Happy New Year!
We pray that this year will be especially fruitful for you and those you love!
I am very pleased to announce the publication of a project I’ve been working on for a few years...
Like you, I have been frustrated and disheartened in many ways by witnessing the rapidly declining morals and ethics in the culture around us and have been trying to figure out what’s at the center of it all. With the tremendous assistance of my son, Breck, and the support of GTI Ministries, we have released a new book titled “In Vain Do They Worship Me, Teaching as Doctrine the Commandments of Men — Ten Grave Errors Tossing the Church To and Fro”
(Available on our GTI Store or on Amazon)
We believe the contents of this book strike at the very core of why our society has been plunged into great darkness, and what we can do to affect a spiritual awakening. Here are a few paragraphs from the introduction:
Today’s Church is drowning in a sea of confusion. Amidst a world filled with lies, half-truths, and outright diabolic deceptions, the people of God are crying out for biblical clarity over a vast array of issues — all of which are centered around Morality: What is absolutely and undeniably true and right according to God?
Though this is to be the business of the churches in America, the past three generations of our leadership have often turned from this duty and embraced an attitude of piety, placing a false dividing line between what is deemed “sacred” and what is “secular.”
Thus, we don’t talk about cultural issues that affect ALL families. And the people are left to figure things out for themselves. This isn’t the way it was in America’s Founding era when pastors were often the chief educators in the community, teaching and challenging the people to apply the Scriptures in all areas of life. How desperately we need such leaders today!
This book — predicated upon fundamental biblical principles in ten areas of life — is meant to persuade any and all, that the Bible addresses EVERY issue of life (2 Peter 1:3) and, as such, the churches should consider seriously the consequences of not addressing these key issues with the Word of God.
In Matthew 15:7-9, Jesus strongly condemned the religious leaders in His time for imposing on the people certain commandments of their own design or simply passing on traditions that were handed down from their predecessors, as if those rules were equivalent to God’s laws.
Quoting Isaiah, Christ bluntly states, “in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” When Jesus speaks such heavy words of condemnation to leaders in the church, it should cause men to tremble.
Should we not be concerned that our cultural collapse has come because we have become indifferent to the injustices and outright sins in the church and culture around us?
Have we not (in most cases, but not all) renounced our responsibility to be active in our society and therefore are failing to love our neighbor as ourselves? Is there nothing we are willing to fight for? Is there nothing happening in the society around us that makes our blood boil? Is there nothing we hate—in line with what God hates?
The point is this: We need to take a serious look at what the churches are doing that we shouldn’t be doing and what are we NOT doing that we should be doing. Do we have the courage to hear what God has to say to us, and then respond accordingly?
What is most needed today is not censorship over sensitive doctrine, but respectful consideration and intelligent, thoughtful, biblically-informed dialogue.
Available now on Amazon and our GTI Store, this powerful and inspiring work is currently sold exclusively in a hardback format because you will want to refer to it frequently in these trying times.