HAS THE SALT LOST HIS SAVOUR?
by Charley Clements

July 23, 2000

The Houston Chronicle recently ran a front-page article about the controversy brewing at a well-known Christian university over the establishment of a center to investigate the "intelligent design" theory. Opponents of the center claim that the intelligent design theory is simply a front for creationism--and some members of the faculty are adamantly opposed to allowing creationism to "creep" into the curriculum of the university. The professor leading the protest over the establishment of the center says that the university has long defended the "rights" of the biology department to teach evolution, and that his big fear is that people off campus (in the real world) will believe that the university’s science faculty is embracing these ideas (creationism).

Now, it’s hard enough for me to understand why this renowned Christian university would teach evolution--or hire faculty members that insisted on doing so--while opposing the teaching of creationism, but further along in the article was an even more startling revelation (for me at least). The article stated that the president of the university, although supportive of the center, has said that neither he nor the researchers at the center actually believe in a literal interpretation of the Genesis creation story.

There was more to the article, but let me just pause and recap the above.

Unless the Chronicle drastically misquoted the faculty members and the president, this world-renowned Christian university teaches evolution, but not creationism. The president of the university is quoted as saying that he doesn't believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible.

Realizing that this university is affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, I took the time to read their Statement of Faith, which includes the following statements:

"The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is the record of God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter."

Without any mixture of error.

It is evident that the president and some of the faculty members of the university are at odds with the Convention’s Statement of Faith, since they obviously do not believe that the Bible is the literal truth, without error.

How these prestigious Christian leaders-or anyone else, for that matter--can profess to believe in God but not believe that the first word in the Bible, the last word in the Bible, and every word in between is the absolute, literal, divine word of God is beyond me.

Unfortunately, far too many Christians, pastors and theologians today think that they can intellectualize religion, and pick and choose portions of God's Holy Word to believe in, and discard those portions that embarrass their intellect, or make them uncomfortable or interfere with their lifestyles.

More unfortunately, many of these poor misguided souls are in leadership and teaching positions where they are able to influence and corrupt the thinking of untold thousands of young people who look to them for leadership. Many of these young people will go on to pastor churches, or assume leadership or teaching positions themselves, and so the cycle will continue.

We already have thousands of such pastors in churches across America today, preaching a watered down, politically and intellectually correct version of the Gospel intended to keep all the paying customers happy and entertained and carefully crafted to offend no one.

America does not need any more politically correct churches pastored by intellectuals. We need some of that old time preaching, praying, shouting, singing. We need some of that old time praising of the Lord. We need to hear those Glory Hallelujahs ringing-we need that old time preaching of God’s Word.

And we need some pastors who aren’t ashamed of the Gospel and who have the guts to stand up in the pulpit and tell their congregations that some things are wrong.

The Gospel says that abortion is wrong, and homosexuality is wrong, and fornication is wrong, and a host of other sins are wrong, and that if we as Christians even allow anyone to teach His people otherwise, then He holds that against us (Revelations 2:20).

How many pastors today will stand up and tell their congregations that they are commanded by God to put a stop to the promotion of abortion and the "gay rights" movement? That would empty out some pews.

I reached the conclusion several years ago that this wonderful nation of ours was in serious trouble, and that the only hope for us as a nation was for God's people to wake up and stand up, and get involved in every aspect of our society, including our government.

It pains me to say this, but I have come to realize that the Church in America is facing a major challenge in putting our own house in order before we can even think about being affective in terms of influencing "the world."

It is small wonder that the Church is not taken seriously when even the esteemed leaders of the Church admit to not believing the Bible, but the Bible is, of course, the answer to the problem. The answers to all of life's problems are found in God's Holy Word, and that is where we need to turn to in order to revive, rebuild and revitalize God's Church.

The Church in America can and must be the guiding light for our nation, but we have to stop emulating our society and start influencing our society.

I pray that happens.

Will the church please stand?