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Title: Sin Management is BIG Business
Source:
News With Views
URL Source: http://www.newswithviews.com/PaulProctor/proctor98.htm
Published: Aug 23, 2006
Author: Paul Proctor
Post Date: 2006-08-24 08:14:02 by Tauzero
Keywords: None
Views: 331
Comments: 11
By Paul Proctor August 23, 2006 I caught an interesting article last week from http://LifeSiteNews.com that highlighted the frustrations of a disgruntled AIDS activist by the name of Martin Sempa, who was commenting on the absurdity of a recent international AIDS conference held in Toronto. As I read his rant I discovered some rather disturbing parallels between the AIDS movement and the church growth movement in how they both handle "disease." Here's just some of what he had to say: 'Most of these guys don't care about stopping HIV/AIDS but just about managing the disease, keeping it going so they can continue to profit,' Sempa said. 'It's a multi-billion dollar industry,' he said. 'Pharmaceuticals, condoms, counsellors, distributors, advertising executives, grants for fake human rights groups and celebrity status. If you have AIDS you can be a star if you promote their agenda. It's become a disease of opportunity. If AIDS stopped today there would be millions of people who would stop getting an income.' 'I wouldn't waste my time.' Sempa said when asked why he had not attended the Conference. 'I didn't want to spend good money on fancy hotels and expensive meals to have no one listen to me. In Bangkok {2004}, the president of Uganda was booed {for promoting his country's abstinence program}. It was a hostile social environment and not conducive to a free exchange of ideas. A single mention of abstinence makes them become rabid.' Our programs are under attack by human rights groups who claim that in trying to turn people away from sexual promiscuity, we are violating human rights. Human rights to them means condoms.'" Well, since the "church" closely follows the culture these days and imitates it for the sake of the "Kingdom," it should come as no real surprise that "disease" is quickly becoming big business for the brethren as well, thanks to all of the hard work and dedication of Pastors Rick Warren from Saddleback Community Church, Lake Forest, California and Bill Hybels, Willow Creek Community Church, Barrington, Illinois, who co-sponsored their own AIDS conference at Warren's church last year called: "Disturbing Voices." Well, I submit to you that AIDS and the "church," as Warren defines it, are both growing exponentially for much the same reason: There is no clear call for repentance - only a call for "love" and "compassion" - which, in reality, perverts the Gospel of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ into an irresistible, permissible, unaccountable, compromising, gratifying, no-fault, humanistic faith and practice that not only allows open rebellion against God and His Word into the church, but also welcomes it, as evidenced by the following quote, taken from a http://Pastors.com article covering a recent two-day Ecumenical and Interfaith pre-conference gathering in Toronto: Now where do you suppose Pastor Warren came up with this dialectical diversion away from biblical truth? Well, in an another article chronicling Saddleback's 2005 "Disturbing Voices" conference, written by Whitney Kelley, entitled: HIV/AIDS Conference Shifts Focus From Education To Action, Rick's wife, Kay Warren reportedly said this: First of all, Jesus Christ is God incarnate and is therefore omniscient; so, He "never asked anyone how he or she got sick" because He already knew! Secondly, is Kay Warren suggesting here that AIDS really isn't anyone's fault? - Or that holding people accountable for their behavior is somehow wrong? And is she also saying if Christians so much as suggest that AIDS IS someone's fault, and teach that each of us ARE accountable for our behavior, that we are not being compassionate and are therefore "Pharisees?" What about the "go, and sin no more" command from Jesus Christ to the woman caught in adultery in John 8:11? Does that make Him an uncompassionate "Pharisee" as well? "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" - Isaiah 5:20 And we wonder why the fire is gone from today's pulpits and the church is looking more and more like the fallen world around us with its lukewarm Laodicean "love" and "compassion." You see, if there's no sinful behavior at work, there's no need to repent; and if there's no need to repent, then there's no need to change our ways or our ways of thinking; so the seeker sensitive, Purpose Driven, church growth "Christian" simply carries on unconcerned, unfettered and unrepentant in the name of Jesus. That's why today's "church growth" looks more like a cancer than a cure. Willow Creek's senior facilitator, Bill Hybels obviously agrees with the Warrens, judging by these following remarks taken from a http://PurposeDriven.com article by Shannon Baker entitled: Saddleback Hosts Historic Church-Based HIV/AIDS Conference - a report on that same "Disturbing Voices" symposium in 2005: Again, no mention of sin and no call for repentance - just acceptance. So, by "lovingly" focusing only on the symptoms and side effects of sin rather than on the cause and cure, the "church" not only sustains it, they capitalize on it to grow their numbers while Hell retains the reservations of the unrepentant, leaving them to conclude that because sin is merely a "disease," it's not really their fault - that they're just a good person with a bad problem who, by joining the co-opted and camouflaged liberal UN agenda of tolerance, diversity and unity, via the "Christian conservative" church growth movement, they miraculously find a "purpose" in life ("transformation") and a people who will generously stroke their self-esteem while "compassionately" strolling them into spiritual ruin by telling them exactly what they want to hear. Considering the eternal consequences, just how is that being loving and compassionate? Certainly not everyone who contracts AIDS engages in sexually promiscuous or deviant behavior; but the overwhelming majority of those that spread it, DO. Moreover, according to scripture, "…all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23) leaving no excuse for preachers of the Gospel to sit silent about "the wages of sin" (Romans 6:23) even for the sake of church growth. Mega-churches, para-church organizations and their many ministries, affiliates and support groups now seem to have programs for almost every psychological ailment, addiction, disorder, disease and distress known to man. But the one thing that is noticeably absent is the biblical call to repentance. Could it be that those in sin management don't really want such a message preached? After all, if their prospects and participants actually turned to Jesus Christ in true repentance and faith and experienced His healing, deliverance and life-transforming power, many of their popular programs would be rendered irrelevant; and that would spell disaster for the sin management industry called the "church growth movement" and subsequently put a lot of people out of work or, if you prefer, out of "ministry." At that same pre-conference gathering in Toronto, "The People's Pastor" went on to say this: What kind of "transformation" is he talking about - into a UN compliant Purpose Driven puppet? Where's Jesus Christ in all this? Where is the Gospel and the call to repentance? It simply isn't there; and THAT, my friends, is the real issue. In spite of Warren's dialectic call for "transformation" (into being Purpose Driven) the fact is, most sinners today aren't being transformed, aren't being delivered, aren't being healed and aren't being saved because they aren't repenting and surrendering their lives over to Jesus Christ; they're only getting treatment and therapy by sin management specialists who frankly, are enjoying a rather booming business right now. "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away." - 2nd Timothy 3:5 Until each of us individually acknowledges just who and what we are in the sight of Almighty God, and our sin is confessed and repented of in brokenness, humility and total surrender before His ONLY Begotten Son, Who paid for it on a Cross 2000 years ago - with or without AIDS - we ultimately face an unspeakable and unrelenting torment that no man or program can treat, comfort or cure. Jesus said: "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." - Luke 5:32 If you want to see a perfect example of just how the church today undermines the Gospel by imitating the world for the sake of growth, reread the lengthy quote near the top of this article, taken from http://LifeSiteNews.com and simply replace the word "AIDS" with the word "sin" and the word "abstinence" with the word "repentance." I think you will find the egregious parallels between the AIDS movement and the church growth movement compelling. "And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not." - 2nd Peter 2:3
"The 'AIDS industry,' is a multi-billion dollar international enterprise now, and those who gather to enjoy lavish meals and hotels in Toronto this week, are more interested in 'managing the disease' than in curing it or stopping its spread, says Martin Sempa, a leading AIDS fighter from Uganda.
"'The only thing growing faster than the HIV/AIDS pandemic is the Church,' said Rick Warren, echoing the same conclusion reached by other conference speakers."
"Dr. Warren stressed that it is not a sin to be sick. 'We need to move from asking, How did you get HIV? to How can I help?'"
"Jesus never asked anyone how he or she got sick - only the Pharisees did. Do you want to be a Pharisee? Or do you want to be like Jesus? If your compassion level goes up when you know it wasn't someone's fault, then there is something wrong."
"Bill and Lynne Hybels of Willow Creek Community Church shared that the Church must be the safe place where people can come to for healing and acceptance…'It's not our place to ask how or why people contracted the disease…It is our place to love them.'"
"The solution to eliminating the threat of HIV/AIDS is not education, it is transformation," Dr. Warren said. "That involves saving sex for marriage, training men to respect women, offering treatment through churches, and encouraging individuals to pledge themselves to one partner."
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#1. To: Tauzero (#0)
A sad but accurate commentary on "the Church", both Protestant and Roman Catholic (I have no insights on Eastern Orthodox Catholicism). Truth without love is brutality. That is often seen in personalities like Jerry Falwell and John Hagee, as examples. But Love without truth is hypocrisy. That is the message in the article above. Rick Warren's original concept and book "The Purpose Driven Church" was good, but somewhere along the way he and it got co-opted into growth for growth's sake, as if numerical growth equated to 'treasure laid up in heaven'. Generally, but not always, "seeker sensitive" churches commit this same imbalance. Truth and love together can still be heard. The Calvary Chapel churches lead by Chuck Smith standout, as does Billy (and now Franklin) Graham as examples. "Deeper life" churches usually maintain a healthy biblical balance in contrast to (though not neccessarily the diametric opposite of) "seeker sensitive". Many small, independant, non-denominational, community bible-teaching churches maintain a good balance. A few mega churches I know of are biblically sound as well, so size alone is not always a contraindicator - truth and love together are indeed a successful formula and seemingly blessed by God. The evidence is not necessarily in numbers but in fruitfullness. But the counterfeits are numerous and grow like cancer, as the article makes clear.
> ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 2126, Garden Grove, CA 92842-2126 USA
You seem to think that reflects negatively on Chuck Smith or Calvary Chapel. It seems to me to reflect that combination of truth and love I advocated. It is arguably true that God is judging America; you yourself hate Israel and have blamed Israel for many things, including the attacks on America and many terrorists have said the attacks were in whole or in part for US support of Israel; it is an opportunity to share Christ with Moslems; Islam is a religion that breeds hatred and violence; the world is in a worse state now; and there are (and will be more) "wake up calls" for America as well as the rest of the world.
So let me understand this.. are you saying that muslims are beyond redemption? That God loves them less than others.. that Christ didnt die for them ? Are you saying God approves the slaughter of innocent people .. in Lebanon and Iraq?? Of course many are Christians.. You say Islam is a religion of hate.. Ive never studied so I cant say one way or another..but just curious. Have you studied the koran or the talmud?
Yes, please do understand what I actually wrote, not what you imagine you read. Here it is again, from your own 'cut and paste', please read it this time:
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#5. To: Starwind (#1)
RE: Chuck Smith
E-mail: assistcomm@cs.com, Web Site: http://www.assistnews.net
Monday, January 7, 2002
"A HATRED OF ISRAEL" WAS BEHIND THE SEPTEMBER 11 TERROR ATTACK
Chuck Smith also believes that the attack is God's wake-up call to America
By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries
MURRIETA, CA (ANS) -- Chuck Smith (Pictured today at Calvary Chapel Conference Center), Senior Pastor of Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, CA, and the father of the Jesus People Movement in Southern California, has said in an interview that he believes "a hatred of Israel" was behind the September 11 terror attack on America.
He also said the believes hat this attack is God's wake-up call for America.
Just before he was to speak at the Calvary Chapel Missions Conference in Murrieta, CA, Smith said, "The interesting thing is that they [those behind the attack] are trying to blame Israel for what has happened to us because they said that we have supported Israel -- that we have become their enemy -- and so we are a target for them to attack. Israel to them is the real enemy and we are secondary because we are a supporter of Israel.
"We do know that Israel was going to become a nation again from the Bible prophecies. We knew that they would be a problem to the nations and that those around them would seek to attack. This is from Zechariah. We also know that ultimately these Muslim nations are going to get together to invade Israel (Ezekiel 38.) I think that is about where we are and we are about to see the Muslim nations joining together trying to destroy the State of Israel. But this where God in Chapter 39 of Ezekiel said that he is going to intervene and that he is going to destroy the invading armies, leaving but a sixth part of them and so I think that's where we are in the whole scene right now."
"A TREMENDOUS OPPORTUNITY" TO EVANGELIZE MUSLIMS
Chuck Smith the said he thought that after September 11, this gave Christians a "tremendous opportunity" to evangelize Muslims.
"Here in the United States and also in our Western Society, especially in England, the Muslims have made a lot of inroads and so many of the churches have become Muslim mosques," he said. "I think that the people were being drawn in deceptively to system of religion that they thought was a good system of religion, a good alternative for Christianity. But now I think the mask is off and the people see that it is religion that breeds hatred and violence and doesn't respect the rights of people, as we have seen with the Taliban. I believe that a lot of people from the Western World that have been drawn into Islam are now open for Christians to share the real love and a Gospel that preaches Gospel and respect for your fellow man and so I think many that had been converted to Islam will be looking very seriously at their conversion to this kind of a system."
I then asked Chuck Smith if he felt it was right for Christians to evangelize Muslims when, in some countries, it is a capital offense to convert to Christianity.
He paused and then said, "No, we shouldn't hold back from sharing the Gospel with them because actually Jesus said, '...do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do..' You have to be concerned about the one that has the power to cast the soul into Hell, and so the eternal welfare of the person is more important than even life itself."
A WAKE-UP CALL TO AMERICA
Chuck Smith then said that the terror attack was "a real wake-up call to the Church and to America." He went on to say, "I have to agree with what Jerry Fallwell and Pat Robertson said, though they backed away from it, I am of the same opinion about their original comments that America is being judged by God and rightfully so. I think America has turned it's back on God. I don't think God can just turn His back and see us worshiping sex, and the pagan gods - the god of pleasure and of power - and so I believe is giving us as a nation a wakeup call. The Lord said, 'When my judgments are in the land it will cause my people to turn to righteousness.' I think that God's people had turned away and we better turn back."
THE WORLD IS IN A BAD STATE
Chuck Smith launched Calvary Chapel, which is now a worldwide movement of affiliated churches, in 1965. I wondered if he thought the world was in a worse state now than then?
"I believe it is in a worse state now," he replied. "Now we have a proliferation of weapons that are really extremely destructive and also we have the means of the delivery of these weapons. We also have biological and chemical warfare. The fact that so many nations are developing their nuclear power makes the world very dangerous at this time. I think the world is in a much precarious condition that it was at that time in 1965."
I concluded the interview by asking Chuck Smith what his message was to non- Christians.
He smiled and then said, "Get right with God."
#6. To: Jethro Tull (#5)
(Edited)
#9. To: Starwind (#6)
It is arguably true that God is judging America; you yourself hate Israel and have blamed Israel for many things, including the attacks on America and many terrorists have said the attacks were in whole or in part for US support of Israel; it is an opportunity to share Christ with Moslems; Islam is a religion that breeds hatred and violence; the world is in a worse state now; and there are (and will be more) "wake up calls" for America as well as the rest of the world.
#11. To: Zipporah (#9)
So let me understand this.. are you saying that muslims are beyond redemption?
it is an opportunity to share Christ with Moslems;
Sheesh, Zipporah.
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