Pastor Allen invited us in his message Sunday to read the Manhattan Declaration, consider it, and sign it. I did. I was number 399,475.
But some people haven't signed it. I have actually been following this on the internet for several months now. Among those who have refused to sign are R.C. Sproul, Michael Horton, and John MacArthur. Those who have signed are numerous, and can be seen here.
I wondered what the reason could be that they are not signing this, so I read their statements in order to summarize them for readers on this blog. I thought their objection might be related to the futility of trying to change the country through political power struggles, as opposed to heart change through the power of the gospel. That's partly right. But they also do not want to be associated (in a statement that refers repeatedly to our spiritual heritage as Christians and our faith in God's divine revelation) with others (Roman Catholic and Orthodox, specifically) who may not state the gospel exactly the way that they (Sproul, MacArthur,and Horton) would state it.
It's not that I don't sympathize with those concerns...to some degree. But for me, they are not show stoppers. In regard to the first objection, I am convinced that if Christians do not support Biblical values informing the legal system, someone else's (inferior) value system will determine our nation's laws. Right now that would be politically correct "tolerance" (which tolerates every perversion known to man and wants to snuff out God's Word and His ways). But in a few years it could be the Sharia law of Islam. Either one is unacceptable for this nation.
In regard to the second objection, I have Roman Catholic and Orthodox friends (just as Sproul stated he does) whom I believe are living in saving faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ, but who might not be able to articulate the gospel in a way that would pass Sproul's muster. I have been concerned at times that we as Reformed believers put more credence in articulation than faith. I stand with the words in the declaration, and with the brothers in Christ from other faith traditions who can also affirm those declarations.
To read an excellent statement by someone who did sign the declaration, look here.
Tomorrow: What I hope will happen
Who knows, maybe John (Reformedispy) MacArthur is right and the greatest Greek scholars (Google "Famous Rapture Watchers"), who uniformly said that Rev. 3:10 means PRESERVATION THROUGH, were wrong. But John has a conflict. On the one hand, since he knows that all Christian theology and organized churches before 1830 believed the church would be on earth during the tribulation, he would like to be seen as one who stands with the great Reformers. On the other hand, if you have a warehouse of unsold pretrib rapture material, and if you want to have "security" for your retirement years and hope that the big California quake won't louse up your plans, you have a decided conflict of interest - right, John? Maybe the Lord will have to help strip off the layers of his seared conscience which have grown for years in order to please his parents and his supporters - who knows? One thing is for sure: pretrib is truly a house of cards and is so fragile that if a person removes just one card from the TOP of the pile, the whole thing can collapse. Which is why pretrib teachers don't dare to even suggest they could be wrong on even one little subpoint! Don't you feel sorry for the straitjacket they are in? While you're mulling all this over, Google "Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty" for a rare behind-the-scenes look at the same 179-year-old fantasy.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I feel that all this "Pretrib, Posttrib, Notrib" mumbo-jumbo is neither here nor there, you can be a strong supporter of all of this and still not be a part of Gods Kingdom because it is not a matter of what you do on the outside that, but where your heart is in relationship to God that determines your righteousness and ultimate salvation. The rest is just religion, but we are called to have relationship with God, through the Holy Spirit of Christ Jesus which transforms inside then out. As far as the Declaration goes I signed because it is our mandate to establish the kingdom of God on this earth, that was the plan from the beginning and it is God's plan now, a person can have all the money in the world and support every religion or humanity charity there is but if their efforts dont glorify God and support change in establishing God order and will on this earth, then they are not part of the solution but part of the problem. our world, and our lives were not designed to operate without God, so the only answer to the worlds problems as a whole is communion with God. All Christians are the body of Christ we should join together for the purpose of Christ, there is only one Christ and one Father.
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