Title Page
Modern Christianity
The Dangers of Compromise
By: Daniel Turner
ISBN-13: 978-1522715467
ISBN-10: 1522715460
Copyright ©2016 by Daniel Turner
All Rights Reserved.
All scripture quotations taken from the American Standard Version (ASV).
No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system unless by written permission of the author.
Introduction
I address the situation of modern Christianity, not in that Christianity somehow changed, but rather that the viewpoint of Christianity somehow changed.
There are many things in today’s culture that tend to be an assault upon our morals and values. Those could include a new bestseller by a famous atheist, a law passed on religious liberty, or even the negative opinions of religion in our schools. Despite any of these factors coming into play, I believe the biggest downfall of the Christian church will be from within. The cause will inevitably be modern Christianity, or as I said before, a modern, morally relative, liberal view of Christianity.
The Bible should be our first and if necessary, only resource to answering any question. Only then should we look at commentaries and study guides. I feel that many Christians go to their pastor, study guides, website articles, and commentaries first before going to the Bible for the answers that have already been laid out for them.
We see a similar pattern in today’s culture as in Germany during the 1930’s. After Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany, he began making several reforms to the protestant church which reflected the views of the Nazi party and many of the German people. Any church that did not conform to the anti-semetic viewpoint of the Third Reich was heavily persecuted and many times labeled as traitors to the German cause.
The situations in America are sadly slanting the same direction as our culture tends to expect the church to follow the beliefs and actions of the world around it. Behavior that is opposite or contrary to this is considered bigotry and hatred. I believe that it will be a very short time before many churches that do not conform to society’s views of right and wrong, will soon end up losing their tax-exempt status and pastors may even lose their licenses to preach. They say that those who do not know history are bound to repeat it, and that is exactly what is happening to our country that was founded on freedom of religion.
The pitfall of many Christians during the Third Reich was Romans 13:1, “Let every soul be in subjection to the higher powers: for there is no power but of God; and the powers that be are ordained of God.” Jesus demonstrated this example to his disciples in Matthew 17:24-27 by telling them to pay the taxes that were required of the law, but he also made it clear that it was only because he did not want the citizens of that area to stumble. Yet, on other occasions, we find Jesus constantly doing acts that the Pharisees found illegal. This was because Jesus knew that God’s law was higher than man’s law. The Pharisees had so many laws that the average person hardly knew when one had been broken. The Christian should uphold all of the laws of the land, until those laws conflict with God’s law, and then we must remember whose “ways are higher than our ways, and thoughts higher than our thoughts…”
As I have already said, the Bible is the final answer. This book is not a study guide on scripture, but more a guide to dangerous thoughts and beliefs that would hinder our walk as Christians.
Chapter 1 - Relativism and Religion
What is relativism and how does it affect Christianity?
Before this book can be of any benefit to the readers, the topics covered in this chapter must be absolutely understood. Moral relativism is the reason that a book such as this is even necessary in our culture today. People try to bend the Bible to match the current worldview, which is so unsteady that the Bible is bent back and forth and finally it breaks, or appears to be broken in the eyes of the one trying to change the Bible’s unwavering authority. Now, because the Bible appears to be weak and unreliable, it is thrown out as useless and the worldview dominates the person that feels that God is no longer relevant.
Relativism is the idea that there are no absolutes to define what is right and what is wrong. No line between good and evil. No examples or rules to follow. No moral absolutes. Christianity on the other hand, has an absolute called the Bible to define what is right and what is wrong. God draws the line between good and evil. The example to follow is Jesus.
Our world, America in particular, chooses to no longer follow the moral guidelines that society once felt was proper. The one question that moral relativists seem to miss time and time again is this: “Is there anything wrong with anything, and why?” The answer requires two major points: one, having a moral standard on which to base their answer or two, an authority which has the right to impose moral standards on others [1]. This leads up to a trap because if either of those is true, then Christianity could also be true because we have an answer to both of those conditions. Without either of those examples then everything is permissible.
Let us look at murder, for example. It is against the law to murder another person in most countries. However, some cultures have not placed any moral law against murder. This brings up the argument that questions if cultural customs are good examples of moral obligations. Even David Hume, a skeptic of religion, notes that “humanity cannot derive an ‘ought’ from an
Impressum
Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG
Texte: Daniel Turner
Lektorat: Daniel Turner
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 06.02.2016
ISBN: 978-3-7396-3592-7
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