The headline on the Thursday edition of the British paper, The Telegraph, heralded some very bad news for British Anglicans. It declared, “Aging Church of England ‘will be dead in 20 years.’” They buttressed their argument in two ways:
1. The average age of a Church of England attendee is 61 (you do the math).
2. In the last 40 years, church attendance has been cut in half.
You would think that the Archbishop of Canterbury would wake up and
smell the coffee. Instead, a few weeks earlier he finally came clean.
Well, he was forced to come clean. For years he acted as if he was an
impartial arbitrator between the believing Anglicans [who make up the
majority of Anglicans worldwide] and the apostate ones lead by the
American and Canadian Anglicans/Episcopalians. He has always called for
“unity,” a way of saying to the believing Anglicans, “just shut up and
let the apostates have their way.”
Now,
a document has leaked to the press affirming his quiet desire to ordain
homosexual bishops all along, not only in the United States, but in his
own backyard, in England. The document entitled Choosing Bishops—The Equality Act 2010 affirms that, “someone in a sexually active relationship outside of marriage is not eligible for the Episcopate.”
But,
it contains legal advice that calls for celibate homosexuals to be
eligible for ordination to the Episcopate. This is double talk.
First
of all, if a person is celibate, why do we have to know their sexual
orientation? Unless … this is his way of getting homosexual bishops under
the wire, as it were.
Second,
since when does the church obey the government when the government
legislates anti-biblical and anti-God laws? Have we forgotten our
Christian heritage, our forebearers who were sent to face hungry lions
in arenas for saying that God must be obeyed above Caesar?
It is now time
for ALL believers to wake up and smell the coffee. These older
denominations and many so called “evangelical churches” are falling prey
to Satan’s lie.
The
leadership of the mainline churches in general and the
Anglican/Episcopal church in particular, has led their denominations
over the cliff of apostasy. Their denial of the authority of the
Scriptures, the divinity of Jesus Christ, and their belief in a God who
will not judge sin, but will send everyone to Heaven, has rendered their
denomination anything but “a Christ-ian church.”
The Urgent Need
The most urgent need today is for a new reformation and a return to biblical integrity and authentic Christianity.
Historic
reformers, whether Martin Luther, Calvin, or even Wesley, were seldom
successful in their attempts to reform the church from within. If the
experiences of past reformations have taught us anything, it is that
reformers will only succeed by creating an alternative structure. Luther’s deep desire to remain in the Medieval Church and reform it from
within failed miserably—a valuable lesson here.
Faithful global Anglicans must create an alternative to Canterbury. No, not just threaten to do it, but to get on with it.”Without
that global alternative, they will continue to subject themselves to
Canterbury’s trickery, manipulation, and stalling tactics. They need to take heed of The Telegraph prediction that The Church of England will be “dead in 20 years.”
Anglicanism
by its very nature [like it or not] is hierarchical. Therefore, global
leadership must emerge to unite all faithful Anglicans worldwide. This
requires an acceptable global servant leader.
As I
have thought deeply about this need, and as I have examined the
situation as thoroughly as any man can, it is my considered opinion that
the man who has proven his servant leadership qualities, to say nothing
of his sterling theological orthodoxy, is none other than the General
Secretary of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), Dr. Peter
Jensen, Archbishop of Sydney.
The Way Forward
The
leaders of biblical Anglicanism within and without GAFCON need to close
rank behind Peter Jensen and elect him as an alternative to
Canterbury. They must give up on this misguided notion that Anglicanism
is a monolithic church that meets once every 10 years in Canterbury at
the Lambeth Conference so the bishops can get together, hold hands and
sing “Kumbaya.”
Only then will the failing apostate branch die off as The Telegraph paper suggests and
the new alternative flourish and preserve the Anglican reformation for
which Latimer, Ridley, Cranmer, and countless others have given their
lives.
The details of this broad outline can be fleshed out by far more qualified leaders within GAFCON.
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