False Unity. Christian Contemporary Music (CCM)

UNITING: NOT FOR TRUTH BUT FOR ENLARGING AN INDEPENDENT FELLOWSHIP

The following is part of an e-mail that Pastor Buddy Smith of Malanda, Queensland ,  wrote to a friend about the recent Independent Baptist Friends International Conference and its emphasis on uniting all Independent Baptists:

“It is in the area of doctrine that I perceive the greatest danger. You will notice that I attached an article that clarifies this matter of doctrine determining fellowship. It is by a pastor (now deceased) in the GARB group of IB churches in the states. It is well worth reading.  [The article entitled ‘A Limited Message or a Limited Fellowship’ can be found at the Way of Life web site.] Several pastors have expressed their concern over the Calvinist who was invited to speak at the IBFI conference. I am sure he did not preach his views. Nor did the Free Will Baptist chap, nor did the men who love CCM or Westcott and Hort’s Alexandrian text. There is a sad fact that our generation is forgetting, and that is, ‘Whenever any group of men who hold differing views begin to work together, they will ultimately descend to the viewpoint of the lowest among them.’ It is what the centuries preach to the hours. The evangelicals who met at Fuller Seminary in 1948 determined to repudiate the biblical doctrine of separation. They expressed a desire to embrace all who named the name of Christ. Sixty years later they are being swallowed up by the modernists they thought they would convert to Christ. Evolutionists and Mormons and modernists teach in their seminaries. This is all documented and should be a lesson to any who attempt to unify those who differ from one another. There is a great danger in every form of inclusivism, in that inclusivism in fellowship results in minimalism in beliefs. The larger the circle of viewpoints we will tolerate, the smaller the circumference of doctrine we will be able to preach. Our expansion of cooperation means there will be a shrinkage of truth. Broadmindedness breeds syncretism, and syncretism suffocates doctrine. Because there were certain men present, those who preached at the IBFI conference had to avoid preaching on Unlimited Atonement, or the Security of the Believer, or the Doctrine of the Preservation of the Text, or Why CCM Is Destructive to Fundamentalist Churches. They had to limit the content of their messages so they could enlarge their fellowship.”

Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) .

A  Wolf in sheep’s clothing!

Jennifer Knapp, a hard-rocking Contemporary Christian musician who recently came “out of the closet” with her lesbianism, said on Larry King Live (April 23) that the Bible’s teaching against homosexuality is based on faulty translation and interpretation. When asked if she thinks the Bible speaks against homosexuality she replied, “Well, I think there is plenty of evidence in my exploration of my faith through the sacred text of the Holy Bible that I have definitely recognized that we are somewhat at the handicap of our own interpretation against homosexuality. In the long run I don’t have the greatest deal of problems with it because I’m not the only person in the universe that has ever looked at a different interpretation.”

Let’s see if this thinking works. Leviticus 20:13 says, “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination…” There is no problem with the translation, and the interpretation looks straightforward to me. Let’s try another passage, this time in the New Testament. “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet” (Romans 1:26-27). The problem that a homosexual or any other sinner has with the Bible is not its translation and interpretation; it is its Authority. As the famous agnostic Mark Twain reputedly said, ‘It is not the things that in the Bible that I don’t understand that trouble me; it’s the things that I do understand.” Elsewhere Knapp called the verses against homosexuality “clobber verses.” Indeed, the Bible is full of verses that clobber our sin, and the reason is that God is a holy but compassionate God who wants us to repent and be saved (Romans 3:19-22)! Homosexuality is a growing trend within the CCM and Southern Gospel movements. It is not a new thing, but formerly it was fairly hidden. In 1998 Kirk Franklin said that “homosexuality … is a problem today in gospel music–a major concern–and everybody knows it” (Church Boy, pp. 49, 50).

and these are the Signs of the Times……

Posted on Friday, May 14th, 2010 at 10:26 am | RSS

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