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Much of the failure of the western church is due to humanism.
“I am among those who believe that our Western civilization is on its way to perishing. It has many commendable qualities, most of which it has borrowed from the Christian ethic, but it lacks the element of moral wisdom that would give it permanence. Future historians will record that we of the twentieth century had intelligence enough to create a great civilization but not the moral wisdom to preserve it.” ~ A.W. Tozer, Man, The Dwelling Place of God
Humanism manifesting as “love”
Humanism ito “God is love” and Humanism ito “try harder” both these doctrines deny the Cross & the Spirit, but especially the Cross.
God is love is HAVOC Theology making man the center and not God (HAVOC Theology: Half A Verse Out of Context)
“Christianity today is man-centered, not God-centered. God is made to wait patiently, even respectfully, on the whims of men. The image of God currently popular is that of a distracted Father, struggling in heartbroken desperation to get people to accept a Saviour of whom they feel no need and in whom they have very little interest. To persuade these self-sufficient souls to respond to His generous offers God will do almost anything, even using salesmanship methods and talking down to them in the chummiest way imaginable. This view of things is, of course, a kind of religious romanticism which, while it often uses flattering and sometimes embarassing terms in praise of God, manages nevertheless to make man the star of the show.”
~ A.W. Tozer, Man, The Dwelling Place of God
Humanism manifesting as “try harder”
Sadly, every Sunday in pulpits across this land, preachers reduce the core message of the gospel to what Bryan Chappell calls the “Deadly Be’s” just “be like” Abraham, Moses, David or Jesus, or just “be” disciplined.
Concerning this tendency towards moralism, Martin Lloyd-Jones explains,
“If you only preach the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, not only do you not solve the problem of mankind, in a sense you aggravate it. You are preaching nothing but utter condemnation, because nobody can ever carry it out. Paul did not say, ‘God forbid that I should glory, save in the Sermon on the Mount; God forbid that I should glory save in the ethical teachings of Christ; nor the example of Christ either.’ That is often preached, it is not? What is the message of Christianity? The imitation of Christ? ‘Read the gospels’ they say. ‘And see how he lived. That is the way we all ought to live, so let us decide to do so. Let us decide to imitate Christ and to live as he lived.’
I say once more that that is not the center and heart of the Christian message.
What [the Apostles] preached was his death, and the meaning of that event.
