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Seattle Pacific University faculty have revolted by voting 72% "no-confidence" in the Christian university's board of trustees.
At the heart of it is homosexual professors and instructors demanding the university discard their founding biblical beliefs about human sexuality, marriage, and family.
This, while the United Methodist Church---not to be confused with SPU's founding "Free Methodist" denomination--is preparing to split over the same issues.
The great Presbyterian pastor and evangelist Charles Finney told his clergy colleagues of the time, "If immorality prevails in the land, the fault is ours in a great degree...If the church is degenerate and worldly, the pulpit is responsible."
Continuing, he said, "Let us not ignore this fact..."
The church has been ignoring this fact.
Be informed, not misled.
The war on Christian institutions---the battle for the mind.
Of the 213 faculty who vote, 153 faculty voted "no confidence" in the board of trustees, 47 supported the board and 13 abstained.
Kevin Neuhouser, a professor of sociology at SPU and faculty adviser for "Haven", the student club for LGBTQ students on campus, says:
"Right now the board is the last remaining group that has not yet come to recognize that LGBTQ individuals can be faithful Christians, and as faculty and staff they would play positive roles on our campus, if we can hire them."
He says the school is "engaged in a larger discussion of trying to discern what it means to follow Jesus."
Having once served as special assistant to the president of Seattle Pacific University, I would love to be involved in that "larger discussion"---but I am not involved, and have not been for many years.
Neuhouser asks, "Is it being faithful to include or exclude?"
There is a simple, clear answer to that question.
Jesus, the Word who became flesh, did not die on a cross to affirm homosexuality, which the "Word of God"---Old and New Testament, condemns. Nor did He die to affirm any other sin.
"Inclusive?"
Absolutely. Jesus died "because" of our sins. Not to affirm, but to forgive, deliver and restore us from them.
That's basic biblical theology. Neuhouser knows that. The real question he and other homosexual advocates are not asking would be, "Is the Bible inspired, inerrant, and infallible? Or is it "evolving? And are there errors and contradictions in Scripture?"
If "inspired, inerrant and infallible," then all sinners---and all have sinned according to Scripture, would be "excluded" from the Kingdom of God, including practicing homosexuals. To be "included," all sinners must accept His offer of redemption---forgiveness and deliverance from our sins, making Him Lord and Savior of our lives according to Romans 10: 9,10.
Universalism, which I suspect some of these folks believe, teaches that ultimately all people will be saved. While it goes under different names---universal restoration, universal restitution, and universal salvation, it claims that a good and loving God would not condemn people to eternal torment in hell.
A near quote of Satan in his conversation with Eve.
This doctrine also leads people like Oprah and Obama to deny that Jesus is the "only" way to God and heaven when Jesus Himself says He is the only way.
Universalism applies passages of Scripture like Acts 3:21 and Colossians 1:20 to mean that God intends to restore all things to their original state of purity through Jesus Christ (Romans 5:18 and Hebrews 2:9).
In this false teaching, sin ultimately has no consequence---all are saved in the end anyway.
While this runs counter to today's cultural narrative, Jesus Himself taught that those who reject Him as Savior will spend eternity in hell after they die (Matthew 10:28; Matthew 23:33; Matthew 25:46; Luke 16:23; John 3:36; John 3:16).
Universalism focuses exclusively on God's love and mercy and ignores His holiness, justice, and wrath.
It also assumes that God's love depends on what He does for humanity, rather than being a self-existing attribute of God present from eternity before man was created.
Former pastor Rob Bell has popularized this false doctrine to affirm homosexual behavior and same-sex "marriage" in his book, "Love Wins."
SPU student Leah Duff says it hits her "smack in the face to have this reiterated that you want to take my money but I can't be gay."
If that's the criteria, how much money should it take to be able to "be gay?"
Seattle Pacific University stands at a very important crossroads.
President Daniel Martin has resigned and is leaving academia---going into healthcare administration.
Pray for the board of trustees.
The battle for the pulpit.
The third-largest Christian denomination in the United States is splitting over the same issue. Homosexuality.
The United Methodist Church, which is not connected to Seattle Pacific or the Free Methodist churches that founded SPU, is facing a similar division over the same issue.
Those Methodists who believe the Bible to be the infallible, inerrant, inspired Word of God, are breaking away and starting a new "Global Methodist Church" whose pulpits will preach God's Word.
The flashpoint in this church split is again, homosexual behavior.
The group of Methodists who will continue to preach the true biblical gospel, say the primary mission of the newly formed Global Methodist Church will be to "make disciples of Jesus Christ who worship passionately, love extravagantly, and witness boldly."
Takeaway
Rev Charles Finney was that kind of pastor. I mentioned him yesterday. He bears mention again.
Finney said:
"If their is decay of conscience, the pulpit is responsible."
"If the public press lacks moral discrimination, the pulpit is responsible for it."
"If the church is degenerate and worldly the pulpit is responsible for it."
"If the world loses interest in religion, the pulpit is responsible for it."
"If Satan rules the halls of legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it.
I would add: "If Christian education is under attack, the pulpit must stand and correct it."
And he said this: "Let us not ignore this fact, my dear brethren; but let us lay it to heart, and be thoroughly awake ["Woke"] to our responsibility to the morals of this nation."
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Faithful. Be Prayerful.