OceanSide church of Christ

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ENCOUNTERING THE WRATH OF LIBERALISM

Victor M. Eskew

 

     Those who are caught up in the whirlwind of liberalism often boast of being loving, positive, and tolerant.  It is a combination of these characteristics that make them “sweet” to both those in the church and those outside the body of Christ.  They believe that the positive atmosphere they create helps to draw the masses to the Christ.

     It is amazing, however, to watch their kind disposition and pleasant demeanor turn when they are faced with conservative thought.  When questioned about their beliefs and practices, their wrath spews forth with venom more deadly than that of the King Brown snake.  They have no tolerance for conservatism.  They will not fellowship those who see a “thus saith the Lord.”  Name-calling and ridicule flow from their lips when they discuss the poor legalists and Bible thumpers within the church.  When they deal with such individuals, they believe that they have a “right” to be negative.

     We wonder why so many people have difficulty seeing this hypocrisy of the liberal left.  They speak kindly of the one who teaches salvation by faith only.  On the other hand, they mock their brethren who stress that one must be baptized in order to be saved (Mark 16:16).  They call a Roman priest their brother, but disown the one who asks about Jesus’ teaching found in Matthew 23:9, which states:  “And call no man your father upon the earth:  for one is your Father, which is in heaven.”  They will sing in joy with the instrument of music, and will curse those who teach about the silence of the Scriptures because he is said to be binding his opinion on others (Heb. 7;14).  They will honor the elites of the denominational world, and will express pity upon the great heroes of the Restoration Movement.  They hold up the Bible before their audiences, but chasten the man who fills his sermon with Scripture as being irrelevant for our post-modern society.

     The love of the liberal is filled with dissimulation (Rom. 12;9).  The liberal has a mouth of both blessing and cursing (James 3:9-10).  The humble attitude of the liberal is founded upon pride and arrogance against the wisdom of God (Ps. 10:4).  The liberal calls the evil good and the good evil (Isa. 5:20).  The liberal rejoices in iniquity rather than rejoicing in the truth (I Cor. 13:6).  The liberal honors those who pervert the gospel and withdraws himself from those who proclaim wholesome words (I Tim. 6:3-4).

     The liberal’s attitude toward conservative theology involves him in the ultimate hypocrisy.  Love is replaced with hate.  Kindness is replaced with ridicule and scorn.  Acceptance and tolerance are replaced with disassociation.  Some of the most stern words of rebuke spoken by our Lord were against this kind of hypocrisy.  “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For ye are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.  Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity” (Matt. 23:27-28).  The liberal is a stage-player.  He is kind and loving as long as you agree with him and walk the path of apostasy with him.  Any opposition will encounter the wrath of liberalism.  At that point, one can see that liberalism is counter to the things that is often boasts.