The Changes in Christianity Over the Past Century

This is a link to our weekly radio program #3909c:

Gary:

You are listening to a special edition of Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call.  Still ahead, Dave and Tom continue their weekly in-depth study of the doctrine of salvation, please stay with us.  We return now to our program series from 2000 and:

CONTENDING FOR THE FAITH

In this regular feature, Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call.  Here is this week’s question:  Dear Mr. Hunt, I’ve heard you mention on the program more than once that you’ve been a Christian 60+ years.  I’d be interested to know what you regard as the most significant changes which have taken place during that time period.  And as long as you are reviewing the past, what do you see ahead, if the Lord tarries?

Tom:

Dave, this one’s—I’m not 60+ here, so this one’s for you.

Dave:

Oh my goodness!  Do we have a few hours, Tom, for this?  What do I see in the future?  I’m not a prophet; I don’t see anything in the future.

Tom:

Well, let’s back up.  I want to tell our audience a little story on you.  I remember when we were working on the Seduction of Christianity, and we were doing all this research and collecting all this material, I mean, it’s just overwhelming, just unbelievable, and you were standing, we were in your kitchen, and you were standing there pealing an apple, and looking over at me, and you said to me, “Tom, I think the whole world has gone completely insane, and you looked at me and you said, except you and me.”  Then you thought about it a minute and you said, “And I’m not so sure about you!”

Dave:

Tom, that doesn’t sound good for me, it sounds like a deceitful heart.

Tom:

No, it was, I mean, I hope everybody takes that the way it was intended.  It was just unbelievable, and that was 15 years ago, so that should start you off.

Dave:

The world has gone mad it seems.  It has gotten worse, Tom, since then of course, and when we  have evangelical leaders who are compromised, really compromising, joining with Roman Catholics who have a false gospel, there can be no question about it, to evangelize the world, supposedly.  You know, we just had the Lutheran World Federation, and the Catholic Theologians sign this document after 30 years of discussion, Joint Declaration on Justification by Faith, and the whole thing began over indulgences.  That’s Martin Luther’s 95 Thesis that he nailed to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Chapel.  It was a dissertation on the efficacy and power of indulgences.  That’s what the whole thing—that really triggered the Reformation.  And now they are signing that document to say we are in agreement, and the Pope is offering more indulgences, opening holy doors in Rome, pilgrims coming from around the world to walk through these doors to get forgiveness of sin.  If you give up cigarettes in the year 2000, you get forgiveness of sins.  And this is what it all began over, it’s like the Pope is thumbing his nose at them, and yet they are signing this document, that we are now in agreement.  And the head of the Lutheran World Federation says what a great day this is and so forth.  Tom, and then we have, we just had this huge charismatic in St. Louis, and that was in St. Louis in June 2000.  You had the head of the Assemblies of God, you had so many leading Christians there joining with Roman Catholics in a conference?  They used to burn us at the stake, this is a false gospel.  Look, signing this joint declaration, and the Evangelicals and Catholics Together has not changed the fact that Catholics wear scapulars.  Pope has worn a scapular all his life, on one end of it says, “Whosoever dies wearing this scapular shall not suffer eternal fire.”  I mean, I could go on and on about these things.  I was just over in Switzerland, the Dalai Lama preached in Calvin’s pulpit in the cathedral in Geneva, Switzerland, a few months ago.  The Dean of the cathedral said what a wonderful event this was, we’re coming together, and embracing one another and the Pope says to Sri Chinmoy, who leads weekly meditations, (he’s a Hindu at the UN), your message and my message are the same.  And we have leading evangelicals like Charles Colson, Bill Bright, J. I. Packard, Pat Robertson, and so forth, who signed a document with Catholics saying and telling the Pope, your message and our message is the same.  Yes, I think something has gone wrong.  It has gotten much worse, and what does the church need, what has gone wrong?  I think a failure to stand by the Bible, to earnestly contend for THE faith once for all delivered to the saints!  If justification by faith is so complex that theologians have to discuss it for 30 years, who could possible be saved?  So let’s get back to the simplicity of the gospel, let’s get back to the clarity of scripture, and let us stand by that, not the traditions of men.  Jesus didn’t say; Go into all the world and dialogue!  But dialogue is a big word today.  We’ve got Catholics dialoguing with Buddhists, and the Southern Baptists are dialoguing with the Catholics.  You don’t dialogue about mathematics.  We don’t dialogue well, 2 + 2 is 4, I mean, let’s discuss it.  How do you feel about that, why can’t we let it be 5, at least on Thursdays or something!  Tom, you do not dialogue about truth.  The Bible says that this is THE truth, this is THE way, and this is the gospel, outside of that there is no salvation!  We had better have the fear of God enough to honor His Word, and stop trying to make alliances with people who do not believe God’s Word.  I think it’s going to get worse, that’s what the Bible says.

Tom:

Dave, just to add one thing to that: Christian media.  I mean here we have as Christians we have so many resources with regard to God’s Word.  We’ve got computers, we’ve got everything that we would want to have, or that would make it easy to get into God’s Word all the more, but it’s all going south.  Christian media is really corrupting us, rather than encouraging us and helping us to grow in God’s Word.  

Dave:

It’s doing both.  There are some good and encouraging things edifying things on Christian media, but there is much that is not.