appeals to truth: "Religious institutions appear to have missed a fundamental truth: In the age of dwindling devotion, the question is no longer what people can offer their church, but what it can offer them." We are told that "rather than debating the minutiae of religious dogma," we must "embrace our age, or go on living like it's 1534." If we stay the course, which for Lytton means embracing the rainbow pride, the chance of the church "surviving another 489 years is slim indeed."

 Which is greater? Lytton's ignorance or her arrogance? Perhaps this should be a cautionary tale for all the would be faithful who claim that the church needs to "keep up with the times." So, to return to Lytton's question, what does the church have to offer? How about eternal life? To wake up the likes of Lytton and those who might listen to her, as an added bonus, the church offers a way out of the eternal fire of judgment. Will the church be around in 489 years? Who knows? Our Lord said that in the last days many would fall away. Will the church be around in 489 years? Who knows? Perhaps by then our Lord will have return to judge the world, to divide sheep and goats.

 And when the Lord returns, those who take the advice of the likes of Lytton will be very sorry indeed. Shall we go on living like it's 1534? What a stupid and ignorant thing to say. Lytton's world is that of an ongoing abortion holocaust and of young people given puberty blockers and hormones leading to mutilating surgery. A world of broken homes and children without fathers. But then, we are not taking our lead from 1534 either, but from Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Human nature hasn't changed. We remain a fallen race in need of a Savior, and if we listen to the likes of Lytton, we will save no one at all.

 So yes, listen to the advice of Lytton as a cautionary tale, and then root out such thinking in your own midst. Do you not know that we will judge the fallen angels? Why then do would we think it a good think to earn brownie points based on false ideologies that hate Christ? And when it comes to whether the church ought to bless same-sex unions and celebrate so-called gay marriage, I will turn to St. Paul, someone who actually speaks the truth and loves the church and wants us to enter into the heavenly places.

 As for Charlotte Lytton and all who sits in the seat of scoffers? It will be one day be a very hot seat indeed. Pray for her soul and for a church that is immune to her foolish wickedness. As for the faithful church, well, it will be around for a lot longer than 489 years, for it will never end.

 

The Rev. Dr. Peter Scaer is chairman and professor of Exegetical Theology and director of the M.A. program at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Ind.
 

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