In posts such as Contemplative Spirituality Growing Within Mainstream Evangelicalism and The Nightmare Beginning For Mainstream Evangelicalism here at Apprising Ministries I’ve been attempting to alert you to a very dark and threatening same-sex storm that is right now approaching hurricane force, and which is currently only slightly off the coast of the mainstream evangelical community. 

And further, that the egregiously ecumenical Emerging Church aka Emergent Church—morphing into Emergence Christianity—(EC) is right now working to make affirming homosexuality an issue within your own mainstream evangelical church. This is why AM has been doing what we can to send you clear warning concerning the grave danger of kicking out Sola Scriptura in favor of highly subjective [i.e. feelings-oriented] Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM).

With stories like you’ll see below, mainstream evangelicalism is getting still another peek at its own impending future. And the reason for this is really rather simple; by circa the 1960s most mainline Protestant denominations had already opened themselves to CSM, and now just look at what’s happening within them. This is clearly evidenced by ELCA And Homosexuality, with the recent vote to affirm clergy openly committing same-sex sexual immorality, and then the lunacy in the Lord’s Name of a woman “Queer Affirming” Lutheran “pastor” defending it, which you’ll see in Nadia Bolz-Weber Weighs In On ELCA Church-Wide Assembly.

Now with all of this in mind I will point you to Protestant churches shift slowly toward gay equality where The Boston Globe informs us:

American religious organizations have rarely been leaders in national movements for gay rights. With few exceptions, they have been opposed or uninvolved. Yet some are slowly changing their views as they grapple with questions about homosexuality in light of public debates about same-sex marriage and increased visibility of gay men and lesbians in American life. Mainline Protestant denominations in particular are slowly, but deliberately, adopting more tolerant stances – leaving conservatives rather than liberals to split off from their churches.

The 4.6 million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is the most recent example, voting last week to allow people in committed same-sex relationships to serve as clergy. Until this vote, gay men and lesbians could be ordained only if they remained celibate. Gay and lesbian people in the ELCA may now be ordained provided they are single or in a “publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous same-gender relationship,’’ similar to the requirements for heterosexual clergy. Gay men and lesbians can be clergy, in other words, and have sex in lifelong relationships…

With this decision, the ELCA joins the smaller United Church of Christ and Episcopal Church in allowing gay men and lesbians to be ordained. The United Church of Christ ordained a gay man in 1972, and the Episcopalians followed suit in the 1990s. The Episcopal Church recently clarified that “any ordained ministry’’ is open to gay men and lesbians… And they were fully aware of the ongoing conflicts that followed the Episcopal Church’s decision to ordain openly gay Gene Robinson as a bishop in 2003.

It is too early to call the ELCA’s decision a tipping point for mainline Protestants. The Presbyterian Church (USA) and the much larger United Methodist Church continue to prohibit gay people from being ordained…the Presbyterians and Methodists have been locked in divisive internal battles about homosexuality for longer than the ELCA… The Presbyterians seem the most likely to follow the ELCA; their denominational vote on gay ordination this year was narrower than in the past. (Online source)

And this secular article makes a couple of most telling points within: 1) “These shifts within mainline Protestantism reflect liberalizing public opinion about homosexuality.” And 2) “They show that mainline Protestant denominations, like most religious traditions, are continually adapting and revising theological interpretations as their social environments change.” No doubt this would be admirable from a strictly human standpoint, but this capitulation to the fickle feelings of human cultures does serve to illustrate a fatal flaw in much of the visible church,which is itself rooted in the corrupt Church Growth Movement.

The genuine Church of Jesus Christ is a theocracy ruled by God; a people of God (see—1 Peter 2:10), a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession in order that we might proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called us—now watch carefully what God tells us about the world i.e. unregenerate human culture—out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9, NASB). Did you catch that; the Person of God the Holy Spirit has clearly told us through His inspired Apostle Peter that the world, concerning issues like homosexuality, is in utter darkness.

You see, by the grace of God alone; through faith alone, in Christ alone, the genine Church of Jesus Christ is made up of children of light once darkness (see—Ephesians 5:8). Jesus then tells those of us who have been called out of darkness, who are His children of light—His Christians— “as the Father has sent Me, I also send you” (John 20:21). And as such our mandate is to preach the Gospel of God; which means our message is to be repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in [Christ’s] name (see—Luke 24:47), and name in this case means authority—as in an ambassador (see—2 Corinthians 5:20).

The Church of Jesus Christ is not some extention of a human social working agency; though there is a secondary aspect of the Gospel wherein we do what we can as the Lord leads to care for the needs of our fellow man i.e. love our neighbors, who are our brothers after Adam. But because we are a people for God’s own possession we’re not be reflecting “liberalizing public opinion about homosexuality.” Nor should we be “continually adapting and revising theological interpretations as their social environments change.” We are to proclaim, not dialogue about, what Jesus has said in His Word—the Bible.

In closing this for now, and specific to the issue of those unrepentant in their practice of sexual immorality with a member of the same sex i.e. homosexuality, the Holy Scripture is crystal clear:

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)

Completely consistent with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in [Christ’s] name, no one who is practicing sin without repentance will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Very inclusive: All sin; and so, apart from Jesus Christ, all die. Now you just can’t get any more politically correct than that, no. But as I shared before, the point is this: The mainline denominations sold out to liberalism, which you may recall was also known at the time as “modern” theology. The idea being they wanted to make the Bible relative to the capricious culture in which they found themselves.

As a result they would embrace ecumenicism and its CSM, which then led them to bow to the feminist movement; and so, for equality, women began to be ordained as elders. Next because, “I’d never send one of my children to a place like that,” out went the doctrine of Hell, and finally came the ordination of homosexual clergy, which is still ripping them apart to this day. But look for yourself e.g. Disciplines To Deception In Southern Baptist Convention and you’ll see that mainstream so-called “Protestant” evangelicalism is already well on the way to full-on acceptance of contemplative spirituality.

Now ask yourself the critical question: Do you seriously think that it’s going to somehow be different this time with the mainstream Protestant denominations; if so, I’d say that you are a dreamer.

See also:

THE SIN OF HOMOSEXUALITY IS DIFFERENT

WHY NO CONDEMNATION FOR CHRISTIANS WHO ARE HOMOPRESSIVE?

KEN SILVA, JAY BAKKER AND HOMOSEXUALITY

BECAUSE I LOVE JAY BAKKER AND GLBTQ PEOPLE

AN IN-DEPTH LOOK AT WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT HOMOSEXUALITY

RESPONDING TO PRO-GAY THEOLOGY

THERE IS NO SPIRITUAL SWITZERLAND