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"Take
Heed" Ministries
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Cecil Andrews, PO BOX 13, Ballynahinch, BT24 8AL, Northern Ireland. Telephone/Fax 028 9756 5511. E-MAIL - takeheed@aol.com WEB-SITE - http://www.takeheed.net |
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‘Moral Crusades’ and ‘The Gospel |
The front page, lead article in
the October 2004 issue of Evangelical Times was titled ‘Moral
Crusades’ and herewith are a few extracts from that article –
The siege
of Beslan and the murder of hundreds of children plumbed new depths of callous
wickedness…How should the Christian respond to all this…Christians see these
sins and the hurt and destruction they produce and we want them to stop…It is
tempting for the church to try to solve these problems…Because our society is
blinded by sin we would like to help it set up safety-rails for moral behaviour
and barriers against self-destruction. Some Christians believe this is not only
desirable but that we have a duty to construct these barriers against sin’s
folly…Key moral issues…become the battleground of opposing worldviews and
lifestyles…But moral crusades ALONE have little impact…We do not say that it is
wrong for Christians to engage in moral crusades – but there are significant
dangers…Recent requests for Christian activism have included picketing school
gates where contraceptive pills are dispensed to pupils…BUT WHERE IS THE GOSPEL
IN ALL THIS? Advocates of social protest may say ‘the gospel’ is in the social
reform BUT THIS IS NOT THE GOSPEL that is “the power
of God unto salvation” [Romans
This timely and excellent article
has I believe spotlighted a very subtle way in which the enemy of ‘the
gospel’ has sought to further diminish the power and influence of God’s
appointed means of saving sinners namely “by the foolishness of preaching”
[1 Corinthians 1:21]. Lives truly transformed by God’s Spirit through the
message of ‘the gospel’ will be radically changed and morally uplifted
for the article goes on to say
‘Evangelical
believers know that controlling sin is not a matter of social reform. We can
never make a man better by enforcing a particular moral code. There is only one
remedy for the sin that lurks at every level of society – the gospel of Jesus
Christ, applied by God’s Spirit to the heart of individuals’.
A former Pastor of mine used to
quote a saying by a saint of God [it might have been Vance Havner but I can’t
be certain] who said ‘The Church is not called to “Christianise” the world
but to “Evangelise” it’. One quote that is by Vance Havner [see http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/v/vance_havner.html]
is this – ‘If they had a social gospel in the
days of the prodigal son, somebody would have given him a bed and a sandwich
and he never would have gone home’ and I
think these quotes together sum up the mindset behind some of today’s
‘ecumenical moral crusades’ that in reality pose a great danger to ‘the gospel’
that the church is called to preach and proclaim. A helpful article giving
guidelines to Christians on this issue is by Bill Jackson and it is
called ‘Pro Eternal Life’ and it can be viewed on http://www.angelfire.com/ky/dodone/ProLife.html.
Prior to
the publication of the article in Evangelical Times I was already
considering writing on this issue as a particular book had been drawn to my
attention. It is called ‘More Than These’ and
it is written by an American Pastor called Ralph Ovadal. Pastor Ovadal
had been deeply involved in the American pro-life/anti-abortion movement when
the truth began to dawn upon him that this ‘moral crusade’ was being used
to further the aims of Rome and the ecumenical movement. David Carson in
his August 2004 – Protestant Old Paths newsletter carried this review
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‘Pastor
Ralph Ovadal has for many years been a frontline campaigner against abortion
and writes this book from first-hand experience, as well as many well
researched sources. The purpose of the book is to unveil the Church of Rome in
its use of the abortion issue to further its own agenda and to draw
Evangelicals into fellowship with her. This they have been very successful in
doing with the result that the barriers between
A similar ‘moral crusade’ that is
active around the world and that I wrote about some years ago in one of my
newsletters is ‘Habitat for Humanity’ [June 1999 – see http://www.takeheed.net/news10.htm]
that seeks through ecumenical co-operation to provide cheap housing for poor
families and the second of the Vance Havner quotes already referred to seems
particularly apt in this case.
Ralph Ovadal’s book ‘More
Than These’ can be ordered by visiting his website on http://www.wcuweb.com/Default.asp
or people living in the United Kingdom can write to him to order a copy at Wisconsin
Christians United P.O. Box 771 Monroe, WI 53566 USA and if you
enclose a bank of England £5 note he will gladly send you a copy.
The Evangelical Times
article rightly states ‘It is the overriding responsibility of the
Christian church to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ’ but that must
never be at the cost of forging unscriptural ‘spiritual alliances’ with those
who preach ‘another gospel’. In his ‘Morning and Evening’ devotional for
the ‘Morning’ of January 13, C H Spurgeon considers the verse in 1
Kings 22:48 “Jehosaphat made ships of Tharshish to go to Ophir for gold; but
they went not; for the ships were broken at Ezion-geber” and I can think of
no better way of ending this article than by quoting the following extracts –
Mr Spurgeon wrote ‘Solomon’s
ships had returned in safety, but Jehosaphat’s vessels never reached the land
of gold…The secret cause of Jehosaphat’s loss is well worthy of notice, for it
is the root of very much of the suffering of the Lord’s people; it was his
alliance with a sinful family, his fellowship with sinners. In 2 Chronicles
20:37 we are told that the Lord sent a prophet to declare “Because thou hast
joined thyself with Ahaziah, the Lord hath broken thy works”…Would to God that
Jehosaphat’s experience might be a warning to the rest of the Lord’s people to
avoid being unequally yoked together [for example in ‘moral crusades’] with
unbelievers…for if it be not so with us, we may expect to hear it often said
“The Lord hath broken thy works”.’