When I was a new Christian, I visited our traditional family church in Jamaica, St Andrew Parish Church, where our family had worshipped for generations, and where even my parents, and two sisters who died at childbirth, are buried, as are my uncles, aunts, cousins, etc. It is the most prestigious church in Jamaica founded in 1654; it has an incredible pipe organ, and a historic building,
After the service, I told the priest who became a Bishop in the Anglican Church, that I would never give up another day of good fishing to waste a day listening to his ideas! I said “If I need the opinions of others I can simply listen to politicians; however when you actually preach the WORD OF GOD, please let me know, as I am only interested in what God has to say”.
Ironically, unlike in Jamaica, the best theologians of the day were also Anglicans in England, Dr. John Stott and Dr. J.I. Packer, but they were EVANGELICAL BIBLE-BELIEVING Anglicans, trained at Oxford. Both of these men personally mentored me when I later attended Trinity College, in England, which is actually an Evangelical Anglican Seminary.
Unfortunately the Anglican Church in the USA (called the Episcopal Church) is for the most part no better than its counterpart in Jamaica. The same is true of the Anglian church in Canada. Most are “liberal” in their theology (not believing the plain and natural meaning of the Bible) and substituting beliefs which reflect the prevailing secular culture of the day. Many deny the deity of Christ, the virgin birth, and the inerrant supernatural inspiration of Scripture. This leads to reducing the church to merely believing in the “ethics” of the Bible, particularly as set out in the Sermon of the Mount, and downplaying the super-natural elements of the faith. If there is no “super-natural” I have to ask the question, why bother to worship God, and why bother to go to church at all?
Liberal theology is a self-contradiction. As C.S. Lewis points out in his famous book “Mere Christianity”, since Jesus Himself claimed to be God, if one denies His deity one cannot give credibility to his teaching or ethics. If He is not God and claimed to be God He is either a lunatic or a liar. Our only choice in Logic is that He is either “Lunatic, Liar or Lord” – no lunatic or liar can be followed as a “great moral teacher”.
Dr. John Stott makes an apt comment:
“Although there are, strictly speaking, no prophets or apostles today, I fear there are false prophets and false apostles. They speak their own words instead of God’s Word. Their message originates in their own mind. These are men who like to ventilate their own opinions on religion, ethics, theology or politics. They may be conventional enough to introduce their sermon with a Scripture text, but the text bears little or no relation to the sermon which follows, nor is any attempt made to interpret the text in its context. It has been truly said that such a text without a context is a pretext.”
The last straw for Dr. J.I. Packer was when the Anglican Church began to ordain practicing homosexuals as priests. He left the Anglican Church and wrote a book explaining his decision. Evangelicals believe the clear teaching of the Bible which does not teach that any sexual orientation is a sin, but it does teach that any sexual practice outside of marriage between one man and one woman, is a sin, as it is a distortion of the image of God who created male and female in His image. Marriage itself also reflects the fidelity of the “covenant-relationship” between the persons of the Trinity.
Because of the sad condition of the Episcopal Church in the USA, when I moved to the USA I felt called to become an ordained minister in the PCA (The Presbyterian Church of America”) which is a Bible-Believing denomination with almost identical beliefs as my mentors Dr John Stott, and Dr. J.I Packer. The PCA should not be confused with the PCUSA, (The Presbyterian Church USA) which is a liberal denomination very similar to the liberal Episcopal Church which also tolerates the denial of the divinity of Christ, the denial of the inerrancy of Scripture, and ordains practicing homosexuals.
It is encouraging to find that worldwide the liberal church is dying and the Evangelical churches are exploding, especially across South America, Africa, and Asia. Many statisticians believe that there are now more evangelical Bible-Believing Christians in China than in the USA.
The article at the link below also confirms that people searching for churches, even in the USA, are more interested in the content of the Sermons, than the other aspects of church services.
See: https://www.challies.com/articles/the-hottest-thing-at-church-today
