The following comes from the Cathedral of Hope wedsite and is referenced to The Center for Progressive Christianity. Are these 8 points conducive to saving faith? What does the word “progressive” indicate? Does this list represent apostasy?

The 8 Points of Progressive Christianity. Christians who:

1. Have found an approach to God through the life and teachings of Jesus.
2. Recognize the faithfulness of other people who have other names for the way to God’s realm, and acknowledge that their ways are true for them, as our ways are true for us.
3. Understand the sharing of bread and wine in Jesus’ name to be a representation of an ancient vision of God’s feast for all peoples.
4. Invite all people to participate in our community and worship life without insisting that they become like us in order to be acceptable (including but not limited to): believers and agnostics, conventional Christians and questioning skeptics, women and men, those of all sexual orientations and gender identities, those of all races and cultures, those of all classes and abilities, those who hope for a better world and those who have lost hope.
5. Know that the way we behave toward one another and toward other people is the fullest expression of what we believe.
6. Find more grace in the search for understanding than we do in dogmatic certainty - more value in questioning than in absolutes.
7. Form ourselves into communities dedicated to equipping one another for the work we feel called to do: striving for peace and justice among all people, protecting and restoring the integrity of all God’s creation, and bringing hope to those Jesus called the least of his sisters and brothers.
8. Recognize that being followers of Jesus is costly, and entails selfless love, conscientious resistance to evil, and renunciation of privilege.

For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

2 Timothy 4:3 (NIV)

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What does “change” look like? What does it sound like. Is it a Barack Obama speech? Not even close, but Christian Hosoi’s testimony at last year’s Chistian Skaters conference demonstrates what “change” really means and what it really looks and sounds like. I have repeatedly written here on this blog about how change begins in the heart and how it begins with God’s grace fulfilled through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Real change is not external, it is internal.

Hosoi’s transformation is powerful stuff. I have listed links to Hosoi’s testimony below and I encourage all Christians and non-Christians to check it out. When you think about the crazy life of Christian Hosoi before Christ—the girls, the drugs, the money, the fame, prison—and now hear him talk about his life and God’s plan for him, you cannot help but be amazed. God is using skateboarding and guys like Christian Hosoi to connect today’s youth with the message of Christ. Hosoi’s testimony will cause you to evaluate the effectiveness of your own life.

If you do not know who Christian “Christ” Hosoi is, check out this excellent 9 min. video testimony on his life.

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5
• Part 6
• Part 7
• Part 8

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Al Gore is working hard to convert the Christians to his religion. He was back at this week, preaching in Atlanta to a congregation of Baptists who paid $35 a pop to hear his gospel message. I understand the desire to be a good steward of God’s creation, but there is a HUGE difference between being a good steward and believing you can affect climate patterns and prevent future environmental distruction.

We cannot save the planet. We can go “green.” We can buy carbon offsets for everything, including our pets’ farts. It will not matter. God’s will is what matters. What if radical climate change is His will for the earth? What if the “climate crisis” is His “megaphone to rouse a deaf world?” Are we going to stop His will. No, but we can continue to ignore Him.

We are being arrogant and Gore is leading the pack, misusing Scripture to spread his gospel of apocalyptic doom. Gore got one thing correctly during his presentation when he said, “This is an issue that has found its day. It is one of the major moral issues of our time.” The global warming religion is going to steer Believers and non-Believers down a path that does not include God. The whole thing is insane.

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Is a church a church when it exludes sin from Jesus’ gospel? Not really. There is an epidemic of “All you need is love” churches preaching a deficient gospel of “easy-believism”, encouraging “compasion, hope, and inclusion” exclusively without any need to turn from sin. Salvation requires not only faith, but also works (obediance). There is no salvation without a complete surrender to God’s will.

Churches like Cathedral of Hope in Dallas, Texas cater to gays, lesbians, transgender, bisexual and other “exluded people.” This concept is inline with Jesus’ teachings as Jesus came to heal the “sick” (sinners) and not the “healthy” (the righteous). The problem is when such churches fail to preach a submission to God’s Word. The Bible says that we “cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too.” (1 Corinthians 10:21).

Any gospel preached that excludes total obediance is deficient. John MacArthur, Jr. calls out the contempary church in his book The Gospel According To Jesus:

The contemporary church has the idea that salvation is only the granting of eternal life, not necessarily the liberation of a sinner from the bondage of his inequity…Any message that fails to define and confront the severity of personal sin is a deficient gospel. And any “salvation” that does not alter a lifestyle of sin and transform the heart of the sinner is not a genuine salvation. (60)

Peter Kreeft is equally harsh in his C.S. Lewis for the Third Millenium:

…even in the Church, more people, including clergy, look to psychology than to theology and see Jesus as the original Mister Rogers and the Church as Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood…the God most Americans believe in…is the Warm Fuzzy God. (150, 95)

Even the pastor of America’s largest church, Joel Osteen, will not touch “sin”. There is nothing wrong with what Osteen preaches, he just leaves out some important stuff. The concept of sin is a crucial aspect of Christianity and Jesus’ gospel. It is why Jesus walked the earth. Only preaching Jesus’ message of love reduces the gospel to a self-help book and Sunday worship to a therapy session.

Jesus warned that not all who say “Lord, Lord” will enter His kingdom. (Matthew 7:12) A constant self-examination is needed for everyone based on the narrowness of the road to Heaven. (Matthew 7:14) We are ALL sinners. A complete U-turn is necessary for salvation. As MacArthur puts it, “It is much more than a mere change of mind—it involves a complete change of heart, attitude, interest, and direction.” God’s grace is not a license to sin.

This is why Cathedral of Hope Church, “the world’s largest liberal Christian church” with the best GLBT (gays, lesbian, bi, transgender) role model in Rev. Michael Piazza as voted by the Dallas Voice in 2006, is actually doing more damage than good. Welcoming sinners with love and compassion is what Jesus calls on the church to do, but the Word of God commands a change in lifestyle from Believers. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

A church that condones homosexuality (same sex marriages) is not preaching a saving faith and is just giving the sick (sinners) false hope. The concept around Cathedral of Hope Church is awesome, it is both creative and relevant, but it falls short of its potential to help “exluded people” turn from sin—to help them realize that Satan has the ability to control the heart and mind. As long as their is no obediance to God’s Word with no change of perspective, Satan will continue to have control. This applies to all of humanity, not just the GLBT crowd. “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of a raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.” (Hebrews 10:26-27)

All Bible references are from the New International Version

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