"Lord" is not fading here
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3:49 PM |
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There was a very disturbing article on the front page of the Sunday Arizona Daily Star with the headline "'Lord' is fading at some churches. (http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/179570.php)
The article begins with this paragraph:
The article goes on to describe how several local churches have virtually eliminated the word "Lord" from their church services in order to avoid what they describe as "hierarchical, patriarchal images." These same churches have also gone to great lengths to be gender neutral as well. As one pastor commented, "Our...hymnal does have hymns that will say 'Father' and 'God," but the next verse will always then say 'Mother' and 'God'.
To me this represents a very dangerous, slippery slope in which man begins to decide which aspects of God's character that they are going to accept and which attributes they will just choose to ignore or change to their liking. The quote from one deacon illustrates that train of thought: "...the theology is that God is love, period." God is certainly love, but the Bible is clear that He is also holy, righteous and just and that He pours out His wrath on those who refuse to acknowledge Him as He really is. And there is no doubt, He is Lord - there are somewhere around 7,000 Bible references that attest to that fact.
It is not our right to make God into the kind of God we want Him to be. When we do that, we're actually putting ourselves in the place of God and saying that we know better than Him. That's a very dangerous place to be.
The article begins with this paragraph:
God has no gender. And the Lord? There's not much Lord in this church
service.
The article goes on to describe how several local churches have virtually eliminated the word "Lord" from their church services in order to avoid what they describe as "hierarchical, patriarchal images." These same churches have also gone to great lengths to be gender neutral as well. As one pastor commented, "Our...hymnal does have hymns that will say 'Father' and 'God," but the next verse will always then say 'Mother' and 'God'.
To me this represents a very dangerous, slippery slope in which man begins to decide which aspects of God's character that they are going to accept and which attributes they will just choose to ignore or change to their liking. The quote from one deacon illustrates that train of thought: "...the theology is that God is love, period." God is certainly love, but the Bible is clear that He is also holy, righteous and just and that He pours out His wrath on those who refuse to acknowledge Him as He really is. And there is no doubt, He is Lord - there are somewhere around 7,000 Bible references that attest to that fact.
It is not our right to make God into the kind of God we want Him to be. When we do that, we're actually putting ourselves in the place of God and saying that we know better than Him. That's a very dangerous place to be.