The Global Anglican Future Conference condemned Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby for supporting blessings for same-sex couples. Pictured: Welby leads the Easter Sung Eucharist at Canterbury Cathedral in Kent, England, on April 9. (Photo: Gareth Fuller/PA Images/Getty Images)
Let each person be more than crystal clear on this matter…
For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Jude 1:4
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
John 3:36
There is no such a thing, in the sight of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit as “conservative Christianity,” or “progressive Christianity,” or “wishy-washy Christianity,” or any other kind other than a genuine, authentic, transformation of heart and mind, renewed of heart and mind faithful and obedient to God, to Christ, to the Holy Spirit, to the inerrant infallible unchangeable eternal Word of God kind of Christianity.
No other kind no matter how the mind of a modern-day individual desires to alter the truth to suit them, make them comfortable, and to whittle away the Word of God to be shaped into that which they desire to then hold onto, rather than they being shaped and formed by their faith and obedience to God to please the Lord.
There is no adding to or omitting from the Holy Bible to suit men and women and their sin and lack of understanding, their refusal to humble themselves and submit to Almighty God.
No matter what the numerals on any calendar might proclaim the year of the Lord to be…even if those numerals read 2023…or any other number.
Each individual will either be counted in the number of the truly faithful, truly believing, and truly obedient that were truly transformed of mind, spirit, and heart by the Holy Spirit to serve the Lord, believe every word within the Word, or they won’t be in that number, that fold.
And there are only two sorts of individuals, two kinds, two ways of thinking, believing, and living on this earth truth be told.
True disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, true children of God, true Bible believers that have been renewed of mind and spirit, changed from within by the Spirit of God, having believed and submitted to the Lord…
…and all others.
Period.
So stop dividing and attempting to make categories, worldly categories of individuals, and groups within the professed Church, within nations. For there are only the two above kinds of people on this earth. Anywhere. At any time in history.
Period.
Not according to me.
According to God and His inerrant infallible living and active unchangeable and eternal Word.
Each person either truly believes the whole Word of God and defends such, lives accordingly, submitting to the Word of God, not amending, altering, adding to nor omitting from God’s Word, or they rebel and live according to their own pleasures and mind given to them by the world, and he who has dominion on this earth for a season — that Old Dragon, Satan, the devil, who appear.s, along with all his minions and ministers as angels of light if unbelieving this, or unaware of this reality [see 2 Corinthians 11 ].
Do not be deceived.
Ken Pullen, A CROOKED PATH, Friday, April 28th, 2023
REVOLT: 85% of Anglican Leaders Reject Head Bishop of the 3rd-Largest Christian Denomination
Biblical Conservatives Fight Back Against Lesbian, Homosexual, Bisexual, and Transgender Indoctrination
April 26, 2023
By Tyler O’ Neil
Reprinted from The Daily Signal
How should Christians respond when lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, and transgender activists demand they compromise the truth of Scripture by endorsing same-sex marriage and transgender identity?
A global gathering of Anglicans just provided an excellent example.
In February, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the head of the Church of England and the “first among equals” in the global Anglican Communion, the third-largest Christian denomination, defended blessings for same-sex couples while insisting that the move did not violate the church’s doctrine that marriage is between one man and one woman for life.
“For the first time, the Church of England will publicly, unreservedly and joyfully welcome same-sex couples in church,” Welby said in a joint statement with Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell at the time.
Leaders at the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) wouldn’t stand for this. On Friday, they signed the Kigali Commitment, condemning Welby’s move as “blasphemy” and declaring that he and the Church of England had abdicated their leadership of the Anglican Communion.
“It grieves the Holy Spirit and us that the leadership of the Church of England is determined to bless sin,” GAFCON leaders wrote in the Kigali Commitment. “Since the Lord does not bless same-sex unions, it is pastorally deceptive and blasphemous to craft prayers that invoke blessing in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”
GAFCON, which met last week in Kigali, Rwanda, declared Welby’s leadership “entirely indefensible.” The Kigali Commitment declares that the Church of England has “failed to maintain true communion based on the Word of God and shared faith in Christ,” therefore noting that GAFCON’s “communion with them remains broken.” That represents a kind of revolution and excommunication from below, in which the top leaders of Anglican churches—referred to as primates—brush away the historic head of the denomination.
“We consider that those who refuse to repent have abdicated their right to leadership within the Anglican Communion, and we commit ourselves to working with orthodox primates and other leaders to reset the Communion on its biblical foundations,” the commitment reads. The statement notes that GAFCON and the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches (which has also effectively excommunicated the Church of England) represent 85% of the primates in the Global Anglican Communion, the third-largest Christian denomination after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.
It remains unclear what will happen next for GAFCON and its ally, the Global South Fellowship. “The GAFCON primates are still finalizing the practicalities of the statement,” a spokeswoman for the conference told The Daily Signal on Tuesday.
Welby responded to the commitment in a statement Friday, noting that the structures of the Anglican Communion “are always able to change with the times,” but arguing that “no changes to the formal structures of the Anglican Communion can be made unless they are agreed upon by the Instruments of Communion.”
Yet the Kigali Commitment declares that GAFCON has “no confidence” that the archbishop of Canterbury, nor the other Instruments of Communion he leads (the Lambeth Conference, the Anglican Consultative Council, and the Primates’ Meetings), “are able to provide a godly way forward that will be acceptable to those who are committed to the truthfulness, clarity, sufficiency, and authority of Scripture.”
Welby’s statement did not address the Kigali Commitment’s central concern about blessings for same-sex couples, but merely urges GAFCON “to walk together as Anglicans” with the Church of England.
GAFCON leaders are no so easily cowed. Their statement cites Genesis 2:24, Matthew 19:4-6, and 1 Corinthians 6:9 in reaffirming the biblical teaching that “the only appropriate context for sexual activity is the exclusive lifelong union of a man and a woman in marriage.”
“Public statements by the Archbishop of Canterbury and other leaders of the Church of England in support of same-sex blessings are a betrayal of their ordination and consecration vows to banish error and to uphold and defend the truth taught in Scripture,” the statement explains.
GAFCON also argues that Welby and others repudiated Resolution I.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference, which declared that “homosexual practice is incompatible with Scripture” and advised against the “legitimizing or blessing of same-sex unions.”
Welby and the Church of England have tried to weasel out of their repudiation of Resolution I.10 with promises not to change the definition of marriage, but GAFCON isn’t having it.
The Kigali Commitment also cites other Church of England departures from Christian orthodoxy, such as “the uniqueness and divinity of Christ, his bodily Resurrection, his promised return, the summons to faith and repentance, and the final judgment.”
Many Christian leaders have shied away from these central Christian doctrines to declare a more nebulous gospel of love and acceptance unmoored from the clear teaching of the Bible that if Jesus was not bodily raised from the dead, “our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14). Christianity can only offer hope of ultimate joy, reconciliation with God, and salvation from sin in the context of doctrines such as the need for repentance, the historical truth of the Gospels, and the promised resurrection of the church.
The rush to embrace modern sexual morality often coincides with a wishy-washy Christianity that does not take the Gospel’s central truth claims seriously. This “Christianity-lite” cannot offer salvation because it does not first condemn sin. It cannot offer assurance of salvation because it downplays the importance of faith. It cannot offer the ultimate hope of resurrection because it rejects the bodily resurrection of Jesus.
A Christianity that does not preach the Resurrection is not Christianity, and a Christianity that rejects the clear witness of Scripture about sexual morality is also not Christianity.
Christians must love and sympathize with those who struggle with same-sex attraction and gender confusion, and a keen awareness of our own sin must restrain us from thinking ourselves superior to them. However, sympathy and Christlike charity do not excuse those who bless sin in the name of God.
The Kigali Commitment upholds biblical sexual morality while affirming that “every person is loved by God” and opposing “the vilification or demeaning of any person, including those who do not follow God’s ways.” As the commitment states, it is “unloving” to “mislead people by pretending that God blesses sexually active relationships between two people of the same sex.”
Thank God for church leaders who are not afraid to speak these truths. I am honored to count my own church’s head pastor, Sam Ferguson, among those who attended the conference. May GAFCON’s leadership here shame the Church of England into repentance.
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