The following is part two of Jan Markell’s Chapter “Religionist Deceivers Rampant,” an exclusive preview of Terry James’ book “Deceivers: Exposing Evil Seducers & Their Last Days Deception.”
The Mainline Mistake
More than 100 years ago, mainline Protestants made a wrong turn—actually, a left turn if you will. For generations, the Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and others had seen net annual membership gains. But in the early 1960s, their growth slowed down, and soon they began to lose members big time. That decline has continued to the present.
These folks were at one time America’s “evangelicals.” They chose to follow a liberal, progressive agenda, also called the social gospel, in about 1920. They simply quit teaching and preaching the gospel for social issues and causes. It was their conscious choice to feed the stomach but starve the soul.
Visit any Mainline Protestant church today and you will observe an aging membership unenthusiastically singing old hymns with little enthusiasm for the true gospel. Those who are excited have moved on to evangelical churches. They took their eyes off the prize: the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. These denominations are now slipping into irrelevance but still maintain their focus on social justice, which seems to keep some from permanently closing their doors.
Just about the time they began to decline, interest, attendance, and enthusiasm began to soar for conservative, evangelical denominations. Surely, they wouldn’t make the same mistakes, would they?
Don’t be so sure! They chose to go down the same path!
Evangelicals Start to Wobble
In the 1980s, I looked forward to the monthly magazine put out by the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE). These publications were very solid. I learned that they had been started around 1942 as a counter to the liberalism going on in the Protestant church. The founders of the NAE were conservative, fundamental, and salvation-focused. They had little time for the social gospel.
However, take a trip over to the NAE website today—and be prepared for a surprise upon seeing the organization’s transition over the last 30 years and a shocking deviation from its 1942 founding! You will see an emphasis on poverty, racial reconciliation, environmentalism, human rights, immigration, nuclear weapons, creation care, and prison reform. These subjects are right out of the liberal playbook!
To be blunt, evangelicals are walking down the same gangplank as the liberal mainliners. They may also drown in the same sea. In 2011, a resolution by the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) called for a mutual reduction in current nuclear stockpiles, as well as ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The NAE resolution states: “With their unique destructive potential, nuclear weapons profoundly threaten the lives and prosperity of future generations, and of all God’s creatures.”
What does this have to do with the evangelical gospel of salvation? And are these folks delusional enough to suggest that North Korea, Pakistan, Iran, and Russia are going to cut back on their nukes? Liberalism strikes again!
As I moved deeper into Christian ministry, I noticed that the solid rock of evangelicalism was moving leftward and toward issues that had nothing to do with eternity—more signs of the coming great apostasy. I was shocked and disappointed. When one group of denominations had already hit an iceberg like the Titanic did, wouldn’t every other denomination sit up, take notice, and vow to not make the same mistakes?
Apparently not.
Click Here to Read More — Part One, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight
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