South African Bible Believers

CHURCH HISTORY - Seventh Period

• Modernist Period (Laodicea, Dragnet)

• The Faith Denied (1870's to Rapture) (Rev 3:14-22; Matt 13:47-52)

This period sees progressive denial of the Lord's Name (Person and Work), discarding of His Word, distortion of His Church, yet a powerful defence of the Truth continues until the Rapture.

Description of the Lord 

• of Himself - The Amen, etc.    The Faithful, etc.    The Creator.

• of the Church - Repugnant.

Denial of His Name (His Person - Deity, Humanity & Work)

• Rationalism - last quarter of 19th Century. Influenced by  evolutionism (Darwin's "Origin of Species" 1859 etc) - denied  God's revelation in the Lord Jesus and in the Bible.

•  Materialism - stressed man's importance - denies the Universe was created by God.

These two concepts led to Liberal Theology - components:

1)    Stresses importance of mind, experience & emotion   (Schleiermacher), the will (Ritschl), and extreme immanence of God.

2)    Dichotomy of "Christ of faith" and "Jesus of history" - the Lord Jesus divided!

3)    Dialectical Theology (neo-orthodoxy, neo-liberalism - Barth).- extreme transcendence of God - inaccessible to man, revelation in another dimension - Bible is not infallible & not inerrant until one encounters God - indirect revelation!

4)    Existential Theology (Bultmann) - denies all miracles  (Incarnation, Virgin Birth, Resurrection, Ascension, Return of the Lord, miracles of the Lord & His apostles & OT prophets) - demythologisation.

5)    Secular theology (Tillich) - "God is dead" - so completely absent as to be "dead" where liberal theologians are concerned!

6)    Social gospel and Liberation theology - The Lord's death has no redemptive value, merely exemplary. Man's efforts - social, moral, political and material - are meritorious.

Discarding of His Word

• Higher criticism - regards Bible as a book of mere human origin no revelation, no inspiration, no authority. (Astruc, Eichhorn,  Graf & Wellhausen) no prophecy, only history re-written as  prophecy!

• New Versions of Bible where the gospel is diluted and distorted.

• "Non-sexist" versions where the masculine gender for "God" and cognates is removed, becoming common, neuter and even masculine/feminine

• Situation ethics replacing Biblical teachings.

Distortion of the Church

The concept of the one Body of Christ united by the Lord through Baptism in the Holy Spirit gives way to artificial unification of the Churches without regard for Biblical truths.

a)    Ecumenism

• gathering of "tares" and "bad fish".

• development of the one-world Church - to become the "Harlot" or"Jezebel" or "Babylon".

Union of branches of same denomination, then different denominations in the same country, then international unions.

• 1867 - Anglican Lambeth Conference.

• 1891 - International Congregational Council.

• 1892 - England - Free Church Council.

• 1900 - Scotland - United Free Church of Scotland.

• 1905 - France - Protestant Federation of France. Also Baptist World Alliance.

• 1908 - USA - Federal Council of The Churches of Christ.

• 1919 - England - Federal Council of Evangelical Churches. Switzerland - Swiss Federation of Churches.

• 1923 - Lutheran World Federation.

• 1925 - Canada - Presbyterian, Congregational & Methodist Churches      form United Church of Canada.

• 1941 - USA - Federal Council of Christian Churches.

• 1943 - USA - National Association of Evangelicals.

• 1947 - India - Church of South India - Anglican Congregational, and Presbyterian.

Intercommunion of Anglican, Lutheran & Eastern Orthodox Churches etc all over the world and eventually –

• 1948 - World Council of Churches (Protestant bodies). Assemblies not involved.

b)    Pentecostal (1901) and Charismatic (1960) Movement

• Wrong emphasis on "signs and wonders" (marks of an apostle &     foundational to the Church) preparing "churchgoers" for the     deception of man of lawlessness with "signs and lying wonders". See II Corinthians 12:12; II Thessalonians 2:9; Matt 24:24;7:21-23

• uniting Protestants and Catholics, regardless of doctrine.

c)    Homosexual Churches

• with homosexual leadership!

d)    Women's Leadership

• in Churches

Delusion of Professing Church (Christendom)

• Delighting in world's wealth, popularity and self-sufficiency  (Rev. 3:17).

Destitute Church seen by the Lord

• "wretched, miserable, poor, naked, blind" (Rev. 3:18).

Defence of the Faith continues

• Emphasis on the Deity, Incarnation, Lordship of the Saviour and Liberty and Leading of the Spirit.

• Emphasis on the Infallibility, Inerrancy, Inspiration, Authority and Revelation of the Word - Archaeology and other discoveries (Dead Sea Scrolls, New Testament papyri & parchments) confirm Biblical accounts and textual fidelity).

• Emphasis on the Principles & Practices of the New Testament by assemblies of Christians (or brethren).

• Emphasis on the Fundamentals of the Faith.

• Emphasis on Creation (Creation Research Society - H.M.Morris, J.D.Whitcomb, etc - Evolution Protest Movement, Institute for Creation Research, Bible-Science Association, Creation-Life Publishers).

• Emphasis on Evangelical Missionary Work and Evangelical bodies.

Destiny of the True Church & Destruction of False Church.

The Rapture separates the True Church (Body & Bride of Christ) from the false "Church" (Harlot, Jezebel, Babylonianism).  Good fish removed from bad fish, wheat removed from tares. The false Church goes into the Great Tribulation and destroyed.

Conclusion - Warning and Exhortaion.

The long history of the Church from its departure from Scriptural truth to its complete return to New Testament teachings is a lesson and a warning to each believer and each assembly not to be complacent or to think highly of self, but always to be vigilant, entirely dependent on the Lord Jesus, honoring His Name and upholding His Word, "because our adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour".

This wonderful assurance, however, is given to all of us: "The God of all grace....make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen" 1 Peter 5:8,10,11.