[Apologetics] Re: Methodists Go Down The Episcopalian Road

Wed Mar 31 12:07:57 EST 2004

Bret,

Thanks for sending the Cal Thomas column, which I
hadn't seen.

It's sad to see the Methodist Church, and the
Episcopal Church, ignore the plain words of Scripture.

But that is the fruit of sola scriptura. 

If every person can determine for himself or herself
what Scripture means (an UN-Biblical concept in
itself), then it is only a short step from there to
decide that, even when the Bible in unequivocal on
something (as it is in the case of homosexual
conduct), each person can decide whether or not it is
applicable to the the present or to them personally.

Art

--- Bret <bbellamy at mindspring.com> wrote:
> Bret has sent you an article from The Washington
> Times.
> 
> Bret's comments: Except for the godly remnant, the
> United Methodist Church has abandoned the Christian
> stance of John Wesley.
>
-----------------------------------------------------------
> METHOD OF SPINNING FAITH
> By Cal Thomas
>
-----------------------------------------------------------
> March 20, a lesbian Methodist pastor was acquitted
> on charges stemming from her sexual orientation and
> will continue her ministry. A jury of pastors in
> Bothell, Wash., deliberated 10 hours before a
> majority ruled the homosexual relationship between
> the Rev. Karen Dammann and another woman, who
> recently "married," is allowable under church social
> principles, although the Methodist Book of
> Discipline declares homosexual practice
> "incompatible to Christian teachings."
> 
>     Should anyone be surprised? Having abandoned
> Scripture and the teachings of Methodism's founder,
> John Wesley, who believed the Bible was God's
> infallible Word to man, it is a short step to
> rejecting all statements, "doctrines" and
> "principles" based on eternal truths.
> 
>     If the church can't uphold an eternal principle
> involving sexual expression and male-female
> relations, it puts everything up for negotiation in
> our increasingly relativistic age where the truth
> can never be objectively determined.
> 
>     The conservative wing of the Methodist Church,
> known as the Confessing Movement, has it right. Its
> Web page (www.confessingumc.org/tract3.html) says:
> "The moral relativism of our time rebels against
> Jesus Christ's gracious rule over human sexuality.
> This relativism and rebellion have found their way
> into the United Methodist Church. There are those in
> the church who understand marriage as a short-term
> contract, who desire to legitimize homosexual
> practice, and who care little about protecting the
> unborn child and mother. In some quarters of our
> denomination, premarital sex, extramarital sex and
> serial marriage are silently tolerated. A confusion
> has arisen in our church between the Lordship of
> Christ and the reigning cultural virtue of
> tolerance. The Confessing Movement challenges the
> misuse of the principle of tolerance to set aside
> the authority of Scripture and [the] church's
> teaching on human sexuality."
> 
>     In his closing arguments at the church trial,
> Miss Dammann's counsel, the Rev. Robert C. Ward,
> articulated a doctrine more befitting "the church of
> what's happenin' now" than the historical and once
> doctrinally strong Methodist Church: "We need to be
> careful about creating rules that exclude people."
> 
>     I guess he has never heard of the separation of
> sheep from goats, wheat from tares, the saved from
> the unsaved and the afterlife separation of dwellers
> in heaven from residents of hell. Would Mr. Ward
> include in his doctrine of inclusiveness practicing
> adulterers (who, along with all other unrepentant
> sinners, are listed as people who have no hope of
> attaining heaven)? How about murderers, thieves and
> liars? They are on God's exclusionary list, too.
> 
>     It is too late for the Methodist Church (as with
> Episcopalians and their heretical brethren). All of
> the "confessing" movements and attempts to turn
> things around are unlikely to succeed. Once a
> denomination starts down the road of compromise,
> caring more about what the world thinks than what
> God requires, it is nearly impossible to bring it
> back. Only Southern Baptists in modern times have
> succeeded in reversing a liberal trend, but not
> without a bruising fight.
> 
>     The only course for people who still care what
> God thinks is to follow the instructions of Paul the
> Apostle: "Come out from among them and be separate."
> 
>     John Wesley believed in absolutes that those who
> claim him as their spiritual ancestor have
> abandoned. He wrote: "But the Christian rule of
> right and wrong is the word of God, the writings of
> the Old and New Testament; all that the Prophets and
> 'holy men of old' wrote 'as they were moved by the
> Holy Ghost'; all that Scripture which was given by
> inspiration of God, and which is indeed profitable
> for doctrine, or teaching the whole will of God; for
> reproof of what is contrary thereto; for correction
> of error; and for instruction, or training us up, in
> righteousness." (A reference to 2 Timothy 3:16.)
> 
>     Miss Dammann isn't the first lesbian ordained in
> the Methodist Church, but she should be the last
> tolerated by church members faithful to something
> higher than the shifting winds of cultural change.
> At the Methodist Church trial, a majority of jurors
> failed their God and Methodism's founder. They have
> lost their authority to speak for God or to man on
> God's behalf. Methodists would be well advised to
> seek a denomination where God and not man is the
> supreme authority.
> 
>     
> 
>     <i>Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated
> columnist.</i>
> 
>     
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>
-----------------------------------------------------------
> This article was mailed from The Washington Times
>
(http://www.washingtontimes.com/commentary/20040329-085441-8879r.htm)
> For more great articles, visit us at
> http://www.washingtontimes.com
> 
> Copyright (c) 2004 News World Communications, Inc.
> All rights reserved.
> 
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=====
ART KELLY, ATM-S 
13524 Brightfield Lane 
Herndon, Virginia 20171-3360 
(703) 904-3763 home
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