A new Church family.

In Chapter 7 “Religious Hedononisc” Dr. MacArthur has a section on “What’s Wrong with Pragmatism” starting on pg. 151.

From Pg. 152. “Pragmatism’s ally is arminianism”

this is true, except I will further suggest that it is the very root of why pragmatic methods are so easily embraced. If you believe that man is somehow able to “decide, make a decision” for Christ on his own then you will “whatever works” which is pragmatism to bring people to salvation. So, now it would no longer be the power of the gospel, His revealing to man that he is a spiritually dead sinner in dire need of a saviour and it’s the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit that causes a person to be born again. I have been thinking about that term “born again” we hardly use it anymore, it used to be that we were called born again Christians.
We had did not get to “choose” or “make a decision” to be born the first time. And, the spiritual birth seems to be the same. If I am dead in my trespasses and sins, then I would have no power or ability to cause myself to be born again in my spirit, you can drive a nail through a dead man and he will not feel a thing, he will not twings or move or cry out, it would take something supernatural to quicken him to bring him back to life. So, you can turn cartwheels, read cute stories, sing to, pass out clever little trinkets to help unbelievers understand the gospel, ect. and a spiritually dead person, just like the naturally dead man has no ability to respond. You just entertained a corpse! That’s why we came back to our home church in CA. this is how church is done in probably 90% of the churches in Tulsa, Ok. And, dear brothers at Pulpit, if I did not accurately describe the regeneration process, please help me define it better.
Here’ how I explained it to my kids, I heard this on some tapes I had on the doctrines of grace. I think it was on the total depravity tape. Ok, a lion in a carnivor, that is his nature, he is not going after fruits, vegtables and dairy, that will never happen, it is against his nature. What would it take for that lion to “desire” and
be “drawn” to food outside his natural makeup, his nature?
Voila! His nature would have to be “changed” how would that happen, something outside of the lion would have to do a radical work to “change” the very core being, the nature of that animal, to get him from mauling a zebra, to becoming a vegetarian. It’s a work of God, from start to finish, we have nothing to do with, it is a miracle, it is supernatural, it is a new life, it is regeneration, and I am thankful for His mercy and grace.

Thanks for pointing that out. Guess I missed it. Hmmm, still wonder if it’s correct.

Dr. MacArthur gave one in the second paragraph:

“What is pragmatism? Basically it is a philosophy that says that results determine meaning, truth, and value — what will work becomes a more important question than what is true.”

Dr. M,

If anyone ever asks why we recently left our church, I will give them a copy of this article. Thank you for saying it better than I ever could…