World Vision. Oh, World Vision. What a quandry you have created for Christians who support you. This is a sign of the times. It’s not the issue, it is a symptom of a greater problem. Homosexuality isn’t even the issue here, although we want to make it the issue to make the loss of support seem outrageous and nitpicky. Rich Stearns came out and said that the reason he and his organization had changed their policy on same-sex marriage was to defer to the authority of the local church and to remove an issue that is causing division in churches. It makes Christians sound petty and like that is the only issue we focus on. It is simply the issue being pushed currently, but the broader issue here is the belief that the Bible must change with new social belief systems, that it needs to evolve and that God would want us to change the way we believe because we have evolved. I have heard all of those things in explanation of acceptance of many previously unacceptable practices. This is not the first time an organization has come out to say that they were going to change the way they believed on one, small, seemingly unimportant subject from the Bible and that it was okay because they kept the Gospel intact. Sorry, folks it doesn’t work that way. Either the Bible is ALL true or it isn’t. If you start chipping away at the Biblical truths, you take the power and validity out of the Gospel. Each compromise chips away at the foundation of faith for believers and non-believers alike.
Let’s look at the life of Joe Student. He attends public school, but grows up in a Christian home. He attends college in Michigan where he begins to attend church at Mars Hill Church. He listens to Pastor Rob Bell week after week. Rob Bell is the author of ‘Love Wins’, a book that in essence teaches that Hell is actually the difficulties we face on earth and is the consequence for our sins while living this life, but our good, merciful and all-loving God does not condemn His creation to an eternity away from Him. So there is no Hell, no eternity away from God. What did Christ die for? Chip, chip…
Sin! He died to take away our sins! Welllll, are there really any sins? The Espicopal Church and many others have taken a stand supporting Same-sex marriage and abortion, so homosexuality has been removed from the list in 1 Corinthians and abortion ‘is not mentioned‘ in the Bible, so apparently that means it‘s not wrong:
‘Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.’ (notice verse 11 says, ‘you once were’, not ‘you still are, but it’s okay, I won’t hold it against you‘)
or this verse in 1 Timothy:
‘We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.’
Really any sin can be justified and explained away, so why call anything a sin? So Jesus died for our sins and to open the door to an eternity in God’s presence. Well, there aren’t really any sins and Hell is only the difficulties we face on earth, so what exactly is the Gospel for? Chip, chip, chip…
So, we have Joe Student learning from false prophets all through college and into the working world with a weak and diluted faith. If he passes on what he has learned, he adds to he already weak populations of Christ-followers.
Each compromise disarms and dilutes the Gospel and by default, the Bible. They make it irrelevant. Not only do we have these compromises on social issues, but we have Christians promoting evolution as God’s method of Creation. This leads to an even further dilution of the Gospel because it takes away the fact that humans are a special creation, made in God’s image. Chuck Smith, the deceased founder of Calvary Chapel had a radio show before his death. I listened to two of them in which he disregarded God’s Word. In one, he said that children were only good to have if they were useful and the necessity of large families no longer existed because we are no longer an agrarian society. He touted the use of birth control because we shouldn’t be having more than two or three children per family. In another radio show, a woman called in who had been advised to abort her conjoined twins. He told her she should abort, that God would understand and forgive her and that he did not have time to pray for her. I was appalled that a leader of such a huge church would resort to worldly and sinful remedy for this difficulty instead of appealing to God for a miracle.
The World Vision debacle is just a small piece of a bigger problem. We as a church are getting weaker and weaker in the face of societal pressures. The Bible says that we will face persecution for Him and all of this compromise is just an attempt to avoid that persecution. Do I think that people should pull their support from World Vision for this policy change? I don’t know and I won’t advise anyone either way. That is between each person and God. I am honestly glad we don’t support them so I was not in a position to make this decision. It is unfortunate that the support will be lost, but I do understand. If World Vision is willing to compromise on a seemingly small issue, what else are they compromising on? Let’s say that a same sex couple is serving together in India and are asked by a child about their relationship. How do they handle it? Children ask innocent questions and believe things that they learn at a young age. The answer they give can make or break a child’s faith.
As a church, we need to get some courage and be ready for war. Face persecution with grace and unwaivering faith. Nope, it will not be easy and the temptation to compromise will be great, but the compromise of organizations like World Vision and the Epsicopal Church puts the rest of the faith community in a precarious position. We will be bullied to change our policies and beliefs simply because another faith-based organization did and I’m sure there will be threats of the loss of funding and tax-exemptions if we do not conform. Get your armor ready, friends, the war is raging!
