With the January issue of FAITH IN THE FUTURE we mark the beginning of our 40th ANNIVERSARY as CRUSADERS CHURCH of the UNITED STATES of AMERICA.
CRUSADERS CHURCH was thrust into being when, despite the impassioned efforts of our Founder to warn the 1972 General Assembly of our mother Church against changing their doctrine on the permanence marriage, an irregular parliamentary ruling on the convention floor cut short discussion and within less than twenty minutes the delegates voted to alter the historic teaching of the church.
Writing for the Historical Statement of Crusaders Church, our Founder, Pastor Eugene Owen (Jack) Jones clarified why this change proved to be so pivotal: “When doctrinal changes forbade preaching the pure Word of God, particularly the teaching of Jesus concerning the permanence of marriage, conscience required another pulpit.”
The Pastor was explicitly warned that he could not preach to his congregation nor teach the young ministers in training that marriage was a life-long commitment, ratified by God, and indissolvable by the courts of man.
Pastor Jones explained in our Church’s historical Statement: “The issue was crucial, for it was a departure from Biblical theology and acceptance of philosophical theology. A difference was made between God’s ideal and man’s real with a resultant moral relativism that implied that God’s grace could not accomplish His perfect will in man. Men’s opinions thus took precedence over the Word of God and error was added to error.”
On Sunday morning, July 23, 1972, the heavy-hearted Pastor freely surrendered his credentials to officials of his denomination. Standing in his small church office at 2011 Brownfield Road, Urbana, Illinois, he was advised that if he ever desired to restore his credentials in the denomination of his birth he would be welcome. (He was literally born in the Chariton, Iowa parsonage.)
That Sunday, by prior agreement, Pastor Jones would preach his last two sermons in the church he had pastored for 10 years. The congregation had grown from 25 to well over 100 in attendance. The Spirit of the Lord was powerfully present in those final services. I remember the saints singing and shouting, the pastor preaching under the anointing of the Spirit, and an altar service crowned with God’s presence.
Tragically a few years ago that same church building was sold to Islamic fundamentalists to be used as a mosque and teaching center where Sharia law is promoted, and Christ is dishonored.
To the contemporary “emergent” Christians, all of this must seem strange, bordering on insane. They wonder:
Are we absolutely positive that the Scriptures accurately report what Christ said?
Can we trust His Word?
If the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments are unreliable--incomplete, errant, or selectively truthful--we are left to our own best lights to determine God’s will. From Eden onward, the enemy of man’s soul has first lured his victims with, “Hath God said?” (Genesis 3:1)
Can anyone be sure that the Lord Jesus meant what He said?
Can we spin this teaching? The lawyers of our day are no different from the lawyers in Jesus’ day. Word games, obscuration, and rhetorical ambiguities may entertain those who seek to justify themselves, but finally God’s Truth will prevail.
Jesus said to the lawyers of His day, “Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God... Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery.” (Luke 16:15,18)
Wasn’t this more of a divine ideal rather than a real necessity?
Isn’t intellectual agreement more important than practical follow-through? Both are necessary.
New Testament Christianity is holistic. The mind is renewed, the life is tranformed, and the heart is purified.
James tells us that “faith without works is dead.” (James 2:17) The Apostle Paul warned against those who, “profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.” (Titus 1:16)
Doesn’t redeeming grace justify our sins?
Don’t we all live in sin? The German martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer was right, “Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our church. ...Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. That is what we mean by cheap grace, the grace which amounts to the justification of sin without the justification of the repentant sinner who departs from sin and from whom sin departs.”
“How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?” (Romans 6:2) the inspired Apostle asks. The answer is clear: we don’t!
Why can’t we all just get along?
Why would anyone part with a friend, suffer, or even die for an idea? We love everyone, but our first love is the ONE who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6).
Forty years ago our Founder answered the objections of today’s emergents (a.k.a. compromisers):
Yes, God’s Word is accurate.
Yes, we are sure that Christ meant what He said.
Yes, God’s ideal should be and can be man’s real.
Yes, redeeming grace not only justifies sin, but it justifies (makes right) the sinner. And,
Yes, those who are committed to the One, are indeed one. And we will never surrender our allegiance to Him.
May God bless CRUSADERS and all God’s people, as we GO FORWARD!
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