The Bible continually tells us that the church is the bride of Christ. For the church of God to turn away is spiritual adultery, apostasy. She had slidden back from her rightful Husband. And because the church is the people of God, when they backslide, the church backslides. When one member suffers, all suffer. And when many members falls way, the whole church becomes irreparably damaged. She degenerates into a religion, a religious organisation, a religious machine.
When the church "plays the harlot," and her real condition denied by her official teachers, then the situation is very serious. When she turns away to false gods, she has forsaken her Lord. When the church of Christ consciously or unconsciously turns away from God's written Word, THE TRUTH, she has turned to harlotry.
But no one wants to admit that this is, in fact, the case. I remember being on a Presbytery Commission that was responsible for a vacant congregation, and speaking to one of the other ministers who knew the situation well, said, "You know, there's not one known Christian in this congregation." My immediate response was, "In what sense, then, is it a Christian or Presbyterian congregation?" I got no answer. The important thing is that you 'play the game.' You must 'play the game.' Forget about truth, forget about God, forget about the Gospel; 'play the game.' Pretend all is OK. Pretend it is a real church, and keep your head down!
Such a church, and more importantly such an attitude from an evangelical minister can have only one result: it defiles the entire land, and not only the church of Christ.
Now in a post-Christian world and also in a post-Christian church, it is necessary to point out wherein this apostasy lies. One thing is certain: we must call apostasy by its proper name, say it as it is. If we don't, then any hope of real divine blessing for the church is as far away as ever.
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