This article is especially for those who are faithful to read the CTF newsletter. During the Christmas break (after all the company had left!)  I had an occasion to contemplate the coming New Year, our new president, the immediate future of the Family and the church, etc. — all through Biblical lenses.

     Predicated on the fact that God gave the dominion of this present world to Satan at the fall of Adam, isolated from any other stimulus, this by itself should help Bible students to understand much of the present frustration in society and politics that is contrary to God’s plan (Gen. 33:15). There are three key historical events that I think make up a vast amount of this distortion with which we are perpetually distracted and deceived.

     The first of these is multifaceted and would need more space than I have here.  But suffice it to say that an extant philosophical residue remains to this day from this 2nd through 4th century Greco-Roman perversion that even the Reformation did not thoroughly purge. The Apostle John, in effect, was not yet cold in his grave, and by the middle to late second century church fathers, especially those from Alexandria who were advocating all sorts of written creeds to better “define what Christians believe.” This is how Christianity Today explains it anyway, July 30, 2008. Really (?) what, pray tell me, was the Bible for?

     Nevertheless, among these deviations was the contention and one that has been used to justify the writing of most of the early creeds themselves (often mentioned by the writers of the Nicaean Creed).  Ii is the idea that dogma must been accomplished in a developmental and progressive manner (that the Word of God is not sufficient). This simply means that the first century, apostolic writings were in some way primitive and inchoate, and needing further enlightenment by these “holy” fathers of the late second, third and fourth centuries. This is blatantly preposterous! And it ignores the plane and definitive statement of the Apostle Paul to Timothy, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17) In this category among the many perversions that remain to this day are perverted beliefs concerning the state of the dead, embracing a plurality of objective worship, the institution of infant baptism, the rejection of the multiplicity leadership in the local church, etc.

     A second deviation concerns the historicity of the first twelve chapters of Genesis, which is used in an attempt to legitimize atheism. And this is sadly evident in the professing church community today because of the many church attenders that believe in one of the concessionary doctrines for Genesis 1. From that platform has homosexuality, abortion, pornography, gay/lesbian marriage, multiculturalism, and other deviate ideas arisen.

     The third of these terrible aberrations is the rise, or maybe I should say, the emergence of a postmodern notion called the “emergent church.” The tragic reality about this form of religion is that it is too diverse to be defined.  It thrives in new age environments, it embraces aspects of evolutionism, it ignores scriptural terminology like holiness, the fall of man, his need of a Savior, the second coming of Christ, etc. In short it is a religious system that is without truth; originating in the carnal mind, and it must be avoided at all costs. My prayer is that you have a blessed New Year.

In Him, G. Thomas Sharp (Isaiah 40:28-31)