I know that what I am about to write will be considered so hard for some and even heresy by others.  But let me warn you:  I am increasingly confident that if we measure what is Truth by what most have beleived as Truth in the church of the twentieth century, then you may easily be measuring what is Truth by what is truly heretical.  One of the areas in which God is truly challenging me in my own growth in these days is His inquiry of my soul to examine what the church in America has taught as Truth, particularly since World War II.  This is a very bold and controversial statment, but the more I examine what has been taught the more frightened I become:  it may well be true that there has been heresy held as truth in the post WW II Protestant and Roman Catholic Church than at any time in history prior to this point.  It could even be true that the extent of the heresy in many of the churches in the fifties through the seventies could have been greater than the accumulation of the centuries prior to this period.  What is really disconcerting to me is that the extent of the heretical is seen only in retrospect.  Much of what we see now as being so far removed from basic biblical teaching was in its day considered to be the best of biblical teaching.

Let me just cite a few examples.  Modern methods of evangelism that are so pervasive in our society did not exist prior to the late nineteenth century and came into prominence in the twentieth century on the wings of the church growth movement.  Using music underneath the invitation or even issuing an invitation is a rather modern invention.  Having people signify their commitment to Christ by signing a card, raising a hand, or walking an aisle is rather novel in the context of history.  It has not been around that long.  Now something that has not been around from the beginning is not necessarily wrong, but it does beg the question of how it came to be.  And that is where we encounter the heresy?  It came to be due to a significant shift in the thinking of American Christians about the initiative for salvation.

Since the second century A.D. every movement that sought to shift the initiative for salvation away from God and toward humans was condemned rightly as heretical.  Pelagius tried to prove that salvation was solely the choice of humans in whom existed the goodness of God so that humans could choose at any time to be what they are simply by acting on their wills which were not seen by him and his cohorts as corrupted by sin.  His great grandson, Jacob Arminius would argue roughly the same kinds of things in the sixteenth and seventeenth century.  And both were condemned by the mainstream church; their ideas though novel were not biblical.  Salvation belongs to the Lord.  We are saved by His grace.  We come to Him because He calls us to come to Him and if He does not call, we cannot come.

Enter the twentieth century where we developed multiple methods to move people to the point of making a decision.  Underneath this movmement of moving people to make a decision was a seismic theological shift that moved the impetus for salvation from God to man.  But what had rocked the church in the second century and beyond and caused the spiritual leaders to cry “wolf among the sheep,” in the twentieth century became common custom in the churches.  Do you see the problem?  What was once considered heresy was now called holy.  And this is just one issue.  There are many others.

So be very careful when measuring what is Truth by what is popularly taught in our day.  Truth is determined by the Word of God.  And what is taught in too many places as the Word of God is far from that at all.  Be careful in our day.  Be very careful.  Ask about everything whether it meets the tests of what is so clearly communicated in the Word of God.

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