Ca și evreii, creștinii se împart în categori: creștini naționali (sic!), creștini tradiționali, creștini de duminică, creștini care umblă cu Domnul în adevăr, etc.
Creșterea și descreșterea se manifestă în creștinismul formal (național, tradițional, etc.), nu în numărul celor născuți din nou, scriși în cartea vieți și deja proslăviți în Christos.
Există ,,creștinătate“ și ,,creștinism“. Cea dintâi este sfera de influență a celor de pe urmă. John MacArthur ne ajută să distingem deosebirile dintre aceste categorii și mai ales, să ne dăm seama din care facem parte.
Faptul că acest material a apărut acum mai bine de un an mărește și mai mult valoarea și puterea lui.
‘They Are Satan’s Church’: Famed Pastor’s Tough Message for Christian Denominations Condoning Homosexuality

MacArthur, author of “Being a Dad Who Leads,” said that these denominations — like Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which recently voted to allow same-sex nuptials — and their associated seminaries have been skirting scriptural tenets for decades.
He patently described them as “false churches” that fail to teach biblical truths.
“They have no allegiance to the Bible,” he said. “You go back to every one of those seminaries … for a century [they] have been deniers of biblical authority, they have no relationship to scripture, they are the apostate church, they are Satan’s church.”
And when asked whether Christianity on the whole is on the decline, MacArthur said that one must be careful when assessing the faith, as there are major differences between “true,” “cultural” and “institutional” Christianity.
MacArthur said that cultural Christianity in America dates back to the founding fathers who “knew you couldn’t compel people to goodness” unless there was belief in a higher power.
The preacher said that this form of
Christianity, which is in decline, isn’t necessarily connected to a church or institution, but that it sets values that are embraced by people from various groups.
“Cultural Christianity … is dying at a warp speed … when you have an election when the platform is sin — in the last election for the the Democratic platform was pro killing children and pro homosexuality,” MacArthur said. “The young generation has bought into the corruption and lack of ethics morals by media entertainment [and] educators.”
In contrast, MacArthur said that institutional Christianity takes a more physical form, comprising faith systems and houses of worship that he believes are essentially in flux and ever-changing.
“Institutional churches ebb and flow, denominations ebb and flow. They are made up of true believers and false believers — the genuine and the diluted,” he said. “There is a sense in which there’s always going to be an ebb and flow in the institutional church.”

But “true” Christianity is a different institution entirely — one MacArthur carefully distinguished, as it is centered upon Jesus Christ and the church he believes God built. Unlike cultural Christianity, he said it will always be there and will not ebb or flow like institutional churches.
MacArthur went on to challenge pastors, churches and Christians to stand up and be bold and he cited Romans 1 in the Bible to describe what he believes is happening culturally in America.
“Romans 1 describes exactly what is happening in America … it defines the wrath as God giving them over, giving them over, giving them over,” he said.
But the preacher noted that there is hope in God and that it’s still possible for Christians to stand up and help draw people to the Lord.
Categories: Articole de interes general, Teologice
Daniel Brânzei: „Șilo“, metafora care ne mântuie !
Leave a comment