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Challenge to the churches

A believer’s impassioned plea

Image stock.xchng Soldier for Christ

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The following humorous conversation (with a serious point) was supposedly overheard at a Pastor’s conference:

1st Pastor: “What do you think is the biggest problem in the church todayignorance or apathy?”

2nd Pastor: “I don’t know and I don’t care … would you pass another cream bun, please? “

Are you a pastor, elder or a member of a church?

Are you concerned that your church is not moving forward?

Are your church members motivated to reach out?

Is your church centred around faith in God and what He says and does?

Do you believe the Bible?

God said He created the Universe in six days! God said—indeed He wrote with his own finger on a tablet of stone—that He Created the Heavens and the Earth and everything in them in six days [Exodus 20:8–11]. Is it not true that if these days are not literal, real, 24hr days, then this Sabbath commandment is nonsense!?

Could you have unwittingly fallen for the devil’s great lie: “Has God said … ?”

Genesis 3 tells us that Satan, the father of lies, questioned God’s word. The result was that Eve was deceived and then Adam sinned with disastrous results (Genesis 3:14-19). Not only was the human race cursed and sentenced to death but the whole of Creation was cursed—only to be restored (Revelation 21:3–4) when our Lord returns in His glory.

If you believe God meant what He said:

The church is called to be the pillar of truth (1 Timothy 3:15)—do not fail in this task of holding up and speaking forth the Word of God.

Proclaim the truth of the whole of Scripture to your fellow elders or church membersbe passionate, while speaking with the love of Christ (Ephesians 4:15). Let God be true and every man a liar. The church is called to be the pillar of truth (1 Timothy 3:15)do not fail in this task of holding up and speaking forth the Word of God.

If not:

If you do not trust what God says at the beginning of the Bible, how are you, or those you teach, going to believe what He says in the rest of His Word? Repent (in the Bible it means ‘change your mind’), seek God’s forgiveness and start to put right what you have been teaching othersthat God cannot be trusted!

Either way:

Invite an organisation like Creation Ministries International (CMI) to present to your churchsee our website creation.com. Encourage all your members and congregation to attendthey will learn to put wholehearted faith in God. CMI exists to persuade people that God can be trustedwith their lives, and more importantly, with their souls!

Do you fear God rather than Man?

If you are not prepared to take God at His word, can you expect His blessing on your work for Him—as a Pastor, Elder, Deacon or church member? Perhaps the problem is that you would rather believe what the majority of scientists would have us believe than believe God Himself? Perhaps you fear what people will say about you if you take such a ‘fundamentalist’ position? Perhaps you fear that you may lose your job if you take a stand—many have, as has been well documented.1 If any of these apply to you—remember that this is nothing less than fear of man and that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 111:10).

Is CMI being divisive or placing too much importance on one (relatively unimportant) issue?

I don’t believe so. As mentioned above, if God can’t be trusted in what He says at the beginning of the Bible, why believe what He says in the rest of it? Those who witness in the open air consistently testify that the issue of ‘evolution’ is a great stumbling block which prevents people believing the claims of God in the Bible, as this article on open air evangelism shows. If there was no ‘original sin’ as described in Genesis 3, and no death penalty as a result, then what is the meaning of ‘salvation’? The Gospel becomes meaningless. The book of Genesis is the ‘book of beginnings’—it is the foundation on which the rest of Scripture is laid. We must get the foundation right or the whole structure will crumble. The evidence is that in many places cracks are appearing in the theology of churches and Bible colleges because their theological foundations have been eroded.

Is the evidence from science—that the Earth and its contents have evolved over millions of years—really so overwhelming?

Remember that we are to be the church militant … God honours and rewards faith more than anything else (Hebrews 11). God counted Abraham’s faith to him as righteousness.

Far from it! There are many hundreds of highly qualified scientists who challenge the claims of the evolutionists, and probably many times more would do so if their livelihood were not at stake. There is a great deal of evidence for this, much of which can be found or referenced from the CMI website creation.com.

Will you enlist in the army of God?

I hope and pray that you will be challenged to take up the cause of the Gospel of Christ—to assert that God can, indeed must, be taken at His word—right from the start! It may make you unpopular as a pastor, elder or church member. Remember that we are to be the church militant, that we have a great Captain, and that the rewards are great in Heaven even if they are not so ‘on this side of Glory’! God honours and rewards faith more than anything else (Hebrews 11). God counted Abraham’s faith to him as righteousness. Will you be a faithful soldier of Christ and take up this challenge?

Published: 1 February 2011

Reference

  1. Bergman, J., Slaughter of the Dissidents: The shocking truth about killing the careers of Darwin doubters, Leafcutter Press, USA, 2008. Return to text.

Helpful Resources

15 Reasons to Take Genesis as History
by Dr Don Batten, Dr Jonathan D Sarfati
US $4.00
Booklet