Give the people what they want!
by Hadley Robinson
I was traveling through Edmond, OK a while back, saw this sign, jumped out of my truck, and took this photo.
I was as dumbfounded as the next guy: A church that says what it is – no deceit here. In fact, many of the Prophets went after the priests of Israel for the very same thing. William Barclay had these words,
Diogenes, the great cynic philosopher, spoke of the false teachers of his day whose method was to follow wherever the applause of the crowd led. One of the first characteristics of the false prophet is that he tells men what they want to hear and not the truth they need to hear.1
Men need to know that, after they die, they will face Judgment. If they have repented of their sin and believed in the risen Christ, they will enjoy the grace, mercy, and fellowship of God or, if not, they will receive God's justice be thrown into Hell, a place that no amount of skill, influence or money will get one out.
Death is the destiny of every man and the living should take it to heart. Ecc 7:2
Someone said to me, “Maybe this marquee is a sarcastic remark on the current condition of the American Evangelical church?” Maybe. However, if you go to the church’s website you can find out quickly that the church is pretty far off the track of orthodoxy. Such churches are the final end of Semi-Pelagianism/Arminianism. We have such respected and great preachers as Charles Wesley and the early Methodists at one end and Edmond Trinity at the other. The former toyed with error, the latter plunged into it.
The moment man becomes the center of religion, we can expect things to go downhill. At least, Edmond Trinity Christian Church is honest – I’ll commend them for that.
[1] Barclay, W. (Ed.). (1976). The letters of James and Peter (p. 315). Philadelphia: Westminster John Knox Press.