…the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. – I Timothy 3:15
Paul instructed Timothy to ‘guard the good deposit’, the gospel of Christ which is the promise and power of God for salvation. Ezekiel prophesied its manifestation is a new heart and a new spirit. What the church guards…’truth’…is what worldlings need…and Christians are to hold fast.
Sadly, for decades changes not backed by inspired Scripture but wrought by cultural pressures have slipped into American churches, undermining the kingdom of Christ that rests on God’s promise of a pardon for sin and the power of new birth. They’ve been deceived to believe present times require them to view things differently, but the Word tells us there is ‘nothing new under the sun’ (Ecclesiastes 1:9).
In assessing the PCUSA’s ‘big tent’ ideology, which permits diverse theological convictions without asserting any sort of ‘essential’ beliefs, Hebron would be wise to recall Calvin’s warning that ambiguity is the fortress of heterodoxy. The ‘big tent’ is the antithesis of the unity expressed in Ephesians 4:4-6. As Luther put it, God has willed His truth to triumph through us.
To its shame, rather than purge sexual immorality from its midst, the PCUSA affirms it (1 Corinthians 5:9-13). Tim Keller wrote that the Christian sex ethic was understood by the apostles to be nonnegotiable, as much a necessary implication of the gospel and the resurrection as caring for the poor and ethnic equality.
The transforming power of God’s truth is the key to sanctification (John 17:17). What we are to witness to each other and worldlings is to consider ourselves ‘dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 6:11), not to affirm sin.
Sheep are obstinate creatures. Thank God we have a Good Shepherd.