Wednesday, November 28, 2007

The Hegelian Dialectic at Work in the Church

In a revealing article at http://www.newswithviews.com/PaulProctor/proctor137.htm, Paul Proctor warns of how certain leaders within a variety of Christian church bodies and movements employ the Hegelian Dialectic to silence those who take exception to their false teaching and practice of the Faith.

Here follows an excerpt from, "CHRISTIAN LEADERS BETRAY CHRIST FOR WORLD PEACE,"
By Paul Proctor
November 28, 2007
NewsWithViews.com

Once again, leaders from the so-called "church growth movement" are demonstrating for us the Hegelian Dialectic - that transformational Marxist process of compromise and consensus made famous by Georg William Friedreich Hegel which seeks to rid the world of its divisive absolutes in the interest of global peace and unity.




Here's the formula: Thesis + Antithesis = Synthesis

. . . Among other things, the dialectic process redefines "love" to mean tolerance instead of obedience, and calls Christianity and Islam "Abrahamic faiths" as if the two groups have some moral obligation to unite under a god of common ground.

"Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." - James 4:4

The Bible is uncompromisingly clear on this issue both in 2nd Corinthians 6:14-17, where we are specifically commanded to not yoke ourselves with unbelievers, and again in Ephesians 5:11, where we are instructed to "have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness."

Jesus Himself said: "He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth." (Matthew 12:30, Luke 11:23)

How then can Christians join Muslims to love God together and not be an abomination before Him? We're talking about two entirely different "Gods" here - not the same God with differing names. And that's the big lie hidden in this global agenda. By swapping love letters with Muslims, these "Christian leaders" endeavor to legitimize the illegitimate by setting aside the whole counsel of God for Results & Relationships. Jesus Christ is not the Son of Allah; and to even imply that He is by claiming to love the same "God" as Muslims is not only being dangerously deceitful - it's blasphemy!

But that's what the Hegelian Dialectic does to the Christian faith - it unites opposites and enemies under a guise of goodness - all at the Lord's expense; and that is and always has been the modus operandi of the "church growth movement" - to mingle the sheep with the goats until they are indistinguishable.


Christianity (thesis) + Islam (antithesis) = One World Religion (synthesis)

It should come as no surprise to the readers of my column that two of the reported signers of this letter who "share the sentiments" of Muslim leaders are none other than pastors Rick Warren of Purpose Driven Life fame, and the seeker-sensitive Bill Hybels from Willow Creek Community Church.

In other words, false teachers and those who employ heterodox practices in the Church will turn the conversation from their own false teaching or practice into accusations against those who are pointing out their errors. They shame the orthodox into silence with the claim that "Christian"

  • love
  • and/or peace
  • and/or trusting each other
  • and/or good intentions
  • and/or the best construction clause of Luther's explanation to the 8th Commandment, etc.

all take precedence over faithfulness to teaching everything and only those things commanded by Christ and His Word -- not to mention conforming the practice of the church to those teachings.

No less than Luther himself warned us of such chicanery:
"They have so plagued us with love in their books and writings saying 'You people at Wittenberg have no Charity', when we then ask 'What is Charity'? they reply, 'It means that we agree in Doctrine and stop these quarrels about religion'. We reply 'Indeed'. Have you heard that there are two tables of the law, the first and the second? Charity or love belongs in the second
table and there it extends its way over all works, but in the first table it is said 'Fear God, hear his word", about this they are not concerned.'" -Quoted by Ewald Plass in, "Luther Speaks"

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. (Galatians 6:7)

Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you. (1 Timothy 4:16)

Given that there are a number of Willow Creek Association congregations in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, and even more LC-MS congregations who employ many of their programs and resources without formal association, we ought take note and beware of this temptation to water down the Faith once delivered to us.

How could/should we fill in the Hegelian Dialectic blank as a synod?

Lutheran (thesis) + __________ (antithesis) = synchretism/unionism/heterodoxy (synthesis)

And what does this mean in the context of Article VI of our Constitution? --
Conditions of [LCMS] Membership
Conditions for acquiring and holding membership in the Synod [include] the following:
2. Renunciation of unionism and syncretism of every description, . . .
4. Exclusive use of doctrinally pure agenda, hymnbooks, and catechisms in church and school.

Certainly this does not mean that a congregation and/or pastor can use doctrinally impure material and programs as long as they are not technically an "agenda," "hymnbook," or "catechism" -- does it?

One more question -- does not "unionism . . . of every description include association with Willow Creek and its members that deny Baptismal regeneration and the bodily presence of Christ in the bread and wine of The Lord's Supper?

Your comments are not only welcome, but heartily solicited.

Can we talk?

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