Apologetics
By the 1920s, society was in disarray - gangsters, crime, booze, violence, drugs, prostitution, gambling rackets, a government that fostered homelessness and hated the hobos it helped create. This was a reflection on the churches at the time, as they were polluted with worldly values. In these churches, the Bible was not considered the Word of God.
A movement to help the broken - people who were destroying their lives with booze - helped get Christianity back on track, by showing better fidelity to scriptures. To help people overcome the enslaving sin of alcohol abuse, a Christian minster founded "A First Century Christian Fellowship" in 1921, 14 years before Alcoholics Anonymous was established.
"And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ," Ephesians 5:18-20
An example of the churches falling off from God's word was the Presbyterian churches. In the 1920s, the once theologically sound Princeton Theological Seminary caved to pressure to come down to the level of the mainstream Presbyterian churches at the time. They had polluted the church with modern liberalism. Instead of being a light in a dark world, the church turned the light off to the truth, leaving people in darkness.
One former Princeton professor who walked in the light was J. Gresham Machen, who went against the grain and took flack in order to take a stand against liberalism in the church.
A movement to help the broken - people who were destroying their lives with booze - helped get Christianity back on track, by showing better fidelity to scriptures. To help people overcome the enslaving sin of alcohol abuse, a Christian minster founded "A First Century Christian Fellowship" in 1921, 14 years before Alcoholics Anonymous was established.
"And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ," Ephesians 5:18-20
An example of the churches falling off from God's word was the Presbyterian churches. In the 1920s, the once theologically sound Princeton Theological Seminary caved to pressure to come down to the level of the mainstream Presbyterian churches at the time. They had polluted the church with modern liberalism. Instead of being a light in a dark world, the church turned the light off to the truth, leaving people in darkness.
One former Princeton professor who walked in the light was J. Gresham Machen, who went against the grain and took flack in order to take a stand against liberalism in the church.
The history, as found on the Westminister Theological Seminary website:
After Dr. Machen lost his position at Princeton and his church charged him with insubordination and removed his credentials as a minister, he took some bright young scholars with him and crossed the river to start Westminister Theological Seminary, just outside of Philadelphia in 1929.
In his book "Christianity and Liberalism", Dr. Machen declared that liberalism teaches not a lesser form of Christianity, but an entirely different religion.
My mother used to call liberal churches "social clubs."
The original 12 Steps, influenced by A First Century Christian Fellowship, which later became known as The Oxford Group, made regular reference to God. Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, greatly minimized the use of God in the program.
The Oxford Group's Philosophy:
*All people are sinners
*All sinners can be changed
*Confession is a prerequisite to change
*The change can access God directly
*Miracles are again possible
*The change must change others
Today, the tradition of the original 12 Steps and the Oxford Group continues in the National Celebrate Recovery, a Christ-Centered Recovery program that helps us overcome our hurts, habits and hang-ups. Its website states: "It is based on the actual words of Jesus rather than psychological theory."
For more than 45 years, pastor Jay E Adams has been promoting Christian counseling using the words of Jesus rather than psychological theory. Dr. Adams was a professor at Westminister Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania and the director of the Doctoral program at Westminister Seminary in California. He is also the founder of the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation in Philadelphia, the National Association of Nouthetic Counselors, and the Institute for Nouthetic Studies.
In his book, How to Help People Change, Dr. Adams wrote "...generally your counseling itself should demonstrate that the Bible has the answers to human problems, and that, when properly used, it provides the practical solutions to the exigencies of life."
"But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." 2 Timothy 3:14-17
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