Belief Requires Unbelief

Church Family:
If you turn on your favorite media source of choice and there is a person proclaiming the name of Jesus along with a few Bible verses, do you accept what they are saying as true and biblical? Can you distinguish between what John the Apostle calls a spirit of antichrist and a spirit of error, and the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of God?

Every two years, Ligonier Ministries surveys the Church across the United States on their beliefs. The State of Theology survey published from 2022 shows that the Church is suffering because it is not discerning what is true theologically. Rejecting doctrines such as the deity and exclusivity of Jesus Christ, as well as the divine inspiration and authority of the Bible, Evangelicals are increasingly embracing a secular worldview in their doctrine and in how they live their lives.

Here are just three results of the 35 questions asked of those in the American Church:

The State of Theology Survey
 
Q15: Everyone is born innocent in the eyes of God: 65% agree; 3% not sure
Q4: God learns and adapts to different circumstances: 48% agree; 9% not sure
Q7: Jesus was a great teacher but was not God: 43% agree; 3% not sure.
(According to Scripture, the answers for all three questions should be 100% DISAGREE)

These are just three primary doctrines that the Bible rests on. What should Christians do when churches leave primary doctrines and teach a false gospel? Based on the commands of Scripture and Church history, we the local church must lean in and be even more precise and clear about essential doctrines, not less clear. God has given us this calling as Christians.

One way we do this is through the ancient creeds of the Church. Creeds are “theological mirrors of the Bible’s fundamental doctrine” that summarize from Scripture the God in whom we believe, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They are tools that define the community of faith, the Church, and challenge alternative beliefs and concepts of reality. These ancient but timeless documents are essential to Christianity’s stability and spiritual growth. While the postmodern world cringes at religious truth as unbelievable and distasteful, we boast in Jesus Christ as “the only Son of God, begotten from the Father before all ages, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made; of the same essence as the Father. Through Him all things were made. For us and for our salvation He came down from heaven (Nicene Creed).”

John the Apostle says, “test every spirit” within the Church and outside. Do not believe every spirit, for some of them are false prophets and the spirit of antichrist (1 John 4:1-6) declaring that Jesus is not God incarnate. Belief requires unbelief of all the spirit of error declares. This is our call as GCT: To discern truth from doctrinal error and to discern truth from half-truth as we run confidently in the same faith once delivered to the saints before us. We do this so that we might grow up in every way into Christ, who is the living head of the Church, who is the way, the truth, the life, and the only way to the Father. The Gospel and the Church rests on us testing every spirit and rejecting those spirits of error and antichrist.

See you Sunday, enjoying the Spirit of Truth: Steve