Compromised doctrine challenges believers

When is it right to leave?

Leaving a church, especially one you’ve called your own for many years, is one of the toughest decisions a Christian can make.

Sadly, it is an increasingly common decision – and will continue to be so – as doctrinal compromise spreads like cancer in Christian churches. Mainline Protestant denominations, in particular, face an exodus of members bewildered by such compromise.

This week’s news from the Episcopal Church is merely the latest object lesson in the danger of wishy-washy doctrine and the need for Christians to rekindle a love for God’s truth. Yes, even when that truth is countercultural.

Maybe you missed the headlines. The Anglican Communion on Monday gave its Episcopalian branch in America an ultimatum: Stop blessing same-sex marriages or face sanctions from the denomination’s leadership.

Such a showdown has been building ever since the Episcopal Church defied biblical teaching and consecrated an openly gay man who lives with his partner as bishop of New Hampshire. That was three years ago, and the church continues to allow priests to bless gay unions.

However, ongoing agony in the Anglican Church worldwide is not chiefly about homosexuality. It is about truth and the consequences of straying from God’s truth.

Jesus warned the Pharisees, “If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand” (Mark 3:25- NKJV). He put forth the practical truth that compromise between good and evil is not possible.

Consider these words, also from Jesus: “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters” (Luke 11:23).

Those are tough words that are denied, or at least ignored, by some church leaders who steer their congregations into the murky waters of doctrinal compromise.

No church is immune from the danger of this slow, steady creep away from absolute truth. Even evangelical churches these days are getting a taste of this bad medicine.

Exhibit A is the so-called “emerging church,” whose diverse adherents look to MTV and mysticism for new methods of presenting the gospel.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m all in favor of evangelicals learning the language of the culture and preaching Christ through that language. But Christian friends, let’s not be naïve.

Some leaders in the emerging church also peddle the heresy that God’s truth cannot be known for certain.

Religious studies professor Scot McKnight puts it this way: “… No systematic theology can be final. In this sense, the emerging movement is … saying, ‘This is what I believe, but I could be wrong. What do you think? Let’s talk.’ ” (Christianity Today, Jan. 19, 2007).

If you believe in the inerrancy of Scripture, you’re rightly horrified by such a milquetoast theology. You’re also in good company.

The Apostle Paul warned of compromise throughout his epistles. It was a resounding theme in his counsel to young Timothy: “O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge – by professing it, some have strayed concerning the faith” (1 Timothy 6:20-21, NKJV).

Can you imagine the apostles putting forth doctrine with the caveat, “at least that’s what we believe, but we could be wrong. Let’s talk about it?”

Me neither.

Leaving a church is not something to be taken lightly. Silly disputes over music preferences, personality conflicts and plain old selfishness have created a generation of church shoppers, hopelessly hopping about in search of the perfect church.

They’ll never find one.

So, when is it right to leave?

I fear that fellow believers in the Episcopal Church are on the cusp of such a gut-wrenching decision. They need our prayers.

Their leader, Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, was recently asked by Time magazine, “Is belief in Jesus the only way to get to heaven?”

Her response: “We who practice the Christian tradition understand him as our vehicle to the divine. But for us to assume that God could not act in other ways is, I think, to put God in an awfully small box” (Time, July 10, 2006).

She couldn’t be more wrong. Don’t take my word for it; read the Bible.

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6, NKJV).

A church willing to compromise God’s truth because it is politically correct or more in touch with the culture is a religious club, a place to be avoided.

That is a painful realization to be sure. But severing ties with heresy ultimately is liberating.

Jesus said it best: “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32, KJV).