Over the last couple of months I have observed a plethora of news articles being written concerning churches and denominations, and “Christian” universities that are making changes to Biblical text, from within pulpit sermons, and in the educational discourse to “gender-neutral” masculine nouns and pronouns; even discarding the terms “husband” and “wife” for “spouse”, “partner” and “significant other”. Instead of calling God by masculine terms such as “He” or “Lord”, they advocate just using “God”; making statements such as, “theologically we know that God is beyond our gender determinations, God is not human.” Terms such as “man” or “mankind” are to be substituted with “he/she”, “them”, “peoplekind”. And, the name “Father” (which Jesus used when either praying to and/or pointing us to) is to be substituted with “parent”. You might now correctly ask, “Why is this being done; what has been driving this change?” The answer is, these churches, denominations, and universities are being pressured by feminists and radical leftists, and they have been elevating the homosexual, lesbian, and transgender lifestyles to a level of normalcy; while at the same time trying to emasculate men in society. They also offer the claim, “By expanding our language for God, we will expand our image of God and the nature of God.” (God’s Word states that everything we need to know about Him can be found in the Scriptures unabashed; and He states in Malachi 3:6a, “I am the LORD, I change not.” The Lord does not need the language written in Scripture nor His image nor His nature expanded or changed by man.)
We must understand that God created man and woman with a very distinct pattern with very specific roles, and He called His creation very good. In the Book of Genesis we read the following Scriptures.
Genesis 1:26-28,
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”
Genesis 5:1-2,
“This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.”
As stated, God made man and woman very distinctly and brought them together in marriage as husband and wife – thus, making this as one. Their purpose, man would love and provide for his wife; the wife would love and support her husband, they would procreate, and they would raise their children to know the Lord; and together as a family they would worship God their Creator. God did not provide any confusion with regards to manhood, womanhood, or childhood; it is man who turned everything upside down.
Continuing on in the news articles… Another church decided that they would renew their outreach efforts to their community in an attempt to draw in more congregants. They compiled a one-page survey to be used as a means to find out some of the reasons why people in their community have avoided attending their services. However, the survey went far beyond what we might think a survey of this nature would cover. The survey listed over thirty “orthodox Christian” positions that this particular church has consistently held to, and then asked the following, “Which of the following historic positions can we toss out the window to cater to your sensibilities?” “Please check all that apply.” This church was happy to disown at a moment’s notice, including salvation by Christ alone, the holiness of God, the deity of Christ, a traditional view of marriage, and many more. The pastor, in an interview, stated, he’s excited for the opportunity to scuttle core doctrines of the Christian faith “for the sake of the gospel.” “Lots of churches talk about ‘essentials’—what’s essential to us is getting people in the door,” he said.
Herein lies the issue of everything stated above. When God’s Word is abandoned for man’s word, men, women, boys and girls will open the door to any and all non-biblical worldly views. This is indicative of what the apostle Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 4:3-4,
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”
So, what voice are you listening to? God’s or man’s?
