What is wrong with the Church? Why is it that the children of the chosen go the way of the world nearly as frequently as the children of those not chosen? I would assert that it is because dispensationalists are Pro-Choice.
By "dispensationalist" I am referring to those whose theology is not reformed. Those who are not Calvinists. Primarily these folks believe that God saved his Old Testament people in one way, and his New Testament people in a different way. They believe that the Old Testament is useful, but not really authoritative in terms of God's justice or God's commands and that the New Testament somehow supersedes the Old. It's as if God suddenly did something completely different, disregarding everything He had said previously. The term itself comes from the idea that God has acted differently during different "dispensations" of time. I know and love the dispensationalists, for I, myself, was one of them. Thank God He delivered me from dispensationalism.
But my beef with dispensationalists is not so much their nonsensical beliefs about time but with their wrong-headed insistence that man chooses Christ rather than Christ choosing man. When it comes to salvation, they believe man is Pro-Choice.
I don't have the time or the theological training to launch into a full-blown defense of Calvinism here. If you are truly interested there are plenty of websites and books available on the subject. What I want to point out is one of the practical consequences of being Pro-Choice which is that their children leave the Church in droves. According to Barna Research Group, somewhere between 70 and 80 percent of teens who claim to be born again will not be practicing Christianity by their twenties.
What I can't find, is a statistic that compares the teens of evangelical reformed families versus those of evangelical non-reformed families. But from what I've seen personally, I'm pretty sure it's the non-reformed that are responsible for most of the 80% who fall away. The reason is simple, reformed families teach their children that they are chosen by God and have no choice about whether or not they want to follow Christ. Only God gets to choose and His choice is binding on the rest of us. The non-reformed, on the other hand, are hoping their children will see the benefits of being a Christian and choose to be saved, and then, hopefully, choose to obey God in order to get all the goodies that go to the obedient. Since when does a teen or young adult choose what is best for himself? Mostly they choose whatever is fun right now. These parents would never be so lax with the running of their households as they teach that God is about running His Kingdom! "Ok now Susie, it might be dangerous for you to be out all night, plus you'll feel so much better after a good night's sleep, but you just choose for yourself." I don't think so. And yet these same people believe and teach their children that God would REALLY, REALLY appreciate it if they would choose to serve Him, but if not, hey, that's their choice?
What kind of a God builds a Kingdom only with those having nothing better to do? The sovereign God of the universe chooses each one to add to the bride for His Son, He doesn't limit Himself to those who want to come. And once a person is chosen, obedience is required, it isn't an option. To disobey is to be chastened, as we know the Bible says that God chastens those whom He loves.
Let's teach this truth to our children and see if they don't fare better when we stop telling them they have a choice and instead start teaching them the commands of God. Stop telling them that Jesus is softly and gently begging them to come to Him. Stop telling them that God will be so grateful if they would grace the Kingdom with their souls. Stop telling them that they can choose to reject God now and change their minds at any time, God will never reject them. Nonsense!
Be like the parents who brought their children to Jesus so He could bless them. They didn't ask the children if they wanted to go to Jesus, they just took them. You say, "Here is the King. Love Him. Obey Him. Serve Him."
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2 comments:
I wonder that you don't have dispensationalism and easy believeism confused or lumped together.
Your statements are broad, sweeping and blatently not true of all dispensationalist.
@Folky Dots - yes, my statements are sweeping, in the sense that I'm talking about theology and those who hold to those tenets. Many believers do not identify themselves as dispensationalists, or armineans, although they may espouse all the tenets of those theologies, and other believers may espouse some tenets and not others. For example, Reformed Baptists espouse some of the points of Calvinism while also espousing the dispensationalist beliefs.
What I'm getting at is that most dispensationalists (I realize it isn't all of them, so my frustration is really with dispensationalISM and not dispensationalISTS) believe that WE choose Christ in salvation, while Calvinism or reformed theology teaches that it is God that chooses us, that God is totally sovereign and the only worker in salvation and that we have nothing whatsoever to do with it. It is only AFTER having been born again and indwelt with the Spirit of God that a person can believe.
When it comes to children brought up as Christians who walk away from the faith permanently, I agree with the Apostle Paul, they went out from us because they were not of us. What worries me is not those whose destiny is ultimately hell (I mean it doesn't concern me in this blog post) but those sons and daughters who are chosen and members of the kingdom who live as though they are not - which is something we see too much of in the modern church and is a departure from previous generations. THAT is what I am saying is caused, in large part, by bad theology.
Naturally a dispensationalist will not agree with me that dispensationalism is bad theology.
I don't wish to convey that we have this problem licked in our household either. But to the extent that we struggle with our children in this I blame the bad teaching they received at the hands of dispensationalism. I am trying to correct the bad theology they learned from me.
Thanks for your comments.
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