When Churches Reject Their Own Faith

Recently, polling was done among 1,200 active priests in the Church of England. They were asked their views on same-sex weddings, premarital sex, and gay sex. The results of the polling indicated that most of them believe that church doctrine should align with public opinion on moral issues. In other words, according to the majority of Church of England priests, the ultimate authority source for the church should be the opinion of society, rather than the teachings of the Bible. You can view an article about this at: https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/poll-church-of-england-gay-sex/2023/08/30/id/1132679/

• On the question of allowing gay couples to get married in the church, 53.4% were in favor, while 36.5% were opposed.
• On the question of premarital sex, 62.6% said the church should change its teaching on the immorality of premarital sex. Of those, 41% said sex outside of marriage is okay only for those who are in committed relationships, while 21.6% think all premarital sex is okay. Only 34.6% believe the church should not change its stance.
• Regarding gay sex, 64.5% believe the church should end its opposition to gay sex, while only 27.3% said it should not be accepted. And remember, these polling numbers are of Church of England priests.

While it is still the official stance of the Church of England to recognize marriage as only between one man and one woman, individual dioceses may elect to allow it. As of this writing it is accepted in the:

• Scottish Episcopal Church
• Anglican Church of Canada
• Episcopal Church in America
• Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil
• Church of Wales
• Anglican ‘Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand, and Polynesia

Obviously, the Church of England is not the only Christian denomination dealing with this issue. The Episcopal Church in America actually split over this, so now there are two Anglican dioceses in America. But the same thing has happened with the Presbyterians, Lutherans, Reformed Church in America, Baptists, and most recently, the United Methodists.

But why have these splits occurred? They have occurred because the leaders of the various denominations have rejected the faith of the Bible and substituted naturalistic philosophy in its place. Those who could not conscientiously abide the change pulled out and formed new denominations.

In different places and among various groups, this “religious” naturalistic philosophy has gone by different names. Theological approaches such as liberal theology, liberation theology, existential theology, and postmodern theology immediately come to mind. But all of them are based on naturalistic philosophy. They have essentially rejected the teachings of the Bible, and adopted a set of beliefs that substitute their own relativistic moral beliefs in its place. They have no objective reason for doing it, it is just what they personally feel is a better way.

Virtually all of these groups still call themselves Christian, but they are Christian in name only. The beliefs they follow are nowhere near Christian. And they are able to hold onto the name because, rather than beginning their own faith organizations, those who have led in this effort have resorted to infiltrating already existing Christian churches and slowly, over a period of decades, wormed their way into positions of influence until they were finally strong enough to actually take over the denominations.

In spite of the fact that those who follow these liberal theological approaches believe that morality really is relative to current circumstances, that is simply not true. There is an actual objectively real way reality exists. And that way is expressed in the teachings of the Bible. The personal opinions of the majority of Church of England priests notwithstanding, the revelation of God found in the Bible defines the beliefs of the Christian faith.

This puts those churches that have gone with some variation of naturalistic philosophy in a position of having actually rejected the faith that they say they believe. That is a very weird place to be.

Freddy Davis is the president of MarketFaith Ministries. He is the author of numerous books entitled The Truth Mirage, Rules for Christians Radicals, Liberalism vs. Conservatism, and his latest book Shattering the Truth Mirage and has a background as an international missionary, pastor, radio host, worldview trainer, and entrepreneur. Freddy is a graduate of Florida State University with a BS in Communication, and holds MDiv and DMin degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is a popular speaker, particularly on the topic of worldview and its practical implications for the Christian life. He lives in Tallahassee, FL, with his wife Deborah.

You may also contact Freddy at Leadership Speakers Bureau to schedule him for speaking or leadership engagements.

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