Pragmatism: Trend or Trap?

Just posted at the Pulpit Magazine blogsite is an article by Pastor John MacArthur regarding the pragmatic approach in today's post-Christian churches. Very concise and insightful. I've posted a few snippets for your immediate gratification but be sure to read the entire article yourself.

"As Christians, we are called to trust what the Lord says, preach that message to others, and leave the results to Him. But many have set that aside. Seeking relevancy and success, they have welcomed the pragmatic approach and have received the proverbial Trojan horse.

Church leaders reacted to the world's indifference, not by a return to strong biblical preaching that emphasized sin and repentance, but by a pragmatic approach to "doing" church — an approach driven more by marketing, methodology, and perceived results than by biblical doctrine. The new model of ministry revolved around making sinners feel comfortable and at ease in the church, then selling them on the benefits of becoming a Christian.

Even the church's ministry to its own has changed. "Whatever works," the mantra of pragmatism, has become the new banner of evangelicalism.

Many of today's church leaders have bought into the subtlety of pragmatism without recognizing the dangers it poses. Instead of attacking orthodoxy head on, evangelical pragmatism gives lip service to the truth while quietly undermining the foundations of doctrine.

First, there is in vogue today a trend to make the basis of faith something other than God's Word.

Second, evangelical pragmatism tends to move the focus of faith away from God's Son.

The health-wealth-and-prosperity gospel...fantasy faith. This false gospel appeals unabashedly to the flesh.

Easy-believism... has done much to popularize "believing" but little to provoke sincere faith.

Third, today's Christianity is infected with a tendency to view the result of faith as something less than God's standard of holy living. By downplaying the importance of holy living–both by precept and by example–the biblical doctrine of conversion is undermined.

If we fight to maintain doctrinal purity with an emphasis on biblical preaching and biblical ministry, we can conquer external attacks. But if error is allowed into the church, many more churches will slide down the grade to suffer the same fate as the denominations that listened to, yet ignored, Spurgeon's impassioned appeal."

By John MacArthur posted July 24th, 2008 at Pulpit Magazine (www.sfpulpit.com.) Click on link to view entire post.