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HOPE FOR AN ERRING CHURCH
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A response by Brenda Leroux
I would like to comment on Dr Murray Henderson's article re: staying in the Anglican Church.
Murray, are you saying that it would have been better not to have had the Reformation,because violence followed it? We would still be "paying" our way to heaven and the Church would control our eternal destiny,rather than "faith" in Jesus. Sometimes preserving Truth comes at a price. Anglican Bishops died for the truth of the Word of God and so did many other believers. I'm thankful for the heritage they left us.I want to leave this legacy of integrity to my children.
We have had major movements of revival within the Church since the Reformation that are a better allegory to our present situation, namely the Wesleyan revival and the Pentecostal Revival. Both called the Church back to Scriptural teaching that was not being followed and both resulted in the Anglican Church casting out it's followers. Without these movements we would not have the systematic study of the Scriptures and the life in the Holy Spirit. Because of the Pentecostal Movement the traditional Church eventually opened up to the Charasmatic movement and Spiritual renewal. This would not have happened however but for the pioneers in the Spirit who had to leave the traditional Church to practice the Truth. Perhaps those who have left the Anglican Churches of Canada and The U.S.A will eventually call those Churches back to the authority of Scripture in the future.
You also plea for "unity" of the Church as a witness to the world, but we forget that the world is also discerning and laughs at "hypocrisy" and a church that doesn't live up to what it says it stands for i.e. The Bible is the Word of God. Compromise can ruin our witness as well.
I would also like to comment on your allegory of those staying in the Church, to the Israelites in captivity in Babylon. God told them to "plant and build houses" settle in, for a few reasons. First of all they were there under His judgement for not following Him; secondly, to leave would mean the Babylonians chasing them down and executing them-they had little choice. Neither of these fits our situation. Finally God did not cleanse Babylon through them as you suggest might happen to the Anglican Church through those who stay. God removed them from Babylon after they had learned some lessons and it was His Time to restore the Kingdom of Israel. Some of us feel that it is God's time to take us out of Babylon now and restore the Church to following God's Word.
Your reference to Hosea and sinful Gomer is interesting, about taking sinful Gomer back, but Hosea and God never condoned her lifestyle or blessed it. We should certainly love always but not call blessed what is sinful.
My last comment is regarding your reference to what is "sullied"; that all churches fall short in some way morally. There is a difference between what a church teaches as it's "beliefs"
and the falling down of some people's life styles within that church. When a church teaches what is immoral as being behaviour that is moral and blessed by God this is blasphemy - not being "sullied". This frightens me and I want no part of it. We are deliberately corrupting God's Name.
I'd like to hear your thoughts. Brenda
P.S. I appreciate all you are doing for Essentials and the upcoming Synod.
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