Monday, December 29, 2014

Is Your Church Functionally Liberal?


“It is one thing to hear God’s Word. It is another to fear it, heeding all God’s warnings, trusting all God’s promises, and obeying all God’s commands.”

Philip Graham Ryken, Jeremiah and Lamentations (Wheaton, 2001), page 551.

The liberal churches I’ve known are not openly hostile to the Bible. They like the Bible. They want their preacher to use the Bible. They have home Bible studies. What makes them “liberal” is that the Bible alone is not what rules them. They allow into their doctrine, their ethos, their decisions, other complicating factors. The Bible is revered, in a way. But it is not the decisive factor. It is only one voice among others. Read more
A number of churches and clergy in the Anglican Church in North America and the Continuing Anglican jurisdictions are classifiable as "liberal" in this sense. They do not fully accept the Bible as canon, that is, as their functional rule of faith and life. 

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